“Yes, sir. From school days. But I hadn’t seen her for several years.”
“How come?”
“I guess you could say we had a disagreement. Not of my making, at least not intentionally.”
“What happened?”
“She got very upset when I took the job with Motham PD. Said she was worried that a monster would—” she faltered for a second, “—harm me in some way.”
She glanced up to see his jaw tighten beneath his beard.
“So you broke off contact with her because of that?”
“No, she did. I kept trying to get in touch, but she never returned my calls. She was… kind of phobic about monsters when we were at school.”
“And yet, she took a job in Motham City?”
Clare rubbed at the frown line between her eyes. “That is the part I don’t understand. I had no contact with her for six years, so obviously her views must have changed in that time. Her mom told me she talked about wanting to work here often in recent months. And then… she suddenly upped and took a job with Slither and Scales accounting.”
“Why do you think that might be?”
“I have no idea, except Jo—Natalie’s mom—told me she envied me working here.”
Oliver turned back to the whiteboard and put a big question mark over the photo of Natalie. “We have to ask ourselves, how did Natalie Spriggs go from having a morbid fear of monsters toworking among them? Did someone or something persuade her? Coerce her, even?”
The room remained silent.
“C’mon, guys, when I combed through the humans’ files, the one thing that stood out was that we’re missing crucial backstory.” He circled around all the photos. “Detective Doyle’s information leaves more questions than answers. And as for the other four, we have no idea what drew them to Motham, no idea who they interacted with before and after they got here. And the companies they work for in Motham are being infuriatingly vague. Maybe they’re not involved in the disappearances, but we need to dig deeper.”
“It’s proven very difficult.” Saul sounded a bit sheepish, but the poor guy was busy running an understaffed department, Clare knew, and wouldn’t have had the resources to chase up the information. “And with Tween officials ignoring us…”
Oliver stroked his jaw. “Which is interesting, since it’s their own who are disappearing.”
“They should be falling over themselves to help,” Beth grumbled, sticking an escaped snake behind her ear.
Saul snorted. “There has never been an instance where the Council of Towns fell over themselves to help Motham City.”
Oliver’s dark gaze landed on Clare. “Let’s ask the human member of our team. Why wouldn’t they be willing to assist in the case, Clare?”
She gave a little shrug. “Maybe because they see anyone who associates with monsters as fallen. Beyond redemption. Not worth saving.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You believe that?”
“Of course not,” she retorted.
“Or perhaps the humans know more than they’re prepared to divulge. I guess we’ll have to rely on you to persuade them tocome to the table, won’t we, Detective Doyle?” Oliver’s tone was silken as his gaze bore into her.
She set her jaw and stared straight back at him.
“Yes sir. We will.”
Clare slammed down the phone and huffed a sigh. She wasn’t getting far with contacting the families. And worse, her immediate line of vision was through the open door of the office where Oliver was pacing up and down, talking on his cell phone. He’d removed his jacket and was walking around in his embroidered silver waistcoat with his shirt sleeves rolled up, occasionally rifling a hand through his hair.
Did he have to? It was so gods damn sexy. Angrily, she returned to her task and opened another file.
Honestly, she was thankful he’d given her this job to get on with. At least that meant she didn’t have to partner with him on any investigations in Motham.
Well, fucking yippee. Because the last thing she wanted was to be anywhere near the guy.
