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“Oh, okay. Didn’t expect to hear that,” he said, brows rising. He lifted a palm and grinned. “No offence or anything. I just assumed a prep school kid like you would be straight on the Harvard lawyer track after graduation.”
“No offence taken,” I said with a light shrug. “My parents are definitely pushing me to do certain things, but I don’t know. I’m still weighing up all my options.”
“And police work interests you?”
“Yeah, it always has.”
“Well, I can send you some information on how it all works. Qualification process, and so on. Got an email address?”
“Sure.” I rattled it off and waited for him to write it down. Then I spoke up again. “How many cops are here in Vanderwild Bay?”
Grayson glanced up at me, eyes twinkling with amusement. “Enough that I forget names at the Christmas party, that’s for sure.”
“So quite a few?”
“Yes. Let me think,” he said, brows furrowing. “Vanderwild Bay’s population is around fifty thousand people, and most departments usually have two hundred officers per hundred thousand people. So we probably have around a hundred here. Maybe a little more.”
“That’s counting everyone?”
“Yes. Officers, detectives, sergeants, field training officers, top brass.” He smiled. “But don’t worry, we’re always on the lookout for new recruits. So if you’re really interested in staying here in town, there’ll definitely be an open spot for you.”
“Cool.” I cocked my head. “What’s the job like in terms of family?”
Grayson’s forehead creased. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I really want to get married and have kids one day, so whatever career I choose has to be one with a decent work-life balance,” I said. “So what’s that like here? Do many people have kids?”
“Oh, yeah. Definitely. I’d say around eighty percent of the people here have them,” he replied. “Most seem pretty happy with the work-life balance. But it could be different in bigger cities. I wouldn’t really know, because I’ve always been here.”
“Oh, right.” I dipped my chin toward the photo. “How old’s your son?”
Grayson laughed. “He’s not mine. No kids for me,” he said, lifting his palms. “That’s my nephew. He’s a great kid. Cute as hell, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, very cute,” I said, pulse racing as I considered his previous words.
No kids for me.
That meant he couldn’t be one of the moles that the Rosmerta Society had in the department. Also, he was going to email me a bunch of stuff later, so I’d have his contact details soon. I could write him an anonymous message from a random computer with everything I knew about the Rosmerta Society and Amerie’s disappearance. From there, he might be able to help track her down.
“We call him the Miracle Kid,” Grayson went on, smiling affectionately at the photo. “My sister struggled for years to conceive. She was about to give up, and then he came along like magic. Crazy how stuff like that can happen, isn’t it?”
My heart sank as he spoke.
It really should’ve occurred to me that anyone at this department could be a society mole whether they had children or not. Sergeant Grayson might not want them for himself, but he could’ve used the society’s services to get a ‘miracle baby’ for his sister.
That put me right back at square one. I couldn’t trust a single soul in this place.
“Yeah, it is,” I said, pasting on a smile. “Anyway, I should let you get back to work.”
“All right. Thanks again for coming in,” Grayson replied. “I’ll email you that literature when I have some free time.”
“Great. Thanks.” Still smiling affably, I stood and lifted my hand in a brief wave before turning on my heel to leave the office.
The second I was outside, my smile dropped. How the fuck was I going to find Amerie now? I had no one on my side except Addy Macintosh, who knew as little as me, and I couldn’t trust anyone else in this town.
As I strode over to my car, furious heat rising in my chest, my mind drifted back to my original plan to trick Piper into helping me by launching a campaign of terror against her. I thought that was all over for me when she saw the Rosmerta envelope in my glove compartment… but now I realized I was dead wrong about that. There was still one more thing I could do to get the information I needed out of her.
It was time to turn the heat up to the max.
