Prague Murder by Amanda A. Allen Read Free Book Online Page A

incomprehensible. His big nose seemed to grow larger as he examined her as if she were a bug.
    “Oh yeah,” Emily said cheerily, “I even started to get sick and then have blackouts and then my auntie had to teach me how to do magic or I’d die. Now I do it, but it’s worse because I keep setting things on fire. Ingrid has had that problem forever, so I think she infected me.”
    “With lack of control,” Igor scoffed.
    “Oh, I always had that,” Emily said. “I mean. I wouldn’t drink so much coffee and eat so many tacos if I didn’t. But, I wouldn’t think so much about fire if it weren’t for her. It’s just that she’s set me on fire a few times now. So, I have this underlying fear that she will again. It comes out in me setting things on fire too.”
    Igor’s accent had thickened from minuscule to nearly impossible to understand when he said, “You are a fool. And without shame.”
    “Rude,” Emily said, but nodded. “I don’t mind the without shame part. I don't have secrets you can’t have. My husband died. He was killed by his brother. I was a suspect. If anyone deserved to be murdered, it was him. But, I didn’t kill him. Why do that when I can just live happy and ignore him? That would have been the better revenge. You should widen your gaze. Just because I don’t care about that Laszlo dude doesn't mean someone out there didn’t care enough to kill him.”
    “Why do you think that someone killed him,” Igor asked. He leaned back in his chair and seemed to have let go of the idea that Emily had killed this shapeshifter.
    “Well,” Emily said, “I’m not a cop and don’t really think about murder very often. Unless I have to. I prefer not to though.”
    Alois cleared his throat and said, “Try to imagine.”
    “According to Gabe, that’s my friend Ingrid’s one true love and he’s a sheriff, people kill for money, love, or revenge. And most of the time it’s the family.”
    “Igor Zukal saw Katie very near the front of the group when Joe fell.”
    “Is that the vampire?”
    The two Presidium types nodded.
    “He is, as Ingrid would say, pretty.” Emily thought for a second and then said, “Look, I’m not saying his wife did it. She seems pretty dang broken up. If I were to guess, though, I’d peg someone who might have actually known him. And maybe hated him. As for me and Ingrid, neither of us qualify.”
    Igor-the-cop sighed and looked down at his sheet. “This is not an impossible crime. One of you killed him. There is no other possibility.”
    “What about the ghost,” Emily asked. “She’s all bloody now and scary.”
    “Little Agnes has not been violent in the centuries she has haunted St. Agnes Convent.”
    “I guess she’s always walked around in the elements of her death, crying blood tears, and wailing?”
    “That is new,” Igor said carefully, “But there is no reason to believe that she is the killer yet. Certainly another murder of a magic user could affect her.”
    “Look, you’re talking about magic users here. I mean..surely any of us could have done it. Given that magic can be powerful. But I sure don’t have the skill set. Or the desire. This sounds like a problem for you Presidium types. It’s why you exist right?”
    Igor nodded, but his face was irritated by her comment.
    “But I would think,” Emily said seriously, using a logical skill set she rarely employed, “That you’d be more interested in why the vamp disappeared and use the same reasoning the regular cops use. I mean…Ingrid and I ended up figuring out the murder investigations we were involved in, but you know who else did?”
    “Who?” Alois looked irritated as well, and Emily supposed she could see why, but honestly, he tried to pin this murder on her. He could suck it.
    “Gabe. Ingrid’s honey. And Gabe doesn’t have an ounce of magic in him.”
    She rose to leave and said, “I assume you’re done with me for now? Since my Auntie threatened you and