Secrets of the Demon

Chapter 6

Lida Moran lived in a house on the lakefront, almost directly across the lake from my aunt’s house. While my aunt’s neighborhood was comprised of older museum-quality houses that had been carefully restored and were meticulously maintained, the other side of the lake was for the people who simply wanted a big horking expensive house on the lake.

And big it was, though it wasn’t quite up to the level of some of the houses in Ruby Estates—the community for people with Too Much Money. Still, it was more house than I would ever live in. Two stories and sprawling, it took up at least three lots—and I knew that the price of land on the lakefront was nothing short of obscene. A mix of brick and stucco, it looked strangely like a scaled down ivy-league dormitory with a large central portion and two wings extending to either side along the lakefront.

I stood back and assessed the house. It had to be at least four hundred feet from one end of the house to the other.

“Weird-looking house,” Ryan muttered as we walked up the driveway.

“Great minds think alike,” I said with a low laugh. “They must really like living on the water.”

He gave a derisive snort. “Sure hope so. The house takes up most of the damn lakefront.”

Then we were at the door and had to carefully compose ourselves into a properly professional mien.

Lida met us at the door, barefoot and dressed in jeans and black T-shirt. She had little if any makeup on and about half her usual number of piercings, and my first thought was that she was absolutely stunning like this and why did she wear the crazy makeup and piercings when she was in public? Of course my second thought was that I was thinking like an old fuddy duddy and the makeup and piercings most likely had absolutely nothing to do with how “pretty” she wanted to appear and everything to do with her personal statement of style. Not to mention that the goth look was part of her persona as a performer.

“Ms. Moran, I hope you don’t mind us stopping by, but we were in the neighborhood and figured we’d see how you were doing and if there’ve been any further incidents.” I said it all with a smile, knowing full well that even though she was only nineteen she was sharp enough to know that we hadn’t dropped by simply because we were in the neighborhood. But she seemed perfectly content to go along with the fiction.

“That’s cool,” she said and stepped back. “Nothing else has happened, but we haven’t left the house either. C’mon in. We’re being kinda lazy today, so please excuse the mess.”

I had no idea what mess she was referring to. We followed her through a foyer and into an enormous living area, and the only things I could see that might be considered out of place were possibly the guitar on the couch or the shoes underneath the coffee table. Everything else was clean and orderly and about as far from the home of a singer of her “genre” as I could possibly imagine. Not a skull or black candle to be seen anywhere. Instead, the room had the unmistakable air of an interior decorator with too much budget. The furniture looked incredibly expensive and uncomfortable, and the few shelves on the wall held odd little decorative pieces that looked vastly overpriced instead of elegant. The art on the walls struck me as the sort of stuff that people murmured appreciative things over at galleries, but would never actually buy for their own home—colorful and intentionally abstract paintings that tried to be ever-so-slightly suggestive, but instead merely looked faintly sleazy.

I carefully hid my smile. I had an art history degree—an education that I’d always considered to be mostly useless, especially considering my line of work. But I know crap art when I see it. I also noted that I’d been right about the layout of the house. There were two hallways that led off to either side of the living room, and, oddly, two stair-cases that led to hallways on the second story. I couldn’t figure out where the kitchen or bathrooms might be, unless they were hidden in one of the wings. Whoever the architect was, I wanted him drug tested.

I could hear piano music from the upstairs hallway on the right. I’d automatically dismissed it as coming from a CD player until I heard the player pause and then redo a section. That must be Michael playing, I realized. I hadn’t heard any sort of flub or error, but I was no musician. However, even I could tell that he was phenomenally talented. I had no idea what the piece was that he was playing, but it was something classical, and it sounded complicated beyond belief.

Lida flopped onto the couch beside the guitar and I sat on the other couch with much less flopping involved. It was definitely as uncomfortable as it looked. Ryan remained standing, doing his best to look casual and relaxed. He looked about as casual as a Buckingham Palace guard.

“Is that Michael?” I asked, jerking my head in the direction of the music.

A proud smile spread across Lida’s face. “Yeah, isn’t he amazing?”

“Incredibly so,” I agreed.

“You’d never know it from listening to our gigs, would you?” Lida said, sitting up into a less slouched position. “I mean, our stuff isn’t very challenging. But Michael makes it all seem so effortless. It was pretty cool when the deal came through from the label and they wanted the rest of the band, which meant that Michael could keep playing with me.”

“That’s not guaranteed from the start?” Ryan asked.

“No way,” she said, shaking her head for emphasis. “Man, there’s so much about this business that no one ever really knows. People think that you get signed with a label and you’re set for life, that you’re guaranteed to be rich, a star.” A grimace flickered across her face. “Trust me, it’s nowhere near that easy.”

“Few things ever are,” Ryan put in with a wry smile.

“So how does it work?” I asked, curious. I counted myself in the camp of people who thought signing with a label equaled instant stardom.

“Well, usually bands are discovered by a manager or by a label person via clubs. Like if a manager spots a group or a singer, he’d approach and be all, ‘I think you guys have a great sound. You being managed by anybody ? I could easily get you a label meeting.’ At that point, they’d make a demo and it would get sent to the label and the label would most likely want to meet them at one of their gigs or even call them in to play acoustically at their office. It all depends on the circumstance.”

“Is that how it worked for you?”

She gave me a slightly rueful shrug. “Well, we had a bit of a leg up. Adam’s a friend of my uncle, and when he realized I was serious about doing this—and after we were getting decent gigs on a regular basis—my uncle called up Adam and asked him to give us a listen. And Adam had some connections with Levee 9 Records and before we knew it we had a contract.” She smiled, but there was a tightness around her mouth.

”But they’re a pretty decent label, right?” Ryan asked.

“Well, Levee 9 is pretty good, though it isn’t Sony or anything of that level. It’s an indie, which has its pros and cons. They treat us pretty good and we have more control over the music. But, like I said, we’re sure as hell not set for life or anything.” Disappointment shadowed her face for a heartbeat, then she straightened. “With a bigger label an artist is signed for a certain number of albums and on their first outing the label foots the bill to pretty much turn the artist into what they need to be. Styling, dance lessons, photos, all that. This money kind of becomes a tab of sorts and the artist usually doesn’t make any money until the tab has been paid back. The artist sometimes fails miserably and is let go, but if they’re successful, the label gets their return on the money they spent on the artist.”

“And you don’t get any money until that tab is paid off?” I asked, incredulous.

She smiled wryly. “Well, there’s usually some advance money, but we didn’t quite get that sort of deal. I guess one of the advantages of being with a smaller label is that they didn’t shell out a bunch of money on styling and choreography and stuff, so we don’t have to pay that off.” I could hear an edge of bitterness in her voice.

“And how does your manager get paid?” Ryan asked. “A percentage of what you make?”

Lida nodded. “It’s pretty much a big gamble all the way around.”

The sound of the front door interrupted any further questions, and we turned to see a man wearing a business suit enter. Lida brightened and bounced to her feet. “Uncle Ben! These are the cops who chased down the guy last night and got me out of the river.”

I stood, fighting back a juvenile smirk. Uncle Ben?

Ben Moran dropped his coat on a chair by the door and strode forward with a warm smile. “I’m so delighted to meet you both. I’m Ben Moran, Lida’s uncle, and I can’t thank you enough for watching out for her last night.” He looked to be in his early fifties, though his hair had completely gone to gray. His face was smooth and barely wrinkled, but a heartbeat later I realized that he’d obviously had a fair amount of plastic surgery to achieve that look.

Though why would anyone go through surgery to look younger and then not color his gray hair? I wondered silently. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” I said aloud, shaking his hand. “I’m Detective Kara Gillian with Beaulac Police Department, and this is Special Agent Ryan Kristoff with the FBI.”

Ben Moran turned to grip Ryan’s hand. “The pleasure is mine. Can I get either of you anything?”

Ryan shook his head. “We’re just following up with your niece to see if there’s anything else we can determine that might help us locate her attacker.”

A frown somehow managed to crease Moran’s forehead. “I thought the guy who grabbed her fell in the river. I figured he was gone and good riddance.” He looked briefly abashed and shook his head. “I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but I don’t like it when people mess with my family.”

“That’s quite understandable, sir,” I said. “We, uh, have reason to believe that whoever it was managed to climb out of the river.” Might as well continue with the fiction that we’d come up with when it had happened. Even if the golem had been destroyed by its dunk in the river, whoever had created it was certainly still out there and possibly capable of making another. “Right now we’re trying to determine what motivations the attacker might have had.”

Lida let out a sigh. “Does it really matter?”

“We don’t want it to happen again,” Ryan replied.

Ben Moran shook his head. “No, we don’t. But I’m more inclined to think it was a prank than a stalker. I mean, Lida’s not exactly Beyonce.” He shot his niece an apologetic look. “I don’t mean that as an insult, Lida.”

She shrugged. “No, I get it. I don’t have the kind of fan base that would bring out the stalker type.” She tugged at a lock of hair that hung across her face. “I mean, shit. Our tours are small venues, bars and stuff, maybe ten or twelve gigs total.The gig last night was the last one on this stretch. We don’t play again for another two months. We thought we were going to get to open for Evanescence, but Adam wasn’t able to nail it down.” More disappointment darkened her eyes, but she covered it quickly. “But that’s cool. It gives us time to work on new stuff for the next album.” She tapped the guitar beside her.

I sat back down. “What about other members of the band?” I asked. “Has there been any friction?”

“No way,” she said firmly and without hesitation. “I mean, you certainly can’t worry about Michael. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. And Trey’s an absolute sweetie.” An almost-shy smile filled her face. “He’s my boyfriend. And I know that normally would mean he’d be at the top of the list of suspects, but I swear, he’s the last person I’d ever need to worry about. He’s beyond harmless. I’ve never seen anyone so laid back. He doesn’t get upset about anything.”

I carefully masked my dubious expression. I’d heard that before.

“Trey’s a good kid,” Ben Moran said firmly. “Though I guess I shouldn’t call him a ‘kid,’ ” he added wryly. “He recently graduated from LSU with a degree in finance.”

I glanced down at my notebook. “What about Roger?” I asked Lida. “He’s the drummer, right?”

“Uh-huh, and he also does all of our equipment setup when we have a gig.” Then she shrugged. “But Roger would never get that bent out of shape over anything to do with the band.”

I cocked my head. “Why do you say that?”

Ben made an irritated sound. “Because he has his fingers in so many pies that he can’t focus on any of them.”

Lida grimaced, but then she gave a reluctant nod. “Yeah. I hate to slam Roger, but that about covers him. He’s a good drummer, and he likes being with the band, but we all know that eventually we’ll need to find a new drummer. It’s a hobby for him. And everyone’s cool with that.”

I wondered how cool “everyone” really was. “How’s Michael handling all of this?”

“He’s all right,” she said with a smile, though there was a edge of worry to it. “He’ll lose himself in his music for a while, which always calms him down.”

Ben cleared his throat softly. “Michael has a difficult time processing emotional situations. He’s come a long way since the accident, but there are times when he’s very fragile.”

“I’m sorry. What accident?” I asked, knowing that it was probably an insensitive question.

Lida took a steadying breath. “When Michael was twelve, he and I were out in the garage, helping our dad with one of his woodworking projects. It was a windy day . . . and the roof collapsed.” Grief filled her eyes and she looked away. “Dad was killed instantly. I had a broken leg and Michael was pretty badly hurt with a head injury.” She let out a shuddering breath. “He survived, but he suffered some brain damage as a result.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said quietly.

She tugged at her hair and looked back at us. “It’s all right. It was eight years ago—long enough that it’s not so hard to talk about.” She forced a small smile, but I’d seen the grief in her eyes.

She would have been eleven when she lost her father. The same age I’d been when mine was killed.

“But we’re lucky,” Lida continued. “Uncle Ben has taken really good care of us and made sure that Michael got the best care possible.”

“I take care of my family,” he said, giving her a warm smile. Then he looked up and past us. I glanced back to see Michael standing in the entrance to the upstairs hallway, gaze flicking rapidly over us and then to his sister as if begging for an explanation.

She rose and gestured to him. “C’mere, Michael,” she said with an encouraging smile. “The cops who saved me yesterday came by to say hi.”

His face cleared and he smiled broadly. “Hi!” he said with a wave. “I was playing piano.”

“I heard.” I gave him a smile as I stood. “It sounded beautiful.”

He beamed in response. “Lida’s writing new songs. I have to practice.” He waved again and then pivoted and disappeared down the hallway. A few seconds later the sound of piano resumed.

Ben let out an amused snort. “Michael has the attention span of a gnat,” he explained.

“Except when it comes to music,” Lida corrected.

Ben inclined his head to her in acknowledgment. “Except when it comes to music,” he agreed. “Then there’s no budging him unless he’s good and ready to be budged.”

I wanted to say something like, Well, at least he has that, but couldn’t think of a way to make it not sound stupid and patronizing.

“Well, we should probably leave you to enjoy your day,” I said instead, ducking the moment completely. “If you think of something that might help, or if anything happens again—anything at all—please let us know.” I pulled out a business card and handed it over to Lida.

Lida took it and tucked it into the front pocket of her jeans. “You bet. I really appreciate you coming by.”

“The same goes for me,” Ben Moran said with another warm smile as he accompanied us to the door. “And if the PD needs anything from me, be sure to have your chief give me a call.”

The way he’d phrased that sounded odd, but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was. I contented myself with a polite nod, then exited the house with Ryan. A dark green Lexus SUV was parked in the driveway beside Ryan’s car now—Ben’s, I assumed.

“Thoughts?” Ryan asked as soon as we were back in his car.

I opened my notebook and pulled a pen out of my bag. “She doesn’t seem terribly upset about the whole thing. Not like someone who had an attempt made on her life.”

“I noticed that too,” he said, brows drawing together. “She was certainly shocked and scared when it happened.”

“Maybe she simply wasn’t expecting it?”

“So if it was a publicity stunt,” he said, “then it’s one that she had no prior knowledge of.”

“And maybe she knows about it now, which would explain why she doesn’t seem worried about a crazy stalker.” I pondered that for a few seconds. “Or maybe she did know about it at the time, but she didn’t expect it to go that far with the whole getting thrown in the river thing.”

“That’s possible too,” he agreed. “Also, it’s a little thing, but the last song was one that she didn’t play guitar for.”

“Ooohh, good point. A bit harder to snatch someone up if they’re plugged in to an amp.”

“And she might not want to risk getting the guitar banged up either.” He drove quietly for a few minutes. I could see thoughts working behind his eyes, and I gave him the time to work through whatever he was trying to figure out.

“Yep,” he finally said. “I’m fairly inclined to believe the publicity stunt angle. And if it was revealed now to be a stunt, that would be the wrong kind of publicity. Even if she wasn’t involved, she’d want to keep it quiet since she’d be hurt by the revelation that it was a scheme.”

“I like that theory,” I said. “Only one problem.”

He glanced at me. “The possibility that I’m wrong?”

I grinned. “Right. I mean, not that you’re ever wrong.”

“Never!”

“But, in that completely improbable circumstance when you were, then there’d still be a crazed stalker going after Lida.”

He let out a heavy sigh. “So little faith you have in my baseless hunches.”

“It’s a character flaw of mine,” I said with a shrug. “But, seriously, for all we know, Lida might currently be loaded to the gills with Xanax, which would help with the whole image of not being worried.”

He snorted. “Better living through chemistry. All right then, Zack and I’ll run down the threat posted on her website and see if our computer forensics people can get anything else to pop.”

“And I’ll drop by the station and do background checks on the band members and her manager.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he said. He turned onto the highway that led to my aunt’s house. “So what’s going on with your aunt’s portal to hell?”

I shuddered. “The only hell in my aunt’s house is the condition of her library.”

“That’s what I was referring to,” he said dryly.

I exhaled. “It’s all warded up and protected again, though I made sure that I was included in the wards this time.”

“But has she ever explained what it is?”

Frustration welled. “No. Every time I try to pin her down about it she changes the subject, or gives me some vague answer that makes no sense.”

He gave me a puzzled look. “Like how?”

Frowning, I fought to remember some of the stranger answers she’d given me. It didn’t help that she’d given me several different varieties. “Let’s see . . . One time she told me it was a flower in a daisy chain. Another time she said it was a bar across a door. The best one was where she said that it’s ‘the butterfly on top of the rock.’ ”

“That makes no sense at all.”

I smiled without humor. “Welcome to my world.”

He pulled to a stop in front of my aunt’s house. “Call me in the morning?”

“Will do,” I replied. I started to get out of the car but he stopped me with a hand on my arm.

“Be careful tonight,” he said, voice suddenly low and grave.

I opened my mouth to ask him what he was talking about, then shut it, chagrined. Oh, yeah, I’m summoning Rhyzkahl tonight.

“I will,” I replied. I didn’t know what else there was I could say.

He gave a tight nod and withdrew his hand. I shut the door and stepped to the curb, and resisted the urge to watch him drive off.