2 Witch and Famous (11 page)

I left then, needing to talk to someone about this, but knowing that it couldn’t be with Niall’s assistant. I liked Marie, but she owed Niall her loyalty, not me. It wouldn’t be fair to her to ask.

I headed to work, still in my clubbing dress, still attracting fewer stares than I might normally have done, thanks to all the tourists on the streets. For all they knew, the way I was dressed was normal for Edinburgh during the Fringe. As I walked, I tried to think. What did I make of what I’d found? The files? The photo? The truth was that I didn’t know. Why would Niall have clippings about sudden deaths? Who had made all those gifts to him?

 I still didn’t have any answers I liked by the time I reached the office. Fergie was already there, looking pretty happy with himself this morning. Apparently, Marie had phoned him.

“Did you say something to Marie this morning?” he asked softly, as I passed his desk.

I smiled. “Who? Me?”

The other figure there was one I hadn’t expected. Siobhan sat waiting for me, her hood down to reveal the odd prettiness of her features, the bruises from the other day already almost healed.

“Siobhan, what are you doing here?” I asked. It probably wasn’t the most tactful way to put it, but I wasn’t in the mood for it this morning. And she
had
broken into my office before.

“I… I came to see you.” Siobhan frowned. “Are you okay, Elle?”

I was about to say yes, of course, but honestly, I’d known Siobhan longer than most of the people around me. I sat down on the edge of Fergie’s desk. “No, not really.”

“What’s up, boss?” Fergie echoed. “More on the Jessica Hammersmith thing?”

Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe Niall deserved a chance to explain things. But at the same time, I knew if I didn’t tell someone about what I’d found, I’d go mad thinking about it. I’d certainly go mad waiting to talk it over with a man who thought that distracting me with sex was the best way to handle a conversation that he would rather not have.

So, I told them. I told them about the club. I told them about Jessica going there. I told them about what I’d found in Niall’s study, and about just how evasive he’d been when I’d asked him to talk to me about it all. I told them everything, until by the end of it, I just felt empty, because laying it out there for them, I already knew what they would say.

“Niall did it, didn’t he?” I said.

Fergie shrugged. “There could be an innocent explanation. We’ve discussed a few possibilities to explore.”

“Do any of them actually explain the facts, Fergie?”

“Well, maybe not all of them,” Fergie admitted.

“Did you find some perfect alternative explanation for the disappearances of the other people?” I asked. “The ones the coven is so upset about?”

Fergie shook his head. “I’ve only just managed to compile a list of likely looking disappearances. I haven’t got much more than that.”

I sighed. “Do any of your explanations explain why Niall would have the letters he has? Why he keeps wandering off on ‘business’?”

“Did you really expect that Niall would be squeaky clean? I mean, look at the way he lives. That house is the kind of place only a millionaire could afford.”

I already knew Niall had money. Just look at his art collection. 

 “He works,” I pointed out. “He has an assistant for it, he’s that busy. He’s always in the middle of this deal or that deal.”

Except that I didn’t really know what any of the business deals were all about.

“Yes,” Fergie said. “I could probably get you the details for Sampson Holdings inside an hour if you wanted them. But did you think that he wouldn’t use his powers to influence people for that?”

“That’s not the same,” I said. “What about the rest of it? The gifts?” I shut my eyes, remembering the things I’d found. “What are we saying? That Niall has used his powers to make people give him money?”

Fergie shrugged. Siobhan actually looked slightly impressed. But then, she made her living as a thief. Then she frowned.

“Everyone has their dark side, Elle,” Fergie said. “I should know that, given what I am.”

“But have you ever killed anyone?” I shot back. “Niall has. He’s told me that much. He said it when I found out what he was.”

“No, I haven’t done that,” Fergie admitted, “but think about when you found me, back after the accident.”

I’d found Fergie after he’d been involved in an automobile accident on the last full moon. He’d been a snarling, injured werewolf, almost impossible to calm down in his four-legged form. It had taken a lot of empathic power to bring him down to a wagging tail and a lick on my hand.

Fergie looked at me, his topaz-colored eyes intent on mine. “What do you think would have happened if a hiker had found me, rather than you?”

I shook my head. “It still isn’t the same thing. All those references to mysterious deaths he’s kept. All the missing coven witches and warlocks. What if…” I could barely bring myself to say it. “What if they’re all part of the same thing? What if Niall killed all of them?”

Siobhan was still scrabbling about under the table. “Um… I think we have a problem.”

“Because Elle thinks her boyfriend is a mass murderer?” Fergie shot back, with plenty of sarcasm. “You don’t say.”

“No.” Siobhan straightened up, holding something in between her thumb and forefinger. It was tiny, and obviously electronic. “I mean, we have a problem because Elle has just
said
that she thinks that, and…well, I think you’ve been bugged.”

One thing I’d learned in my job: always keep a change of clothes nearby. Actually, I’d learned that one chasing after Fergie through the mud of a Highlands forest. So, I grabbed a spare skirt, blouse, and underwear out of a drawer of my desk, disappeared into the office stationary cupboard for a minute or two, and tried to work out what I was going to do while I changed.

I had to get to Niall. That much was obvious. The only people I could think of who might use bugs were the coven. If the coven had bugged us, then they knew every doubt I had. They knew all about Niall’s past now, and that would just make him look even guiltier than he had before in their eyes. Maybe,
maybe
Rebecca would stall them, either out of whatever lingering friendship she had for me, or more likely out of fear of what I would do if she didn’t, but how long would it be before assassins got after him, the way they’d gone after me? Would some coven gunman be lining up his sights on Niall even as I sat there?

An even harder question: should I let them?

That thought came out of nowhere, and I shoved it away on instinct, yet it came back all too easily. I was asking myself what I should do when it came to Niall, but what did that mean? If he had killed Jessica Hammersmith, what
could
I do about it? If he’d killed all these people, what was I willing to do about it? Niall said that I had the potential to be stronger than him, the way witches were almost always stronger than warlocks, yet, if I wasn’t willing to do anything, did it
matter
how strong I was?

If I just left Niall to go on as he was, how long would it be before he killed again? And again. I would be as good as condemning the next Jessica Hammersmith who fell into his path. If I couldn’t bring myself to stop him, then maybe the best thing I could do was to stand back and let the coven do its work.

I shook my head.
No.
I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t let that happen. I had to at least try to talk to Niall before it came to that. Maybe I could convince him.

I came out of the cupboard looking far more businesslike than I had looked going into it. Siobhan was still holding the bug. I took it from her and held it up in front of me. I needed it.

“Is this thing still working?”

“I don’t know,” Siobhan said. “Maybe. Elle—”

“If you can hear me,” I said into the bug, “listen to me. Whatever else you have heard, whatever he might have done, Niall is mine.
Mine.
Attack him, Rebecca, and I will come for you. If he needs to be stopped…if he needs to be stopped, I’ll be the one to stop him.”

I crushed the bug in a heavy-duty stapler, looking around at Fergie and Siobhan, almost daring them to say something.

“Fergie, Niall’s Aston will have a GPS tracker on it in case of theft. Can you call up the location?”

“I’m not some teenaged hacking prodigy, you know,” Fergie replied.

“You don’t need to be,” I said. “Just call the insurers and let them know that we need the location for a case.”

“Lie to the people who pay us?” Fergie asked. He obviously caught sight of my expression. “All right. I’ll get right on it.”

I waited while he made the call.

Siobhan touched my shoulder lightly. “Are you really planning to…you know? Kill him?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I can’t let him murder people.”

Siobhan bit her lip. She looked lost then, almost…terrified. I didn’t have the time to spare for comforting goblins right then though.

“Elle…I don’t think Niall…” Siobhan began and then her voice faded out.

“I have the GPS on screen,” Fergie called out. “The car is parked close to the castle area.”

“Great.” I couldn’t keep the disappointment out of my voice. The main tourist space of the city. One that would be thronging right now. “It’s only the perfect space for him to hunt.”

“And you, too,” Siobhan ventured.

“Right,” I said. “Wait here. If the car moves, you tell me.”

Siobhan caught hold of my arm. “Elle, there’s something I have to—”

“Not
now
, Siobhan,” I said, brushing her off as I headed for the door. It was harsher than it needed to be, but right then, I’d been lied to and abandoned, shot at and accused. I had a boyfriend to confront and a murder to solve. I figured all of that earned me the right to be a little harsh.

It didn’t take me long to get over to the castle. I rushed through the old town, past all the tourist shops and the small c
afé
s, until I was standing beneath the ancient stone edifice on its hill, the familiar cannon that sounded their regular salute sticking out from the battlements. The crowds were already thick up Lawnmarket and Castle Hill, with clumps of tourists standing around the edges of those streets taking photographs while street performers continued to take up space as they vied for attention.

I didn’t look at any of them closely. I didn’t drift through the emotion the way I had yesterday, either. Instead, I scanned the crowd, looking for some sign of Niall as I made my way up the hill. I was heading for the castle only on instinct, because the truth was that Niall could be anywhere. I could have missed him a dozen times and not known it, yet some hunch kept me going. Some fragment of memory.