“Okay. Here’s how it went down. I joined HPS and went to a few meetings. For a while it looked like it was shaping up to be similar to the other groups— a lot of talk and no action. But then Cassie heard about this sword. At first we were disappointed, you know? There were rumors it was powerful, but it didn’t do anything when we tried to use it.”

“So Cassie got pissed.”

“The organization has money. Lots of secret donations from human politicians. But we paid a lot for the sword. Cassie told everyone that our new mission was to find as many fae artifacts as we could. She said it was our turn to have power, and once we were a threat to the paranormals, they could no longer ignore us.”

“Tell me about the belt.”

His gaze dropped to his waist as if he was expecting to see it. His face twisted in what looked like longing.

“One of the women works for this cleaning company.”

“Name.”

“Crystal Clear Cleaning.”

“Name of the woman.”

“Oh. Ashley.”

I eyed the camera, well aware that the demons were listening in. I’d bet Albert was observing as well. Either way, someone would be locating Ashley.

“Ashley stole the belt.”

Bob laughed, the sound muffled as he winced and raised his hand to his nose.

“It wasn’t even difficult. She said she worked for this fae bitch who treated her like garbage— wouldn’t even reply if Ashley greeted her when she was taking out her trash. She walked in one day as the fae was putting it in a safe.”

“And then she stole it.”

“Like I said, it wasn’t difficult.”

“So Ashley gave the belt to Cassie.”

“Yeah. Cassie was her best friend after that. Told us all that Ashley was an example of who we should all be.” Bob’s lips thinned. “Then Cassie put the belt on, and we realized it was the real thing.”

“And the amulet?”

“This other guy Derek, he’s been obsessed with the fae for years. He’d heard about this amulet that would give us all the information we needed to find other artifacts.”

“How did you hear about the auction?”

Bob shifted in his seat. “This girl I work with is dating an unseelie.” He sneered at the thought. “One day they drank too much fae wine and he told her about an auction they were trying to shut down. Apparently, the organizers had strong magic and they kept moving the auction every time the fae got close to them.”

“You figured out it was at the old train station.”