Enthralled: Tainted Book Four

16. Last Ace

Kerry

"How was I supposed to know that putting dishwashing liquid in the dishwasher would cause Bubble-geddon!" Jax threw his arms up. "I mean, dishwashing liquid. Dishwasher. Don't they go together?"

"Obviously not, you dumb boy!" Gigi whacked the back of his head. "Look at this mess!"

"I'm cleaning it up! I'm cleaning it up!"

"Always some kinda drama with you, Ajax," I snorted, rolling my eyes. "Who left him unsupervised?"

"Well, it's an easy mistake to make," Mr. Snyder said with a shrug. "I did it myself when I first got a dishwasher."

"Back when televisions were still in black and white?" Rome teased, patting the old man's shoulder.

"And in enormous cabinets," Mr. Snyder chuckled.

"While Jax is working, what did you find at that address, Rome?" I asked. "We got busy with Bancroft and other stuff, and I forgot to ask."

"Just a normal house in the suburbs. Not even an expensive one. No one was home, and it didn't seem like anyone has been for a while from the mail piled up on the porch and the overgrown yard. I could see wards laid all over the place, but they were inactive, so we went around to the back and found an open window that Mira was able to shinny through. Well, with some pushing."

He smirked a little as he cut his blue eyes over to her, and she beetled her brows at him while crossing her arms over her chest.

"I'd like to see you fit through a bathroom window," she tossed back. "I bet you can't get those wide shoulders through a normal window!"

"Anything unusual inside?" I cut in to stop their banter before it got started.

"Not really," she said, shaking her head. "Like Rome said, no one's lived there for a while. The food in the fridge had all turned to mold or slime, so a couple of months at least, I'd guess. Oh, and the mail on the porch was all addressed to the same person."

"I know." I nodded.

"Who?" Gina and Mr. Snyder demanded, but I flicked my eyes to Hank's, not surprised to see realization dawning in them.

"Samuel Castle."

"Samuel Castle!" Jax shouted as Gina, Gigi, and Mr. Snyder stared at me.

"You sketched that picture of him in the fall," Hank said slowly, as if I needed the reminder. "I gave it to Clem to help him find him."

"Well, he obviously did," Gigi said before I could. "Why didn't he tell us?"

"Ten to one, he got there and either found the place already abandoned or his arrival spooked Castle away." Mr. Snyder rubbed his saggy jowls with one hand. "You all know that Castle's woman, Susma Tamang, used summoning circles like portals. There's no way he'd let that knowledge die with her. He's too smart and wily and greedy. If he was there when Clem arrived, he 'ported out the second his wards tripped."

"Agreed," Hank and Gina said at the same time.

"That doesn't explain why Clem didn't tell us." Gigi's face screwed up in a frown.

"Seems a bit sus to me, too," Mira added. "I mean, I never met Clem, but I know he knows you're hunting Castle. Why not tell you that he found his house?"

"What purpose would it have served?" Mr. Snyder asked. "Clem may have found where Castle lived, but the place is abandoned."

"We could have searched it for clues or evidence of where he went," Gigi argued.