Ghost Of A Chance Part 27

"You could have told us that afterwards," I gently pointed out.

He gave me a hard look. "I'm the watch representative here. I couldn't risk having my authority undermined."

"If you got sent back through this portal-rift thing, why didn't you have the mediator come with you?" Pixie asked.

"Rifts don't work like that," I murmured absently. "They are temporary tears in the fabric of being, and shouldn't be used more than once at any one location until the fabric has repaired itself. Adam was risking seriously damaging the fabric by traveling back, but I a.s.sume it's all right."

"That means a polter couldn't have killed Spider," my father said triumphantly.

Savannah looked more than a little put out.

Tony leaned forward, tugging on Adam's sleeve. "If it wasn't a polter, and wasn't Savannah, Karma, or Nita, who did kill him?"

Adam's frown cleared as he lifted his head and looked across the room. I followed his gaze, a slow smile creeping across my face.

Dad laughed outright. "I knew it! I just knew it!"

Meredith, the subject of all our attention, rolled his eyes around in a distressed fashion, as if to protest the accusation.

"We're back to who would benefit most from Spider's death. Savannah, what do you know about the partnership between Meredith and Spider?"

She shrugged. "Very little. I had my own concerns. Beyond shutting up Meredith's yammering about making him a dissipater, I didn't pay much attention to what he was doing."

"Why on earth did you marry the man if you disliked him so much?" I asked her, my curiosity getting the better of me. "I may have had no love left for Spider at the end, but I did love him when I married him. Why bind yourself to a man for whom you had so much contempt?"

"What better cover could a person have than being the wife of an apparently respectable bank manager?" Her smile was positively sinister.

"Plus there's the fact that it was his bank that held the mortgage to Adam's house," I said thoughtfully.

Her smile dimmed as she shot a nasty glance at her husband. "Fat lot of good that did me. The second I started talking about getting the house, he had to run to Spider and blab about it. You just never could keep a secret, could you? Not even when you tried. I always found them out, didn't I, Meredith?"

Meredith's eyes blinked rapidly.

Savannah laughed a low, sinister laugh. "You needn't look so startled; I know about more than just your predilection for underage polters. I know about the bank account you think is so untraceable in the Cayman Islands, and that little arrangement you have to buy certain medications without prescription. Oh, and I know about your fetish for wearing women's thongs, too. In short, there's nothing about you that I don't know, husband of mine."

"Indeed. I'm sure the watch and mundane police will be interested in statements from you," Adam said. "They will want proof, though."

"Proof? Oh, I have proof. He's really quite disgusting," Savannah said absently, reaching for her purse. "He took videos of his sessions with the polters. They're all on his laptop. I'll be happy to turn them over to the police."

Adam looked thoughtful, his gaze touching me before moving away. I rubbed my hands against the goose b.u.mps that suddenly appeared on my arms, my stomach turning over at the thought of the perverse videos.

"I'm confused," Jules said, holding up a hand. "Meredith killed Spider?

Who hit him on the head, then?"

"No one," Adam said, turning to the spirits. "Or rather, Meredith did it himself. He probably banged his head on the door frame a couple of times to raise a welt and give himself a little cut. The bookcase was no doubt pulled down by Spider as he was being attacked, probably in a last-ditch attempt at self-defense. All Meredith had to do once he was dead was give himself the appearance of an injury, and artistically arrange the scene. Would that fit what you heard, Nita?"

The unicorn sat with her arms around herself. She looked startled to be addressed, but after thinking for a moment, quickly nodded. "There wasn't much noise, just a few grunts, Spider saying it would all be his when he was gone, and the crash of the bookcase. That was it."

"But why did he kill Spider?" Tony asked.

"Money," Savannah said, pulling a nail file out of her purse. She glanced up at the startled silence that followed. "He was always b.i.t.c.hing at me whenever I asked for the minutest amount of money. He said more than once that we'd end up on the street if I didn't stop spending, which was ridiculous. I told him the machines I created didn't come from nothing."

"Money would do it," Adam said. "The sad truth is that this d.a.m.ned scheme they had to turn the house into an Otherworld brothel, desecrating its sanctuary, was financially sound. There would be no small supply of people, both Otherworldly and mundane, who wouldn't hesitate to fork over exorbitant fees to indulge their darkest desires. They were set to make money hand over fist...but clearly, that wasn't enough for Meredith. I wouldn't be surprised at all if an inquiry into the bank and his own personal finances showed he was in dire straits."

"So by killing Spider, he stood to save himself from financial ruin, and in fact would have become quite wealthy if their plans had gone through," I said, nodding. "It's plausible."

"Exactly. Being the savvy businessman he is, he probably wrote into their partnership agreement a survivor option. If one of them died, the other would inherit all their business holdings."

"But we asked him about that," I said, remembering a conversation from the prior evening. "And he said he hadn't."

"So he lied," Pixie said, standing up. She sat back down quickly when everyone turned to look at her. "Didn't Meredith also say something about you trying to add another nail to his coffin, but that it wouldn't work because Spider owned his a.s.sets outright? He accused you of knowing that, and said that's why you wanted Spider dead."

"Cla.s.sic case of misdirection," Jules told Tony. "Very Hercule."

Tony rolled his eyes.

I dredged around in my memory of the conversation. "That's right, he did. I'd forgotten that, because it didn't make any sense to me; I had no idea of what Spider was up to."

Dad marched over to Meredith's still-stiff body, which leaned against the fireplace. He peered closely into Meredith's eyes, which rolled over to look back at him. "You're going to rot in the Akasha. Although I think you should get a few years off for b.u.mping off Spider. Still, you deserve to rot."

"Why did you put binding and silence wards on him?" I asked Savannah.

The look she shot her husband was nearly lethal. "He started telling you things. He mentioned my connection to the machines. The little rat was going to set me up and let me take the rap for Spider's murder while he got my house."

"A woman scorned," Dad said, nodding sagely.

"So, what now?" I asked Adam.

"Now we wait until the watch comes and takes him away. I don't believe my captain will want to bring in the mundane police, since both the murder and the charge of child molestation concern the Otherworld."

I glanced at Pixie. "How likely is it that your captain will do otherwise? I don't see anything but trouble if we bring in the mundane police. There's Pixie and the spirits and Amanita to explain, and I hesitate to expose any of them to what would follow should the mundane world find out about them."

"Oh, absolutely," Jules said, nodding. "They'd want to take us away, and we're quite comfortable here."

"Quite comfortable," Tony agreed. "Nita wouldn't like it either, would you, dear?"

She seemed to shrink into her chair, her voice a faint whisper. "No."

"I don't think it's likely, although there's a chance if he feels Spider's murder charge won't stick."

"It'll stick," I said firmly, lifting my chin. "I have no doubt of that."

"Savannah could, I suppose, make a case for it to be turned over to the mundane police," Adam said, glancing at her.

She looked up from her nails with an acid smile. "Much as I would love to see all this dragged out into the open, I have my own career to think of. The Guardians' Guild frowns on its members becoming the focus of too much attention, so there really is no choice to be made. I won't fight Meredith being charged by the watch."

"That's all there is, I think," Adam said, his hands behind his back as he surveyed the room. Meredith rolled his eyes with great vigor.

"Quiet, you," Adam told him before facing us again. "We'll turn Meredith over to the watch, and let them handle the details of what is to be said to the mundane police."

"Justice," I said on a happy sigh, and sank into the nearest chair with a profound sense of relief.

22.

Forty-five minutes later, a slight popping noise heralded the dissolving of the seal. A half hour after that, the watch-who had shown up just before the house was unsealed-took Meredith away. I felt no pity for him, no sympathy, nothing but a sense of relief that it was all over. The man was a murderer, pure and simple, and he reaped what he had sown.

The watch captain, a somber man by the name of Muir, had stood quietly while Adam had made his report on the happenings of the last day. Savannah had tried to get him to arrest Adam, my father, and me in turn, but the captain listened implacably to her demands, then said simply, "The situation with the house is out of my domain, madam. I suggest you take it up with the proper officials."

Savannah was so annoyed by that response that she outright refused to lift the binding ward on her husband.

"If you want it lifted, you can call a Charmer. Otherwise, he can stay that way until it wears off," she said, marching off to collect her things.

Three members of the watch circled the now vertical, but still frozen, Meredith, scratching their heads. "Those are a h.e.l.l of a couple wards," one of the men said. "No way that's going to fade away quickly."

"We'll have to take him out as he is," Muir told them, and so it was that they carried Meredith out to their car, one man at his head, the other at his feet.

Savannah sailed past us, trailing gauzy scarves, then tossed her head as she paused at the door. "Don't think for one minute that you can get away with keeping what's rightfully mine. I will present my case to the League. You might not have murdered Spider, but they will see that only the true owner of the house is best suited to care for it."

"I think you'll find people aren't quite so gullible as you believe," Adam told her before moving over to hold a quiet conversation with his boss.

"She's really p.i.s.sed," Pixie said, peering through the window to watch the car drive away with Meredith. Savannah followed shortly in her SUV. "You think she's going to get the house?"

"No. She may be a Guardian, but the house is legally Adam's. His family were the resident polters, and he bought it legally from the mortal owners. No court in the Otherworld or mundane world would think about taking it away from him."

"Well, that's a relief," Tony's disembodied voice said from behind my shoulder. "You lot look famished. Shall we whip up a crab salad?"

"What on earth are you thinking? Crab salad after a denouement? Were you raised by sloths? Everyone knows the proper luncheon to be served after such an event is quiche. Seafood, yes, but in quiche, not a salad." Jules' voice was just as disembodied as his partner's, dropping in volume as the two spirits argued their way out to the kitchen.

Adam glanced toward the hallway, then nodded to my father.

"Honey, why don't you and the girl go into the kitchen and ask the boys to make a fresh pot of coffee?" Dad asked, his hands moving restlessly.

I frowned. "Caffeine is the last thing you need."

"Yes, but"-Dad shot a quick look toward the hall-"I think you and Pixie should go into the kitchen, anyway."

I guessed what it was he and Adam were up to. "No, I won't, but Pixie will."

The teen absolutely refused to go. "This is my last chance to see him," she argued as the sound of feet thumping on the hard wooden stairs leading to the bas.e.m.e.nt became audible.

"I'm just trying to save you from potential trauma," I told her, attempting to shove her toward the kitchen. She dug in her heels and wouldn't budge.

"Trauma? Are you kidding? This is wonderful! Can you imagine the sort of poems I'm going to be able to write now about death? I can't wait to get started!"

I stopped trying to push her, shaking my head with puzzlement. "You are the oddest child I've ever met."

"I'm not a child. What do you think of Tertia?" she asked with her trademark change of topic.

"As a name? It could be worse. I have a suggestion: why don't you just stick with your own name?"

"Do I look like a Pixie?" she asked, waving her arms around.

I had to admit she had a point. I was about to suggest she find one name and stick to it when the amused glint in her eyes rapidly changed to profound interest as the men carried Spider's body, still covered by the old blanket, out the door to a waiting watch ambulance.

"Weird kid," my father mused as she hurried off to watch the ambulance.

He turned an impish grin upon me. "Reminds me of someone I know. Think I'll go help the lads with that quiche. Their food is good, but not as good as what my Karma makes," he added, poking Adam with his elbow and waggling his eyebrows.

"Dad, wait, I..." I bit my lip as I glanced around. The three of us were alone. "Can you take Pixie for a couple of days? She can't stay with me, and I doubt if the League can find her a new home so quickly."

His eyes met mine and held them in a gaze that seemed to see all. "You don't have to do this."

I looked at him in surprise. "You know?"

"Of course I know. I'm not stupid. Or blind."

"But how ...?"

He shook his head, looking at Adam, who was watching us both with a speculative look in his bright blue eyes. "You think I don't recognize apports when I see them? Things are fine as they are, honey. Let it go. You don't have to do anything," he repeated.

"Yeah, I do," I said with a little smile. "Doing nothing was never an option."

"So much like your mother," he said, shaking his head again. "Don't worry about Pixie. I'll see to her."

"Thanks."

Dad went off muttering things about foolish pride and obstinacy.

"You want to tell me what that was about?" Adam asked. "Wait-before you tell me, what's up with Pixie?"

I gave him a brief rundown of the pertinent points. I'd just finished when the captain came back into the house, followed by Pixie and my father.

"I believe I'll speak to the young lady first," he told us. "We will do our best to not upset her, but we understand you may wish to protect her delicate sensibilities. We will allow you to be present during the interview if you like, Mrs. Marx."

Adam choked slightly at the phrase "delicate sensibilities."

I managed to keep a straight face as I raised an eyebrow at Pixie. "I'll be happy to be there with you."

"Oh, puh-leeze!" She rolled her eyes and grabbed Muir's sleeve, pulling him toward the small sitting room he'd commandeered as his work s.p.a.ce. "Did you get pictures of the body, by any chance? Karma wouldn't let me get a close look at him, so I'd really like to see exactly what death looks like..."

I fought a little giggle at the horrified expression on the captain's face as he allowed himself be hauled away. "Poor man has no idea."