Carnal Sin

on her way to meet you at the suspect’s apartment. I’m on my way back to Santa Louisa, call if you need anything.’”

He glanced at Johnston. “I never told her where I was going.”

“How’d she know?”

“Maybe that friend of hers is more involved in cults than the sheriff said. Maybe she knows exactly what’s going on. I should take her into custody as a material witness.”

“So-what, we’re gonna wait for her?”

“Hell no, I’m not running this investigation on the whims of a small-town cop. I still can’t buy that this is some broom-toting female cult killing men. Why? There has to be a reason. I can almost buy into Nina’s statement that the swinger lifestyle only went one way. I’ve met crazier women than Pam Erickson in my life. Georgie-boy strays, wife kills him. But why would Nadine Anson help her? And leave her prints all over the place?”

“And what about the marks on the bodies? That’s damn creepy. That also ties into Craig Monroe and Galion.”

Jeff had a point. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“We’re working this weekend, huh?”

“If we don’t, that damn sheriff and her cute little sidekick will be mucking up my investigation. And who do I call to get her off my back? The district attorney in Santa Louisa? A small county like that is going to be tight; he’s not going to call her off.”

Grant crossed the quiet side street, Johnston at his side. “Let’s play it nice with Anson, make her comfortable. See how much we can get out of her before we push.”

They identified themselves to the condo manager and were let into the lobby. After knocking on her door, it was clear that Nadine wasn’t home. Her neighbor across the hall was leaving as they stood waiting.

“Nadine isn’t here,” he said.

Grant flashed his badge. “Do you know when she usually comes in?”

“She has Thursdays and Fridays off, but I haven’t seen her in a week.”

Grant asked, “Does she have a boyfriend or family in the area?”

“She’s from the Midwest; I don’t know much about her family. But her boyfriend is a stockbroker who lives in Los Feliz.”

“Do you have his name and contact information?”

The guy seemed put out, but shrugged. He unlocked his door. “Is it important?”

“Yes. She’s a material witness in an ongoing investigation,” Jeff said.

“Just a minute.”

He went inside and less than a minute later emerged with a name and phone number scrawled on a sticky note.

Marcus Galion, 818-555-4579.

“Galion?”

“Yeah. Kent Galion’s little brother. You heard that Kent died last week? Maybe Nadine went to stay with Marcus for a while, to cheer him up. Hell, Nadine could cheer me up any night she wanted.”

Grant and Jeff took the stairs down to the courtyard. “Where to now?” Jeff asked, glancing at his watch.

“Go home, but put in a call to Marcus Galion and ask him about Nadine Anson. I’ll go to Velocity and talk to Julie about her. There’s something here, I feel it.”

“That’s it.” Moira directed Rafe toward the condo where Nadine Anson lived. “Close to Velocity.”

Rafe parked across the street. “Are you sure you want to do this? That detective is never going to listen to what we have to say.”

“Skye was a genius with the cult story; we’ll run with that. And demons are kind of like supernatural drugs. Sort of.”

Rafe grinned while shaking his head at her. “Just watch the sarcasm, like Skye said. Nelson is a hothead and frustrated. Oh shit-”

Moira followed Rafe’s eyes to where Grant Nelson and his partner were leaving the condo.

“We’re too late,” she said. “She’s probably not home. We should follow them.”

“You want me to follow a cop?”

“I’m good at tailing people. Want me to drive?”

“No.” He watched Nelson get into an unmarked sedan and drive away. He made an illegal U-turn down the street. Johnston jumped on a bike and did the same. “That makes us following two of them. Impossible if they split up.”

“My money’s on Nelson. He’s not going home. My guess? He’s going to try and track Nadine down at the club, or maybe a friend or boyfriend’s house.”

Rafe waited until the cops turned left, then made a sharp U-turn in the truck and sped up to follow.

They were on Wilshire Boulevard minutes later. Moira glanced down the street toward Velocity. “They didn’t turn.”

“I’m not following him to the police station,” Rafe said.

“Agreed. If he goes there, we turn around and go to Wendy Donovan’s house.”

“How about food? I haven’t eaten, and I doubt you have-since you never eat unless I tell you to. We could get a pizza.”

“Whatever did I do before I saved your ass two weeks ago?”

“I have no idea.”

“I didn’t starve, that’s for sure.” She pulled an energy bar from her pocket, opened it, and split it with Rafe.

“I hate these things.”

“They’ve kept me alive for years,” she teased. “In fact-” She whipped her head around, recognizing the brunette in the red dress walking leisurely down Wilshire Boulevard. “Stop! That’s Nadine! Rafe, stop!”

Rafe braked, causing cars behind to honk.

“She’s beginning to drive me crazy,” Rafe muttered to himself as Moira leapt from the car.

Moira ran through traffic, eliciting more honking horns, but she barely noticed. Nadine Anson was easy to spot-tall, stately, gorgeous-but it was her darkly glowing aura that had caught Moira’s attention from more than a hundred feet away.

Moira didn’t dwell on the fact that her instincts-her extra senses-had been growing since the Seven Deadly Sins had been released. She couldn’t think about how or why, only that she knew that brunette in the red dress across the street was Nadine Anson even though she’d seen only one photograph of the woman.

One photograph and two visions.

It was the height of the dinner hour, and pedestrians walked in singles, pairs, and groups down the street. Moira irritated more than a few of them as she brushed past. She didn’t quite see Nadine anymore through the people, but she saw the glow and kept focused on that.

A thunderclap-though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky-jolted Moira. She kept moving forward, but no longer saw the glow. People around her were silent, looking at the sky.

“It’d better not rain-I just had my hair done!” a woman next to her said.

“I can’t believe this. They said no rain all weekend!”

But raindrops didn’t fall. The night sky was clear, though with all the lights Moira could make out only one or two stars in the sky.

Heart racing, Moira feared the demon that possessed Nadine was looking for more victims. She couldn’t imagine what it would do with all these people in the middle of a city street. Demons didn’t make grand statements; they preferred the small, quiet murders of the soul. Did they fear that if they acted too boldly they’d truly suffer the wrath of God? For a brief moment, Moira wished they would create some catastrophe so that the Big Guy would come down and banish them all forever; then guilt washed over her at the innocent lives that would be lost by such action.