“A witch allegedly went missing last night.” I took a deep breath, blew it out slow. “Delilah Pannette.”
She shot out of her chair. “What? How? What happened?”
“Please sit down, Gray.” It was an effort to keep my voice level, but letting myself get visibly worked up about the case wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Gray.
When she dropped back into her chair, I said, “According to her friends, she left her home at six for a meeting at Norah’s place. Never showed up. No one has seen her since.”
“But I just saw her,” Gray whispered.
“Yes. Witnesses claim the two of you fought yesterday. Can you tell me what that was about?”
“Alvarez, what the hell are you getting at?” Ronan moved to stand behind her, hands clamping protectively over her shoulders.
“Thisis why you called me in? Norah’s cronies think I killed Delilah?” She studied my face, her own crumpling in confusion. “Doyouthink I killed her?”
There wasn’t ahell noloud enough to answer that question, but no matter what I personally believed about Ronan’s witch, I still had to do my job by the book.
There was a reason most supernatural crimes investigated by our human counterparts went unsolved, and it wasn’t because the fanged, the furred, and the spelled were better at covering up our tracks. It was because once things reached a certain point on the unexplainable shit scale, humans simply gave up.
So twenty-some years ago, the three supernaturals on the force—the panther shifter chief of police, the fae narcotics officer, and I—had agreed to keep our origins in the closet and team up whenever possible, taking on the supernatural cases before the human cops got involved. Between our arrangement and a decent working relationship with the Fae Council, we were able to handle most supernatural cases without any human involvement at all—something we all strived for.
But witches posed a unique challenge for law enforcement. As humans that could harness and control magic, they had a foot in both worlds, which also meant they had a human paper trail of driver’s licenses, social security numbers, and other records that drew human scrutiny.
If I wanted to keep human involvement to a minimum on these witch killings and have a chance at actually solving the case, I had to tread carefully, following up on every lead, interviewing every witness, and backing up every one of my instincts with cold, hard evidence.
"I think,” I finally said, tapping the table between us, “you're connected to two different crimes with very similar circumstances. I'm not making any assumptions beyond that."
Gray pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes and groaned. “I didn’t kill anyone.”
“He knows that, Gray.” Ronan glared at me, tightening his grip on her shoulders.
“I do,” I said. “And no one is saying Delilah is dead. She was just reported missing last night. But I still have to cross theTs and dot theIs.”
Gray nodded, and I softened a bit. Putting her through this was not something I enjoyed. It’s the main reason I’d called Ronan down here, too. They were tight—if anyone could comfort her, it was the demon.
“Can I get you some coffee? Water?” I asked. When she shook her head, I continued. “What were you and Delilah fighting about?"
“Sounds like the witches already told you.”
“I’d like to hear it from you.”
"She was talking shit about me and Sophie. It escalated from there.” She filled me in on the details of their argument. “Norah banned me from the coven. I haven’t talked to any of them since.”
Norah banned her?
My hackles rose at that, but I schooled my features and pressed on. “The other night, you mentioned that Sophie had made plans to go to Norah’s place. Was she a member of the coven?”
“No. I mean… well… sort of. She'd been spending more time with them recently. She was friends with Haley, I guess.”
“Youguessthey were friends, or you know?”
“No, they… they were friends. But I don’t know how close.” The tip of her nose reddened as she held back fresh tears, and I kicked myself for not bringing tissues. It was all I could do not to lean forward and wrap her in a hug.
“Sophie and I didn't talk much about the coven,” she continued. “It was kind of a sore point. I didn’t even realize she’d been hanging out over there. I don't think she was a member though. Not officially."
“And you?”
“Not my scene.”
