“Anytime, babe,” Jill said. “At least that’s over.”
“For now,” I replied. I went inside and did a quick prowl through my house and basement to be absolutely certain nothing had been unduly disturbed. Other than the clothing in my drawers being a bit mussed, everything seemed to be all right. I headed to the living room where the others had gathered, and flopped onto the couch. Eilahn was looking out the window with a troubled look on her face.
“Is something wrong, Eilahn?”
She glanced my way. “I am troubled that it was necessary to destroy your storage diagram.”
I grimaced and ran both hands through my hair. “Yeah, well at least I was able to use it to get Votevha here to check Roman.” Then I made a disparaging noise. “Not that it mattered.” I heaved a sigh. “And at least I kept Mayor Asshole out of here. But now he’s my number one suspect for being the mystery summoner, and it would have been damn nice to be able to get a demon to verify that for me.”
“He did seem most eager to enter.” Her mouth pursed in a frown. “But I thought perhaps it had more to do with this.” She extended her hand to show me a baggie of white powder. “Am I correct in assuming it is contraband of some sort?”
“Yowza,” Jill said, eyes going wide.
I took a careful breath. “Where did you get that?”
Eilahn tilted her head. “It was in his right coat pocket.” A whisper of satisfied amusement lit her eyes. “I noticed that he kept his hand very near that pocket, and would often dip his hand into it as if to make certain that something was there. I was curious to see what he was so concerned about.”
I took the baggie from her and peered at the contents. “Well, I have a good feeling it is contraband, but unlike on TV, one does not taste the drug to find out what it is. I don’t happen to have a field test on me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m quite sure this is either cocaine or heroin, and it’s about to get flushed.” Renewed anger suffused me. “He was going to plant it. What a cocksucker!” I shot her a grateful look. “Nice job picking his pocket.”
“I replaced it with a similar substance,” she said. “I have hopes he will not notice the exchange.”
“You seriously rock,” I said fervently. “What’d you use?”
“Powdered sugar.” Vicious amusement lit her eyes. “Though I admit I was tempted to replace it with the ant killer in your shed.”
I laughed. “And that, boys and girls, is why you never taste the drugs!”
The cat stalked in and rubbed against Eilahn, then walked across Jill’s lap and onto Zack’s lap to thrust her head into his face. He gave a surprised laugh, then obediently scratched Fuzzykins behind her ears.
Jill smiled and reached over to give her a pet. “What a sweetie kitty!” Bemused, I watched as Fuzzykins bumped her head briefly against Jill’s hand in cursory appreciation of the adoration, then returned to her passion fit on Zack’s lap.
“That’s a bizarre cat,” Ryan muttered.
“Yeah, she hates me and Ryan, but she seems to go nuts for, um,” I stopped myself and quickly fumbled for something to say besides demons. “Um, Zack and Eilahn. Do y’all use the same kind of soap or something?” I forced out a laugh while Zack gave me a Seriously? look.
“Maybe she’s mellowed,” Ryan said. He leaned forward and reached a hand out, then quickly pulled it back as the cat turned on him with a snarl and hiss. “Or not.”
We lapsed into silence, broken only by the cat’s insane purring. My thoughts continued to rampage madly. Too much I needed to be doing. I needed to rebuild my storage diagram and start channeling power back into it. I needed to figure out who the fuck was killing these people and why, so that I could get my job back.
“Perhaps I could make waffles,” Eilahn said. “Is it too late in the day for waffles?”
“It’s never too late for waffles,” I told her, relieved at any excuse for a distraction. She smiled in satisfaction and headed to the kitchen.
“Your computer and the map are out in my car,” Ryan told me. “I’ll go and get them now.”
Zack gently removed Fuzzykins from his lap. “I’ll help,” he said.
The two men left. I looked over at Jill. She had a smile on her face, but it seemed strained and I could see lines of worry around her eyes. I gave myself a mental kick. I’d been so preoccupied with my own crap that I hadn’t even paid attention to how she was doing.
“How are things with Zack?” I watched her face as I asked. I didn’t like it, but I had a horrible sneaking hope the two of them would break up. Not