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“Where are we going?”
“Give me something.”
“No comment, Wilson. I’ll give you that.”
“Anything, Hart. Off the record.”
Wilson, in my experience, didn’t actually understand what that phrase meant. “Off the record?”
“Yeah.” He sounded breathy and almost aroused. It was creepy.
“Fuck off, Wilson.”
“Come on—”
I hung up on him.
And then my cell rang. It was Ward.
“What you got for me?” I asked him.
“Good morning, Hart. I’m fine, thanks for asking. And how are you?”
I rolled my eyes. Ward was a weird stickler for politeness on the phone. I’d blame the fact that he’s from Michigan and Midwesterners have a thing about polite, but I’m from Wisconsin and I don’t give a fuck, so I’m guessing it was just a Ward thing. “Yeah, yeah, fucking peachy. What you got for me?”
“Dead wolf shifter, Mark Roberts.”
“Mydead wolf shifter?” I asked him, my heartrate picking up. Beside my desk, the dog pushed himself to sitting and whimpered.
“He was killed by a vampire and tossed in the canal, so it’s the right MO and the right part of town,” Ward replied, his voice tight.
“When did this come in?” It wasn’t often that ghosts came to Ward, but when they did, it was usually pretty ugly.
“About three.”
I grimaced. “Ouch.”
“Tell me about it. When did you get home?”
“Two,” I answered, typing notes directly into my computer.
“Ugh.”
“TOD?” I asked.
“He didn’t give me a specific time, Hart.” Ward sounded tired and cranky. I guess if a dead werewolf had woken me up at three in the morning, I’d have been even less pleasant about it.
“What part of the canal?” I asked, already typing up a warrant order to dredge it.
“The turning basin, it sounded like.”
I nodded to myself, making notes, then tabbing back to keep filling out the form. “Anything else?”
“That’s not enough?” Despite his teasing tone, I could tell Ward was a little exasperated.
“Just making sure,” I replied, trying to keep my tone light. “The RPD is grateful for your service.”
Ward snorted, then continued. “He did corroborate Tatiana Zhirov’s version of things. Doesn’t know who grabbed him, doesn’t know what they did to him or where they took him. Honestly, he sounded really confused. Out of it. He kept saying he couldn’t remember. Like… I can’t be certain, but I’d guess he was drugged. Oh. And he didn’t have a name, but he did say the guy who broke open the door of the van is a lion shifter.”
