Hell's Detective

Chapter Sixteen- Things Go Right

"Just so we're clear," Ingleseid said as Holly climbed into the car, "I think that was a terrible plan."

"We got the blood, didn't we?" she snapped.

"That doesn't make the plan any less terrible."

"Hey, you think I enjoyed sucking up to that lowlife?" she muttered. "He targets innocent people who have no chance of fighting back. He's coward. And he smells funny." She thought for a moment. "We should have killed him."

"Ammelius would have found out. And then it would be no more detective work for Ingleseid and just a cold, lonely cell in the pits of Hell."

"Won't he just tell Ammelius, anyway?"

Ingleseid shook his head. "He'll be too proud to. Telling Ammelius he was overpowered by two humans wouldn't exactly give him the demonic warrior image he's looking for."

They reached the agency, and Holly stopped the car.

Tatters was inside, looking for Beelzebub. Beelzebub was still much too fearful to approach Tatters, which Tatters found extremely distressing. Ingleseid had tried to explain that he did it with everybody, but Tatters seemed to take it as a personal insult to his character and was determined to befriend Beelzebub, whether Beelzebub wanted it or not.

"Hey, Tatters," Holly said, dropping onto the couch. "So, we've got the tooth and the blood," she said to Ingleseid. "Now all we need is the pendant, which we have literally no idea how to find."

He thought for a moment. "Do you remember your vision?"

"Like I'm ever going to forget."

"Can you think of it now?"

She nodded but didn't look happy about it. He knew she was uncomfortable even thinking about the killer, and after the night at the hospital, he didn't blame her.

She closed her eyes in concentration.

"Try to focus on the pendant," Ingleseid said.

After a moment, she murmured, "It's in the centre of the circle."

"What are they doing?"

"They're casting the spell...someone's knocking at the door...one of them is saying something...oh my gosh."

Ingleseid leaned in. "What is it?"

She opened her eyes. "Just before the killer comes in, one of them starts talking to the others. He leans over, and for a second I can't see the spell. Then when the door collapses, the pendant is gone. I can't believe I missed it before."

"So you're saying he took it?" Ingleseid said slowly.

"Any one of them could have."

"But the killer searched them, it doesn't make sense. Could they have teleported it somewhere?"

She shook her head. "They would need a whole new spell. The only ingredients they had were for the locating one."

"We're missing something..." Ingleseid muttered.

Everything he'd seen, everyone he'd talked to, the answer was there somewhere...

And then he had it.

"I know where it is," he said, standing up.

Holly's eyes widened. "Care to elaborate?"

But he was already heading out the door. "I'll be back," he called out over his shoulder. She yelled something at him, all he caught was a particularly nasty word, but he didn't have time to apologize.