Diana Racine 02 - Goddess of the Moon

will.”
    After Cash came back with half a dozen hits , Lucier and Diana, along with Detectives Halloran and Cash and crime scene protective wear , set out to see if one of them was the pink house. They started with the address closest to Charles Street and hit pay dirt when they drove up to a pink Victorian with a shingled turret, enclosed by a black wrought iron fence.
    “This is it,” Diana said, craning to look out the window.
    The house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac, a few blocks from Aud u bon Park, and the afternoon sun reflected off brass numbers on the door―107.
    Halloran waited with Diana while Lucier and Cash scaled the few steps to the front door. Lucier rang the bell. Nobody answered. He banged on the brass knocker, shaped like a crescent moon. Still no answer. He glanced at the key, turned toward Cash, shook his head, and returned to the car.
    “No way am I going to screw this up,” he said. He called Beecher . “Sam, get a judge to issue a search warrant. I don’t want evidence tossed later because we entered without proper authority. The words kidnapp ed babies should do the trick.” He gave Beecher the address.
    “What’s the matter?” Lucier asked Diana when he disconnected the call .
    “I feel un easy. I don’t know why.”
    Halloran made a coffee run. They drank while they waited for Beecher. He drove up with the warrant an hour later.
    Lucier cautioned his men to don latex gloves and booties . “ Y ou too, Diana. I don’t want this place compromised before the crime scene unit goes over it.”
    Diana donned the booties and gloves and waited at the car while Lucier tried the key in the lock. It fit. He waved her forward, but she was frozen to the spot, unable to move past the gate.
    Lucier descended the stairs as the two detectives slipped inside. “What’s the matter?”
    “Something’s not right.”
    “Lieutenant, we’ve found something,” Cash called from inside.
    Lucier took her hand and led her to the opened gate. “I’m not leaving you out here alone. Come on.”
    With every step, a sense of foreboding intensified. “There’s evil here, Ernie.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Just what I said. Th is house is evil.” Her grip on Lucier’s hand tightened.
    “Up here, Lieutenant,” Cash said.
    She stopped.
    Lucier touched her cheek. “You’re with me. Nothing can happen.”
    Though his words meant to reinforce she was safe, she still couldn’t shake the darkness that filled her heart. As much as she wanted to flee from the house, her curiosity drew her forward, up the stairs to where Cash stood at the doorway of a baby blue bedroom. Two cribs sat empty. The only other furniture was a rocking chair and changing table.
    A strange force beckoned her across the hall to a room painted cotton-candy pink, with the same furniture as the blue room. She took in the high ceiling and the leaded glass window s . The room was the identical to the one she’d seen in her vision. Halloran’s call from down the hall broke her concentration.
    Then Lucier was beside her. “Same room?”
    She nodded.
    “Come on. Let’s see what Halloran found.”
    “Looks like a bunch of symbolic stuff, like from witchcraft, Lieutenant.”
    Diana stepped inside the room, unable to hide a shiver. Drawings covered one wall. The room started to spin, and a queasy sensation roiled inside her . S he leaned heavily on Lucier.
    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “This is the evil I felt downstairs. Those are symbols of devil worship, the adoration of Lucifer.” She turned to face Lucier. “This place is home to a S atanic cult.”

Chapter Eleven
    A Mixture of Purity and Evil

    L ucier phoned Captain Jack Craven and filled him in on their discovery.
    “We need to keep the s atanic element quiet, Ernie. If this gets out, all hell will break loose.” Craven pa used. “Pardon the pun.”
    “Agreed, Captain. I’ll make sure everyone keep s a lid on it.” He broke the connection and found Diana standing in front of the drawings.
    “The aura in this house is mixed,” she said. “Yes, evil exists but so does purity.” She pointed to the inverted star inside the circle. “The sigil of the Baphomet , the principal symbol of Satan. Could the babies be some sort of ritualistic offering to Satan? Sacrifices?”
    “No one sacrifices babies, not even Satanists. Animals, maybe, but not humans.”
    She squinted at the wall. “Why else would they steal infants?”
    Lucier didn’t answer , because