Devil's Due

Welcome to the shadowy psychic underworldof Jazz and Lucia fromNew York Timesbestselling author Rachel Caine

‘Rachel Caine gives us a major kick-butt, savvy, swift

and smart heroine in a tense, fast-paced story that demands to be read in one sitting!’ —P.N. Elrod, author of The Vampire Files

‘The Cross Society wants us dead?

‘But the Society put Jazz and me together in the first place! We never would have met if—’

‘My beloved, you’re not that stupid. They put you together for a reason. Now they want to take you apart for a reason. You’re just tools to them. And given our similar histories, I’m surprised that you didn’t consider that from the beginning.’

She was silent, staring at him. Aware of a lot of things, suddenly—of the fever still burning inside of her, a heavy feeling in her lungs, the carefully hidden trail behind the FedEx that had delivered something deadly to her offices.

It could have been Eidolon, trying to throw suspicion on the Cross Society. It could just as easily have been the Cross Society using a double-blind. They hadn’t sent it through Borden. Maybe Borden was still too valuable to them. Maybe James Borden, with his heart lost to Jazz Callender, wasn’t going to play their game any more, especially if it turned deadly for his friends.

Any of it could be true.

Or none of it.

RACHEL CAINE was born at the ultra-secure White Sands Missile Range—site of the first atomic bomb tests—and has kept that non-traditional attitude ever since. She’s been a professional musician, accountant, accident investigator, web designer and graphic artist … all at the same time.

She is the international bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series. Visit her website at www.rachelcaine.com.

Available fromRachel Caine

DEVIL’S BARGAIN

DEVIL’S DUE

It’s an unusual thing to do, dedicating a

book to a couple of bestselling authors, but here goes:

Thank you to Charlaine Harris and

Carole Nelson Douglas for being such amazing people and writing such amazing work.

I’m privileged to know you. Not deserving, but

extraordinarily, overwhelmingly privileged.

CASE NOTES

LUCIA GARZA

FILE #20050228-1

PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

INVESTIGATION SUBJECT: BENJAMIN McCARTHY, 44-year-old white male

BACKGROUND: Exemplary Kansas City police detective. Decorated multiple times and given awards for meritorious service. Served with the KCPD his entire career, from 1985 until his suspension and subsequent conviction for murder in 2003. Incarcerated in the Ellsworth correctional facility. Appeals continue. PERSONAL: McCarthy was born and raised in Kansas City to a middle-class family. Background prior to joining the police department is relatively unexceptional. Scholastic history indicates high aptitude for problem solving. Parents reside in a retirement community in Arkansas. One brother, a commercial fisherman living in Florida. No evidence of close ties with other, more distant relatives. Never married, although he has been involved in two documented serious relationships, both prior to becoming a detective. (Neither with Jazz Callender, see separate file.)

FACTS OF THE CASE: At 2:34 a.m. on October 4, 2002, three bodies were discovered, bound hand and foot, shot in the back of the head execution-style. Victims were identified as Joseph Lozano, 23, a convicted drug dealer; Katherine “Kat” Vargas, 18, Lozano’s girlfriend; and Navio Veracruz, 19, also a known drug dealer. No drugs or money found on the bodies. Forensic investigation yielded several key pieces of circumstantial evidence, including tire tracks taken at the scene and footprints preserved in mud. However, the ballistics tests came back with a startling result: the bullets matched another case on file that had recently been entered in the computer system, an officer-involved shooting.

The bullets came from the service weapon of Detective Ben McCarthy.

McCarthy was unable or unwilling to provide a reliable alibi for the time in question, including any corroboration from his partner, Detective Jasmine “Jazz” Callender. Convicted on the basis of ballistic and forensic evidence, he was sent to Ellsworth for thirty years. Callender insisted on his innocence, but no supporting evidence was found. It does not appear, even on detailed examination of the facts, that Det. Callender was party to his criminal acts. Her dedication to clearing her partner’s name has been noteworthy during the period of his trial and incarceration, and likely resulted in the state in which she first came to my attention: broke and verging on a serious drinking problem.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: Files regarding Det. McCarthy’s case and Callender’s investigations were stolen from her apartment recently, during an apparently unrelated breaking and entering. We have turned up no information about the whereabouts of the files.

NEW EVIDENCE: Last month, Callender received a set of photographs, via former FBI agent Manny Glickman, that show McCarthy at a separate location during the time period of the murders. (