In addition to being a parish councilman, Davis Sharp was a prominent restaurateur and had been making noises about running for the open congressional seat in the district. He was charismatic and well connected, and his restaurant, Sharp’s, was where people went to be seen in St. Long Parish.

It wasn’t technically a crime scene, but the front yard had been cordoned off anyway, yellow crime-scene tape flapping sluggishly in the dull breeze that drifted off the lake. I had to admit it was a lovely view, though the serenity of the lake stood in sharp contrast to the police vehicles lined up along the driveway. I also couldn’t help wishing that the breeze would pick up a bit. I’d thrown on my standard detective garb of dress slacks and tailored short-sleeved blouse, accessorized with gun and badge. No jacket. Not in this heat. It was barely eight a.m., and already I could feel sweat prickling under my arms.

I ducked under the tape, eager to get inside the house—more for the promise of air-conditioning than from a desire to get started on the investigation. A uniformed officer stood by the door with his arms crossed over his chest and an intensely bored expression on his tanned face. Allen Demma had close to twenty years with the department—a corporal who would probably never be promoted any higher. In fact, he’d been a corporal when I first started on the road. He was great at following orders and abiding by the rules, but he just didn’t have the drive to be a leader of others. Personally I didn’t think he’d be with the department much longer. I knew he was approaching burnout and was frustrated at being repeatedly passed over for promotion. On the other hand, he wasn’t old enough to draw retirement yet, and I had no idea what someone like him—who’d been a cop his entire life—would do for a living if he left law enforcement.

I didn’t like thinking about what I would do if I ever decided to stop being a cop. It was so much a part of who I was that I had a hard time imagining doing anything else.

“Hey, Allen,” I said. “Whatcha got?”

Allen gave me a small nod of greeting as he pulled his notebook out of the pocket in his shirt. “Davis Sharp was last seen alive by the maid, Auri Cordova, last night. She cooked dinner, then left at about six p.m.,” he recited, tone flat and clipped. “At approximately five this morning, she returned and let herself in and found Sharp on the floor of the shower in the master bathroom, the water still running. She shut the water off and realized that he was dead, at which time she called 911.”

I made notes of my own on my pad. “Thanks, Allen. Is there a Mrs. Sharp?”

He glanced at his notebook again. “The maid said that Mr. Sharp informed her that Elena Sharp left the day before yesterday to spend some time at their condo in Mandeville. The coroner’s office has already been in touch with Mrs. Sharp and made notification.”

I frowned. “Do you know if Mrs. Sharp is on her way back?”

“No idea. Sorry.”

“All right. Well, I appreciate it. You’ve been a big help.”

He gave a short nod of response. I bet he was recently passed over for promotion again. I couldn’t think of anything I could say to him, so I took the easy way out and said nothing as I continued on into the house.

There were a couple of uniformed officers inside, who directed me upstairs to the master bedroom, then returned to their deep discussion of LSU football. The house was even more impressive on the inside. Wallpaper that looked like expensive fabric, marble floors, dark-wood molding, and all of the lovely decorative pieces that were perfectly placed to draw the eye to the next lovely decorative piece. The stairs were grand and sweeping—the sort you see in movies where the beautiful woman comes slowly down while being admired by everyone below. I made my way up the stairs, feeling oddly conspicuous and out of place—grimacing at the way I clumped and certain that everyone was watching me. I even glanced back when I reached the top and was stupidly relieved to see that no one had paid the slightest bit of attention.

The second floor was more of the same as the first, with window dressings that matched the bedding in the master bedroom, and a bathroom that seemed to take up one entire side of the house. It was to that bathroom that I was directed now.

I’d never met Davis Sharp in person and had never been flush enough to be willing to drop the cash that an evening at his restaurant would cost me, but I’d seen enough pictures of him in the society section of the newspaper to know that he’d been a well-styled man with a very professional appearance, as one would expect of an aspiring politician. Which, of course, made his current situation all the more jarring and definitely snicker-inducing, though everyone on the scene was being exceedingly careful not to let their amusement show, at the risk of being slammed for it later.

It took me a few seconds of puzzled staring to figure out what had happened. I finally decided that Councilman Sharp had either slipped and hit his head or passed out in the shower, managing to fall so that he was facedown, wedged into the corner, with his chin nearly touching his chest and his ass sticking nearly straight up in the air. I’d seen a couple of cases of positional asphyxiation before, and this one pretty much fit the bill.

But I saw those details only peripherally. My gut dropped and a chill swept through me as I felt the discordant wrongness. I shifted quickly into othersight to verify, seeing the tattered remnants of essence clinging to the body. Another one, I thought in numb horror. What the hell could be doing this? I knew that it couldn’t be my ilius, since it wasn’t possible for a demon to stay in this sphere without some sort of binding. But whatever it was, it wasn’t an isolated event anymore.

Could it possibly be another summoner? But summoners were rare, and the chances of another one being in this area and summoning a demon that could eat essence seemed too high to even comprehend.

So was it something else entirely? Frustration gnawed at me, briefly chasing away the horror. There was far too much that I didn’t know.

And whatever it is, what if there’s more than one?

I mentally shied away from thinking about how disastrous that could be and forced myself to concentrate on the mundane aspects of the investigation. I stepped back and pulled my notebook out so that I could jot down the notes I needed to make about the scene. The bathroom and bedroom were neat and tidy, and when I opened a closet I saw orderly rows of shirts and slacks, with shoes lined up precisely along the floor. A second closet was empty save for a few wooden hangers—the kind I told myself I would someday buy to replace the cheap metal ones I got for free from the cleaners. I went back into the bathroom and peered through drawers, finding nothing unusual except for the lack of anything feminine.

His wife went to their condo in Mandeville? I mused. Apparently it wasn’t just a weekend getaway. That was an interesting—and important—detail. I gave the bedroom area one final scan, then went down the hall to a smaller bedroom to speak to the maid.

She was shaken but coherent. I asked her a few quick identification questions, ignoring my near certainty that she was an illegal immigrant and instead being grateful that she spoke damn good English. Auri had worked for the Sharps for the past two years—coming in to cook and clean on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Except that this week she’d come Friday as well, at Davis Sharp’s request. She seemed terribly nervous, which I wrote off as concern that I would make an issue of her status, but when I gave her my standard “I’m far more interested in working this case than dealing with immigration issues” speech, she surprised me by shaking her head firmly.