My gaze met Sgott’s over what little remained, the relief visible in his expression echoing through me. We’d both been lucky.Verydamn lucky.
“You okay?” he asked, raising his voice to ensure he could be heard over the dying sounds of the building.
“Yeah.” I brushed my fingers across my chin, smearing warmth. Obviously, I’d either cut it when I’d landed, or debris had gotten through my barrier, and I hadn’t noticed. It didn’t feel particularly bad and certainly wasn’t bucketing blood, so all in all, I’d been pretty damn lucky. I grabbed an old tissue out of my coat pocket and dabbed the scrape lightly as I walked back to the still-open—and totally untouched—side gate.
Sgott met me at the front corner, his gaze briefly scanning me and coming up relieved. “I take it our thief wasn’t inside, given you didn’t mention him earlier.”
“He wasn’t, but I only just missed him. He dived through the hedge at the back of the yard and went down a tunnel, and I wasn’t fast enough to stop him. There’s clothing threads and likely bits of flesh hanging off the broken branches, though, so we at least have DNA evidence now.”
“I take it you did a search of the rear interior half of the house before you found the trap in the hallway?”
I nodded. “It was only cursory though, and I didn’t find anything. But he didn’t set the trap—someone else did.”
“What makes you so sure? Aside from the fact Myrkálfar magic isn’t capable of the utter destruction that spell entailed?”
“I smelled a scent—orange flower and musk. Feminine, not masculine.”
“Could it have been one of those scent infusers?”
I hesitated. “Possibly?”
His eyebrows rose. “But you think not?”
“I do. No evidence beyond my gut to back it up though.”
“Lass, instinct is good enough for me, given you are your mother’s daughter.”
“Instinct doesn’t help us track the woman down though. What happened to the men in the SUV?”
“They’re currently being examined by medics.”
Frankie—a wolf shifter I’d met a few times now—came through the gate, her gaze on the destruction and her expression shocked. “Man, someone made damn sure there was no evidence to find in that house, didn’t they?”
“Aye,” Sgott replied. “Fetch forensics and get them to look over the hedge in the backyard. He’s left evidence behind in the breakthrough.”
She nodded. “The medics declared the two men fit to be questioned, though they would prefer it to be doneaftera full medical check has been completed at the hospital. I stressed the urgency and they’re giving us a few minutes. Our suspects, however, are making like clamshells.”
Sgott glanced at me. “I know this is a daft question, but care to make our clams a little more amenable?”
I grinned. “As you said, daft question.”
I followed him out the gate and down the road. The SUV remained on its roof, but an ambulance was parked close by now, its back doors open. There were two men—aside from the medics—inside, one on the trolley and one on a seat. The swarthier of the two had his right arm in a sling, but that aside, it appeared they’d both come through the rollover with little more than a few cuts.
I couldn’t see Henrick—he was likely back at the Merc, arranging for it to be towed—but Mathi leaned against one of the ambulance doors, his arms crossed and his expression less thanpleased. I rather suspected its cause was the clams’ refusal to answer his questions.
His gaze met mine, and relief stirred lightly through those blue depths. “Given you remain in one piece aside from that cut on your chin, I take it you weren’t inside the house when it exploded?”
“Oh, she was,” Sgott growled before I could answer. “And if I hadn’t insisted she take precautions, she’d now be little more than another pile of splinters in that mess.”
“Hey,” I said lightly—and perhaps unwisely—“when death comes for me, it won’t find me via a magical bomb, you can be sure of that.”
Sgott frowned. “Suggesting you’ve seen your end. If that’s?—”
“I only meant that the knives would protect me from the effects of any spell, be it an explosion or something else.” Which wasn’t a lie and neatly avoided the whole death-ticking-clock thing I didn’t want him to know about yet.
He studied me for a long second, suggesting he suspected there was far more to my explanation than that, but nevertheless motioned me to proceed. Mathi helped me up into the ambulance, then he and Sgott followed, making for rather cramped conditions. Both our suspects had been handcuffed, and were studying me curiously rather than with any sort of surliness or hostility, suggesting our thief hadn’t warned them that I might be a problem. Perhaps he didn’t think I would be.
I stepped past them, then turned around and pressed a couple of fingers against the exposed back of their necks, quickly saying, “You will offer no violence or react in any way. You will obey all orders given to you by the IIT and the ambulance officers, and answer all questions asked from this moment on.”
