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“What about the psycho pixies?” Zack asked after a moment. “Those came through on their own?”
“Apparently so. They’re called hriss, and I get the feeling they’re like psychic arcane mosquitoes. Make you tired. Just one won’t kill you, but a bunch of them could suck you pretty dry of potency.”
Ryan’s expression darkened. “Wait. Do they eat potency? Or life force?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it, mentally replaying Zhergalet’s difficult-to-follow explanation. “You know, I think the demon was referring to essence.”
“Maybe a herd of them is loose and sucking people dry?”
I pondered it, then shook my head. “No, that wouldn’t explain the … rending. Plus, the faas seemed to think they were more a
“We were talking the other day about how the killer has changed,” Ryan said. “First he was killing them and then sucking their essence up, and now he can kill them by ripping the essence out. Something changed.”
My stomach spasmed painfully, and it wasn’t because of too many pancakes. “You think that the killer got into my aunt’s house, found the portal, and somehow got his soul-eating ability beefed up?”
He shrugged. “I’m just offering up a maybe.”
I shoved my fingers through my hair. “Shit. I’ll ask Zhergalet tonight.” I opened my bag and pulled out the scrawled page with names and lines and circles. “In the meantime, I keep looking at how these murders are co
Zack peered at the page. “Looks like you have a lot of possibles and not a lot of probables.”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “Tell me about it.” I was begi
“Hi, Kara,” a perky voice chirped. “This is A
It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what lab she was talking about. “Oh, oh, right, the DNA lab! Sorry. What’s up?”
“I just wanted to give you a heads-up about your request. I’ll be writing my official report, but I figured you’d want to know that there was no match.”
It took me a few more seconds to process that. “Wait, which case are we talking about?”
I could hear her shuffling paper. “Um, Carol Roth, homicide. And we had a reference sample for Brian Roth.”
I felt like my thoughts were moving at half speed. “No match. So she did not have sex with Brian before she was killed?”
“Well, I can’t tell you if there was penetration or not. Dr. Lanza would have to be the one to determine that. There wasn’t any seminal fluid, so if she did, her partner was likely wearing a condom. But we tested some pubic hair that had been collected and the saliva that was swabbed. The pubic hair had a root, so we were able to do a comparison. It matched the saliva but didn’t match your reference.”
At least I’d been right about that much. Brian was murdered to protect whoever Carol was having sex with. Didn’t help me much, though, except to confirm what I suspected.
I almost missed what A
“Wait, back up,” I said. “What?”
“I said that it was close. It wasn’t a match, but it was pretty darn close.”
“What does that mean?” My pulse quickened. I remembered just enough about DNA from college biology that I had a feeling I knew what it meant, but I wanted her to say it.
“Well, it’s highly possible it was someone related to your boy.”
I could almost feel my mouth hanging open. I wanted co
“Good news?” Ryan prompted.
“In a roundabout way. The DNA on Carol Roth didn’t match Brian’s.”
He frowned. “And how is this good?”
“It was a partial match. There’s a good chance it was someone related to him.”
“Looks like Daddy Roth has been a bad boy,” Zack murmured with a smile.
“He killed Carol,” I said. “It may have been an accident, but he killed her.”
Ryan held up a hand. “But do you think he was capable of killing his son? I know it’s tough to know what goes on behind closed doors, but it sure seems like the two of them were close.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “He wasn’t so close that he had a problem screwing his son’s wife.” Excitement coiled within me as possibilities fell in line. “Plus, the surveillance video from Brian Roth’s subdivision shows Davis Sharp’s car entering at about eleven-thirty that night and leaving about twenty minutes later. There was someone with him too. What if it was Harris Roth? What if Harris panicked after he realized Carol was dead and called his buddy—who also happened to be his biggest political supporter?”
Ryan looked disbelieving. “I’m still having a hard time buying that Harris would be willing to murder his own son—or have him murdered—to cover this up. Screwing your daughter-in-law is one thing, but Roth looked pretty devastated at the funeral. I’m not sure he could have faked that.”
I took a deep breath and forced myself to consider another possibility. “But what if Elena wasn’t having an affair with Harris Roth? What if it was Brian instead? Then perhaps Davis killed Brian for screwing his wife?”
Zack raised an eyebrow. “A crime of passion … where he kept his cool enough to go ahead and stage it as a suicide to cover up Carol’s murder?”
I grimaced. “Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t fit. And Elena was attracted to ‘powerful men.’ Brian didn’t really fit that bill.” I dropped my eyes to the paper. “Harris Roth is the co
“With the partial DNA match, I’d say you’re right.”
I nodded. I wanted badly to nail Harris Roth for everything—tie all of the murders up into one nice and neat case—but we didn’t have enough proof yet. “I’ll start typing,” I said. First, nail him on Carol’s death. Then make him squeal on the rest.
Chapter 32
The subpoena for the phone records and the warrant to request a buccal swab from Harris Roth didn’t take long to type up, but it took me nearly as long to figure out what I was going to say to my sergeant. I dialed his number as I paced Tessa’s sitting room, grimacing when Crawford answered on the second ring. This would have been a lot easier to do on his voice mail. But it wouldn’t have been the best, my conscience reminded me.
“Sarge, it’s Kara Gillian.”
“What’s up?”
I quickly explained the DNA results and my theory. Crawford gave a low whistle when I finished. “Damn, Kara. You sure don’t think small, do you?”
I grimaced. “I know. But you gotta admit it makes sense.”
“I can see where you’re going with it, yes.” He paused. “Kara, I hate to point this out, but the Carol Roth murder isn’t your case anymore.”
I could feel myself stiffening. “Sarge, I know, but the detail with the surveillance video and the—”
Crawford cut me off with a sharp laugh. “Don’t sweat that shit. Fuck Pellini and Boudreaux. Lazy, useless fucks. I’ll take care of any heat that comes down about you horning in on the case. Especially since it started out as yours. Easy enough to deal with.”