"Dead?" Jude narrowed his eyes and sauntered towards the High Priest to be closer to him and the people behind him.
"To be more precise, her house burned to the ground. There was an explosion." The High Priest responded.
"So, you are saying that you let her go home after the fact that— "
"With all due respect Mr. Caro, she was not a prisoner. She was aware of what happens to witches who just run away from their covens."
"Mr. Caro... why don’t we take this inside?" the woman who stood behind the High Priest said. "Please follow us."
Jude nodded. He and Ava went inside the two story house and followed the high priest towards his study.
"I think we should go to the crime scene," Ava whispered. Wasn’t it obvious? The woman was killed! She refused to believe it was an accident.
"What crime scene?" he asked.
But before Ava could answer him, they already reached the study.
"Please take your seats," the High Priest uttered. "Grace... please get them some tea."
"Coffee...black for both of us." Jude uttered. "Thanks."
"Very well. Grace?"
"Yes High Priest."
The woman named Grace left the room.
"Miss Merkerson was found just a few minutes ago. As I mentioned, we had to let her go back to her home. However, there was a huge explosion and fire a few hours back. We just found her body." The High Priest had a grim look on his face.
"And the body?" Unable to stop herself, Ava asked. "Where is it?"
"We are—" The High Priest glanced at Ava. "We sent her to the morgue."
"Without checking if she was murdered before the fire started?"
"What are you getting into?" the High Priest frowned.
"Apologies. My assistant always shows interest in issues like these."
"Then maybe she should stop working as an assistant and work as a Trillium agent instead," the High Priest uttered. He then turned his attention towards Jude. "I already coordinated with the local agents who investigated the case. They are now checking the body on the morgue."
"I understand." Jude nodded. "Well then since we no longer have any business here..." fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm
"Since you are already here would you like to— "
"We would like to see the body instead." Ava uttered.
Jude eyed her. "She’s right. I am very interested to see the body."
"But this is no longer— "
"Mr. Bach... Miss Merkerson was supposed to experienced one of the capital punishments that Trillium gives to our kind. Then minutes before she was supposed to have her ceremony, a fire accidentally killed her. Do you think... that sounds logical?" Jude asked.
"Are you saying that we have something to do with her death? We were the ones who wanted you to witness the ceremony. If we didn’t want her to be punished, we could have easily excommunicated her! We have been working with Trillium to keep our community safe!"
Jude shook his head. "You are right. You have been working with us for years. But we can’t really tell if other covens share your sentiments."
The High Priest pressed his lips together.
"Alright. Let me take you there."
The three of them got into the car and soon arrived at the house that had been consumed by fire.
"You can check if magick was involved. I will be waiting in the car. I would take you to the morgue after you are done here."
Jude and Ava got out of the car and walked towards the blackened skeleton of what looked like a two bedroom house.
"Did you really have to see the body?" Jude hissed. "Did you forget why you started working with me?"
"I didn’t." Ava ignored the man’s eyes. "Everything just feels too... suspicious."
"Suspicious? You are basing this on your hunch?"
"I am talking about the same hunch that saved my life more than a dozen times," Ava walked around the house, taking in the scene and looking for something, anything suspicious. Behind her Jude grumpily followed.
"This isn’t our case. This is the case of the local coven. If someone killed her then it was the High Priest’s responsibility to catch the killer. For all we know, they did it on their own."
"And that is already none of our business." Ava said.
"Precisely."
"Well I don’t think they killed her."
"And why is that?"
"I just don’t."
"Is this one of your feeling?"
Ava looked at him. Of course, she wasn’t going to tell him that she could feel the man’s anger about the death. "Mr. Bach wanted to prove his loyalty to Trillium. He wanted to use this opportunity to show that he was willing to punish someone from his coven just to show that he believes in Trillium. Why would he kill a woman that would help him achieve his goal?"
"How did you know that?"
"I just do."
"You can’t just know things because of feelings."
"Oh..." Ava snorted. "But I do." That’s what empath’s do.
"This was done by a professional." Ava concluded. "No trace of magick."
"Or the witch could have just use some match and candles to create a fire." Jude said.
"Whatever suits you." Ava shrugged.
"You are not telling me that this is just because of your gut. How could you conclude things just because of your fucking gut?"
Again Ava shrugged.
Jude sighed. "Why did you say a human did this? For all we know..."
"We should see the body," Ava interrupted him. "Let’s go. I’ll show you that she was killed even before the fire started."
"How sure are you?"
"Again... just following my gut."
"That doesn’t make any sense."
Ava just shrugged as they went back into the car. After a few minutes, they finally arrived at the local morgue. The High Priest already informed them that they had people working inside the morgue. It’s just easier that way.
"We don’t know how she died yet. We just found her body a couple of minutes before you arrive." One of a Trillium Agent said. "She was burnt to crisp so— "
"Were you able to identify If this was really her body?" Ava asked.
"We found traces of magick in her system but her body... it would take some time to get a DNA tested."
"So you will rule it as an accident?" Jude asked.
"We have no other choice. This is the local coven’s problem."
"Did you find anything else on the body?"
"None. Just as I said. Her body was unrecognizable."
Ava smiled. "So... you are telling me that a fire that wasn’t able to burn a whole house... was able to burn a body to crisp?"
Seeing everyone’s attention towards her she added. "To cremate a body, you need to expose it in a fire with at least two thousand Fahrenheit for hours. You do the math."
"So you are saying that— "
"I’m saying that whatever burned her was hotter than the fire that burned her house." Ava said.
"Then..."
"Still... this is already a local case. This is not our problem anymore," the agent said.
"I agree. The High Priest is here..." Jude looked at Mr. Bach who was speechlessly staring at them. "Right, Mr. Bach?"
"I— "
"This isn’t a local case," Ava interrupted them. Almost immediately she received a glare from Jude. She wanted to laugh it off. But she couldn’t really do that in front of this people, right?
"What are you talking about?" Jude asked. "She had been watching a lot of crime shows lately."
"Human shows?" one of the agent mockingly laugh.
"This isn’t the first case of a woman that’s been burnt to a crisp without proper explanation or any source of a fire." Ava said, silencing everyone. "Judging from the High Priest’s reaction, I will assume that he already knows about this matter. Right, High Priest?"
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