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“Could I…what? Look, Genie, I told you yesterday there was no way I was letting you participate in interviews, and that includes callbacks to witnesses.
I was already shaking my head. I didn’t want to explain my other non-wolf gifts to him, but I had an idea, and there was no getting around it.
“I can show you what happened here. But I need someone who saw it.”
He looked dubious, and I didn’t blame him. He’d only known that a world of monsters and magic existed for a few years. I’d been raised in it. I knew things were possible Detective Perry couldn’t fathom yet. Now it was my turn to show him something new.
I suspected, if this worked, I was going to regret it.
For one thing, yet another person was going to know about my abilities. And that person was a police detective who might want to take serious advantage of said abilities for his own gain.
I chewed my lip, wondering if I was making a terrible decision here. I could probably get Emmett and Mason off the hook, but was the cost going to outweigh the reward?
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything and tried my hand at some old-fashioned sleuthing instead, except there wasn’t time. I didn’t know how long it would take Santiago to figure out his spell to catch the demon—and man did I ever want to ask him how he was doing it—but soon I’d have bigger fish to fry than a simple murder investigation.
“Look, I’m going to offer to do something here, and you’re going to need to roll with it. I can show you exactly who did this. You’ll be able to see it with your own eyes. But I am not going to make a habit of this, it’s a one-time deal, and it’s more for my benefit than yours.
“No surprise there.” It didn’t sound like he was insulting me, even though the words themselves were harsh.
Perry lived in the kind of world where everyone was out for themselves, and why should he think I was any different? I wasn’t. I wanted this for myself and my pack, and I didn’t care a lick about Perry’s arrest record.
As much as I hated to admit it, I didn’t really care about getting a killer off the street. I just wanted my wolves free, and I desperately wanted to disentangle myself from the attention of the police.
> I had to believe the exposure and risk of doing this would be worth it. I was even willing to convince myself Perry would agree to my terms and never ask me to repeat the task again.
“All right. I’m willing to suspend disbelief and go with this. I’m curious to see what it is you think you can do. What do you need from me?”
This was where things went from peculiar to downright weird, and the mostly likely place for me to lose him.
“I need at least one of the witnesses.”
“Okay.”
I fidgeted, looking down at my feet, standing where the dead man had been only hours earlier. I could practically picture him the way he’d been when I saw him yesterday morning.
“And I need the body.”
Chapter Nineteen
Wilder collected me from the crime scene, pulling his motorcycle up to the mouth of the alley and killing the engine as Perry and I approached.
It had taken a lot of sweet-talking and several promises to sign nondisclosure agreements and to never, ever, ever, ever let my pack get involved in trouble again, but I’d convinced Perry to give me what I needed.
I was impressed with his willingness to trust me. He had no idea what I was planning to do and had probably never seen magic performed in person before—real magic, not the Vegas sleight-of-hand stuff. Yet, in spite of all that, he’d actually said yes when I told him I needed a corpse returned to the scene of the crime.
He wasn’t happy about it, mind you, and I knew I had to deliver.
To make this work I was going to need a couple things that were not easy to come by, and Perry would have to convince the medical examiner to let us borrow the body for a night.
“Back here by nine o’clock sharp, right?” He spun his car keys around his index finger, and there was faint doubt in his expression that made me nervous. Was he worried this was some kind of setup to embarrass him? Like I’d make him bring a corpse and a witness to an empty alley and then not show up?
We hadn’t known each other very long, but I was hoping he thought better of me.
Prove yourself to him.
I wasn’t sure why I wanted to or why I cared so much, but it was important to me that Perry thought well of me. He’d been good to us up until this point. I knew without a doubt he was the reason this had been kept out of the news, and he couldn’t understand completely how much I appreciated that.
Stopping halfway between Perry and Wilder, I gave the detective my most earnest trust me smile. “I know you’re putting a lot on the line here, Bryce. I promise you I’ll be here at nine, and this will be worth all the trouble.”
