Page 89 of Made of Steele
She reached the truck. White lettering on the door declared Northwest Geo Instruments. Rossi’s business truck.
Was Rossi inside? If so, how did he get out of his house without Londyn or Peyton seeing him?
Teagan pinned her attention to the house, but moved back to her car. It was hidden by thick brush. She felt free there to text her cousins without the light from her phone giving her away.
Rossi still there?she texted.
Londyn replied immediately. Yes. Just saw him step out for a smoke.
What about Gambino? He or Jabal leave?
No one’s left the property since we arrived.
Odd. So who was in Smiley’s house?
Only one way to find out.
She silenced her phone and stepped onto the property to evaluate. Any hint of danger, and she would call for backup from County.
Drew had exhausted every possible location in an effort to find Vito and had given up for the night. He’d tried to return Teagan’s call, but she wasn’t answering her phone. She’d said she was going to her office to work, so he parked in the Steele Guardians’ parking lot and approached the door. The inside light clicked off, and their receptionist stepped out with key in hand.
“Remember me?” he asked.
She startled but quickly recovered. “You came to see Teagan. Dylan, right?”
He nodded and didn’t correct her on the name.
“I’m Gretchen by the way.” She held out her hand, her nails painted all black except her index finger was a baby blue. “Teagan’s not here. She went out about an hour ago.”
Out? At this time of night? “Did she say where she was going?”
Gretchen shook her head. “I know she was looking at pictures from an autopsy. I saw one. It was really odd.”
“Oh, yeah.” He played it down, but his interest was piqued for sure. Which autopsy picture had Teagan been viewing? The most unusual would be of Romo’s wounds on his torso. “The guy have long scratches on his body?”
“Yeah, so youhaveseen it.” She inserted the key into the lock. “I shouldn’t have been looking over her shoulder, but I still told her what I thought.”
“Which was?” He continued to play it cool when his heart rate was starting to kick up.
She kept her fingers resting on the key. “I think the scratches look like they could be from Wolverine.”
“As in the movie character?”
She nodded. “I’m big into a cosplay group and one of the guys got metal claws online.”
Costume play. “That’s interesting. Thanks for sharing.”
“Sure, is there anything else I can help with?” She twisted the key and the lock snicked into place.
On a hunch he took out his phone and displayed the photo from the circle and sword. “Any idea what this might be?”
“Wow, you and Teagan think alike. She had that open too.” Gretchen waved a hand. “That was an easy one.”
“Care to enlighten me?”
“It’s the logo for Blood and Sorcery.”
“Blood and Sorcery? Is that some kind of cosplay?”
