Page 76 of Ghostlighted
As the cuffs clicked home, Liam’s clenched fists uncurled, and his keys dropped to the ground. Still on slightly dizzy autopilot, I bent down to retrieve them to hand to her partner.
“Please leave those where they are, Maz.” She gave me a tight-lipped smile as she gripped Liam’s arm and turned him toward her cruiser. “Chain of evidence. You understand.”
Since her partner was approaching with a giant roll of yellow crime scene tape, I said, “Right. Got it.”
“The house will be off limits for a while too, until we clear it.”
As she walked past, I murmured to Avi, “Is there much left in the house for them to see?”
“No. Everything’s in the messenger bag and the suitcase.”
That was both good and bad. Good, because Kamilla would have the evidence of Liam’s assholery prepackaged in a couple of nice, neat containers. Bad, because he could just as easily saythat Sofia had given him permission to take everything, and somehow, even if she were confronted with proof of his lies and theft, I doubted she would ever deny him.
Luckily—or unluckily, if you were Liam—unlike civil crimes, in Oregon, criminal charges like grand larceny weren’t something the victim could ask to be dropped.
“Please step away,” the partner said.
“Sorry.”
I backed up so he could unroll more tape, enclosing where Liam’s keys had fallen. Its charm flared and faded, flared and faded, in the still-flashing blue light. I squinted down at it, because now that it wasn’t an inch from my nose, I could see it better.
“That’s not Massachusetts,” I blurted.
Liam shot me a look that would have burned out my eyes if he’d been an actual demon rather than simply having the withered soul of one. “Shut your damn mouth.”
Kamilla stopped and lifted an eyebrow. “Now, why would that matter to you, Liam? Maz? Do you have something else that might be germane to the case?”
“When Liam practically impaled my nose with his keys?—”
“I never touched you!”
“No. You didn’t. But you gave me a closeup view of your keychain. At the time, I thought whoever made it didn’t do a very good job of rendering Massachusetts, but it’s not Massachusetts.” Nor, despite what that geography app’s lousy photo tagging claimed, was it a microwave oven. “That’s Belize.”
Liam just glared at me and turned away, his neck flushing an alarming shade of red.
“Is that significant in some way?” Kamilla asked.
“Ricky told me that Sofia was the victim of identity theft a few years ago, and the thing that raised the red flag was the thousands of dollars charged to her credit card from a resort inBelize.” I gave Liam a glare of my own because, jeez, was he a piece of shit. “I’d suggest that when you’re preparing the case against him, you investigate that incident. Saul should be able to help you. He’s the one who resolved the issue.”
She nodded sharply. “Thanks. We’ll check it out.”
Avi appeared in front of me, so I watched Kamilla escort Liam to the curb filtered by his body. “Tell her about the pill bottle.”
“Kamilla?”
She didn’t answer until she’d settled Liam into the cruiser’s back seat and shut the door. “Yes?”
“I’m pretty sure you’ll find pills that match Sofia’s incorrect meds in his bag.”
“Should I ask how you know that?”
I spread my hands, palms up. “This is Ghost.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Hmmm. I suppose the evidence will speak for itself, but we’ll need your testimony.”
“You’ve got it. Ricky’s cleared, though, right?”
She nodded. “In light of the new information, he should be, once the investigation is concluded. In the meantime, he’s being released. If you want, you can pick him up in Richdale in about two hours.”
