32. Next Steps
Chapter 32
Next Steps
San Bernardino Champion Hotel—Earlier the same night
O nce again, Tig experienced the weirdness of waking up at dusk next to Liza. The hotel by the San Bernardino International Airport was less fancy than the Poway one, but it positioned them to take a taxi to the general aviation terminal once dusk hit so Zeke could fly them home. As planned, Jayden left in the van to drive back to Sierra Escondida during the day.
After they’d left Callistus’s house last night, the hour was too late to return to the Hill before sunrise, so Tig dropped off Bob at his car in Eastvale, grabbed hotel rooms for her crew, then phoned Marcus. His legal advice matched what she already knew: they didn’t have enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, so there was no reason to stay any longer.
Since Callistus oversaw an independent community, the treaty required two signed witness statements, plus the agreement of leaders of two other treaty communities, to serve a warrant on him. Otherwise, forcibly entering his home was an act of war, and Liza, as vice mayor, wouldn’t approve any rash action.
They had one witness statement on paper. With Jayden’s help during the drive back to Eastvale, Bob wrote and signed an affidavit swearing that Callistus hired him to steal the list. Bob had identified Santa Claus from a photo six-pack Jayden created on his phone from images stored in V-Trak. He would attach the photos to the affidavit when they returned to the Hill.
And yes, they’d all witnessed Gabriel pay the thief. So Tig could have gotten a warrant to search his belongings, except they’d recovered the fake list and the basis for a search of his stuff was as thin as spring ice.
In either case, what they had wasn’t enough to get a warrant ordering Callistus to submit to a DNA test. Now they’d have to pursue other evidence to confirm Callistus’s involvement— if he was indeed involved in Petar’s murder—which meant Tig’s priority was to get the curly white strands she’d gathered from the living room tested and ask Cerissa if V-DNA could be extracted from fingerprint residue.
An hour after dusk, Tig and Liza flew back to Sierra Escondida with Zeke in the pilot seat. They arrived at the small municipal airport after eleven p.m., and Tig drove directly to the police station, only to find Jayden had beaten her there.
She strode into the squad room and glanced over his shoulder. He was at the laptop, scanning through the daily logs, using one finger to scroll through them, while he held Ernestine in his lap, feeding her leaf lettuce with his free hand.
“Would you mind packaging the curly hairs from Callistus’s couch? I’m going to phone Ari and ask him to flash them to Cerissa.”
Jayden leaned back in his chair at the worktable and shook his head vehemently. “Nuh-uh. She’s on her honeymoon. We can’t keep popping in on her, asking her to run V-DNA tests.”
Tig’s eyes widened. Usually, solving the crime came first with him. When had her mate turned into a romantic? But then, he currently snuggled a rabbit on his lap. That was something she hadn’t anticipated, either. “Cerissa didn’t mind our visit the other night.”
“One interruption, maybe. But more?” Jayden shook his head. “And we’ve already pretended to ship the evidence to her in Hawaii to have her test the original one from the sheets, so we technically don’t know at this moment the crime scene hair is from a vampire, because in theory, she hasn’t received the delivery yet. Even though, thanks to Lux tech, she did, and we do. But no one else can know, not until she receives the fake package I sent.”
Tig checked her watch. “But Cerissa has to be at the hotel by now.”
“The shipping company needs time to deliver the package. Until then, all we can disclose in the warrant is that the white, curly hair is similar to Callistus’s, but not that it’s from a vampire. Maybe tomorrow night we can announce the results.”
“Fuck.” Not that they’d ever mention V-DNA in a warrant application to mortal courts, but they needed Cerissa’s lab test for the treaty warrant, where they could explain it.
Still, she was going cross-eyed keeping track of what she knew versus what Liza, Zeke, and Marcus could be told, along with when . “You’re right.”
He petted the rabbit and gave Tig a disapproving look. “Plus, we can’t keep asking Ari to flash us to her—someone’s going to catch on. I don’t want Cerissa to lie to the council—”
“Any more than she has to.”
“Yeah, that.”
“What if we ship the couch hair to the hotel via registered courier?”
Jayden relaxed and scratched the sexy stubble on his chin. “That might work. I’ll look into delivery services tomorrow, find out which one other police agencies trust and use.”
“Please. I want to know as soon as possible if we should focus on Callistus, or if he’s a complete red herring.”
“Who else is there?”
“The stake might have belonged to Petar rather than the killer, and Janey, or one of the cauldron, hired another accomplice to wield it on him. According to Ari, the cauldron’s phones’ GPS showed them in Eastvale at the estimated time of death, giving them an alibi, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t orchestrate the murder. We know where Janey was, too, but she didn’t have to plunge the stake into him to be part of a conspiracy, either.”
“Yeah, that’s possible. While we wait on the hair analysis, we need access to Callistus’s phone to check his location to rule him in or out.” Jayden cocked his head to the side, his brow furrowing. “What about getting his historical CSLI from the phone company?”
Cell-site location information—CSLI—required a warrant or the phone company wouldn’t cooperate. “Do we have enough probable cause to get the request approved by the mortal courts?”
Jayden’s devilish smile made his eyes shine. “If we keep the ask narrow, under six days’ worth of data, the courts only require a reasonable basis to believe the information is relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation—we don’t need the higher probable cause standard.”
Thank the Ancestors for Jayden. He stayed on top of the most recent criminal procedure law. “Good. When you write the request, describe the hair we found on the bed—blond and curly and how it matches Callistus’s. And include the break- in at Petar’s casino and quote from Bob’s affidavit. We name Bob as a confidential informant. The hair, plus the fact Callistus hired Bob to steal the list from Petar, should be enough to get a historical CSLI warrant if we narrow the dates to immediately before and after the murder.”
“I’ll draft the warrant and see how quickly Marcus can get it processed.” Jayden paused. “Or we can just ask Ari to hack the phone company for the records.”
“No, go with the warrant.”
“Why? You didn’t insist on a warrant for the hotel security video.”
“I couldn’t very well say the murder happened there, when Mordida police weren’t called in.”
“Oh, right.” He slapped a hand over his face, and the rabbit jumped out of his lap. He went scrambling for her and coaxed her out from under the table with a piece of carrot, then returned her to the cage. “That’d be embarrassing.”
Hell, it might even get her arrested. “And I only want to use Ari if we have exigent circumstances. For the CSLI warrant application, we can claim the murder happened in the Hill’s business district. The court won’t know the difference, and the phone company shouldn’t take too long.”
“I’ll get right on it.”
She let out a slow breath. Some progress. Finally.
The outer door buzzed. “Anyone here?”
Liza’s voice . “Squad room,” Tig called out.
Jayden stayed on his feet. Moments later, Liza joined them.
“I didn’t expect to see you again tonight.” Tig grabbed a chair at the worktable. “Have a seat.”
“I stopped by town hall. We’re in for a real crap show. Is Rolf back yet?”
“No, and why?”
Liza plopped onto one of the worktable chairs. “Remember that article exposing Sierra Escondida as being anti-children? And the one about Dr. Clarke being too old?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“Another part came out today, and they claim the mayor is never seen during the day. They came this close”—she pinched her thumb and forefinger together—“to using the V-word.”
Jayden took the chair next to her. “How could they possibly have any evidence to back that up? They’d need a spy on the Hill—”
“The jokers claim someone dumped a top-secret dossier on their desk. The information inside is what they’re using for their so-called investigation.” Liza laid a web article printout on the table. “See? Here. They report he nixes all daytime invitations, and no one sees him leaving the Hill until after sunset.”
“Huh?” That struck Tig as one of the more stupid facts for a newspaper to publish. Especially considering he’d testified in court last year during the day—thanks to some Lux help, but Liza didn’t know about that.
Still, there were lots of reasons a person might only go out at night. Was the newspaper so desperate for stories to dredge up that old chestnut? Perhaps now was a good time to use one of their own ancient techniques—or so Tig thought. “Why don’t you meet with the reporter, mesmerize him or her, and delete whatever research they’ve done from their computer?”
“Jeez Louise. I wish plugging the dike was that easy.” Liza rolled her eyes. “The same dossier was delivered to local governments of all the neighboring cities—Mordida, Carlyle, and Ruthton—and it was printed on paper, so you can’t hack that. Whatever’s in the dossiers, there’s no getting it back.”
Damn. That wasn’t good. No telling how many city staff members had read it by now. The damage was too widespread. But this wasn’t Tig’s problem to solve, either. “Why are you talking to me? This is a job for the town council—”
“Because someone is trying to expose us. It’s rather threatening, wouldn’t you say? I thought the same person or persons who delivered the silver stakes, or who left the note at Petar’s murder, or both, might be the ones who sent the dossiers.”
Tig leaned back in her chair. Liza was a decent police officer, and her reasoning made sense. Petar’s murderer may have delivered the dossiers to make good on his note threatening disclosure. The silver stake remained an open question. Whether it was a weapon of opportunity, or tied to a greater threat against Hill residents, had yet to be determined.
“Plus”—Liza lowered her chin and pressed on her temples—“they’re demanding an interview.”
Tig huffed. “Then give them one.”
Liza’s head whipped up. “During the day? They want—”
“Liza, do it as a vidcon. Tell them the mayor is on vacation and schedule a press conference for a day the moon sets late or rises early and use one of those video apps.”
“Okay.” Liza slumped against the table, resting her face in her palms. “You’re right.”
“Did you get the cheat sheets from the mayor’s secretary?”
“She gave me one for why children don’t live on the Hill. Didn’t have one for Dr. Clarke, but Marcus wrote out a response.”
“There are others for every issue that makes our community unique. Ask for all of them.”
“Oh, fer cryin’ out loud. No one told me there was a set of ’em.” Liza glanced at her phone. “Crapola. I gotta run before she’s off the clock.” She rushed out the door.
Tig shook her head. The mayor’s office should do a better job of inducting council members. Liza wasn’t unresourceful; she’d just never been briefed on what she needed to know to fill in for Rolf. Tig looked over at Jayden. “What’s next?”
“An update—Gavin received a stake. Ari took photos of the inscription after flashing to our crime lab and sent the pictures to his expert.”
“Did Gavin open the box himself?”
“Nah, they delivered the box to Gaea’s house yesterday, since he’s staying there. Gaea intercepted the delivery last night and warned him off. That’s why Ari was so on top of the inscription while we were gone. He spread out plastic on the lab table, dumped the contents, took a close-up photo, and flashed out.”
She collapsed back in her chair. The hits just kept coming. “Nearly everyone involved with Jonathan has received one now, all except for Gaea.”
“I processed Gavin’s stake—no evidence, just like the others.”
“You got all that done in the few hours you beat us here by?”
Jayden grinned. “What can I say? I’m efficient.”
Tig smiled back at him. “You definitely are. So what’s next?”
“I have to process the evidence from the casino break-in. Tedious but necessary. I don’t expect to find anything new, but better to do the work and not need it than to skip it and miss something.”
“Agreed.” Her phone buzzed, and she checked the screen, a smile growing on her face. “Good news for a change. Ari has bypassed the face-recognition software and gained access to Petar’s phone.”
“Yes!” Jayden made a fist, waving it in victory. “Let’s call him.”
She put her phone on speaker. “Ari, it’s Tig and Jayden. Saw your text. What did you find?”
“After all my hard work and determination—”
“Yeah, yeah. All that. We’re alone. Can you bring—”
“Right here.” Ari appeared and plopped the phone on the worktable.
She jumped, startled, still not accustomed to how fast he could do that. “Did you find the key for the code names?”
His expression fell. “There’s one more step.” He carried a shipping box under his arm, and set it on the table. For the moment, she ignored the package, while he opened the phone’s screen and showed her the data. “All I found are the code names and corresponding phone numbers. No real names. There isn’t a decoder on the device. But there is a gambling app—the control end where you can see all the online bets placed. The usernames for people who place app bets are the same as those written in the phone bets notebook. To determine the real names, you’re going to have to call all five thousand and six telephone numbers. Or just the ones for the more active usernames.”
“Maybe, but we don’t know how far back the dispute could go.” Tig rolled her lips together, thinking. “Put a pin in that for now. I want you focused on searching Petar’s computer. We tried but had no luck, so we brought it home. The code translations may be buried in there somewhere.”
“Where is it?”
With a knowing grin, Jayden lugged the large case over and set it on the table.
Ari jumped back, his hands in the air. “Eek. An antique.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you up to it?”
He snorted. “But of course.”
“If we can’t get the usernames decoded any other way, your idea of cold-calling the phone numbers might be our next step, as much as I hate it. I asked our community members to report in if they placed bets with Petar so we could match the names to their last bet amount and the games they bet on. I’ve decoded some names that way. Henry is Whino, and Rolf is Schnauzer. A few other Hill residents responded as well. I’ll text the names to you.”
“So breaking the usernames remains a priority?” Ari asked.
“Yes, but without alerting them by phoning the numbers cold.” She huffed out a breath. Now to chase down the next clue. “Got anything for us on the stakes?”
“Yeah, including the one Gaea received.”
“What?” Tig shouted a little too loudly.
“Yeah, today a box came for Gaea. I had to wait until she woke to ask her if she was expecting a delivery. She wasn’t. To speed things up, I opened it. Another stake, another tooled-leather inscription. I sent a photo of the inscription to Fergus—”
“Who?”
“My guy at the British Museum. Fergus Maximilian.” Ari opened the box lid and retrieved color photos of the inscriptions. “I have the translations, including Gavin’s.”
Tig picked up the stack. Each photo had the name of the recipient and the translation in English written in a permanent marker.
Evelina’s read: To the warrior who mercifully destroyed my deranged son.
Okay, that made sense. She’d killed Jonathan while defending Gavin.
To the protector of women was the inscription on Henry’s. Again, knowing that Henry fought Jonathan to protect Cerissa and his ex-girlfriend, Allison, provided the context Tig needed for the dedication to fit.
The next three were self-explanatory. Mikhail’s read: To the beloved son of my son, thank you for caring for your father . Then Gaea’s: To the beloved daughter of my son, thank you for adopting my grandson . And finally, Gavin’s: To the youngest of my tribe .
Those three pointed to the gift giver being Inanna, who was Jonathan’s maker. When Gaea translated Jonathan’s journal entries, they all learned he’d addressed his confessions to his maker.
But the inscription that bothered her most was on the stake that killed Petar: To my beloved son.
Tig bit her lip, thinking. “Unless the stake left in Petar’s body was sent to him, or stolen from the owner—”
“I checked V-Trak, and no maker is listed for Petar,” Jayden said.
“Dammit, we can’t rule out the theory the stake was Petar’s, which leaves us with another possibility. We need to know the name of Petar’s maker.”
Jayden shrugged. “Unless Inanna sired him, the murderer is likely a male child of Inanna’s turned between 1850 and 1925.”
Ari cocked his head, the question in his eyes. “How do you know the dates?”
Tig grabbed the bagged note from the evidence box, the one left next to Petar’s corpse, and waved it at Ari. “Handwriting style.”
Jayden opened his laptop. “Let me check for Callistus’s maker.” He opened V-Trak and grunted. “None listed.”
“Dammit. Another dead end.”
“Hey, but you didn’t let me finish. He’s still in the crosshairs. The dates work based on the note. Turned in 1861. But no handwriting sample in the system.”
Tig pressed her lips together and reread each inscription. “These aren’t threats. They sound more like…gifts. Honorariums. And given the use of ‘son’ for Jonathan, well, you’re right, these are from his maker.”
“So Inanna may be the maker of Petar or the maker of his killer.” Jayden rubbed his chin. “She can’t be responsible for the hair at the crime scene.”
“Cerissa found a Y chromosome?” Ari asked.
“Yes. A male vampire. And now we can also rule out any of Jonathan’s offspring as being the originator of the silver stakes.”
Ari brushed his fingers across his forehead. “My thought too, unless the stake giver has a very twisty mind, and the inscriptions are to lead us in the wrong direction.”
“Let’s leave wild-ass theories for later,” Tig said.
“Still…” Ari shrugged with his palms up. “Giving a silver stake to a vampire sounds like a really strange way to show love.”
“I don’t know.” When she was mortal, her tribe sometimes gave warriors decorated spears to honor a heroic kill of a rogue lion. “Don’t mortals today gift weapons to their family?”
Jayden took the photos from her. “Some still do. A rite of passage, from parent to child, when the child becomes an adult.”
“Maybe that’s all the stakes are. Inanna, his maker, learned Jonathan had turned revenant, and was thanking those who helped contain her son. Along with honoring the other children who survived. That explanation accounts for all the inscriptions.”
Ari scratched his head. “Wouldn’t that make her well over a thousand years old?”
“Rare to live that long, but not impossible.”
Jayden typed on the laptop. “I’ll add the Inanna Theory to the murder board.”
“Perfect.” Tig pivoted to face Ari. As much as she understood why Jayden wanted to leave the newlyweds alone, she couldn’t resist the opportunity. “Can you take me to Cerissa? We have more hair we need her to test, and I need to know whether she can extract V-DNA from fingerprints.”
“Uh, tonight’s a bad night for that.”
“Why? Did something happen? They mentioned a rogue vampire feeding on passengers—”
“Nah, not that. She and Henry had a minor tiff—well, really an upset rather than a tiff.” He wobbled his hand in the air, the gesture for more or less.
“Did this have something to do with the group text about clone blood?”
“Yeah. I’ll let her fill you in later. Anyway, she called me for relationship advice.”
“You?” Tig’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “She called you for advice?”
Ari looked hurt. “Hey, why does everyone assume I know nothing about relationships?”
“Because it’s obvious you don’t do them—until you met Gaea. And from what Cerissa’s told me, I’m not sure what you and Gaea have is a relationship. You aren’t exclusive—”
“Why does everyone feel the need to comment on my situation with Gaea?”
Tig gave a hearty laugh. “Because you’re a hot mess? Can’t forget your affair with Marcus.”
“You had to bring that up. I can be polyamorous and have a serious relationship—”
“So, your relationship with Gaea is serious?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth. But if you’re going to razz me about being poly or about my open relationship with Gaea, I’m going to leave. We’re happy. Everyone should leave us alone.”
She patted Ari’s back. “Fine, fine, I’ll stop.”
Jayden looked up from the laptop where he’d been typing and ignoring the exchange. “I’ll call Cerissa tomorrow during the day to tell her to expect another shipment, then find a courier, and send the couch hairs to her.”
“Perfect, thanks.” Tig turned to face Ari again. “I may pull Janey and the cauldron in and question them again.”
“Give me time to search Petar’s boat anchor first.” He motioned to the ancient computer. “Confronting Petar’s cauldron with the fait accompli might make things easier. You’ll get more info out of them if they think you know everything. I’ll see what I can do.”
That was all she could ask. No one here was a magician, except for the victim. “Great idea.”
“But of course.” Ari gave a bow. “You know, there’s another way to approach this. If the boat anchor is a bust, I could run a white pages search for the names associated with the numbers on Petar’s phone. But if his clients used burner phones, it won’t tell us anything.”
“Agreed.” Tig scrubbed a hand over her face. “But don’t take too long. We don’t know if the killer is after anyone else. We need to keep moving forward before he or she takes another victim.”