Be My Banshee (Purple Door Detective Agency Book 1) by Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene Page B

“Excuse us a minute.”
    Aine followed her into her office.
    “Did you do this?” Sunshine asked in a hoarse voice.
    “No. I had no reason to kill those men. They were not a threat to O’Neill.”
    “Okay. Just checking.” The witch leaned close to her. “What was that with the quick change when he touched you? Is that supposed to happen because you haunt him?”
    “Your questions annoy me.” Aine walked by her and out into the main office.
    “Sorry about that.” Sunshine appeared right behind her. “That seems like a huge coincidence, I know. Believe me, they were healthy when we left them.”
    “But you don’t have any idea what happened?” he asked her.
    “Not right now,” she said. “Aine? Any ideas?”
    “No.”
    “Jane?” Sunshine asked.
    “I get it. You don’t know.” O’Neill stopped her. “I’ll keep my partner off your backs, but if you hear anything, let me know. I’ll see you later, Aine.”
    When he was gone, Sunshine’s hair poofed up like a lion’s mane around her face. “Did you hear that? Michel and Ike are both dead now too. We have to figure this out before anyone else is killed.”
    “You did not tell him about the names we have or that we know blood from each of those men who got tattoos was taken by a chick,” Aine mentioned.
    Jane giggled. “Really? They were attacked by chicks?”
    Sunshine sighed heavily. “All right—one of you learn the lingo. Otherwise I can’t promise you’ll be safe. A chick is slang for a woman. So we’re looking for a woman who may be the killer or may be someone working with the killer. Are we clear on that?”
    Aine and Jane nodded.
    “Do you have those names?” Jane asked.
    “Yes.” Sunshine got them from her handbag. “I knew all of them. They used to hang around with John sometimes. They’re all shifters. Why would someone want to kill a group of shifters?”
    “What about Harley Matthews and the other two at Tattoo Hell ?” Jane asked.
    “I think we should start a magic board on all this,” Sunshine said. “To the Bat Cave, ladies.”
    Neither woman had any idea what she was talking about. Sunshine told them to come into her office and gave up trying to explain.
    Once in her office, Sunshine’s magic pulled up a clear, flat space. She used her finger to write on it.
    “We have Harley Matthews and his friends at Tattoo Hell , who were approached to give our suspect blood samples from a group of shifters and werewolves which included John.”
    Sunshine wrote their names on the board, and their faces appeared beside them. She only faltered a moment when she stared at John’s image.
    “Now. We have no name and no image for the chick.” Sunshine created the image of a cute baby chicken with a question mark over it. “We know that Harley was killed because he asked for more money from the chick. We don’t know why the other two were killed.”
    “The chick might be aware that they spoke with us last night,” Aine said. “We have to assume that she has magic and may have spelled them to know if they spoke out of turn.”
    Jane wiped a tear from her eye. “You may have killed the other two without knowing it.”
    “We had no choice.” Sunshine touched the spot where Michel had put the pentagram on her arm. Despite her healing spell, there was still some redness around the image. “If we’re going to get to the bottom of this, we must all assume some risk.”
    The front door opened again. Jane dried her tears and went to see who was there.
    “Good job with O’Neill,” Sunshine commended Aine. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about him and Malto again.”
    “Though I assume you understand that I did not give him the information for that purpose.”
    “Of course not.” Sunshine stared at the magic board. “What does the chick want with the shifters? Why kill them?”
    “Assuming that she is the killer,” Aine said. “I believe she has made it clear that she wants their deaths.”
    “Yes. But why?