We slipped through the busted doors and started for the far end of the hall, where Burian’s office was located. We tiptoed all the way there, making little to no sound at all, and once we arrived at the end of the hall, I was able to detect the outline of a small creature standing in the center of the room—Burian.

  Unlike the last time I was here with Bea, the room was better lit, at least in the area of the exam table. Still, it cast shadows around the room, allowing us to remain hidden while Burian stood focusing on his work. As far as I could tell, he hadn’t been alerted to the fact that Roy had barreled through the front doors as easy as you please.

  We remained still and watched as Burian bent over (standing atop a five-step stool) and tended to a body laid out on a slab, performing an autopsy as far as I could tell. The more I focused on the creature atop the table, the more I realized she was a faerie, and based on her choice of clothing (a tan shirt and a dark green skirt which were currently heaped in a pile beside her body), she was from the Autumn Court. I couldn’t make out her features from this distance, but I could make out the dark red curls of her hair.

  As my eyes focused in on the darkness, I strained to make out the corners of the basement and that was when I realized we weren’t alone with Burian. I nudged Roy to look in the direction of the alcove off to one side of the room. In front of the wall of cabinets stood a dark figure, watching Burian intently. I wondered if Burian knew he had three guests observing him and was simply ignoring all of us, or if he was just oblivious to our presence at all.

  We didn’t have to remain curious for long as the other onlooker spoke up, taking a step out of the shadows and towards the light, revealing himself to be Fox Aspen.

  “Do you know the cause of death yet?” he asked.

  Burian didn’t look up from his work. “Nae so far.”

  “Why not?” Fox sounded like he was out of patience.

  Burian shrugged. “There don’t appear to be nothing wrong with the body so far.”

  “Except for the fact that it’s dead, you mean.”

  “Aye. Yet, there be no visible wounds.”

  “What shall you do next then?”

  “Me run some tox screens to see what they turn up.”

  “Very good,” Fox breathed out on a sigh. “I’m mostly interested to know if a Winter agent snuck into our court. I know they’re frantically trying to locate the queen regent and I can’t allow them to trace Janara and her retinue to the Hollow.”

  “Aye.”

  “You must work faster, Burian, time is of the essence.”

  “Me going as fast as me can.”

  “Well, it’s not fast enough!” Fox yelled, making my heart skip a beat, as he threw his hands into the air. “The magical protections sealing Janara in the circle are already cracking! One good hit from a powerful vassal of the Winter Court will shatter them permanently and set Janara free!”

  Roy and I exchanged a look. So, what Poppy and Wanda had revealed with their scrying was true. Just like I’d witnessed, the magic keeping Janara and company prisoner was cracking, threatening to put Haven Hollow in danger.

  I looked back at the body on the slab and the more I studied the woman’s face, the more I realized I recognized her. She was a faerie I’d recently interviewed for a sales position, named Saffron. I’d planned to call her back and offer her the job, but now that was clearly no longer an option.

  What a horrible shame.

  The last time I’d seen Saffron, she was all smiles, chatting happily with Ramona and Libby before giving me a huge smile and saying she’d love to join the Hallowed Homes family. And now? Now she was laid out on a table, dead and as cold as the metal below her.

  This, then, was another death associated with Hallowed Homes. And that was a truth I had a difficult time facing. It meant Darragh, Cranough and now Saffron were all related—they were all tied to me and my business.

  I swallowed hard as I leaned in to get a closer look and accidentally nudged a small pan to the left of my foot. It scratched across the floor, alerting both Fox and Burian to our presence. I froze, waiting to see what both would do.

  Fox just looked vaguely annoyed as he stepped further out of the shadows and turned toward us.

  “What are you two doing here?” he demanded.

  “We’re trying to solve a murder,” I answered, my jaw just as tight as his.

  “Well, what a coincidence!” he answered with an acidic laugh. “So am I.”

  “I believe we may be looking for the same person,” I continued, starting to come to the conclusion that whoever was murdering people in Haven Hollow, was definitely trying to send Hallowed Homes a message. Or maybe that person wasn’t trying to send Hallowed Homes a message so much as he or she was trying to send me a message. The more I thought about who that person could be, the more I arrived at only one candidate: my brother. It was a realization I didn’t want to face, but I couldn’t release it from my mind either.

  If this was Angelo, Fifi, you have to face it, I told myself. And he can’t get away with it.

  “Why would we be looking for the same person, hmm?” Fox asked, appearing genuinely confused by my statement.

  “I found a grim and his elf attendant dead at a graveyard in the Hollow where they were supposed to meet me to view a property I was selling.”

  “Then neither died of natural causes?” Fox considered, sounding bored.

  “Natural causes?” Roy answered with a laugh. “What natural causes do you know of that would kill two separate species at the same place, at the same time?”

  Fox cocked his head to the side and then nodded. “A fair point.” Then he faced me again. “And this brings you here why?”

  “Because I haven’t been able to get anyone to do an autopsy. Well, on the elf, anyway. The grim was… um, dissolved.”

  “Yes, as I understand it, grims have the unfortunate tendency to become quite messy when in the clutches of death,” Fox answered.

  I nodded. “We were able to test the grim’s remains, and the test confirmed the presence of Spirit Bane, but we can’t confirm whether the Spirit Bane might also have killed the elf.”

  “And this elf of which you speak,” Fox started.

  “Was named Cranough,” I answered, waiting to see if the name sparked any interest from Fox. It didn’t. “He was a member of the Autumn Court, your court.”

  Fox inhaled deeply. “Was he?”

  “Yes.”

  “I see.” He remained quiet for a few more seconds as I wondered at the thoughts going through his head. As usual, he wore a poker face. “And that brings you here why?” he asked .

  “Isn’t that fairly obvious?” Roy asked but I reached out and touched his hand in an attempt to warn him not to rile Fox. We needed the elusive fae on our side.

  “We came to see Burian, hoping he’d change his mind about helping us,” I answered.

  “Ah, then you paid Burian a visit earlier, did you?” Fox continued as he gave Burian a frown which caused me to believe Burian had never mentioned Bea’s and my visit.

  “We did.”

  “Very good, very good,” Fox continued. “And where are the remains of this elf from my court now?”

  I shook my head. “I’m not sure. Ta…er the Chief of Police of Haven Hollow had Cranough’s body removed from the scene and stored until we could find someone to do an autopsy.”

  “Then the humans are involved?” Fox asked, clearly irritated.

  “No. The Chief of Police isn’t… human,” I answered, not wanting to admit much more than that.

  “From what I could recall, your head of police was a man named Cain?” Fox asked as I swallowed hard. “And he was hopelessly human.”

  “Right, but he… wasn’t available to remain the Chief of Police so… someone else took his place,” I answered, really not wanting to get into the fact that Fox’s princess-intended was now the head of the human police department of Haven Hollow.

  “I see,” Fox answered. “Back to the remains…”

  “Right. So, the Chief of Police had the elf stored. The grim’s remains...”

  “Are just a slick of ectoplasm,” Roy supplied. “But we still have some samples if someone wanted to test it further.”

  “Then I suppose I shall have to pay this Chief of Police of yours a visit, shan’t I?”

  “Um, I don’t know that that’s a good idea,” I started, immediately disliking the idea of Taliyah and Fox coming face to face, even as I realized it was probably unavoidable at this point.

  “And why should that not be a good idea?”

  “Well,” I started as Roy gave me a quizzical look—clearly he hadn’t put together the fact that Fox and Taliyah were promised to each other. Actually, I wasn’t even sure if Roy knew as much. I cleared my throat. “She doesn’t… like outsiders getting involved in Haven Hollow business,” I continued, coming up with whatever I could, off the top of my head. Fox frowned at me.

  Then I remembered how Fox had refused to return any of our calls. It was a good change of subject. “Where have you been, anyway?” I demanded, throwing my hands on my hips. “Poppy and I have been trying to get in touch with you, but you haven’t answered any of our calls, and you haven’t returned them either.”

  “Oh. Sorry about that,” Fox answered with a flick of his wrist, which made it seem as though the question wasn’t a pertinent one. “I recently hired a new assistant and to say she is incompetent is an understatement.”

  “What does that have to do with,” I started, but he interrupted.

  “I had to fire her in the middle of a meeting, and in a fit, she snatched my phone, threw it at me and it shattered against the block wall behind me.” Then he shrugged, inspecting his nails with what appeared to be ennui. “I suppose I should be grateful her aim was just as horrid as her office skills.” He paused to sigh. “At any rate, I haven’t had time to retrieve a replacement phone.” Then he paused again as a large smile lit his face. Fox was definitely handsome but I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. “If you know anyone more qualified, do let me know.”

  I wasn’t sure what to make of his story about his assistant and the phone. I had a good idea it was just a load of BS and the truth was more along the lines of Fox just not wanting to deal with any of us, but there was no way to prove as much and, furthermore, it really didn’t matter.

  “Ye said there was nae marks on the victims in the graveyard,” Burian said, reminding me he was still there.

  “Right,” I answered.

  Fox nodded. “It’s the same with Saffron here—her body is completely unblemished.”

  Burian nodded and then waved toward the body on his table, inviting us to take a closer look. Of course, I already knew her identity, but I decided to keep that information to myself. I just… didn’t want Fox to think I had anything to do with any of the deaths and at this stage, I was more interested in what he could tell me about the murders than what I could tell him. Roy had told me once that it was always better to play your cards close to your chest and this was one instance where that advice could serve me well.

  “How will you determine what happened to Saffron if there’s no evidence of a wound?” Roy asked.

  “Well, before ye appeared, me was checking her internal organs,” Burian answered.

  “Sometimes, you can get a good idea of what happened to a body by examining things like defects or ruptures in organs,” Fox supplied.

  “And?” I asked.

  Burian shook his head. “Nothing of interest so far.”

  “What about poison?” Roy asked.

  Burian nodded as if he were about to get to that point, but Fox beat him to it. I had to half wonder if Fox just liked listening to himself speak. “If there’s nothing evident at the bodily level, then Burian shall run tests that might reveal toxins or elevated levels of chemicals that occur naturally or unnaturally in the body.”

  “Did you find out anything at the bodily level?” I asked.

  “Aye, organ failure,” Burian answered.

  “Saffron’s heart gave out, but so far, Burian can’t find any defects in her heart or anything that would have affected it so adversely,” Fox said. “No clogged arteries, no valve damage, no deficiencies. It’s as though her heart just stopped working for no apparent reason.”

  Burian nodded. “Aye, otherwise, Saffron was in good health.”

  “Right up to the moment she suffered a fatal heart attack,” Fox finished.

  “Would Spirit Bane cause such a reaction?” I asked.

  “Aye,” Burian replied.

  “Did you test her for Spirit Bane?” Fox asked Burian pointedly.

  “Nae yet,” Burian answered.

  “Then test her, man!” Fox nearly yelled.

  “Is there anything else that could have caused her heart to fail, besides Spirit Bane? Other than just natural causes?” I asked, wanting to calm Fox down.

  Burian nodded. “Aye—a demonic or parasitic monster would be me best guess.”

  “A demonic or parasitic monster?” I repeated, sounding shocked because I was.

  Fox nodded. “Such a creature could have caused cardiac arrest by draining the life from poor Saffron or simply frightening her to death.”

  Meanwhile, Burian took a sample of Saffron’s blood and then started down his footstool as he approached a table with a microscope and some other scientific tools of the trade. He placed the blood on a slide and then placed it under the microscope, before studying it.

  “Well?” Fox asked.

  “What sort of monsters would be able to scare someone to death?” Roy asked.

  “Nae, there ain’t no Spirit Bane in her blood,” Burian answered.

  Fox, meanwhile, shrugged as he looked at Roy. “A variety of types could literally scare someone to death—a wendigo, a night hag, a wraith, incubi, succubae...” His eyes darted toward me with suspicion as he listed off the last two species, but I couldn’t say I was that concerned. Instead, my thoughts were centered around his last sentence.

  A wendigo, a night hag…

  A wraith.

  And then it all suddenly made sense, like a flood of truth opening my eyes to something I hadn’t considered before.

  The smell of rot coming from the graveyard—it was the same odor I’d detected outside The Broomstick Diner before I’d found Angelo cornering Ramona—it was the scent of death, the scent of the wraith.

  And that wasn’t all. Suddenly, I was reminded of the surprise I’d felt when Ramona had opted to remain at Hallowed Homes when she’d been close to Ophelia…

  Ramona had been close to Ophelia…

  Then it wasn’t Angelo who was behind the murders at all. It was Ramona.

  I turned and began hurrying for the exit as I realized the longer I stayed here, the more chance there was of someone else from Hallowed Homes ending up hurt or dead—something I wouldn’t allow to happen.

  I could hear Roy and Fox’s footsteps behind me as they followed in hot pursuit, yelling at me to stop. But, I couldn’t stop and there was no time to explain. Yes, I was more than aware that it probably looked like I was guilty because I was running away, but I didn’t care. All I could think about was the likelihood of one of my employees going up against Ramona—it was a fight they wouldn’t win.

  Once reaching the 4Runner, I jumped into it and then looked over at Roy as he appeared in the doorway. “Where are you going?” he yelled. He was big and strong as a yeti, but somewhat slowed by his size.

  “I’ve got to get back to Haven Hollow now!” I insisted, my eyes going wide as the truth rained down on me and I cranked on the engine. “I know who killed Darragh, Cranough and Saffron!”

  “Fifi,” Roy started, but I put the 4Runner in drive and pulled out of the parking spot.

  “I’m sorry, Roy, but I have to take care of this myself,” I said, not wanting to put his life at risk because I knew how dangerous this situation was. Furthermore, this was my fight, not his.

  I gunned the engine and left the two of them watching me with perplexed expressions.

  I had to get back to Haven Hollow as soon as possible. This situation was now literally a matter of life and death and I could only hope the black Sharpie pen I usually carried with me was still there.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “We have to go now,” I said as I practically dragged Taliyah from her office chair. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll explain on the way,” I answered and luckily she agreed to follow me. I led the way to my 4Runner which was parked just out front of the police precinct, but, apparently, that was where she drew the line.

  “We’re taking my squad car,” she insisted.

  I didn’t argue, but turned around and followed her to the marked police vehicle, jumping into the passenger seat and buckling up as I faced her. “Do you know where the old golf course at the eastern end of Haven Hollow is?”

  She nodded. “That’s where we’re going?”

  “That’s where we’re going. And drive as fast as you can.”

  “Roger that.”

  Taliyah didn’t mess around. She floored it the whole way and put the sirens on to make sure everyone cleared out of our path. And they did. Along the way, I explained my best guess regarding what was going on.

  Prior to arriving at Taliyah’s, I’d called Bea to ask if Ramona was still at her meeting with the gnomes at the golf course and Bea had confirmed that she was, something which filled me with dread. I was scared for the safety of the gnomes (since Ramona was the one who was trying to ruin Hallowed Homes, probably out of loyalty to Ophelia, I believed the gnomes were now in danger). Ramona had already killed my first exotic client, and I could only imagine the gnomes were next on her list.

  Maybe ten minutes after leaving the police station, we arrived at the golf course. “This way,” I called to Taliyah as she climbed out of the driver’s seat and I led the way.

  The would-be gnome community was located behind a two-story industrial looking building which had served as the offices of the golf course personnel at one point. In order to access the golf course, you had to enter the building. The gnomes were planning on keeping the building to use it as a security gate of sorts. The building was accessed by key code and because Hallowed Homes had sold this property to the gnomes, I had the key code. I could only hope it still worked.