I blew out a breath. “Maybe I’ll ask Lacy where she got her mittens,” I said meekly.
Elliot and Smithhad gotten into an argument about what to do about Elliot’s safety in the wake of this obvious threat againsthis life. Smith wanted to post a uniform at the house, and Elliot unequivocally did not want that. Both of them wanted me to take their side, and I told them I was staying out of it.
That got me in trouble with both of them.
Smith shot me a look that clearly asked if I wanted the next skinned badger to be Elliot—which I definitely did not—and Elliot shot me one that told me he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the department that had written off his father’s death as a suicide and then hid evidence.
I could see both points of view. If I’d been Elliot, I wouldn’t have wanted a cop in or near my house, either. But I also trusted Gale Smith not to pick someone who had issues with shifters, andIdidn’t want Elliot to end up injured or dead.
Ultimately, though, Elliot won the argument because he had to give permission for the patrol to be on his property once the crime scene had been cleared up. He grudgingly agreed to let a car and two uniforms stay until then—although he’d grumbled something about how they’d better be gone in forty-eight hours.
Smith had not been happy about that.
He’d argued that someone should stay in the house, in case the perpetrator or perpetrators came back on ATVs through the woods—something thatsomeonehad clearly done—until he could get the patrol organized.
Elliot had flatly refused.
“What ifIstay?” I asked. It felt weird to suggest it, like inviting myself back into the house. “I’m not a cop, but I can call for backup the same as a uniform if I have to.”
Smith’s frown said that it wasn’t the same, but he nodded. “Better than you staying here alone,” he said to Elliot.
Elliot’s angry hazel eyes had studied me for a few minutes, and then he nodded once, sharply. It wasn’t enthusiastic, but he did agree to it.
I wasn’t confident that I’d be at all useful in protecting him if someone rushed the house, but with two pairs of shifter ears, hopefully at least one of us would hear someone coming if they tried to break in or leave another dead animal for Elliot to find in the morning, especially if I stayed upstairs if Elliot had work to do in the basement or garage.
Smith clearly wasn’t happy, but it was the best he thought he was going to get out of Elliot, at least for now.
I walked him back to the door, leaving Elliot in the kitchen staring at my empty cocoa mug, so that I could pass off the evidence I’d collected. “Look,” I said, keeping my voice as low as I could, hoping Elliot wouldn’t hear the words I said. “You can station somebody on the highway, right?”
Smith sighed, pulling on his coat. “I’m going to ask highway to have someone patrol the area. But it will take at least a day to get it on the roster. So thanks for doing this.”
“Better than nothing?” I suggested.
He shrugged. “I’m more worried about the ATV trails than the highway, honestly,” he admitted. “It seems more likely that our perp came from there.”
I pressed my lips together. “There were also tire tracks leading up to the garage,” I told him, and his frown intensified.
“So more than one. Great.” The words were thick with sarcasm.
“Unless somebody else came here today,” I replied. “A delivery. Or Henry, maybe.”
“Henry Lamotte?”
“Yeah. He comes out here to work with Elliot sometimes.” I didn’t mention the fact that they might be illegally mixing up medicinal compounds.
“Get his tire tracks tomorrow, if you can, once we get the patrol established,” Smith told me, and I nodded. “And check the mail truck that comes out here, just in case.”
I nodded again.
“Thanks for staying,” he said softly.
“I was going to do that regardless,” I admitted. If Elliot hadn’t wanted me here, I’d have pulled around the curve of the driveway and slept in my car. But there was no way I was leaving him here by himself.
Smith grunted a little. “I’m leaving my phone on,” he told me. “Call or text me if you hearanythingsuspicious, got it?”
“Got it,” I replied.
I closed the door behind him, then stayed there for a few moments, listening as his car door slammed, the engine started, and he backed up before turning and driving away. I didn’t like being in the middle of a case—of knowing someone who was a potential victim, of caring about what happens to them. It was one thing to know that Nids were more likely to be the victims of violence and worry that one of those Nids might be my friend or my brother, and another thing entirely to know that there was a very specific threat against a man I cared about.
