There was a back room behind some fake pine paneling. The drop ceiling was low, and the brown indoor/outdoor carpet looked like dirt. No wonder Al liked my kitchen; this would be an ugly place to be summoned into. Past David and Betty at the far end under the high basement windows, an eight-inch-high platform took up the entire end of the room. I looked at the crack in the wall and smirked. Yeah. This had demon-summoning all over it. I’d seen the damage they could do. The water on the floor had probably come from trying to get the blood out of the carpet.

“Ma’am?” David said to get Betty’s attention. “Just a couple more places to sign, and I’ll take a few pictures. Then we’ll get out of here and you can return to your day.”

Betty signed where David was pointing, hardly taking her eyes off of me as I flicked a bit of mortar out of the crack to find it dry underneath. “What’s she doing?” Betty asked, stiffening.

David took a breath to answer, but I interrupted with a pleasant, “I’m Mr. Hue’s demon specialist.” This woman wasn’t the top person, and that was who I wanted to talk to.

David’s lips twitched, and I beamed. Yes, he was irritated, but we had two agendas here, and mine wasn’t being met.

“Demon?” Betty said faintly.

“It’s state law,” I lied. “When the structural integrity of a dwelling has been compromised, it must be inspected for demon damage.” Well, it wasn’t a law, but it should be.

“I…didn’t know that,” Betty said, turning a new shade of pale.

David frowned, and I surged ahead. “I’d say that by the looks of this, that you have a demon problem, Betty. And a really bad one. This wall is bowing out, not in, as is typical in water damage. And as you can see by the flakes,” I said, picking another one out, “the concrete is dry under it. We’ll have to run some tests, but I would guess that either someone ran a hose down here to wash out the blood, or a demon urinated all over the carpet. Either one is bad news. Demon urine is really hard to get out.”

Betty was backing to the door, and my confidence grew. She wasn’t going to do anything. She was scared.

“Rachel,” David warned, telling me to back off.

But I couldn’t resist. “David, be sure to get a picture of that window. Look, you can see the hose right outside.”

“Excuse me,” Betty said nervously. “I think I hear my phone ringing.”