A quick sweep of the remaining glass and out she went, ignoring the slivers that bit into her stomach as she wriggled through. Had she been thinking, she’d have gone feet first. She didn’t, and tumbled headfirst to the ground, managing to land in an awkward somersault and bounce back onto her feet. It wasn’t exactly martial arts, but sometimes decades of yoga paid off.

The motel backed onto a field, with boggy forest about fifty feet away. To either side, the building stretched out at least half the distance. The forest was really Jeremy’s domain, not hers. She took a few running steps along the back wall, then saw a shadow stretching out from the far end. Another joined it. She spun, her back going to the wall. Through the broken window, she heard the bathroom door give way with a crack.

She looked out across the weed-choked field to the forest. She took a deep breath, then she started to run.

NINE

We walked along the road, with Mom casting blur spells every time a car passed.

“Maybe a cello case,” I murmured, eying the sword as she reappeared.

“Will I look like a cello player? Or an assassin hiding an automatic rifle?”

Valid point. My mother didn’t look like an assassin, but she looked even less likely to set foot in a symphony hall.

“A hockey bag would work,” Mom said as we continued on. “Once, just after I got the angel gig, I had to deliver a message to your dad at his hockey game, and we weren’t exactly eager to share my new occupation with his teammates yet, so I hid it in his bag.”

“My father plays hockey?”

“Plays might be an exaggeration. More like watches from the penalty box.”

I laughed. “That I can see. But, um …” I looked at the sword. “It’s an angel sword, Mom. Stuffing it in a hockey bag just doesn’t seem right.”

“It’s a tool, baby. One that come with some serious …” Her face clouded for a moment, then she shook her head. “Let’s just say that while I’ve grown fond of wielding a four-foot hunk of metal, I don’t have a problem with stuffing the damned thing in whatever does the job. Irreverent, yes, but the Fates expect no less of me.”

“Okay. Well, a hockey bag might work, but your chances of finding one in New Orleans … ?”

“Mmm, you’re right. A sports store is still our best bet, though.”

It was. I left her outside, went in, and returned with a bow case. We still weren’t getting through any metal detectors, but Mom could walk around like a normal person, which meant—as Jaime warned—that she did bump into a few people before she got the hang of being corporeal again. I’d also bought myself a mock turtleneck tank top, which covered the cut on my throat.

We took a cab to the dead sorcerer’s place, which we got from his ID, along with his name. Shawn Roberts. He lived in the French Quarter, in an apartment over a shop selling high-end masks.

He didn’t live alone either. He had a wife. And a Rottweiler. Both figured prominently in his wallet photos. Both were home, as a quick call from a pay phone confirmed. No, I hadn’t asked to speak to the dog, but I heard it barking. And barking. And barking.

“Who the hell keeps a Rottweiler in an apartment?” Mom fumed as we stood beside the building. “And it’s two in the afternoon. Shouldn’t she be at work?”

We stepped back for a couple of drunken tourists with pink drinks in plastic cups. Mom stared after them then grabbed my wrist to check my watch.

“Little early, isn’t it?”

“We’re a block from Bourbon Street.”

Her face screwed up, as if she didn’t know what difference that made. Then she winced. “Damn, I really have been dead too long. Also been away from New Orleans too long. I kept wondering what that smell was.”

“The faint traces of rotting garbage, urine, and vomit, mingled with street cleaner. Eau de la French Quarter. And four things you probably don’t smell in the afterlife.”

“True.” She took a deep breath. “As disgusting as it is, it does bring back pleasant memories. I did a lot of business here in the old days. I loved New Orleans, almost as much as I loved Savannah, Georgia.”

I smiled. “I remember. As for why Roberts’s wife is home …” I pulled a couple of business cards from Roberts’s wallet. His wife’s. Being a considerate husband, he must have handed them out for her. She was a baker. The work address matched their apartment.

“Damn,” Mom said.

“We’re going to have to lure them out. Question is, what would get both the woman and the dog—”

A whistle. Followed by a happy bark. I leaned out from our hiding place to see the woman in the photos walking from the building, the dog on its leash.

“Our timing is excellent,” I said.

I’d grabbed break-in supplies from the sporting-goods store. Amazing what you can get there. Not exactly regulation cat burglar tools, but they’d do the job.

I had rods that approximated picks, but Mom’s unlock spell handled that. Then, as she stood watch, I rammed a pencil into the keyhole and broke off the tip.

“Adam’s trick,” I said. “Makes it hard to open. It’ll give us enough advance warning so we can escape.”

“I have a perimeter spell for that.”

“Which you can use. Never hurts to have backup.”

Inside, the place reeked of dog—the smell of fur and canned food and the faint odor from a time or two when Rover must not have been let outside fast enough. Which made me think …

“We need to work fast,” I whispered. “She might just be taking the dog for a pee break.”

I took the computers. There were two—both laptops—on desk shelves. The first started up fine, no password required. It was hers. The second was protected. I didn’t have time to crack it. As it was a laptop, I couldn’t easily snag the hard drive. I could take the whole thing, but that would be noticed a lot faster than a missing hard drive.

So I joined Mom in her search. She’d hit pay dirt. A cell phone. Roberts didn’t have one on him when I checked, and I figured he’d left it in his car. This was an older model that he must not have been quite ready to ditch. The SIM card had been removed, but he had plenty of contact information saved on the phone itself. Enough for us to track down whomever he’d been working with.