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

there?” Sunshine read quickly through the names on the receipts. “I see quite a few names that I recognize. Amos Johnson is a shifter—some kind of cat.”
    Jane yelped and started trembling.
    “Don’t worry,” Sunshine told her. “I’m sure he’s not looking for you.”
    “Thanks.” Jane squeaked.
    “What of the others?” Aine asked.
    “Marcus Fletcher is another werewolf.” Sunshine pointed out. “Tom Knox is a shifter. So is Irene Godfrey. It’s like Tattoo Hell is making itself the go-to place for creatures in the area. But why kill John, and who killed Harley?”
    Aine glanced at her. “What is the likelihood that this tattoo man was an innocent as he watched Caeford unfurl his wings? Perhaps he was there to challenge the dragon.”
    “Surely no human would be stupid enough to challenge a dragon,” Sunshine said thoughtfully.
    “I would have said the same about a human challenging a wolf,” Aine added. “In my day, when men hunted a wolf, they went in a large pack, many times with witches who aided them in securing the wolf’s death.”
    “Maybe Harley Matthews wanted to get Caeford as a client,” Jane suggested in a timid voice.
    “No matter what, it sounds like we need to pay a visit to Tattoo Hell .” Sunshine looked at Aine. “How do you feel about getting a tattoo?”
    Jane snatched the food bags from the desk and hurried with them into the kitchen area. Sunshine went to change clothes for something more appropriate and left Aine sitting at the computer.
    It was a curious device that the beane sidhe carefully inspected. It didn’t respond to any of her spoken magic. There was a long, black rope coming from it, possibly made of leather. It appeared to be the tail of the beast. She pulled the end of it from a hole in the wall. The colorful, lighted box went dark.
    “What did you do?” Jane skittered from the kitchen. “It took me a long time to get that information together. Lucky for you I made copies of everything. You shouldn’t touch things when you don’t understand them.”
    Normally Aine’s response to the young woman wouldn’t have been pleasant. She wasn’t one to ignore a challenge. Part of her reluctance to do anything but nod to the creature was her background. The other part was expecting something in return.
    “Show me. I am very interested in this magic.”
    Jane sat down with a careful laugh. “It’s not magic. It’s science. This is a computer. You pulled the plug from the wall where it gets the power. When it stays plugged in, electricity passes from the wall into the machine. This is how you start it.”
    Aine watched her movements carefully. As long as O’Neill lived in this place, she would be bound here with him, in one form or another. It was good to learn the things of this time.
    “Thank you, Jane. Now show me information on O’Neill as you showed Sunshine about Harley Matthews.”
    “Okay. I can do that. He’ll be easier since he works for the police department.” Jane had to wait for the computer to finish rebooting and then typed Sean Patrick O’Neill into the search bar.
    Instantly there were hundreds of men with the same name. Jane weeded through them, adding search criteria until she found the man they were looking for. In another moment, everything about O’Neill was on the screen—from his job as a police detective to his home address, the gym where he worked out, the bank he frequented, even the finance company that held the loan on his car.
    “See?” Jane smiled brightly at Aine. “And this is only the beginning. If I wanted to, I could tell you what he had for breakfast this morning.”
    “What about a lover?”
    “You don’t think it’s the other detective, Malto, do you?”
    “No. There is no sign of affection between them. There must be another—perhaps the raven-haired woman at the…”
    “Pizzeria,” Jane finished for her. “It might take a few minutes, but I can probably find something if there’s a serious