Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7)(31)
The door opened, and the police cautiously entered, giving Ben a wide berth - which was probably smart. He might be tracking a little better than I was at that point, but not much better. And he didn't like being cornered by strangers in uniforms at the best of times. We all held very still while they examined the two men on the ground without touching.
"I killed the first guy," said Kyle, sounding shaky. I couldn't tell if it was an act or not. No one would believe a lawyer would confess to murder unless he was in bad shape, but Kyle didn't want them looking at Ben.
"No bite marks that I can see," said one of the officers, who was kneeling by the dead man. "I'm not a doctor, but I can't turn my head that far around. I'd say his neck was broken."
The tension in the room immediately dropped, replaced by a curious elation.
"No one wants a werewolf kill on their watch," Tony explained quietly to me when he saw my expression. "And Adam has been very helpful from time to time. And no shots were fired, no one died at our hands, none of ours was hurt - and we got to play heroes. This operation went down slick and smart. It is a very good day when we can say that."
Of course, it wasn't over then. They took us to the Richland Police Department - I didn't ask why they didn't use the West Richland office.
They interviewed Kyle and me separately; he'd told me that would happen. I didn't know the policemen who talked to me, and at least one of them was terrified of Ben.
I had told them that Ben needed to stay with me, and they didn't argue after I pointed out to them that if I wasn't with Ben, I wouldn't be there to stop him if he got upset. I'd removed his bandages, and they'd taken photos of his wound - which still wasn't healing. I'd refused medical care for him (by that time he was in a foul temper - in pain, his vulnerability exposed and photographed, and hungry). Someone had found a first-aid kit, and I'd rewrapped his leg.
His presence made the police who were talking to me start out a little unfriendly. No one likes to be afraid, and only an idiot wouldn't be a little afraid of Ben in his current mood. They also seemed to be a little slow, asking me the same questions over and over again.
Then they went out for a bit and came back actively hostile.
Fine. I could be hostile, too. Adam was being held by crazy people with guns - and I was stuck arguing with a pair of officers I was beginning to think of as Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber. Maybe Ben wasn't the only person in a bad mood.
They were convinced that the attack couldn't have been unprovoked. What had the pack been involved in that got such a response? The attack on our house looked a lot like some of the drug cartel attacks. Did I know about the way the cartels were blackmailing the field hands at the paper-pulp tree farms to plant drugs between the rows of trees near Burbank?
About the fiftieth time we were going through the same old thing - they had a problem with me being unwilling to tell them where Jesse and Gabriel were hidden - a youngish man in a very well-tailored suit came in and introduced himself as Loren Hoskins, my lawyer. He advised me not to say another word, so I shut up and let him do his job.
An unpleasant three and a half hours later, he escorted me outside, a firm warning to me that I leave the police work to the police ringing in my ears. Presumably that meant that they didn't want me out looking for Adam because the police are so well equipped to take on guys capable of taking out a whole werewolf pack. I might have said something to that effect as we were leaving. But they didn't have a werewolf's hearing, so the only one who heard me was my lawyer.
"They have training that you don't," said the lawyer in a very quiet voice.
That was true. But they didn't have a mate bond and a werewolf pacing beside them. Ben was limping, but he was putting weight on his bad leg. Either he was getting better, or he was so tired all of his legs hurt.
"Kyle called me," Loren-my-lawyer said, opening the back door of his car to let Ben inside without any apparent concern for his leather upholstery or the worry of having a werewolf sitting at his back while he drove. "He told me he thought that the both of you were at a point that a lawyer would be good - and heavily implied that if they were being so hard on him, it might be because there was some pressure from above. He also said, in so many words, that if they were giving him, a lawyer, a hard time, that they were likely doing worse to you - would I mind coming to your rescue and sending a lackey his way?"
He held open his passenger door for me like a gentleman. I was sweaty, bloody, bruised, and wearing Kyle's sweats. We were getting looks from people walking by - the nice-looking, well-dressed man and the psycho woman from hell. Inviting me into his car might have been a braver thing than letting in a werewolf he didn't know.
"They didn't have you under arrest," he told me. "So, theoretically, we could have walked out of there anytime. But I didn't like the vibe I was getting from them. If I'd pushed earlier, we might just have gotten you arrested - which is ridiculous under the circumstances."
I sat down and discovered that the relative safety of his car was enough to make me try to doze off as soon as the seat belt was fastened and the door shut.
"Kyle's free as well," Loren-my-lawyer said, waking me up from my doze. I don't think that he'd noticed I'd fallen asleep, as we were just turning out of the parking lot. I'd missed him getting in, starting the car, and backing out of his parking space. "According to my associate, who texted me, they released Kyle as soon as his lawyer appeared. While we were talking to the nice police officers, Kyle has been to his doctor, who has already checked him out and let him go. Kyle texted me as well. He suggests that I drop you by his place for lunch. He told me to let you know that he has hired a security team to watch the house to keep this from happening again."