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“What did he—?” Nox attempted, but Felton slapped the file on the desk.
“When I need an anthropologist’s opinion, I’ll ask for one. In the meantime, keep your mouth shut and pay attention. I don’t give a fuck if you fooled Roanoke into buying whatever this…bullshit is. I don’t answer to you and I get to decide who knows what’s in here.”
“I see,” Nox said evenly as he slid his phone out of his pocket and started swiping.
Nelson opened his mouth to tell Nox to put it away but braced himself when Felton turned, his fury building as he glared at Nelson. “Are you stoned, Agent?” He bellowed.
“No, sir.” Nelson shook his head, keeping his eyes on the folder on the desktop. He was desperate to see what was inside but feared the odds of him seeing it were rapidly shrinking.
“Well, you look like shit and it would explain why the ME from Roanoke called to thank me for dispatching a team to New Castle on such short notice. Which was news to me, Nelson, because I gave you orders to close the files on two abductions.”
“The last two days have been…eventful, sir.”
“Eventful?” Felton pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know if you’re stupid or if you’ve got some kind of glitch. But you’ll always find a way to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. Whatever this…nightmare is that you think you’ve caught…” He tapped the folder hard and shook his head. “It’s a psycho and a one-off and it’s got nothing to do with those girls.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t believe those abductions are nuisance cases. I think those girls are in danger of ending up like our victim in New Castle,” Nelson explained quickly. “Professor MacIl—”
Felton cut him off with a loud bark as he sat forward and pointed hard at Nelson. “What did I tell you? There’s nothing there. I don’t care what Dr. VanHalfass here—”
Nelson jumped to his feet, causing his chair to scrape loudly and slam into the wall behind him. “Don’t call him that. He is a professor and it is customary and would be disrespectful for you to refer to him as anything else.”
“Easy!” Nox whispered, holding up a hand. “Help is on the way,” he added as he smirked at Felton. “In most cases, I’d rather be called Nox because my father and my grandfather were both professors and left very big shoes to fill. But in this case, Deputy Director, you should call me Professor MacIlwraith, as we’re about to share a teachable moment.”
“Is that so?” Felton chuckled at Nox as he reclined and steepled his fingers. “Don’t try pulling weight with me, you little shit. I made my bones at the bureau and on the hill before you even had teeth.”
“Did you?” Nox acted impressed, then gestured at the door right before Felton’s assistant tapped urgently and leaned in.
“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s the attorney general and he wants to speak with you immediately.”
The door shut and a light began to blink on the phone on Felton’s desk. Felton stared at it for a moment, then at Nox as he picked up the receiver. “What can I do for you, Ted?” He asked cheerfully, but Felton’s face fell and he turned pale. “I understand… Yes, sir.” He listened and mumbled a few more yes, sirs before wishing the attorney general a good day and hanging up.
Nox’s smile was all teeth. “How are them bones treatin’ ya?”
“Congratulations, Nelson. Elsa Hansen’s yours,” Felton rasped as he slid the folder across his desk.
All of Nox’s bravado faded and his eyes filled with tears as his face crumpled. “Elsa Hansen?” He repeated weakly as Nelson lowered into his seat, feeling like he was going to throw up.
“It was her,” he said as he began retracing the timeline around her disappearance and honing in on the gaps and unanswered questions.
I can’t save her now, but I can hunt down whoever did this.
Felton snorted at Nelson. “You better hope those girls aren’t connected to this because you’re already in over your head. I’ve been ordered to give you whatever you need so I’m putting together a task force,” he said and Nox shook his head quickly as he sat up, alert and furious.
“No. I know what you’re doing: you’re trying to put the people you want on this so you’ve got spies and can pull strings because you don’t want the blowback if we fuck up. But you also want the credit if we don’t and this ends up being as big as I think it is.”
That got a hard laugh out of Felton. “You bet your ass I want someone else on this if there are more missing girls caught up in…whatever the fuck you want this to be.”
“What I want it to be?” Nox sat forward, as if he was ready to crawl over the desk and shake Felton. “I want Elsa Hansen to go home to her sister and I want to call Mila Cleary’s mother and tell her everything’s going to be okay. The last thing I wanted was to find one of our missing girls on an altar like that because I can guarantee that this is not a psycho and a one-off.”
“What are you talking about?” Felton asked warily. “I talked to Professor Clancy and he said—”
“You talked to Clancy about this?” Nox’s neck craned dubiously as Felton nodded.
“I had him look at those two missing witches before I handed it off to Nelson. He didn’t see a connection and thought they were probably nuisances. And his opinion, I trust.”
“Of course.” Nox fell back in his seat, looking unusually uncertain. “Clance is the best… But he had to see the physical similarities and the occult connection. Even if he didn’t, once he finds out about the altar and the rest of it… He’ll have to see it.”
“The rest of it?” Felton’s furious gaze swung back and forth between them.
