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Shaw wriggled around to look at him.
Blushing, North mumbled, “I mean, it matters, but not in terms of our job. We’re supposed to be investigating Yesenia Alvarez. The way things look right now, that means finding her and figuring out if she’s even still alive.”
“Someone broke into her car,” Shaw said.
North glanced at him, a startled look fleeting across his face, and then said, “Actually, yeah. Someone did break into her car. Or tried to, anyway.”
“How do you know that?” Tean asked.
“Because we were trying to break into it,” Shaw said.
“There were scratches around the passenger window,” North said. “Somebody used a slim jim to get inside. Somebody who either didn’t know what they were doing or didn’t have steady hands.”
“Did you get into her car?” Auggie asked.
North snorted.
“North is very good at breaking into cars,” Shaw said. “Just like he’s very good at sex. One time, he told me all you have to do is stick it in and wiggle it around—he was talking about breaking into cars, but I pointed out that’s how he does sex too—”
Shaw cut off with another cry, massaging the dead arm North had just given him.
“The car,” Emery barked.
North gave him a long, cool look before speaking. “The car,” he said slowly, “was fucking filthy. The footwells. The seats. Animal hair everywhere.”
“What kind of animal hair?” Tean asked.
“How the hell should I know?”
“I could summon up an ectoplasmic reproduction,” Shaw offered. When North glared at him, he said, “But I won’t because nobody defended my honor against North, not even my soulmate—”
“Don’t say it,” Emery said.
“—Emery Hazard.”
Emery fixed him with a death stare. Then, holding out a hand to Auggie, he said, “Let me see the video of the men who went into Yesenia’s room.” Auggie passed over his phone, and after a minute, Emery grunted. “The younger two are the Rangel brothers; I thought I recognized them. Quinn and Colin. They’re dumbasses.”
“You know them?” Tean asked.
“I know who they are. They’re pieces of shit stuck to the heels of the Ozark Volunteers.”
When Tean glanced at Jem, Jem shook his head.
“They’re the neo-Nazi-lite brigade of this charming little asshole of the world,” North said.
“Less Hitler,” Shaw said. “More incest.”
“I was going to say, ‘Less Hitler, more goat-rape.’”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. We don’t even know if they have goats.”
“That’s not the point—”
“Much less if the sex was consensual.”
“Consent? That’s the least of their worries—”
“Oh, you should always worry about consent, North.”
