“So you saw pictures of the victim and realized she wasn’t the woman you’d seen in the window. Do you know who she is? Or recognize the woman you did see?”
Aunt Mina shook her head sadly. “No. I’d never seen her before. Except that I feel certain that she was a reenactor of some kind. I’m sure you’ve seen some of our local Wiccans. I’ll admit, most of my clothing was black, and if you were to go into my closet now, you’d see that I had several gorgeous cloaks for our circles and Sabbats. But she was dressed differently. Like a Puritan. Perhaps she really was a Puritan, a woman from...some other time.”
“Thank you, Mina,” Rocky said. “I’m not sure what it means, but it’s definitely a new avenue to explore.”
“You mean, we have another dead woman somewhere?” Devin asked him.
He looked over at her. There was something gentle in his eyes. “Maybe not. Maybe she died a long time ago and stayed to try to save others.”
“Oh,” Aunt Mina said.
“I have to get back,” he told them. “The members of my team are coming in later.”
“You have a team?”
“I do.”
She nodded. “Good,” she told him. “A whole team to help out will be very good.”
He rose and thanked Aunt Mina. Devin walked with him to the door.
“Lock it,” she said. “That’s what you’re going to say to me, right? I would do it, anyway, you know, without you telling me.”
He nodded and hesitated. “I think I’d like to take a tour with that friend of yours I met last night—Brent Corbin.”
“Okay. I can set it up, if you like.”
“Sure. Want to come with me?”
It was her turn to hesitate.
Sure, let’s see a friend of mine. Let’s pretend we’ve known each other before now, that you’re here because I live here, that you’re here to be with me....
You could just ask me to dinner.
Great. Three women were dead, two of them in the past couple of weeks, and she...
She couldn’t stop thinking about Rocky.
Each time she saw him, she was more fascinated by him.
“Of course. Except...” she said.
“Except?” he asked.
“I’m not sure why you’re so focused on my friends.”
“I’m not. You’re friends are just up to speed on what’s going on locally, and I need to catch up.”
“I’m up to speed on what’s happening locally. And don’t you have your own friends?”
He laughed. “I do. And maybe I’ll drag you to meet them.”
She moved to close the door and their fingers brushed. She felt as if sparks sizzled through her, warming her flesh, and she knew that a blush rose to her cheeks. She met his eyes, trying not to jerk her fingers away, trying to appear casual.
There was something in his solemn green gaze, and she wondered if he had felt it, too. If he...
He smiled. “I’m serious,” he said softly. “My old gang wants to get together. It would be great if you’d come with me. We might learn something from them.”
“Learn what?”
“Information we may not have—gossip that could lead to something,” he said.
“Are any of them Wiccans? Or historians?”
He shook his head. “Jack is a cop, Vince is a lawyer, Haley is a dance instructor and Renee is a cheerleading coach.”
“Ah. The in crowd. I bet you played football.”
“Guilty,” he said. “Until...”
“Until?”
“Melissa.”
“She still haunts you, doesn’t she?”
“We’re all haunted, aren’t we?” he asked.
He left, and she locked the door.
“What a delightful man,” Aunt Mina said, coming up behind her and making her jump.
“Auntie Mina, he’s an FBI agent trying to solve a series of murders.”
“Yes, and we’re just trying to help, aren’t we?”
6
Rocky’s phone rang on the way back to the station, alerting him to the fact that his fellow agents were waiting at his hotel. They wanted to meet in private before going to the station.
He discovered that he was being joined by Crow’s wife, Angela, and agents Jenna Duffy, Sam Hall and Jane Everett.
He had a feeling Jackson had sent Angela, his right-hand “man,” to assess the abilities that had gotten him into the Krewe—the unofficial name for the special units, and so called because their first case, a few years back, had been in New Orleans. Rocky wasn’t offended; the Krewe of Hunters was unlike any other division in the FBI.
Once he got to the hotel they all headed for the restaurant to get to know one another.