Page 80 of Last Witch Attempt
He matched my tone. “Bay, the second I decided I wanted to be with you, I made that decision for myself. Lies are part of the game.” He reevaluated how he’d phrased it when he saw the expression on my face. “I mean that lies are part of the game with everyone but us. I have no problem lying to protect you. I do not lie to you.”
“That’s very sweet,” I started.
He waited.
“I still don’t want to have to put you in that position if I can help it. Plus, we had Evan with us. If we’d waited until you were out there, one of us would’ve had to unearth the body. He did it in five minutes.”
“You make a fair point.” Landon managed a wan smile. “I still wish you had called me. I don’t understand the whole naiad thing, but I don’t want you to go through this without me.”
“I’ve seen worse.” That wasn’t the point, but I blurted it anyway. “Either way, we have a dead naiad, and given the story Evan told us—about what happened in Detroit—it has me wondering.”
“You think our victims had something to do with the death of that naiad,” Landon assumed.
“It makes a strange sort of sense. They were killed quickly, then strung up to send a message.”
“Wouldn’t it have made more sense to string them up at the construction site?”
“I thought about that,” I admitted. “The thing is, if the naiad was infuriated, maybe he or she lost it and took them all out in a rage.”
“I thought you said all naiads were females.”
“That was our assumption. Now, we’re not so sure. It’s possible the naiads were lovers. It’s also possible they were sisters. Maybe we were wrong about naiads being female. I don’t want to assume we’re dealing with a woman because we might overlook a man and get ourselves into hot water.”
“Fair enough.” Landon nodded. “You think the naiad was stabbed?”
“That’s what Evan said. I didn’t get close enough to see the wound.”
Landon flicked his eyes to Chief Terry. “We could collect the body.”
I was shaking my head before he finished.
“No?” He arched an eyebrow. “Why not?”
I flicked my eyes to Thistle, who was watching me with steady eyes. Things were about to get uncomfortable.
“I don’t want to start a thing here,” I hedged.
He waited, opting not to prod me. That only made what I was about to say all the more difficult.
“I prefer not giving the government the body of a paranormal for them to poke and prod,” I said. It was difficult to get out, but once I said it, I immediately felt better. “It’s not that I don’t trust Steve,” I added quickly, “but I don’t know everyone who might be involved with his plan.”
“Plus, the naiad deserves respect,” Thistle added. “Someone who loved her put her in that grave. She should stay there.”
Landon took it all in and ultimately nodded. “Okay,” he said after several seconds. “We won’t mention the body. How long do you want to keep Steve in the dark about all of this?”
“I think we have to share some of it with him. We have to be careful.”
“How strong is a naiad?” Chief Terry asked. “Is this thing powerful enough to take out the entire town?”
“I don’t believe so,” I replied. “Our problem is that we’re not sure on motive. That might clear a few things up for us.”
“What do we need to do?” Landon asked. “What’s the best way to do this?”
“Can you find out if the three men had ties to the resort development?”
He already had his phone out. “That should be easy enough.” He hit his screen a few times, then pulled up Hal Weaver’s file. “Okay, here we go. Hal owns a concrete company in Detroit. He pours foundations and walkways.”
I angled my head. “That seems like a good possibility.”
