“Maybe you can assist us,” Sinclair said. She’d come here for something, and determination like that stuck in her teeth. “We believe a recent crime victim visited this establishment last night.”
“Oh?” What if Suit-and-Tie was dead? What if her magic was too much? Was Lexi dying in the basement from wounds to her soul? Was it the guy from her apartment? Wasn’t there some cop rule about proximity and guilt?
The policewoman continued like Callie wasn’t having an ethical crisis. “Would you mind looking at a photo?”
Like she could say no.
The four-by-six image the officer pulled from her pocket was greys and silvers, but still in full color. Callie covered her mouth to hold back the cry kicking in her throat. In the picture, a jaw hung slack from a bruised face. Unseeing eyes stared out from the frame. They might have been green when the man was alive, but now their color was diluted. The image was sharp, but everything about this man had blurred. The metal coroner’s table beneath the head shone brightest in the picture. Callie tried to focus on it, because staring at a dead body had not been on her agenda for the day, the week, or the year.
“I haven’t seen him before,” she said, her fingers still hovering near her mouth.
“What about you?” The officer held the photo out to Derek.
“No. He’s not a customer,” he said.
“And you’d know if he was?” the male cop asked.
Derek was still fixed on the photograph. Callie understood. The horror jarring her brain had needed a way to place it context. There simply wasn’t one.
“I’ve worked here for a long time. I know most of the customers. That isn’t one, and he wasn’t here last night.” Derek’s voice was that even calm that came from years of being the person who controlled the level of tension in the room.
“You know we heard this place might have something to do with the murder of Mr. Ford’s son.”
Were they supposed to say something to that? It wasn’t a question, but ignoring it might draw even more interest. They could not cope with more interest from Gem City PD.
“Not sure where you heard that,” Callie said, doing her best to look tiny and helpless. “We rent souls to those seeking to stay in our Lord’s good graces, and that’s all.”
“You know criminals use your services. It’ll be outlawed before you know it.” The male cop was in a snit.
“If that’s the case, then we’ll deal with it then. The Soul Charmer always complies with the law.” Fuck. She was starting to sound like him. If Beck was eavesdropping, she’d never hear the end of it.
“If that’s the case, why don’t you let us see the logbooks from last night? Prove our suicide vic wasn’t in here?” the cop huffed.
Suicide? A bad match could do that. She’d seen the attempt herself, but how would they know if it was because of the soul?
Derek dropped the nice guy act. He angled closer to Callie, and she could almost smell the sickly sweet disdain dripping from his pores. “You know damn well the Soul Charmer doesn’t keep a logbook.”
“He had to try,” the policewoman said. “If you or your boss hear anything, please give us a call.” She dropped her business card on the counter, and then the two officers exited the shop.
Callie exhaled and leaned backward into Derek. He didn’t budge.
“Do you think it was a bad match?” Her words were soft.
His harsh grunt was a maybe.
Her shoulders ached, and her toes cramped. She stretched until her fingers were far above her, and her Chucks slurped off the floor. When she released the move, she was no less tense. So much for staying off the edge.
“Did you actually recognize the guy? I didn’t.”
“No.”
Callie turned around. A harsh line cut between Derek’s eyebrows. His mouth was drawn in a tight bow.
“Nate did this,” he said as though it were fact.
His rage was hers. It glowed in his eyes, and that same spark kindled her own. “Yes. He did. Whether he snatched this soul from someone else or shoved one of the sullied souls from the back room into that guy, this is Nate’s fault.”
“We’re going to find him.” Derek nodded to himself. “Are you ready to recollect the souls when we do?”
“Stopping Nate comes first. Souls are second. We need a plan, though, because if he’s got them stored like he had in the van, I’m going to have some difficulty.”
“How bad?”
“Full-body flame,” she said honestly. When he flinched, she added, “But I have a better idea of how it works now. I just need more time to test. I can try it with the souls here first before we go there.”
“Practice as much as you need, doll. He isn’t going to know what’s coming, so let’s make sure to bring the new tricks.”
Agreed. She was not willing to look at the face of another dead guy because of Nate and shitty attempts at soul magic.
Beck poked his head past the velvet curtain. “We clear for you two to come back here?”
Derek didn’t move until Callie agreed. She led the way and he followed closely behind her.
The image of the postmortem photo continued to bat at Callie’s brain. That man might have died as a result of soul magic. Callie thought of Lexi then, and her lolling head and limp limbs. Had she damaged the woman permanently? The Soul Charmer had thrown his magic at Callie from day one, and it hadn’t knocked her out. He’d turned her into a human soul detector out the gate, and now she was sucking souls from other planes. Other than the overall ick factor and the mountain of guilt that continued to grow at her back, she wasn’t ill. But not everyone could take the magic like she could. She wrapped a hand around her wrist, and could almost believe the wings beneath were fluttering.
“Is everything okay downstairs?” she
