28. Scratching the Surface
Chapter 28
Scratching the Surface
Poway—Moments later
“ G ot it,” Jayden said from the back seat. “I grabbed a screenshot from the video, ran it in V-Trak. His name is Gabriel King. Anna Balmer’s mortal ex-boyfriend. I thought he looked familiar—Anna helped me update his info when she moved to the Hill.”
Tig groaned as the car registration popped onto her tablet’s screen. She should have guessed earlier. “Callistus Tedder.”
“Yep. And someone subsequently updated his entry. According to V-Trak, when Anna…ah, left Gabriel, he remained with Callistus.”
Good save. With Bob in the car, they didn’t need him learning Anna was in witness protection.
Liza cleared her throat. “I should’ve recognized this area. We’re near her old home—Callistus’s community.”
“Yeah,” Zeke added. “Where we, uh, picked her up and brought her to Tig.”
Kidnapped, more accurately. Tig had sent Liza and Zeke to grab an unwilling Anna, who provided the information they needed to nail a perp. In exchange, the Hill gave her witness protection.
No wonder the location seemed familiar.
Gabriel pulled into a long driveway leading past a winery. Tig passed the driveway slowly, glimpsing a house at the rear, but a deep field of grapevines and a tall row of cypress trees separated the winery from the house and blocked the view from the street. She drove a half-mile before making a U-turn.
“What’s the play?” Zeke asked.
Tig pulled over to the curb a few hundred feet from Callistus’s winery on Verdant Ridge Highway and parked. “We have to leave Bob and Brucie in the car. Jayden, you’ll stay with them. Contact the Hill, update Carolyn on everything that’s happened. She’s senior on the council with Rolf out of town and Liza with us. Someone needs to know what’s happening, just in case.” She glanced back at Bob, then made eye contact with Jayden. Bob shouldn’t overhear his report. “Step out of the van to make the call. Then contact Marcus to get a search warrant—based on the casino break-in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Zeke and Liza, we have one chance at surprising them. I don’t have a warrant yet. But I want a DNA sample if we can get it voluntarily. Liza, grab some swabs, please.”
Liza rooted through the crime scene kit in the back of the van and held up a couple of test kits, then slipped them into her pocket. “Roger wilco. Got ’em.”
Tig adjusted the straps to her flak vest—all of them were going in protected—and walked her team past the winery and the cypress trees, down the cobblestone driveway that ended in a loop at Callistus’s front door.
“Nice spread,” Zeke said as Tig led them.
Besides the vineyard behind the winery, fields of vines surrounded the weathered, wood-paneled ranch house. An old wagon wheel sat in the garden, with Gabriel’s sports car parked in the circular driveway. Tig nodded at Zeke’s comment and kept scanning for lurking dangers. The drawn curtains might keep Callistus unaware of his guests. Then she spotted the security cameras at each corner of the house, and the video doorbell.
So their approach wouldn’t be a surprise.
The door opened. Santa Claus without the round belly or jolly attitude stood there. “Chief Anderson. What are you doing on my property?”
“May we come in? I’d like to speak to Gabriel about a police matter.”
“What could you possibly be investigating this far from home?” Though originally from Boston, he had little left of his native accent.
“A burglary. Solicitation and grand theft. I have enough to arrest him. If you want, I’ll get a search warrant.”
Callistus narrowed his eyes. “No need. Liza. Zeke. Won’t you all come in?” He guided the party into his living room. He was just as she remembered him. Turned in his mid-twenties, he had broad, pinkish cheeks, a chin dimple, and blond hair—so blond it was almost white—reminding her of a youthful Santa Claus who had shaved off his beard, leaving a whitish-blond mustache behind.
Bob’s description of who’d recruited him matched Callistus to a T. Why hadn’t she realized it before? Probably because the casino was all the way out in Riverside County, and Callistus lived in San Diego County—she hadn’t put the two together yet when Bob described the man who hired him.
She stepped into a large, carpeted living room. The house was built in the craftsman style, and mid-century furniture filled the space, the kind that was sleek and tufted, with splayed hardwood legs, the cloth coverings in bright, saturated colors.
Two mortals, a man and a woman, were already there. Tig recognized the woman as Callistus’s mate of eleven years, Kaitlyn, and immediately cataloged her stats. Maybe five and a half feet tall, medium build, long brown hair, bright blue eyes, pink-tinged white skin, and a heart-shaped face. And, of course, the brown-haired man next to her was Gabriel.
“Let’s sit and you can explain,” Callistus said.
Tig took the offered seat on the turquoise couch, Liza next to her, and Zeke remained standing behind them. From the two matching armchairs facing her, the mortals rose to their feet.
Callistus cleared his throat. “Gabriel, stay. Kaitlyn, pull up one of the dining chairs.” He took the chair Kaitlyn had been in, then made the introductions before turning an angry glare on Gabriel. “The chief tells me you were involved in a burglary.”
The mortal hooked a finger into his buttoned-up shirt collar and tugged as he swallowed. “I heard about what happened to Petar. I, um, thought this might be my only chance to find Anna.”
How had Gabriel learned so quickly about Petar’s murder? Tig furrowed her brow, tapping her fingers on the arm of the couch. When questioning a perp, it was better to begin with the broad questions rather than starting with specifics. Best to give them enough rope until they tied the noose. “Could you connect those dots for me?”
Gabriel glanced sideways at Callistus, fear in his scent, then swiftly swung his gaze back to Tig. “When Anna ran away, Callistus was helping me find her. He let me stay on, hoping she’d come home. He called to her. And we filed missing person reports with all the treaty communities. We looked everywhere, but she didn’t return, and we heard nothing. Then the treaty board finally responded to his pleas.”
Tig turned to Callistus, keeping her face neutral.
“Yes, I learned how you and the Hill forced her into witness protection because you needed her testimony at any cost. Made it impossible for her to come back to us.”
Jerk. Anna didn’t return because she wanted nothing to do with you.
From everything Anna had told Tig, Callistus had been abusive toward his child, holding her blood bonded to him and under his thumb for over a hundred years.
Gabriel picked up the story again. “I’ve been worried sick. You isolated her, kept her from us, and I knew I had to save her. She used to gamble at Petar’s all the time, or place phone bets. I figured if she continued betting, he might have her new address or cell number. That’s all I paid Bob to find. I want to talk to her, ask her to take me back.”
Callistus laid a hand on Gabriel’s knee, and the man stopped talking. “You see, Tig, it was an act of desperation born out of love, but it wasn’t a big deal. The list that was stolen was worthless to Gabriel. Anna’s name wasn’t on it.” He reached behind him to a table, clutched the stapled pages, and handed the list to her. “You may return this to the casino. I’m willing to pay restitution to Petar’s heirs on behalf of Gabriel if we could bring this matter to a close.”
Tig removed an evidence bag from her back pocket and dropped the list inside. With any luck, the pages should now have his fingerprints. Could Cerissa lift V-DNA from fingerprints? She’d have to ask later. “I’ll speak with Petar’s heirs, find out if they’ll accept payment instead of filing charges under the treaty. But I’ll want to take a DNA sample from each of you.”
Callistus’s lips thinned into a narrow line. “Now why would you want to do that?”
How much should she say? Being coy wasn’t getting her anywhere. “To rule you out.”
“Why? Gabriel has already confessed to hiring the thief. What more is there to—”
“Petar’s murder. Which you seem to know about.”
“Aha.” He bounced his fingertips against each other, his hands forming a steeple. “Now I understand why you are so far outside your jurisdiction. So, the rumor is true. Petar’s murder took place in Sierra Escondida.”
“Not precisely, but close enough.”
“Well, we had nothing to do with his murder. As for the casino break-in, it occurred in Eastvale. You have no authority there.”
“I do based on the charges against Gabriel. Stalking an ex-lover is a treaty crime, and I can enforce that law, even here.”
“But only if Anna is a member of your community.” Callistus twirled his hand, affecting an air of nonchalance, his voice slickly sweet. “Is she?”
Nice try, but no, Tig wasn’t cornered. Not yet.
“Because our community initiated her placement in witness protection, I can enforce the treaty against whoever tries to locate her.” She’d been rubbing her fingers on the couch’s arm and felt something soft as she spoke. She glimpsed the hairs, and her breath caught in her throat. The answer may just be at her fingertips, if only she could be sneaky about it. “Gabriel’s attempt to locate Anna violated the treaty. And if you abetted him—”
Callistus scoffed. “One day, Anna up and disappeared. We never heard from her again. Gabriel was so distraught, I helped him with every legal avenue to find her. And then we learn you’re actively hiding her from us. You can’t blame Gabriel for turning to illegal methods in his desperation to reunite with her and make sure she’s okay.”
Tig resisted rolling her eyes at such a flimsy defense. But while she could haul Gabriel in for violating the treaty, proving that Callistus abetted him would be trickier. And Callistus was who she wanted to trap, because he was the master to Gabriel’s pawn.
Two people, working together, restrained, tortured, and murdered Petar. One of them was likely mortal. But the other was a vampire with curly white-blond hair, and she was staring at her most plausible suspect.
Arrest Gabriel right now and she might miss her only opportunity to prove Callistus was the murderer. She could always get an arrest warrant for Gabriel later. So, she’d let the break-in slide for now. “Anna is well. I can guarantee that. She’s in the program for her protection. Stop looking for her or I will press charges against you.”
“Against Gabriel, you mean?” Callistus sounded so superior as he asked the question. “He will cease his search for her. He’ll even cooperate with you. Though you can’t justify a DNA test for me or Kaitlyn. Only Gabriel was involved—”
“We have a witness who can identify you as the one who hired the thief.”
“So? Do you have anything else as confirmation besides the word of a lying lawbreaker?”
“Why do you think the witness is a criminal?”
“Who else could it be? Gabriel has fully confessed to his part in the crime. You may take his DNA. But neither Kaitlyn nor I will agree to such an egregious imposition on our civil rights.” Callistus gave her a threatening grin. “Not that you would ever plant evidence, but I’m not staking my freedom on the honesty of a police officer who is desperate to close a case file.”
Tig kept her face frozen even though his accusations pissed her off. She kept working her gloved fingers into the fibers of the fabric covering the couch’s arm. Was that a twitch in Callistus’s smile, or was she imagining it? “Fine. Liza, please take the sample from Gabriel.”
Liza pulled a DNA kit from her pocket, walked over to Gabriel, and popped the seal. “Open your yap.”
With all eyes fixed on Liza as she swabbed the inside of his mouth, Tig pinched the hairs she’d been teasing from the couch’s fabric. White-blond, curly, and, with any luck, enough DNA for Cerissa to get a match. She subtly slipped her fingers inside the still-open evidence bag, dislodging the hair, which then clung to the plastic.
Was it just his refusal to be tested, or was there something more that had her police senses tingling? If Callistus was Petar’s killer, what was his motive? Anna? Or something else? Maybe a large bet on the wrong team? She’d have to check if Petar’s little notebook of gamblers listed Callistus.
As she sealed the evidence bag, she confirmed the hair lay inside. They may not have enough proof to put Callistus in handcuffs today, but with any luck, they were just one V-DNA test away from making an arrest.