“Well, not to cop to anything, but we’re sort of hoping to prove the opposite.”
“Genie.”
“Bryce.”
“Please don’t kill anyone.”
“I am merely assisting in a federal investigation.”
“I hate you so much.”
“Nah, you love me.”
“If I could put you in jail for being a pain in my ass, I would.”
I chuckled, unable to help myself. I knew there wasn’t anything particularly funny about how crazy I made the detective, but at the same time it was completely hilarious. “Look, here’s the thing, you don’t even know if we’ll find him. And as far as you know, he split town already. So just let us go look in the church, and we’ll finish our investigation, and you never, ever need to know what we found in there.”
He stared at me, and I stared back.
“You’re asking me to let you kill a man.”
“No, Bryce, I’m asking you not to follow me into that building, that’s all.”
He stared out of the windshield, taking in the church, and the hazy orange glow around it with the setting sun sinking behind it. It looked menacing, imposing, and not at all like a friendly place to hang out.”
Finally he let out a long sigh. “The alarm code is 1745. I will be back in forty minutes to do my nightly check. I don’t want to have to call for back up or an ambulance, is that clear?”
“Crystal.”
“And tell your sister I want an official request from her office to conduct an investigation. If I have to explain footage of you idiots on those cameras later, I want something to cover my ass.”
“Consider your ass fully covered.”
“And Genie?” He stopped me before I could get out of the car. “This is the last time I put my neck on the line for you.”
Chapter Twenty-six
The church was dark and spooky inside, made somehow more inhospitable by how clean and modern it was. Someone, at least until recently, had been taking care of the place as if they were waiting for the church members to return and open up shop again. There wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere, even though the building hadn’t been used in almost a year.
I lead us through the doors and into the waiting darkness.
A fiery orange glow emanated from the main pulpit area, where the setting sun had set the whole room ablaze. Out in the lobby, it gave the impression that the building was on fire, which was its own kind of disconcerting.
“Do we really think he’s still here?” Secret asked. “Why would he come back here after killing someone? Wouldn’t it make more sense to come looking for you?”
“He wouldn’t know where to look,” I reminded her. “This is the only place he ever saw me. I think him recording that video was his way of making sure I came for him, and saving himself the effort. The spell doesn’t seem to work like a homing device or anything. Mercy went to where she was buried. Lucas went to Callum’s. Morgan seems to wander around until she stumbles across me. Deerling showed up the last place he saw me alive. None of them knew where I lived. At least until Ben teamed up with Mercy. Thanks, asshole.”
“So you think he’s just holed up here, hoping you’ll show yourself?” Secret said.
“Yeah, that’s sort of the angle I’m playing with. If he’s not here, he’s somewhere nearby. I’m what he’s looking for, and I think he knows that if he poses a big enough risk to other peoples’ lives, I’ll come to stop him.”
“That’s a lot of ifs, brujita,” Santiago said from the back of the pack. “If we can find something that belongs to him, I can tell you exactly where he is.”
Lucas nodded his ascent. “I like Santiago’s plan.”
“You won’t when you see where Deerling kept his personal possessions.” I glanced over at Wilder’s whose frown had deepened. I knew he was remembering the video footage of his brother locked in a cage right below where we were standing now, being tortured by the man we were looking for.
But Santiago had a point. We could waste our time wandering around a dark mega-church, or we could use magic to bring the answers right to us. I voted for what was behind door number two.