Pretty Witches All in a Row Read Free Page A

wasn’t more than a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, she would have been easy to overpower,” Brady suggested and Nick nodded his approval.
    “True, it could have gone down like that.  Either way, our guy decides the best way to hide any evidence of the crime is to burn the body, make it look like a simple accident.  After all there are enough candles in the house to open up her own shop.  So he scoops up the body, carries her into the bedroom.”  He stepped out of the rear room and headed back to the living room, stopping short of entering the bedroom, not wanting to interrupt Libby in her examination.  “So he sets her down and starts lighting candles.  All he has to do is knock one over and it’s domino city… soon the room is ablaze and he beats feet out of here, through the back door if he’s smart.”
    “There’s a large back yard out there, shared with the unit next door, fenced all the way around,” Park supplied.  “He could have hopped the fence, or even left through the front door.  It was late, he could have gambled that no one would be up and around to see him, and the flames wouldn’t have attracted any attention until they got really out of control.”
    “We’ve got a whole lotta nothin’,” Nick sighed in disgust.  At that stage of the game it was as though someone had taken a box of puzzle pieces and tossed them into the wind.  Not only were they scattered about without any trace of a pattern, he wasn’t even sure if all of the pieces were in one place yet. 
    Libby stepped into the bedroom doorway and crooked her fingers at the waiting EMT’s who disappeared into the bedroom, wheeling the gurney between them.
    Somewhat subdued, Gibson turned to his team.  “Okay, now the fun stuff,” he said briskly, all business now.  “Park, you take the family, make the call, you know what to do.”  Never one to enjoy making that call, he delegated it to Park, who had a gentle touch with victim’s families.    “See if you can find out about her friends, if she had a boyfriend, the usual.  Brady, start running down the contacts from her phone and computer, I want a list of her clients ASAP.  Find out if she’s affiliated with a massage therapy place in town or if she was working freelance on her own.  Let’s get her bank records too, see if there’s anything suspicious there.  Keep in touch, you know the drill.”
    “You got it boss-man,” Brady nodded, scribbling into his notebook, and Park echoed her assent, fingers flying across the screen of her smart phone.
    “I’m gonna swing by and check out this occult store, see what I can turn up.  See if she was really a tree-hugger type or if she was into any of the dark stuff.”  He waved one of the business cards from the desk. 
    The EMT’s emerged from the bedroom, wheeling the body bag with practiced indifference.  “Okay, let’s move like we got a purpose people.”  Nick waved them on grimly.  All kidding aside, it tore at him to see someone full of youth struck down so senselessly, and he was determined to bring the killer to justice.   
     
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Two
     
    The address on the card for Argent Flame led Nick to the Hawthorne District, on the east side of the river.  It was too late to find a suitable parking space by the time he spotted the place, and he cursed under his breath as he signaled to turn around and go back.  The store was housed in a standalone structure, once a personal residence.  Built in the turn of the century in a Victorian style, it looked to be kept in good repair.  Painted a muted blue with darker trim, it was neither a crumbling, spooky mansion nor a particularly new age place.  There were no rainbows or crystals evident in the windows and a tasteful sign bearing the store’s name and that same stylized silver flame hung from the roof of the porch.
    With a quick glance to his watch, Gibson realized the place probably wasn’t open yet, but he could see