In Shawano, apparently, we touched it—arson was the purview of the Sheriff’s Department, according to Smith, with some help from a regional office in charge of the entire upper quadrant of the state of Wisconsin. Whether Ziemer had anything to do with that or not, I didn’t know.
But he bent a little so that he could stick his head in the still-open driver’s side door and inhaled deeply. And then he coughed. “Hoo boy.” He coughed again, then turned and grinned at me, showing bright teeth that seemed to me to be a little too sharp in some places. “Yep, that’s absolutely lighter fluid. Possibly Royal Oak. Definitely not Kingsford.”
I couldn’t help myself. “You can tell whatbrandit is?”
He chuckled. “You could, too, pup,” he replied. “If you did the training.”
I stared at him, uncertain about several things. First, if I was okay with him calling me ‘pup.’ Second, if that meant he knew what kind of shifter I was, and if so, how he could possibly knowthat. And third, if that was some sort of hint at an offer.
I offered him a smile that was a half-grimace. “I did something along those lines once,” I told him, aware of Smith listening. “In order to ID a chemical that had rubbed off on a murder victim.”
“Did you?” Ziemer asked.
I nodded. “I also burned out the inside of my sinus cavity,” I muttered.
That made Ziemer laugh. “You need to learn how to smell without inhaling,” he said.
My eyebrows went up again. “That’s physiologically impossible.”
“In the most literal sense, yes,” he agreed. “But there’s no need to spend a day unable to smell anything in order to ID chemicals.”
I shrugged. “Next time someone asks, I’ll give you a call.”
He grinned at me, showing those too-sharp teeth. “I like you, pup,” he said, then turned back to Smith. “You’ve got yourself abona fidearson here,” he pronounced. “So let’s get the paperwork done and get a team out to do all the right tests.” Then he looked over at me. “You want to stick around a learn a thing or two about arson investigation?”
I shrugged. “As long as nobody needs me anywhere else,” I replied. I was curious. And if I wasn’t going to get to play with things like DNA sequencing and complex toxicology, maybe I could learn something about the chemistry of fire.
Ziemerand his team were there for another three hours before they gave us the go-ahead to remove the body and do the rest of the evidence collection—like dusting for prints and taking fabric samples, etc. And by the time Smith, Hilgers, and I managed to maneuver the body out of the car—which was an exercise in physics that I had not anticipated ever having to do—I was sweaty, smeared with grease and soot and God-only-knew what else, and ravenously hungry. It was also getting dark.
At least I’d been kept so busy learning about arson investigation and then trying to un-pretzel both myself and the body that I hadn’t really had time to think about Elliot.
Until now.
But first I had to drive back to the Sheriff’s Office to log all the evidence I’d spent the afternoon and evening collecting.ThenI could get dinner. Something extremely calorie-dense, since I hadn’t had lunch. I’d managed to eat a protein bar while Ziemer’s arson team got set up, so I wasn’t actually starving, but I knew I needed a lot more than I’d had.
Judy Hart would probably feed me if I asked, but I didn’t want to make her have to do that again. She’d left me a vegan muffin and a key to the house this morning, which had made a lump collect in the back of my throat, so I’d had to wait until I got to work to actually eat the muffin so I wouldn’t choke on it.
I also had no idea how Hart had gotten to be the foul-mouthed, somewhat surly creature that he is—his mom was about as far from that as you could get. I did understand his extremely wide generosity streak, although I’m pretty sure he’d have denied having it if you ever accused him of such a thing.
It was late—after ten—by the time I managed to get everything logged and unloaded. I went out of my way to stop at a KFC—it was the best place for me to get a lot of food that was dairy-free. McDonald’s fries have dairy, Hardeeseverythinghas dairy or beef, and Culver’s puts butter everywhere. I could get Extra Crispy Chicken (not the regular recipe), coleslaw, and fries. No biscuits, sadly. I love buttermilk biscuits, but I had to make my own, since most of them have, well,buttermilk.
But at KFC I could buy a bucket of chicken, a ton of fries, and some actual vegetables, so it was better than a lot of my options.
I munched on a few fries on my way back to the Harts’ house, then let myself in, being as quiet as I could. Judy and Marsh had left the exterior light and the light over the stove on, presumably so I wouldn’t break my neck coming back, and I shut both off before heading down the stairs toward my futon. One benefit to being a shifter was that I had much better night vision than Iused to, and I didn’t have to turn on my phone flashlight to safely navigate the stairs.
I settled myself on my futon, opening up my laptop and finding the tab I had with the one streaming service I allowed myself to pay for. I needed to watch something familiar and comforting to keep my mind from going to places—and people—I didn’t want to think about. I wanted to rewatchA New Hopeand eat my chicken and try to avoid falling into a pit of self-loathing.
I didn’t succeed.
12
Seth Mays
Just letting you know that I have a new apartment.
Thanks for letting me stay with you.
Elliot Crane
