I smiled. ‘Then let’s run them across the tapes.’
Chapter Nineteen
The interrogation room smelled faintly of coffee, stale sweat and cheap aftershave. Four chairs, one metal desk, and a revolving door of people who all claimed they didn’t know a thing.
Channing and I had been at it for two hours and my patience was wearing thin. Worse, my skin had begun to itch – a sure sign that my magical reserves were running low. As the interviews progressed, it took everything in me not to scratch and claw at my skin as the itch intensified, firmly insisting that I drop everything and head to a portal to recharge in the Common.
Luckily, the Crone had given me a vial of her ORAL potion. Unfortunately, it was chilling in my fridge at home while my skin itched like I had fleas.
As Amber had said, we didn’t have time for me to go to the portal, so I powered on through the interviews, wilfully ignoring my crawling skin and daydreaming of downing that vial in one.
Most of the interviewees were angry but predictable: same slogans, same self-righteous sound bites that they’d spat at me outside of the office.
‘We have a right to protest.’
‘This is harassment.’
‘Creature-sympathiser bitch.’
The last one was my favourite.
I had a full bladder and a throbbing headache. Both were screaming for attention.
Channing handled the paperwork, tapping away on SPEL like he was playing with a fidget toy. ‘That’s six down,’ he muttered. ‘Four to go.’
‘Four left to enlighten us with the exact same statement,’ I groused, stretching my neck until it cracked. ‘They prepared and they colluded,’ I said, drumming my fingers on the cold metal desk. ‘Lined things up nice and neat. They’re all alibiing each other too, and that means none of their alibis are worth a damn.’ I pushed away from the desk and stood. ‘Let’s take fifteen, freshen up, and then bring in Beeks.’
‘You got it.’
I left interview to go to the toilet and let myself have a few good scratches of places hidden by clothes. Then when nature had also been seen to, I went to my office to pull a can of Dr Pepper from the little fridge Robbie had installed for me.
I blushed a little as I sipped from the can. I had always loved Dr P, but the kiss last night had elevated that love to a whole new level.
I hoped we didn’t break up, because if we did, it would likely ruin Dr Pepper for me, and that alone was a reason to stay with Robbie forever.
I washed down two paracetamol pills with some Dr P. Not as good as a headache potion but far cheaper, and they didn’t need to be refrigerated either. I continued to long for the ORAL potion in my fridge at home. It would stop the itching in a moment and refuel my magic batteries with every swallow. It was hard to resist the urge to run home and down it, but my working daywas far from done. I just had to be careful with my magic now. Too much magic use and the Other would drop-kick me out of the realm with one helluva headache. Not something I wanted to occur while I questioned suspects.
My phone beeped and I took it out to check the message. It was from Robbie. The terse message simply said:Call me.
I narrowed my eyes at the brusque tone, but I called all the same.
‘Everything okay?’ I asked when he answered, envisaging him telling me about more headless bodies.
‘Yeah fine. Just a little den issue I need to discuss with you.’
A den issue? He’d demanded I call him because someone had run out of milk or something? ‘Well, in that case, you should remember I’m not one of your subjects! You can’t just demand I do something and expect me to do it!’ I ignored, for the sake of my own argument, the fact that I had done exactly that.
‘Sorry,’ he said tiredly. ‘I wasn’t thinking. Next time, I’ll make it clear it’s a request, not an order.’
‘Damn right you will,’ I said slightly mollified. ‘All right, what do you need? What’s the den issue? I’m in interview, so you’ve only got five minutes to run it down for me.’
‘I love when you talk cop to me,’ he said, and I could hear the grin. ‘One of my ogres has called for our new den to be blessed now that everyone has moved into the Cheshire residence.’
‘Oh-kay,’ I said, my tone making it clear that I had no idea what a blessing entailed.
‘It means everyone local has to attend the den for a meal and the blessing ceremony. It’s not something I can refuse or put off. Once it is called for, it’s happening.’
‘All right,’ I said, still unsure where he was going with this.
