Page 45 of Dirty Valentine
“No, that’s why we went to see Evangeline,” Sheldon explained like we were all simpletons.“Bridget has a supernatural force field around her, so an apprentice witch like Leena can’t get through.”
Cole nodded with all the seriousness in the world.“That’s a job for a professional witch.”
“Exactly,” Sheldon said.“But Leena told me that Bridget had been betrayed by the very people she trusted, and then she said that those bloodlines needed to be cleansed.
Cole leaned forward, narrowing his eyes.“Cleansed how?”
“I don’t know,” Sheldon said, his voice shrinking to a whisper.“She said she’d call me later and hung up.And then I looked out my bedroom window and there was this car sitting across from my house.It was raining so it was kind of hard to see, but I could tell someone was looking straight at me.”
“What’d the car look like?”Jack asked.
“It was a nice car,” Sheldon said.“Black sedan, looked expensive.Mercedes, I think.The one with the silver emblem on the front.”
Martinez got out his phone and pulled up the DMV records.“Victoria Mills drives a black Mercedes E-Class.That what you saw?”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Sheldon said, nodding.“I remember thinking it was too nice a car to be sitting in my neighborhood.”
“No hits on the BOLO?”Jack asked.
“Nothing,” Cole said.
“What time did you see the car?”Jack asked Sheldon.
“Well, after I got sent home from work I went home and took a shower and a nap.And then I got up at one and had some SpaghettiOs.The kind with the little wieners in it.And then I went back to my room and turned on that new documentary about that funeral home that was embalming people while they were still alive.Preserved in Silence.”
“Oh, yeah,” Lily said.“I watched that.Very creepy.I’m going to get cremated when it’s my time.”
“What made you go to the window?”Jack asked, his patience everlasting.
“I had a feeling,” he said.“I think the Baba Yaga warns me about things sometimes.And there was this crazy-loud thunder and a lightning strike that was so bright it lit up my room.I went to the window to see if anything had been barbecued.”
“Baba Yaga,” I said.
“Call in Sheldon’s address,” Jack told Martinez.“Let’s see if we can get footage from stoplights and see what direction the car went.That was only a few hours ago.”
Something was bothering me about Victoria Mills, and I didn’t have a good feeling.“Seems strange for a woman to pack her bags to get out of town and then drive around the town you’re escaping from, skulking about at gas stations and people’s houses.”
“Yeah,” Jack said.“That’s just one of the many issues with this case.Let’s send someone to pick up Leena.”
“Good luck with that,” Sheldon said.“She’s like smoke—here one minute, gone the next.And then you wake up naked in her car.”
“You didn’t tell me you were naked,” I said.
Sheldon’s cheeks turned pink.“It didn’t seem relevant at the time.”
“I’ll have a couple of deputies go by her apartment,” Cole said.“Maybe we’ll get lucky.Even witches need to get something to eat and take a shower.”
We cleaned up the kitchen and then ambled back into the office, taking seats around the conference table.Lily grabbed her backpack and settled in one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace.
Potts pulled out her iPad and said, “I hear you’ve got state-of-the-art technology here.Can I connect?I’ve got the photos and evidence documentation from the Mills house.CSI finished processing the scene about an hour ago.”
“Absolutely,” Jack said, moving to activate the wall-mounted display system.“What’ve you got for us?”
The large screen came to life, and Potts began swiping through crime-scene photos with the methodical precision that made her so good at her job.“Dr.Mills’s house tells a story of interrupted escape.Her bedroom shows she was packing in a hurry—drawers opened, clothes missing, closets’ contents reduced.But then there are clear signs of a struggle in the living room and kitchen.”
“So she was trying to leave when someone surprised her?”Martinez asked.
“That’s what it looks like,” Potts said, pulling up photos of Mills’s home office.“She was gathering important documents when her attacker arrived.Her desk was partially cleaned out, and I found indentations on a notepad that show she wrote down a phone number.”
