Prague Murder by Amanda A. Allen Page B

was shaking her head, but her expression declared that Ingrid was not wrong.
    Ingrid carried on explaining, “She’s part witch so she could have poisoned him. She’s his wife and he was a predatorial shifter while she isn’t. They’re the worst match ever, and I haven’t even talked to her.”
    The wife was shaking her head no again and again.
    “Yeah,” Emily said. “ Yeah .”
    Ingrid was mad though, and she was having a well and good rant. “You guys are not cops. You’re Presidium. I suspect you have no right to keep all of us here or to keep focusing on me and Emily because we had the misfortune to have people killed around us.”
    Alois opened his mouth but then his tie caught on fire. He slapped at his chest and Ingrid and Emily stared at each other.
    “Did you do that?”
    Emily shrugged.
    “I might have, but I’m not sure.” Ingrid whispered as if the others couldn’t hear their byplay.
    “I would like to have been the one who set him on fire,” Emily said, “So I’m claiming it. He’s a jerk. They're all jerks. I’m telling Dean.”
    “Does that even mean anything if you tell him? I mean…he can’t even use his phone right now.”
    “ Hey ,” Carol said, head cocking as she stared towards the dead guy’s wife. “I did see her over by the wall when we were outside. He was just in front of Ingrid, and she had…she had been moving away. And hey…I did see a flash by the corner of my eye just after the vampire started talking. I just didn’t realize it meant anything. But it could have been a person moving like a hummingbird.”
    That was when the wife flashed her form into that of a hummingbird and tried to flee. Igor the Vampire took a leap and grabbed her in one hand.
    “I think that fleeing accusations is pretty damning,” Emily said. “Now let us go or I’ll punch you all in the throat.”
    The wife turned back into a human and she was crying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry all over again.”
    “Prey,” Emily said, giving the woman a look of disgust. “They just crumple so fast. I think a rabbit shifter would have lasted longer.”
    “ Agreed,” Ingrid said before declaring, “I’m leaving. If you have a problem with it, I suggest you call my lawyer.”
    She stood up and looked at Igor the Vampire. “You need to tell Agnes what you told us. You need to let her move on. Staying here and interacting with her while dating another is bullcrap.”
    But the ghost appeared from the wall just behind them. How long had she been there, Ingrid wondered. The answer came quickly.
    “You’re in love?” Her voice was a hoarse wail but with all the volume of a whisper.
    He nodded, but tears rolled down his face. It was not simple. He did love her.
    “I…” Agnes started to say more but stopped. The look of agony on her face was terrible.
    “I love you,” Igor said in a voice not so different from Agnes’s. All hoarse and pained and wrenching. “But…”
    She just nodded and when she shot up into the sky, he whispered her name. As she dove back down this time, a crack appeared in the universe, a thin line of cool light as if a moonbeam had appeared from nowhere and Agnes dove into it.
    “Oh gods,” Igor said as she disappeared. He fell to his knees and there was no question that he loved her as much today as he ever had. He wept openly as the crack of light snapped closed after his long-time love.
    “This all makes me sad,” Ingrid said, wiping a tear away.
    “Yes,” Emily, Cathy, and Carol said.
    “I want a happily ever after for Agnes,” Emily said. “With a knight in shining armor. And…eternal chocolate rivers. And tacos for everyone.”
    “That does sound lovely,” Cathy said as she wrapped an arm around Ingrid and said, “You did good.”
    “Please,” Ingrid replied. “My boyfriend would have solved this in ten minutes and we’d have had fruit dumplings and tacos ages ago.”
    “Next time,” Cathy said.
    “Maybe,” Ingrid replied. “But now that we’re