"What?"
"The birds were starlings, not crows."
"Right, well," she was flustered and waved a hand. "Eloise is becoming one of Salem's favorite people with her magic coffee." She stopped, eyes wide and cheeks getting warm as she realized what she said. "Not, magic magic. Like, it tastes so good it must be magic. But it's not," she said emphasizing with her finger. "Because she would never do that. It's just regular coffee that is freakishly good."
He nodded.
"I like your hair."
She paused, thrown off again. "What?"
He tipped his head, but still no expression touched his face. "Your hair. It's different. I like it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked raising her finger-pointing hand to her hair, running over it self-consciously.
He shrugged. "It means I like your hair."
He was a man of few words. And emotions. For such a tall, good-looking man, he didn't put much out there. But then, he was a little more harsh and intense than he was handsome.
"Oh. Thank you?"
He nodded once in response.
"Um. So. Just, they didn't do anything nefarious," she finally said, her tone less heated.
"I will take that into consideration."
"You have no evidence," she added with raised black brows and her finger-pointing back.
His eyes squinted the slightest, and she noticed that they had crows feet at the corners, which was rugged and charming. She needed to stop noticing nice things about this man who might be charging her innocent friends with...something.
"Wait, what can you even charge them with? Is hexing people breaking a law?"
"Would that surprise you about Salem?" His mouth moved the slightest.
She paused and tilted her head.
"Was that a joke, Chief?" she asked, not willing to admit she'd wanted to laugh.
"I cannot discuss anything with you miss," he lifted a hand slightly to her in question.
"Nguyen," she replied, another wave of calm coming over her.
"Miss Nguyen," he repeated, like he was tasting the name and it made something spark inside of her. Her last name in his deep voice was alluring. "I promise you, we will do our due diligence."
"I just fear," she stopped, suddenly realizing that she was about to admit to being afraid that he was biased against them. Which would not make them friends.
He tilted his head. "What do you fear, Miss Nguyen?"
Why did his saying her name like that sound so good? And why did she get a handsome teacher feeling with him? Why was she thinking about this right now?
"Nothing. But I'd like to stay here for them until you release them. Because they are innocent," she said again raising her chin.
A slight squint again, and he nodded his response and pointed to a row of chairs against the white wall.
"And I'd charge them with harassment and intention to harm," he said. "Not hexing anyone." Then he was walking back down the hallway leaving that with her as she frowned after his retreating form.
The chief reentered the room and took his seat across from them again.
