Chapter 7
Jolene turned away from the window. Jake was leaning back in his squeaky leather chair behind the heavy oak desk, feet propped up casually amid the organized mess of case files and paperwork. Their office was a throwback to the old hardboiled detective era, with dark wood panels and frosted glass doors stenciled with their names. Jolene loved the old-fashioned vibe.
“What’s going on out there?” Jake asked, not looking up from the file he was skimming.
“Just Celeste and Cal.” Jolene sat back down at her desk and craned her neck to look outside. Celeste and Cal were gone.
Jake glanced up. “Looks like I found something on Alex Summers.”
Jolene leaned forward in her chair. “What?”
Leaning back, Jake laced his fingers behind his head. “The guy who pawned the stones. Turns out Summers used to work for Maynard Dove a while back. Guess they had some kind of falling out—found a record of a police call between them that didn’t go anywhere officially.”
Jolene’s eyes widened. “A falling out? Over what?”
“Doesn’t say exactly.” Jake shrugged. “But it got heated enough that the neighbors called the cops. No charges filed, though.”
Jolene pursed her lips, thinking. “You think it could be something paranormal related?”
Jake looked over at her. “I doubt the Noquitt police would recognize that kind of thing if it slapped them in the face.”
Jolene nodded. “Right.”
Jake looked back at his computer screen. “From the report, it looks like a standard noise complaint. Nothing too out of the ordinary.”
Jolene leaned back in her chair, tapping a pen on her notepad thoughtfully. “I hope Mateo or Luke have been able to dig up more on this Dove character. It’s not like we can just google ‘paranormal details’ to get the scoop on him.”
Jake nodded in agreement. “Guy’s a tough nut to crack. Rich as hell, that’s for sure.” He flipped through a file on his desk. “And old, too, though we couldn’t find an actual birth date, which is pretty weird.”
“Yeah, definitely seems like a red flag for something paranormal there,” Jolene said. She scribbled some notes. “He does seem to donate a lot to charities and nonprofits, though, according to what I could find.”
“Lots of wealthy folks do that to keep up appearances,” Jake said cynically. “Doesn’t mean much.”
Jolene chewed the end of her pen. “Still, you’d think a guy with his money wouldn’t care so much about some semiprecious stones. I mean, they weren’t worth a huge amount monetarily.”
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Unless their value lies somewhere else…”
“Exactly. We know those stones are magical somehow and presumably related to this celestial event. If Maynard Dove is one of the bad guys trying to open portals or whatever this event does, he would want those stones badly.”
Jake leaned back in his chair, frowning. “He could be dangerous. We need to be careful.”
Jolene clutched the obsidian amulet she wore around her neck, feeling its smooth, cool surface. Fiona had made one for each of the sisters, designed to bounce bad energy back at the sender.
“Don’t worry. We can take care of ourselves,” she said confidently.
“I know, but Luke called earlier and said this might be worse than we thought. Apparently, Dorian has been hearing a lot of static about it through her various contacts, and similar events have caused adverse paranormal activity.”
“Well, that’s definitely not the news we were hoping for,” she said. “It sounds like Dorian is anticipating something serious.”
Jake rubbed his chin, his normally cheerful expression replaced with a grim look. “Yeah. Luke said she was very adamant that previous alignments like this have resulted in significant supernatural mayhem. Portals opening, dark forces slipping through, general paranormal chaos. Bad stuff.”
Jolene, ever optimistic and confident, simply shrugged. “We’ve dealt with bad stuff before.”
Jake gave her a small smile. “That’s the spirit. This crew has handled its fair share of paranormal problems before. I reckon we’ll all find a way through this too.”