Seth took his earbuds out. “I don’t know what to look for.” He peered around the entryway. “Ooh, kerosene lamps!” He stepped toward the mantel, where the lamps stood beneath a pentagram wreath made of twigs.
I put out a hand to stop him. “You take the kitchen and the bathroom,” I said. “Just look for anything that feels out of place or that might indicate Rafe had a problem with anyone.”
I pointed Alex upstairs to the bedrooms. I took the office and living room. Other than the altar and the kerosene lamps, the living room contained a threadbare couch and chairs draped with throw blankets. A battered table held a beautiful Tiffany lamp with a Celtic knot pattern that looked to my untrained eye like an antique. Next to it sat a small square leather clock that had to be one of Dylan’s. What Rafe had saved on furniture, he spent on electronics. A large flat-screen TV took up the wall opposite the altar.
Rafe’s office looked like a band of monkeys lived there. Piles of magazines claimed the space around the perimeter of the room, obscuring the baseboards. His large desk hulked in the corner under the weight of notebooks, dried herbs, candles, and a sleek laptop. My shoulders slumped at the sight. This was the room most likely to yield results but it would take days to sort through everything. I mentally rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
An hour later, I sat back and stretched my arms over my head. I’d been hunched over Rafe’s desk, sorting through piles of paperwork and stacks of sticky notes with reminders to pick up dry cleaning or to increase the proportion of rosemary in an herbal poultice and everything in between. Rafe had stuffed one of Morgan’s revenge kits between a book on Wiccan rituals and a Grand Rapids guidebook.
Seth wandered in and said he’d found nothing “unusual” in the kitchen or bathroom. “I did find this on the top shelf of the pantry. I thought it was a recipe book but maybe not.” He produced an old, worn, leather notebook.
I flipped through it and recognized that it must be Rafe’s grimoire, based on my recent education in those specialty notebooks.
“Thanks, Seth. This might be useful.”
Alex wandered in, yawning, and reported he had found nothing except fancy soaps and incense. He held out a bar of soap with a handmade label that said EMBERMYST. I recognized it from the festival but couldn’t remember who had sold it.
“He had a bunch of these in the upstairs bathroom,” Alex said.
I took the soap and inspected it. It smelled of mint and lavender. I shrugged and set it on the desk.
“I’m not having any luck, either,” I said. “I can’t find any information that might lead to knowing who would want to hurt him.”
“Were you expecting a threatening letter or blackmail note?” Alex asked.
“No.” Yes. “I just thought there would be something here to point us in the right direction. One strange thing was this.” I pushed a lever under the desktop and a panel slid open in the top desk drawer.
“Wicked,” Seth breathed. He stepped forward to try it for himself.
“I found his will here in the secret drawer. He left everything to Diana and Dylan.”
“Really?” Alex took the stack of papers from me. “This won’t help Dylan’s case. Didn’t Rafe have any family?”
I shook my head. “Apparently not, at least no one he’d leave his house to. I also found a family-tree diagram with the will.”
I had just turned back to pull that file out of the drawer when we heard a car door slam outside. I froze. Seth ducked down along the wall and slowly raised his eyes above the windowsill for a peek.
“Oh, crap,” Seth said. “You aren’t going to believe this, Clyde.”
I was sure I would believe, just maybe not like it. I waited, and when I didn’t reply he continued.
“Mac is here with some other cops I don’t recognize.”
I felt my eyes grow big and my stomach dropped down around my knees. Alex’s panicked look mirrored my feelings.
“We have to get out of here,” I said.
“They’re talking by the cars right now, but I think they’re coming in,” Seth whispered.
Alex grabbed my arm, gestured at Seth to follow, and dragged me through the kitchen toward the back door.
We tiptoed quickly to the back of the house and were about to open the door and bolt through the backyard when a man wearing a blue uniform came into view. We all ducked and turned around. We made it back into the front hall just as the doorknob started to turn. Seth squeezed my arm and pointed up the narrow staircase leading to the bedrooms. I shook my head no—I didn’t want to be trapped in the house with Mac doing a room-by-room search.
Alex sided with Seth and we were all at the top of the staircase when we heard Mac’s voice enter the house down below.