Read Online A Ghoul's Guide to Love and Murder by Victoria Laurie - Free Book Online

back.”
    Something flickered in the detective’s eyes. I didn’t like it. “What relic?” she asked.
    â€œA dagger,” I said. No point lying. She knew what damned relic. “It belonged to a Turkish warlord.”
    â€œHow did you come to own this relic?” she asked.
    Crap. We were getting into dicey territory here. “It was put into our care by a police inspector in San Francisco,” I said. “And I’d prefer to keep his name out of it.”
    Olivera’s granite-hard expression showed a tiny crack. “You’re kidding, right?”
    â€œWhy do you need to know?” I demanded. She was making me feel defensive, and I knew it wasn’t the tone to set with her, but I couldn’t help it.
    Olivera considered me with a steely gaze. “Miss Holliday—”
    â€œWhitefeather,” I corrected, just to be a pain. “And that’s Mrs., Detective.”
    She gave a tiny nod of acknowledgment for the error. It felt a little condescending. “Mrs. Whitefeather, the dagger has been stolen from the museum. And I’d like to know what you might think or know about
that
.”
    I felt the blood drain from my face, unable to take even a breath for a long, long moment. The dagger had been stolen? It was the worst possible news. “Detective,” I said quietly after I’d taken that in. “You’ve
got
to get that dagger back. Seriously, you’ve got to.”
    She cocked her head, and her eyes never stopped assessing me. “Again, Mrs. Whitefeather, that’s what I’m doing here. I’m looking for the dagger.”
    Heath’s hand on my back moved to my shoulder and he stepped forward to stand next to me while my brain raced with all the awful implications of a relic such as Oruç’s dagger free of its magnetic bonds, able to inflict all kinds of terror upon the city of Boston. “Detective,” he said, and a sideways glance at him told me he was every bit as alarmed as I was by the news. “What’s really going on? You wouldn’t be here at ten o’clock at night for just a stolen relic from a museum with little to no market value. So why don’t you come out and tell us what else happened?”
    Olivera lifted her chin slightly. It was clear she was surprised Heath was cutting to the chase. Maybe she’d underestimated him. “How would you two feel aboutcoming down to the precinct to talk about what else happened?” she said.
    I reached for Heath’s waist to steady myself. Oh, God. Someone had died. It had to be that. Oruç’s dagger had struck again. “We’d be happy to,” Heath told her. “As soon as I can arrange for an attorney to meet us down there, of course.”
    â€œWhy would you need an attorney?” she asked him.
    â€œWhy would we need to go down to the precinct to discuss what else happened?” he replied.
    â€œOhmigod!” Gilley gasped behind us. I jumped a little, as I’d all but forgotten he was there. “Someone was assaulted at the museum in a robbery gone bad!”
    I turned to see him scrolling his finger along his iPad. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Turning back to Olivera, I said, “Will they be okay?”
    â€œWho?” she said, looking like she wanted to punch Gilley. He’d clearly stolen her control of the conversation. And then she turned those steely eyes back to me.
    â€œWhoever was assaulted,” I said impatiently. “Will they be okay?”
    â€œNo,” she said evenly.
    I sucked in another breath and Heath wrapped his arm around me, which was good because I thought my knees might give out. “Oh, God,” I whispered. “Who was it? A patron? Or someone who worked there?”
    But Olivera was done giving up information. Handing us her card, she said, “Mr. and Mrs. Whitefeather, I’d appreciate it if you’d come down willingly to theprecinct for a