Page 128 of An Archer's Redemption

I leaned in. “Liam, I’m not a Constable, just a Ranger. We take care of animals and trees mostly. Keelan and I haven’t seen each other in a while, and I thought traveling together might give us time to reconnect.”

He smiled tentatively, clearly unsure where I was headed. “That sounds . . . nice.”

“It has been, except for him throwing up on me, of course.” I smiled innocently. “But I’ve listened to most of his conversations today, and something you said tickled my neck. Can you go back to before you left on your walk that night, the one where you saw the bear? You said you saw the man who was killed lingering at a table, chatting with some other man. Could you hear anything? See anything?”

He scrunched his mouth in concentration. “I tried to listen in. They seemed so secretive. It made me curious, but they were whispering most of the time. It didn’t make any sense, but I think they said something like, ‘This has to end,’ like they were planning something. I’m sorry, I really couldn’t hear them.”

Silence lingered before Keelan leaned forward.

“I only have a couple more questions.”

Liam nodded.

“What does Seth wear? Does he have a uniform or some symbol of office? As a Priest, I mean.”

“He wears his robe,” he said.

“Long, brown, shimmers in the light?”

He sucked in a breath and nodded, then looked down.

Keelan waited.

“I . . . It can’t . . . He wouldn’t hurtanyone. I know Seth.”

Keelan tapped his finger on the table. Even I shifted in my seat before the silence was broken.

Liam whispered without raising his head. “I don’t know. I can’t believe Seth would do anything—wouldbethat.”

“It might not be him, but we need to find out. No one in town will be safe until we do.” Keelan rose. “Thank you, Liam. I know this was difficult, but you’ve been very helpful.”

He shot to his feet. “What are you going to do? Please don’t hurt him.”

Keelan put up his palms again. “We’re just investigating. Hopefully, the facts rule him out, but we have to follow them, not decide what we want them to be.”

Liam’s head drooped again. “I know you’re right. This is all so terrible.”

I stepped forward. “It is, but we’re here to help.”

He nodded in thanks and gave me a weak smile.

“We need you to keep this conversation between us for now, okay. Whoever killed that man—and your father—wouldn’t take well to a witness walking around.”

Liam nodded and walked us to the door.

“We’ll check on you later tonight, all right?” Keelan said as we exited.

We stepped outside, and Keelan asked me to shield our conversation like I’d done in the constabulary.

I nodded once, then Keelan asked, “What do you think of his story?”

“Something was nagging at me about the victim’s conversation that night, but everything else lines up with what we already knew. I couldn’t feel anything false from Liam. He’s dating the Priest, but he didn’t rule out him being the bear-shifter-thing, whatever you call it.”

“Let’s go withbearfor now. If we’re overheard somewhere, it’ll raise less suspicion in the community,” Keelan said. “I agree with you on him being honest. He didn’t want to make his suspicions real by talking about them but opened up when pressed. I believe him. Now we need a way to rule Seth out.”

“We could just ask him,” I said.

Keelan laughed, then looked up. “You’re not joking, are you?”

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