A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9) Page 4

  “I know. Typically this gel is put over a skeleton or something to emulate an actual human body. Occasionally people even hook them up to a fake circulatory system to see how a shot might wound someone. Whoever mixed this knew what they were doing.”

  My mind went back to the molds that Drake made for his soul dolls. He was dead. He couldn’t do this. But what if he’d taught someone else how?

  “Abby?” Liz’s voice broke my thoughts.

  I shook my head. “Sorry, my mind went back to an old case, but that suspect was killed. So he can’t be connected.” But miss creepy-ass child-vampire could be. “Let’s get the body out of the gel and see what we can learn about his death.”

  I glanced at Liz. “Do you think you can find the cadets he’d been having lunch with? Talk to them?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, sure thing. I think that might be safest.” She moved away from the body and headed toward where there was still a small crowd.

  I looked down at the body, just trying to make sense of the amount of work this would take. It wasn’t something that could be done in a couple hours. “Why did you say that whoever did this knew what they were doing?”

  “The gel is well made, and the mold is damn near perfect. I can see a seam where two pieces were put together, but just barely.” Jason ran his hand over a thin line in the gel. “This wasn’t a spur of the moment idea. This much gel takes a lot of time to prep.”

  I pressed my lips together, trying to form a theory in my head. A shadow crossed the body, and I looked up to see Professor Bittman standing there, her arms crossed, and small tears in the corner of her eyes.

  “Trent was such a good cadet, he had potential.”

  I waited for her to expand on her thought, but she didn’t continue. “He was supposed to test today, wasn’t he?”

  “How did you know that?”

  “I overheard him in the lunchroom.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, so it was easy to say. “Do you know if he had any enemies?”

  She crossed her arms. “He was a sweet kid. He did seem a little bit off during class today. He showed up looking like he hadn’t slept, torn jeans, stained shirt. Not like him at all.”

  So like he looked at lunch. “Thank you.”

  “You sound like you’re dismissing me.”

  “I am.”

  “He was my student.”

  I put my hands on my hips. “And he’s my victim. Please exit the crime scene.”

  She didn’t look very amused by me. “I can work the case.”

  “No, you can’t.” I tried to keep my voice calm. “Liz and I have it handled.”

  She looked like she was about to argue, but a team of forensic people came up to help Jason move the body. I didn’t imagine that a body’s worth of ballistics gel was light. Bittman met my gaze and was about to say something when her brother came running down.

  “Do not say anything to them, they’ll frame you for this.”

  Ah yes, because that was my first priority, framing a fellow agent for murder. “I need to ask you both to leave the scene, please.”

  Bittman and her brother both spun around and marched off the field. Jason laughed. “A campus full of PIB agents and students, this is going to get interesting.”

  That was the truth. “Thanks, Jason, call me when you get the body free. I’d like to take a look as well.”

  “Of course, Agent A. You’re always on my list of first people to call.”

  “Oh, and Jason, this should go without saying, but unless it’s Liz or me calling, don’t give information out to anyone. I don’t care who they are. If someone gives you problems, send them my way.”

  He nodded and then turned to the forensic team.

  I sighed and waited until they loaded the body. I walked around the spot where the body had laid. There wasn’t anything other than a couple crushed weeds. No blood, no trace of magic. Nothing.

  “What did you find, Agent Collins?”

  I looked up to find Ridgway coming toward me. I wanted to know what people didn’t understand about stay the hell off the crime scene. “Not much.”

  “Not willing to share information?”

  “No, I’m not, this is mine and Liz’s case.”

  “I’m the one who called you in.” He stepped toward me.

  I nodded. “I’m well aware of that, but Liz and I are Special Agents, we can handle this. When I can eliminate you as a suspect, then maybe I can share information with you, but not right now.” Not that I had any information to share. “Now, if you’d excuse me, I’m going to take a walk around and see what else I might find that’s out of place.”

  Liz came down the hill before I could walk away, and with her were three cadets, the three that were with Trent at the table. I was glad to see that they were all safe, but then I found myself wondering which one of his friends killed him. Typically it was someone close to him, and he had told them all the big secret.

  They looked like frightened little lambs, green on the field, and they probably hadn’t expected their first murder to be their friend or on campus.

  “What are these three doing here?” Ridgway snapped and looked at Liz. “All students were told to go back to the dorms.”

  Liz glanced at me, and I nodded, letting her take the lead. “They are helping me. Interning really. They’re all about to graduate, so why not get some real experience?”

  That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say, so I kept my face blank.

  Ridgway looked between the two of us. “They aren’t ready.”

  “I met these three earlier. They are ready. Their knowledge is there, and they are willing to do the work. Actually, I’m tempted to recruit them to the Task Force, but we have to see how they handle this first.”

  “It’s not Black Magic related.”

  “We don’t know that yet,” I pointed out. “That’s really for us to figure out. Welcome aboard cadets. Let’s get to work.”

  Something passed over Ridgway’s face, but in the end, he turned around and went back up the hill. I looked at Liz. “Interns, huh?”

  She nodded. “Abby, meet Scott Album, Gal Bradshaw, and Joy Langton.” As she said each of their names, they nodded their heads. Scott was as tall as me, with his dirty blond hair styled back away from his face. It touched his ears, and per the Academy code, he’d need a haircut soon. Gal slouched a bit as she stood. She wasn’t tall, but not short either, average height. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and her eyes were on the spot where the body had been. I didn’t remember seeing them in the crowd, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t seen it. Joy’s skin was the type of brown found in heritage. Her eyes held the Oriental shape to them, set back in her face. Her black hair was pulled back into the same tight bun as Gal’s, but she didn’t hold mourning in her gaze, she held anger.

  “Well cadets, you’re going to get a crash course in casework. Theory is nice here, but it’s not always right.” I crossed my arms. “We do things by the book until the books stop giving us answers and direction.”

  Joy’s lips lifted in a small smile. “You sound like the professors here.”

  “Trust me, I wouldn’t make a good professor.” I sighed. “Forensic took the body, we’ll be waiting on a call from them to figure out the cause of death.” I glanced at Liz.

  Liz nodded. “Until then, you three are going to work under us so we can keep an eye out on you. We’re worried that whoever killed Trent might come after you because he told you something at lunch. Something that he was going to tell us.”

  They exchanged looks. “You don’t have to tell us right now, we’ll go out and get dinner, somewhere safe and secluded, so there’s no risk of being overheard.”

  Gal nodded. “Do you think the secret got him killed?”

  “I don’t know. At this point, we can’t speculate. We saw him alive a few hours ago, and we were supposed to meet him in,” I glanced at my watch, “about an hour, but he showed up here.”

  Scott looked over his should
er, where Ridgway and Bittman were talking on the hill. “They’ll get suspicious. They knew we were all friends, and in the real world, we wouldn’t be able to work the case.”

  I knew that all too well. “We’ll keep it on the downlow, until they try to interfere. Until then, we work the case.”

  They all nodded, and Liz looked up the hill. “Let’s call Detective Mason in, he can help us with this case since currently there are no paranormal elements other than it happening at PIB.”

  I knew what she was thinking. If Detective Mason was in on the case, we had a better chance of controlling it. “Okay, why don’t you guys head back to the dorms with Liz and start a brainstorming session. I’ll call Mason and wait for him here. That will also allow me to walk around the area and see if there’s anything else that sticks out.”

  “Gal, Joy, you stick with Abby. Scott will come with me for now.”

  The girls stepped up to my side as Liz marched off with Scott.

  “She’s taking him alone to talk to him, isn’t she? Divide and conquer?” Gal asked. “We’re suspects no matter the situation because we were the closest to him.”

  I nodded. “She probably is. Good observation. And yes, you are, but you three are also the only people who know what his secret was.”

  Joy nodded. “Which we can’t say on campus, because it seems like the walls here have ears.”

  “Yep.” I grabbed my phone and dialed Mason.

  We hadn’t found anything suspicious at the scene in the couple hours the girls and I searched while waiting for Mason, no unusual drag marks, just the typical ones from the shed to the range from dragging the targets out. We’d all decided to wait for Mason to show up to check out the shed, so he could vouch for what we might find in there.

  “Tell me, do they take all the targets out at once?” I sat on a rock near the shed.

  Gal nodded. “They do. They drag them out and lean them against the shed, and then they pull them to the range as needed. We only use the ballistic ones for tests.”

  “And Trent wasn’t with them?”

  She shook her head. “No, I assume that someone would have spotted him earlier if that was the case.”

  I assumed the same thing, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

  “That means someone had to drag him there without being seen,” she said and looked at me. “I mean a cadet dragging a target, or a professor, wouldn’t be out of place. No one would question it.”

  I nodded. “No one is supposed to be on this side of the range when it’s in use though.”

  “Which means someone moving the body would have been seen.”

  I crossed my arms. “Unless someone used a spell to pop in and out.”

  “Those are rare.”

  I snorted. “Not as rare as you might think, but still if we’re looking at a cadet suspect, it’s probably not a spell they are using. The professors? Well, I’ve learned that people hide all kinds of things, and a spell like that could be one of them.” Though typically anyone who used a transportation spell was part of the Cult of Ra. I’d been transported by a similar spell once, and it hadn’t been a pleasant outcome.

  Footsteps came up from behind us, and Gal and I both turned around. Joy came back around from the other side of the shed.

  Mason came down the hill, crossed the range, and joined us. “Sorry it took me so long. I had a hell of a time getting in the gate. Apparently, they issued a lockdown.”

  I hadn’t been informed of that, and I looked at Gal and Joy who shook their heads. So they hadn’t gotten that notification either. “Interesting. Sorry for the trouble.”

  “It’s not often you call me, Abby. The least I could do is come down and help you take a look. I talked to Jason on my way here. He’s working on getting the body out of the ballistic gel.” He handed me a pair of bolt cutters I’d asked him to bring.

  “We wanted to pull you in just in case it wasn’t paranormal related.” I hesitated for a moment before adding, “Among a couple other reasons.”

  He glanced at the cadets next to me.

  “This is Gal and Joy, they are basically interning on the case.”

  Mason raised a brow.

  “I’ll fill you in later, but for now, we saved looking in the shed for you to get here. It’s locked, and we wanted to make sure we had a witness for when we opened it. You know, so no one could accuse us of planting or taking anything. That and I don’t carry bolt cutters around.”

  Mason shook his head and motioned to the lock. “Go ahead.”

  I used the cutters to break the padlock. We pulled the heavy door opened and peered inside.

  What we found was…anti-climactic.

  Some tools to take care of the area, a setup to hold the different targets, and gun safes. That was it.

  I pressed my lips together. “I guess it’s safe to say that he wasn’t covered in gel here.”

  “It’s cleaner than normal.” Gal stepped further in.

  Joy nodded. “I agree, it looks like it was cleaned recently. Maybe for the test?”

  “No, they typically clean it after exams since there’s so much movement of the targets in and out. It’s a new shed, they’ve been trying to take care of it.””

  Interesting. I looked at Mason, and he nodded.

  “I’ll get forensics back out here and have them tear the place apart to find anything that’s hidden or covered up.”

  I smiled at the girls. “Glad to have you on the team.”

  I glanced at my watch. “Head back to the dorms and get washed up. Agent Jefferson and I will meet you in the courtyard in an hour and a half, and we’ll head to dinner. Assuming they let us back out.”

  The two nodded.

  “Oh, and ladies, stick together, please.”

  Gal smiled. “Thanks for having our backs.”

  I watched them head back to the dorms and looked at Mason. “This is a weird case, but I need you at my back to make sure that I’m not kicked off it or kicked off the Academy.”

  “What on earth did you do that would get you kicked off?” Mason stared at me.

  “I don’t think the director likes me much still, but that’s beside the point. I would just be more comfortable with someone having my back. Liz is here as well, but she could also get kicked off campus.”

  “And the girls?”

  “Two of the three people closest to our victim. He told them a secret, and they won’t tell us what it is on campus.”

  “Do you think they killed him?”

  “I’m not really sure, honestly. Whatever it is, they’re worried about others finding out. It might be related to the reason Liz and I originally came out here.”

  Mason nodded. “Alright, I’ll add the case to my workload and let you and Liz take point. Once Jason comes back with the cause of death on that body, we’ll know for sure if it’s your case or my case.”

  “Sounds good. I’m going to run to catch up with the girls, I don’t really want them alone for too long.”

  “I’m going to take another look around. I’ll let you know what I see.”

  I nodded and ran up the hill and headed in the direction of the dorms.

  The girls were standing in Joy’s protective circle when I caught up to them. I paused as I approached. I didn’t feel any magic but hers. Gal looked a bit pale, but I didn’t know if it was from magic or fright. Joy saw me and pulled down her circle, allowing me to see the roughly drawn physical circle.

  “What happened?” I approached slowly, trying to keep an eye out for any threat that might be lurking.

  “There was a rush of power. It almost knocked Gal into her wolf form.”

  That explained why she looked so pale. “Quick thinking to throw up a circle. Were there any more attacks?”

  Gal shook her head. “No, just the one. I’ll be fine, but it was a close call.”

  Shifting on the Academy grounds was against the rules and could get her kicked out. “Okay, I’ll escort you two back to the dorms. I’m assuming the d
orms still have wards on them to keep magic out?”

  Joy nodded. “Yeah, they’re probably the safest place on campus right now.”

  That was kind of a scary thought. “Don’t leave until either Agent Jefferson or I come get you. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” they both said at the same time.

  It was a little weird having two people not much younger than me call me ma’am, but I let it go. I was technically their superior in this situation, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It meant that I was responsible for their actions and lives if it came down to it.

  I walked them back to their dorm and watched as they used their keycards to get in and disappeared when the door shut. I felt a little better about them being in a building that was blocked from magic.

  I turned to go back to the dorm that Liz and I were staying in. I still needed a shower before we went to dinner, and I wanted to see what she had learned about Scott. I walked into the room, and Liz sat there with a cup of coffee.

  She looked up at me. “Yours is on your dresser. Hop in the shower, and then we’ll talk.”

  “I prefer my coffee warm, let’s chat while I drink it.” I went into the bedroom and snagged the cup. “Where did you pick coffee up at?”

  “Turns out there’s a cute little coffee cafe in the science building. We stopped by there so Scott could show me where he’d last seen Trent.”

  “Find anything interesting?”

  “The barista at the coffee place had already heard about the death. She said that she’d fixed him a double shot latte before he was supposed to head to testing.”

  “So we at least have a bit of a timeline. I still don’t understand how someone could seal him inside a ballistic dummy so quickly.”

  “Magic,” Liz looked at me. “It’s the only explanation. Get him in, seal it up, there we go.”

  “All they’d have to do is melt the gel enough to seal it.” I sipped my coffee. “Scott say anything else?”

  “Yeah, he’s terrified. He’s worried someone is going to kill him or the girls. There was a weird magic surge, and he about jumped out of his skin.”