Missing powers, p.17
Missing Powers, page 17
“Corvin said that there was some discussion about picking a new leader for the coven that night,” she said, introducing it as something Corvin had brought up with her, so they wouldn’t think they had to protect a secret for him. “How did that discussion go?”
“Everything was fine,” Benson growled. “If you’re trying to imply that there was division in the coven over the candidates, you’re wrong.”
Reg feigned surprise. “No, not at all. Why would there be division?”
Benson was caught wrong-footed. His eyes flashed to Martin and then back to Reg. “Some people might not think that Corvin was a good candidate for leadership, that’s all. But the coven was united on letting him run. There were no dissenting voices.”
Reg could feel the unrest around the group at his assertion. He might be telling the truth. It might be that no one had spoken up in opposition to allowing a power drinker to run for the leadership position. But there were those who did not think it was a good idea. Reg scanned the faces of the warlocks, trying to identify which ones had the strongest feelings about it. It surprised her that the strongest dissenters seemed to be the young warlocks, not the core group. She had thought that the core group would be more likely to be rigid and set in their ways, still carrying on prejudices about those with Corvin’s condition. But they all seemed relaxed about it. Maybe, since they were the ones who could vote, they were confident that Corvin would not be elected, despite allowing him to run. They would just vote for Davyn instead. The youngsters had no control over the situation and might be more anxious about what the outcome would be.
“Has any of that changed now that Davyn is missing? How will the election be handled if Davyn isn’t found and Corvin is the only one running? I guess he just automatically gets it?”
Benson looked around at the others, hoping that someone would jump in.
Martin stroked his white mustache. “If Davyn is not found… I’m sure someone else will throw his hat into the ring to run against Corvin.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Will he?” Corvin said from behind Reg. “Do you speak for yourself, Wilf? Or someone else?” His voice was gravelly and testy. Certainly not the unstressed warlock they had described to Reg, happy just to be back in the coven.
Wilf’s face got redder. “Corvin,” he greeted, his voice suddenly hoarse. “I’m glad that you made it. I wasn’t sure you were going to be able to.”
Reg turned and backed up so that she could see Corvin as well as the rest of the circle. He moved forward to take his place with them, barely glancing at Reg.
“What’s this about someone else running for the coven leadership? I thought that Davyn was the only one. And he’s clearly on his way out.”
Wilf sputtered. “I was just… I’m just speculating. I’m sure Davyn will return and things will go forward just as expected. I just meant that… in the interests of the democratic process and making sure that everyone in the coven can express their preferences, someone else would probably join the race if Davyn wasn’t able to. Probably.” He ran his hand over his shiny head, sweating under Corvin’s gaze.
“I haven’t heard anyone express any interest in it. If anyone else is interested in leading the coven, they should have stood up when we discussed it on Monday.”
“There’s still plenty of time for someone else to change their mind and run,” Benson told Corvin. “There’s nothing that says they have to declare themselves at the same time as you and Davyn.”
“But that’s what I would expect.”
Benson and Martin looked at each other, shrugging. Neither jumped in to say they would be interested in running against Corvin. Reg didn’t imagine that anyone would be too eager to run against him. But it might be necessary if they wanted to keep the leadership of the coven from falling to Corvin.
“Are you done here, Regina?” Corvin growled.
“Well… no, not quite.” Reg decided that she’d better move forward in her questions before Corvin could tell her it was time to leave. They might not have the site reserved, but Corvin could be pretty convincing.
“What else, then? I don’t think this nonsense concerning the leadership election has anything to do with Davyn’s disappearance. Does anyone else?” He glared around at the rest of the warlocks. No one dared to register an objection.
“I wondered whether anyone had any insight into what was going on in Davyn’s life lately,” she said, finding it more difficult to speak now that Corvin was there, glowering his disapproval over the matter. “Any reason he might have had to be stressed, if there was someone who was bothering him. If he mentioned anything… unusual that had happened recently?”
“Like what?” questioned young Saunders. “What would he tell us about? You think he was being stalked? That someone was following him around, just waiting for the opportunity to kidnap him?”
Reg stared at him, not responding for several long, uncomfortable seconds. She waited until she was sure that Saunders was really squirming about his sarcastic question before saying anything.
“Yes. Because somebody did lure him away from the coven in order to kidnap him.”
“You don’t know he was kidnapped. You don’t know what happened to him. He might have just tripped and hurt himself. He might have taken off on vacation. You don’t know.”
“Yes, I do.”
They all stared at her, startled by this statement and her confidence in it.
“I know it wasn’t an accident and that he didn’t go on vacation. And that means that someone targeted him. It wasn’t just some random kidnapping, because whoever it was called Davyn and got him away from here. He intentionally lured Davyn away from the group, where he was safe.”
“It could be a coincidence,” Saunders tried, not nearly as loud or certain of himself this time. “He might have just gotten that call from the police like they said, and someone else took the opportunity when they saw him alone.”
“The police didn’t call him that night. It was a set-up.”
“Somebody broke into his house. Maybe it wasn’t the cops who called him, it was a neighbor, and he just got it mixed up when he told us.”
“Explain to me how he went on vacation after leaving his phone, wallet, and car at home. Or how his house was broken into without any windows or doors being damaged. He didn’t misunderstand the caller.”
“He might have left his door unlocked and they just let themselves in.”
“Then why would the neighbor think that anything was wrong? Why would they think there was anything wrong unless they saw some sign that someone had broken into the house? Maybe he just had company and left them a key or left the door unlocked. Why would anyone immediately think it was a break-in, unless they knew that Davyn had been threatened or stalked? You wouldn’t think that.”
“It still could be an accident. He could be in the woods with a broken ankle, waiting for someone to find him.”
“He’s not in the woods near his house. The police have searched. With dogs.”
“They could have missed him,” Saunders said, his voice quiet and with a little bit of a whine in it. He knew that he’d been beaten. No one else would believe that it was just an accident or something innocent.
Reg scanned the faces of the rest of the warlocks. “So? Did Davyn tell anyone that he was having trouble with someone? Or that he was worried about something? I don’t care whether it was anything to do with the coven. It could be work. It could be personal. It could be something totally bizarre and nonsensical. I just want to know if he mentioned that he was having any issues.”
She waited. The men shook their heads and looked at each other, searching for some explanation from the others in the coven. But no one seemed to have anything. Either Davyn didn’t share, or he hadn’t had any particular worries. Reg looked at Damon, but he shrugged and didn’t point her toward anyone he could identify as lying.
“What about… Julian Sabat?” Reg asked, silently apologizing to Davyn for bringing up his private matters. “Did people know about him? Anything about him?”
“His relationship with Sabat was not a secret from the coven,” Martin advised. “I think everyone was happy for him. He hadn’t had anyone in his life for a long time.”
“Was there anyone who… disapproved? Some people can be pretty vocal about same-sex relationships.”
Shrugs and head shakes. Reg closed her eyes and stretched out all of her senses, trying to catch any hint of anger or disapproval from the warlocks. But it hadn’t been one of them who had kidnapped him. They all gave each other alibis because they had been together when Davyn had disappeared.
“I think you’ll find that the members of a coven are far more open-minded than the general public,” Benson said. “We subscribe to a culture that… is much more ancient and tolerant of individual differences and sexuality. We don’t see sex or same-sex relationships as something shameful. We don’t subscribe to the western cultural viewpoint. Shaming people for their innate nature… is not something that we do.”
Unless that innate nature was something like siren blood, in which case they egged Reg’s door and left spells restricting her movements in the hopes that she wouldn’t go out into the world. Corvin had probably put up with that kind of prejudice for years, decades, or even centuries. Being gay might not be a problem for the coven, but they weren’t open to allowing everyone to express their innate natures.
“No one objected? Did he ever talk about anyone at work who might? A family member? Someone in the community?”
“Not that Davyn spoke of.”
“What about jealousies? Was there someone else who was interested in Davyn that he had turned away? Or someone interested in Julian?”
“Everyone was happy for him,” Martin repeated. “And Sabat wasn’t from around here, so I don’t think anyone in Black Sands was attached to him. I think it’s a wild goose chase. I don’t think that part of Davyn’s life had anything to do with… what might have happened to him.”
“Are you about finished beating this dead horse, Regina?” Corvin demanded. “Do you think we can go on with our ceremony honoring Davyn before everyone has to go back to work?”
Reg sighed. She was about finished beating that particular dead horse, but she wished she could find out more from the coven. “Yes, I’ll let you get back to your planned activities. Just remember…” She looked around at the gathered warlocks. “It would do more good to Davyn if you can help me and the police department to find out who did this and how to get Davyn back than it will to dance around and pray for him.”
Corvin’s face flushed a deep red. The other warlocks avoided Reg’s eyes.
“You have my card. Call me if you know anything that could help. I don’t know how much longer Davyn has.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Reg and Damon retreated to Damon’s truck, leaving the warlocks to their ceremony.
Damon chuckled. “Nothing like mocking someone’s spiritual practices to get them to cooperate with you.”
“I didn’t—” Reg cut herself off and grimaced. “Is that what I did? Sheesh, that wasn’t very polite, was it?”
“You may be right. I’m not sure how much nature, God, or the universe is going to do to help Davyn if everybody just sits around on their hands and hopes that things work out for the best. I think things work out for the best when we do everything we can and leave the rest to nature. Without our husbandry, the garden just grows wild.”
Reg looked at him, frowning, not sure she understood what he was trying to say. But he seemed to be supporting her plea to the warlocks to help her out, so she couldn’t argue with him.
Damon swung himself up into the driver’s seat of the truck. Reg clambered up into her seat as gracefully as possible.
“Do you think any of them will take me up on it? Call me with what they know?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if any of them even know anything relevant.”
“Were any of them lying?”
“No big lies that I could detect. Of course, everyone shades what they say to put themselves in the best light, but I don’t think anyone knows of any huge secret Davyn was holding.”
“What about a smaller secret?”
“Maybe. Nothing that anyone thought significant, I don’t think.”
“But they could be wrong. A little thing could be important. Who do you think might know something?”
“The young one with the attitude. A little surprising, since I would expect the more established warlocks to know Davyn better.”
“John Saunders?”
“Right, that sounds like the right name. I’m not sure how you could keep all of them straight.”
“I have a good head for names. Most of the time.”
“And you got the ones who weren’t there as well?”
“Yeah. I can follow up with them later. Maybe they’ll have more to say if there isn’t anyone to overhear. Especially Corvin. Did you see everybody jump when he got there?”
“Yes. They all looked like they’d been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.”
“But none of them had been badmouthing Corvin or saying he hadn’t been there. So why feel guilty?”
“Who knows? Maybe just because they are private people and what happens at coven is supposed to be held confidential.”
“But I wasn’t asking about any of the coven’s rituals or practices. Just whether anyone knew who might be out to harm Davyn.”
Damon shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they felt like saying anything, even talking about who was there and who was not, was too much.”
“It’s not like they are doctors or lawyers.”
Damon just shrugged again. “I don’t run with a coven, so I don’t know.”
A lone wolf. Was he on his own because he didn’t fit in with any of the established groups? Or just because he wanted to be? Or had he done something that had estranged him from the local covens and they wouldn’t have him?
Reg remembered to call Jessup before her evening appointments started to arrive. She had called back each of the clients she had missed the previous night, when she had been caught in her trance, and rescheduled them. She didn’t want to have to reschedule anyone else, and didn’t want to be interrupted by a phone call from Jessup asking whether she had made any progress on the case.
“Hi, Reg,” Jessup answered, still sounding pleasant and welcoming, but not nearly as cheerful as she had been the day before. The case was undoubtedly starting to wear on her. Maybe she was getting pressure from above to either find something or move on to another more pressing case. But Black Sands was not the big city with a ton of crime so, hopefully, there hadn’t been any other abductions or murders that would compete with Davyn’s case. At least not for another day or two. If they got to a week without any sign of where Davyn had gone, Reg was worried that Davyn would be presumed dead and the case would be set aside until more evidence came in.
“Hi. Did you find anything out today?” Reg got in her question before Jessup could ask the same, hoping that there would be something they could use. She hated to have to report that despite going to visit Corvin and his coven, Reg hadn’t made any progress herself.
“Well…” Jessup drew the word out. She didn’t seem to be teasing Reg, just thinking about it, but anxiety and irritation shot through Reg at not getting an immediate answer one way or the other. “We have been following up on any of the members of the coven who might have had issues with Davyn, even though they all alibi each other. I’m still not convinced that everyone is being one hundred percent truthful about them all being there at the time of the phone call. Or maybe they think that everyone was, but forgot that someone had gone to take a smoke break or a solitary walk. People don’t necessarily mean to lie; sometimes they are just unreliable.”
“I thought that all eyewitnesses were unreliable.”
“Yes… truer than I would like to think.”
“Nothing else?”
“We followed up on the call to Davyn. Got a warrant for his phone records and checked to see where that call had come from.”
“Great! Who was it?”
“Not much help, unfortunately. A landline at the gas station a couple of miles down the road.”
“Who made the call?”
“The clerk who was on duty at that time of night didn’t remember anyone using it. But he says it’s not uncommon, and it was probably just so routine that he forgot. Cell coverage is not great out there, so people stop in and ask if they can use the phone. Not like there are any payphones around anymore. They just let whoever needs it use it.”
“And the clerk doesn’t remember who it was.”
“No.”
“Could it have been him?”
“I imagine so. But we don’t have any evidence that it was, so we can’t exactly arrest him for making a phone call to Davyn. Not that there is anything illegal about making a call to Davyn even if he admitted it. We can’t prove that the phone call and the disappearance are related. Or that the person on the phone said what Davyn said he did. That could have been a cover for something else. Meeting someone that he didn’t want people to know about. A lover. A bookie. Just because he told the coven it was the police, that doesn’t mean he really thought that it was.”
“But wouldn’t he know that people would ask him about it later? I mean… you don’t want to attract attention to yourself if you’re going to meet someone quietly. You don’t want everyone in the community talking about how your house was broken into and then having to maintain that fiction. It’s too hard.”
“Maybe he’s not a very accomplished liar and didn’t realize how difficult that would be. How would he know if he’d never done anything like that before? Anyway, I’m not saying he did just make it up as a cover for whatever the call was really about. I’m just saying… there’s no proof. We don’t know that’s really what happened.”
