“Yes,”he said, letting Chichi run her nose over his back before stepping out the door.
Chichi was a wild thing. She and Oliver barked and clacked their jaws as they sprinted ahead through the trees. They quickly became two streaks of black and white-blonde in the distance, leaving bushes trampled in their wake. George and Bailey yapped behind them, doing their best to keep up.
Pember could feel Val’s longing across the bond. She wanted to join them. Wanted to push her body to the limit one last time. She was slower, her big paws thumping across the damp ground, the sound revealing just how uncoordinated she really was.
It didn’t stop her, however, and soon she lumbered between Pember and Blake with her muzzle up and her ears forward.
“Free,”she said, her joy bleeding across the bond and into Pember’s heart. He felt Blake’s happiness, too. His warmth. Where before he’d been a heavy, anxious presence in the back of Pember’s mind, slowly the clouds were lifting, and the playful tawny wolf was beginning to pierce through. They were a river of feelings, sloshing and pooling with comforting warmth.
They jogged up the hill, twigs and leaves snapping under their paws. Dew clung to the undergrowth late into the evening,promising a clear day tomorrow. Pember dropped his head and opened his mouth, letting his tongue drag across the leaves to taste the droplets of water.
The earth tasted sweet, almost metallic. Petrichor, he realised. There’d been a lot of storms over West Newton of late, which promised clear skies as spring tipped into summer.
As if that wasn’t just a metaphor for his whole damned life.
They bumped into tree trunks and tripped over roots, but eventually they made it to the top of the bank that overlooked the town. They must have run for longer than Pember realised, because the sun was already sinking beneath the horizon. A thread of orange light kissed the town, giving the fields a warm glow.
Val let out a breath before dropping to her haunches. She was breathing hard, her paws and ears damp with sweat. She looked out over the landscape, her breath making mist on the chilly breeze.
Pember licked her muzzle, and Blake cleaned her ears. They sniffed and rubbed their mouths all over her. Scenting her. Claiming her as theirs. And for once, she let them.
“Pack,”Blake said, lightly biting her scruff. She didn’t fight it like she had before, so Pember hopped onto his hind legs and did the same.
“Pack,”he echoed, nuzzling into the patchy white fur across her shoulder.
A low rumble emanated from Val’s chest. “Pack.”
CHAPTER 34
SNEAKY BEAKY
Pember
“Repeat after me,”Caitlin said, holding a finger in front of Pember’s face. “I will not.”
“I will not.”
“Ask the suspect.”
“Ask the suspect.”
“If they are responsible for the murder.”
Pember nodded. “Right. I get it.”
Mark sighed and lazily spun in a blue swivel chair. He rubbed his temples, staring up at the oversaturated LED lights of the briefing room. “I think he got it the first fifty times.”
Caitlin huffed, white blouse crinkling as she crossed her arms. “I’ll make him repeat it until he’s blue in the face. Cases have been lost on less than a leading question.”
They’d been holed up in the briefing room for over a day, just Pember, Lily and the three sergeants. It’d been closed to the rest of the department, but it didn’t stop the other detectives pressing their faces against the glass partition walls.
Blake was pacing, and he thumped his fist against the frosted panes every time one of them tried to spy.
“We’ve got a nibble!” Lily called, waving them over. They gathered around her computer, a series of blue and white dialogue boxes flashing up on the screen. “She wants to know if you liked the sashimi the other night.”
Pember hummed, tapping a finger against his chin. “Ah, that’s a trick question. She had sashimi, I had the maki rolls.”
Lily nodded and typed a response into the computer. Cybercrime had connected his mobile phone to some kind of software, making it look like he was messaging when it was actually an undercover officer. They’d managed to get Maya talking throughout the day, but the messages were slow and she was being cautious in her replies.
