Linda Welch - A conspiracy of Demons Read Online Free Page A

wanted kept to herself . She didn’t dare warn me. ”
    “How did she die?”
    “ I wish I knew . T he cops are shutting me out.” I sniffled. “If they won’t let me in on this, I’m doing it on my own. Will you help me?”
    “ You do no t have to ask.”
    “Yeah, I do, because I don’t know what we’re getting ourselves into. I want to g et to her house in Seaside quick as we can, hopefully before the cops get there.”
    Provo had nothing more than her name. Names are rarely unique and locating someone by name alone is a painstaking process. Dozens of Lynn Summers and others with a variation of the name Lynn live in California. I discovered that when I checked up on her after we met. It’s a private investigator thing, and I wanted to know more about a woman who saw the dead, and Gelpha as they actually are, as I do .
    And, yeah, there are other Tiff Banks and Royal Mortensens in the States.
    I told Provo PD the truth. I did meet Lynn at the workshop and we did talk on the phone. However, I omitted to say I helped her with an investigation in California five years ago. I stayed with her for a few days. If the d etectives found out, I woul d deal with it then.
    I once made quite a thing about d emons lying by omission, but I had done my share in the past few years, sinc e I became involved with demons in fact. Sometimes it i s easier to keep my mouth shut, that way I a m not lying, I’m just not saying something.
    Royal stroked my hair. “They may have already alerted local law enforcement. What is the first thing the examiner does with a homicide?”
    Deflated, my voice sank . “Get fingerprints.”
    “And run it through the national databases. Lynn worked for the police, her fingerprints are on file , as are yours and mine.”
    I closed my eyes and thumped my forehead on his shoulder. “He ll. Why didn’t I think of that? How much time do you think we have?”
    “Depends on when Provo contact s local law enforcement , t heir manpower and availability. ”
    “In other words, you have no idea.” I looked past him , through the window at the busy street, seeing Lynn’s face in my mind’s eye. “Maybe we can beat them to it.”
    “ We can try. When you said quick as we can, y ou mean quick-quick?”
    “Yeah, that quick.” I wrinkled my nose . I do not agree to the torment of a demon dash unless there is a damn good reason, yet now I asked for it.
    “It will be hard on you.”
    “Always is, but I have these .” I shook a small tube of anti— nausea pills. I always carried them , just in case. “ How soon can we be there ?”
    “Forty-five minutes, if we hurry.”
    “ You okay with this ?”
    He nodded. We left the office and descended the steps to the street, then headed for Montague Square.

Chapter Three
    With more than half the stores vacant, Montague Square verged on seedy. Shoppers had little reason to venture here i f not for the Valley Market, Coffee You and Me , and Graham’s Hardware .
    Most stores are on the north side of the square with a few creeping east and west, but as you enter Montague Square, the east and west boundaries begin with the sidewalls of shotgun - style building s. Many old buildings downtown are shotgun-style and on a quiet day they exude an Old-West atmosphere. Royal’s apartment was originally shotgun and Bailey and Cognac which occupies the first floor is still. They are between forty and fifty feet long, fifteen and twenty wide , with one room leading to the next, and the idea is if you stand at the front door with a shotgun and all the connecting doors are open you c an shoot all the way through the building and out of the backdoor.
    The Gate and Way which lead to Bel-Athaer are inside the empty shotgun-style building on the east side . It has been empty for as long as I have lived here.
    The entr ance is a plain, worn wood door which lets into a small, square, concrete-lined room. Inside, a regular door leads to the building’s abandoned innards, but