Page 5 of Tragic Ink
I waited while heavy boots made their way toward me. With a last swipe at my eyes, I looked up as they entered. Rhys came in first and crossed to stand beside me. The sheriff, a broad-shouldered werewolf with a permanent scowl, frowned when he caught sight of me kneeling over Aelwyn’sbody.
“Miss Facharro,” the sheriff said, his expressiongrumpy.
“Sheriff,” I saidquietly.
But his eyes were on Rhys, and he looked pissed. “You let her touch thebody?”
“She got here first. Damage was alreadydone.”
The sheriff huffed. A beat of silence passed. He stood stiffly with one hand propped on his weapon, and I watched that hand very carefully as he stared back at me. Distrust rolled off him. Nothing new there. No law enforcement official in this town trusted me. Notafter—
“I’m going to need you to step away from the bod—from your mother.” Sheriff Kasun moved aside, and I finally saw the second officer. Conall, Kasun’s son, although younger and slightly shorter, was a carbon copy of his father, permanent scowl included. “This is Deputy Conall. You can give him your statement while I conduct an investigation of thescene.”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I turned back to my mother and leaned close, pressing a kiss to her cheek before climbing slowly to my feet. Rhys held out his hand, but I ignored him. I couldn’t risk touching him in front of watchful eyes. Not when I knew my body would react soobviously.
When I was upright, I fastened the deputy with a look that I hoped made him wonder if I really was capable of whatever rumors he’d heard. I didn’t know what those rumors might have been, and I didn’t care. But if he was nervous about me, maybe that would motivate him to resolve this quickly. Behind me, Rhys shifted his weight, and I got the sense he was amused more than impatient. Still, I held the deputy’s uncertain stare. The sheriff cleared his throat, and the deputy blinked, ending ourstandoff.
“Right. We can just go into the living room,” he muttered, turning on his heel and leading theway.
I followed and was secretly glad when Rhys stayedbehind.
In the living room, the deputy took one of the armchairs. I suspected it was a trick to get me to sit, too, but I remained on my feet. Too wired. Too on edge. My thoughts flicked to Ethan somewhere outside, and I frowned. My jacket covered the empty place on my arm, but I was antsy to get him put awayagain.
“Miss Facharro,” he began, whipping a pad and pen out of his belt loop. “Why don’t you tell me what happened. Start at thebeginning.”
So Idid.
In a low voice that only shook when I came to the part about discovering my mother bleeding on the floor, I told him everything that had happened. When I’d finished, he was frowning. “You heard a noise, and instead of calling the police, you went racing after it into the darkwoods?”
“Of course,” I said. “If I’d waited for you guys, he would have definitely gottenaway.”
“He?” His brow rose. “So it was amale?”
“I... Well, I can’t be sure, as I didn’t see anyone, but I get a sense that... it was.” Actually, it was Ethan who’d gotten that sense, but I couldn’t exactly share the findings from my magical hawk or the fact that I had a familiar thanks to a magical tattoo that the Court of the Sun and the Moon currently knew nothingabout.
“A sense,” the deputy repeated in a tone that made me want to tattoo a thousand mosquitos on my skin and aim them all athim.
“That’s right,” I said through clenchedteeth.
I braced myself, waiting for him to mock me outright. Instead, he said, “And can you think of anyone that might have wanted to hurt your fostermother?”
“My mother,” Isaid.
“Excuseme?”
“She might have been a foster mother on paper, but she was a mom to me. The best mom anyone could askfor.”
“Right. Of course. Your mother,” he corrected. “Who might have wanted to hurther?”
“No one,” I said honestly. “She didn’t have anyenemies.”
I waited while he wrote something down. When he was finished, he closed his pad and stood, sliding both pad and pen back into his beltloop.
“Thank you for your time,” he said, and then walkedout.
I stayed where I was, listening while he returned to the kitchen and assisted the sheriff in collecting evidence. Both of them moved slow as hell, and it was another hour before the coroner and an official evidence team even showedup.
By then, any expectations I’d had about the police actually giving a shit or doing anything productive here tonight to catch a killer haddisappeared.
