AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The man who walked in was dressed in a crisply pressed navy blue uniform, adorned with polished silver badges and insignia denoting his high rank. A gold nameplate gleamed on his chest, displaying his name with authority. The uniform, tailored to perfection, accentuated his stern demeanor, conveying a sense of discipline and command.
Before the man could say anything, however, I asked, “Have you guys watched enough or would you like to confirm that I have violent tendencies by stirring up another person’s emotions so they can attack me?”
The room went pin-drop silent for a second as the man and I locked gazes before he pointedly ignored my words. “Miss Byrne, Caden, Aiden, and Mateo. Let’s go. We’ll speak to you all next.”
6
Aurora
After the fiasco in the waiting room, we were ushered into a sterile, fluorescent-lit interrogation room.
Aiden, Caden, and Mateo sat on the chairs on my left and right and the man who opened the door to invite us into the interrogation room sat opposite us with a table between us and a two-way mirror behind him.
“Chief Perez, if you truly stirred up Nathan’s emotions just to test Aurora, then what you just did was way out of line,” Caden said as soon as we sat down.
“Stay out of this, Caden. I did that with your father’s permission.” Chief Perez’s words silenced Caden.
His words made me realize that if the Crawford Pack Alpha knew that I was a chief suspect in Angelique and Hank’s murder, then he definitely knew about Mateo’s explicit video with me, which was broadcast at the party.
“Can the four of you account for where you were during and after the party?” Chief Perez started with routine questions, pushing the truth meter to the center of the table between us.
I was surprised to discover that Caden and Aiden had gotten everyone at the party to delete any videos they may have recorded from the broadcasted video of me and Mateo having sex.
“Miss Byrne?” Chief Perez interrupted my thoughts.
“I went home with my . . . friend and slept over at his apartment,” I said.
“Any alibis other than your friend’s?” Chief Perez asked in a flat tone.
“The doorman at the apartment building, I guess?” I replied.
“Hmm . . .” He said, staring at the green color on the truth meter which showed that I was telling the truth. “Can you give us more details about what you did?”
“Took a shower, ate pizza, talked to my friend a little, and went to bed after talking to my aunt.” I summarized.
“Okay.” was Chief Perez’s perfunctory response.
Without extra notice, he pulled out a single picture from the folder in front of him and pushed the picture of Angelique’s head detached from her body in front of us.
“Moon Goddess!” Aiden and Caden exclaimed, turning their gazes away from the picture once they knew what it was.
“What the hell? You don’t really think Aurora did this, right? How could Aurora dis . . . dismember—” Mateo protested, moving his face to the side to avoid staring at the picture.
“What was used to do the dismembering? Claws? A dagger? Or something jagged? Did forensics find the weapon?” I asked as I stared at the picture, trying to remember if I’d seen a similar manner of dismembering in any files I’d looked at in the Supernatural Council.
“See that, Mateo? The way she’s talking and staring at that photo . . . does she sound like a normal eighteen-year-old girl to you?” Chief Perez’s ironic tone made me look up to find Aiden, Caden, and Mateo staring at me with shocked faces.
Something about the way he was speaking made me realize that bringing Aiden, Caden, and Mateo along with me to the police station was intentional. Chief Perez’s speech and actions since I met him seemed to be an attempt to paint me as some sort of villain to the Crawford boys.
However, their shock was not important right now. I needed to know if this murder was linked to our pack observer case. The pack observer murderer might have committed this murder out of frustration, stemming from the fact that Eric, who was now under strict surveillance, had eluded him.
It didn’t matter if my cover was blown, especially now that Chief Perez and the Alpha of the Crawford Pack seemed to see me as some kind of villain. That meant that it was only a matter of time if he hadn’t already found out, for the Alpha of the Crawford Pack to find out my real identity.
“What’s the time of death? Where did you find the body? Can I see the unaltered crime scene photos prior to forensic processing and evidence collection?” I asked, my gaze locked onto Chief Perez’s.
His eyes hardened as he reached for the gun in the holster attached to his black belt. It wasn’t a regular gun, however. It was a Silver Bane Lite 4 gun made by Cath Cróga, my grandmother’s weapon company, and the silver bullets in it could kill supernaturals, specifically werewolves. “You’re not just a student . . . You’re undercover. Who sent you? Crawford Pack’s enemies? Mac Tire City’s enemies? Some terrible organization . . .”
“Stop making assumptions. I’m not an enemy of the Crawford Pack or Mac Tire City. I’m just here to investigate something. If it has nothing to do with this case, I’ll back off.”
