“What? She’s already inside the office. She can’t hear us.”
Oh, she can hear us. Loud and clear. I’ll hear about it too. Soon. And Serena definitely has a type. Tall, blonde, muscular, straight werewolves.
“Yeah, yeah.”
The rest of the interviews are almost the same, like they were all handed a script before we arrived.
“He didn't seem worried about anything,” Elena tells us while we sit in her trailer, her eyes closed as the makeup artist works on her eyelids. “He was excited about his girlfriend coming back. You should maybe talk to her?”
“He was a talented actor. Saw things a bit too black and white, though. An artist needs to see the grey. Channel it. Bring it to the screen.” Hayden, the director, muses when we corner him near the craft service table.
He blinks at our blank faces. “Uh… sorry for boring you with this, it’s clearly going over your heads. Anyway, I wouldn’t know if he was worried about anything. We didn’t have that kind of relationship.”
Everyone had alibis, and no one thought Tyler was worried about anything.
“Do you believe them?” Serena asks as we make our way back to the car.
“Did I join the force yesterday? They’re all lying. Let’s figure out who’s hiding something dangerous.”
Serena nods. “Let’s go through the tapes today and see if we find something.”
“I’ll go check with the ME if he has anything for us yet.”
***
I can't stop thinking about my conversation with Matt the entire drive to the Coroner’s facility. The idea of dating Elliot for information isinsane. I blame Matt for basically cornering me into it. He might as well have suggested it himself. So, yeah, if anything goes wrong, it’s Matt’s fault.
Then again, there’s no point in pretending I’d be able to walk away without fully learning what’s up with the guy. I’ve never been able to leave a puzzle unsolved. This would keep me up at night, become a huge distraction in my work, and bug me to no end until I get to the bottom. And the only way to achieve that is to get closer to Elliot.
With the werewolf serial killer on the loose, a high-profile celebrity murder case, two other open cases, and new Bureauissues that will inevitably crop up, I’m stretched too thin. And I’m adog dadnow. I have responsibilities. I can’t keep up my stalking hours anymore. And with the results I have to show for my work, I need to change tactics.
Then again, I could easily pass Elliot’s case on to the Bureau on grounds of suspicion. We have an entire protocol for following up on humans who’re aware of our existence. It might need some convincing because an agent has already interrogated Elliot, but I can swing it. I haven’t done it already only because I want to be sure before burdening my colleagues with another case. They’re also just as busy. I’m just taking one for the team.
Maybe Matt is a genius, and I didn’t realize it until now. Not that I’ll tell him, he’s so humble he might refuse to take credit for this brilliant idea.
It’s decided, I’m going to ask Elliot out.
I park the car and put on my mask in the hope of avoiding the scents that’ll haunt me for years to come.
No dice. I’m hit by sharp smells of the lingering cold, metallic trace of death under layers of disinfectant.
Marcus greets me with a frown that’s permanently etched on his face. “Are you ever not frowny?” I ask, genuinely curious.
“Yes. When you’re not around,” he says dryly.
“I’m a delight and you know it,” I tell him.
We stand over Tyler’s body after I’ve put enough menthol under my nose to never smell anything ever again.
“He was hit on his head multiple times, and the other injuries suggest the killer cut him with a sharp object,” Marcus points to the shallow but painful-looking cuts.
“Knife?”
“Maybe,” he says pointedly.
“You don’t think…” I raise an eyebrow. Another reason to hate this place is there are always humans around, so we can’t talk about possible werewolf involvement.
He shrugs. “Honestly, I can’t be certain. The cuts aren’t clean, so it could be anything. Even a dull knife.”
