Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
The car revved as if it was about to take off. Luke put his hand on the dashboard. “Calm down, Delilah. Don’t even think about running through them.”
Helly hissed, exposing a set of fangs as those curled horns appeared on her head again.
“Stand down,” Luke said as he slowly held his hands up. “Don’t do anything, any of you.”
“What do you want me to do?” Sorcha asked.
“Call Reyes. Then follow me to jail with Delilah.”
“Lucian Teivel,” a man said over a speaker. “Get out of the car, slowly. Kneel down on the pavement with your hands locked behind your head and your ankles crossed. Now!”
Stunned, Sorcha watched as he calmly complied. The police swarmed him while he didn’t fight them at all.
Another male cop came forward with a gun pointed at her and Helly. “Show me your IDs!”
Did he have to bark that? They weren’t fighting or even protesting.
Making sure to keep her hands in plain sight, Sorcha carefully pulled out her Infernal Affairs badge and ID card. “We’re law enforcement. Want to tell me why you’re arresting my partner?”
The cop scanned her ID. “He’s wanted on suspicion of murder.”
Was he insane?
Stunned senseless, she scowled at him. “That’s ridiculous.”
Without commenting, he lowered his gun and looked at Helly. “I need your ID.”
Sorcha was surprised when Helly pulled out a Hello Kitty wallet and produced a valid ID for him. “I’m a ride-along.”
The cop nodded, then handed her ID back. He spoke into the radio on his shoulder. “They’re clear.”
Furious over this, Sorcha watched as they put Luke in a patrol car and drove off with him.
This was total bullshit. She wanted to protest, but they were doing their job and interfering with it would only get her and Helly into trouble. Last thing she needed was another mug shot making the rounds.
To this day, she wanted to strangle the officer who’d processed her. “Prettiest mug shot I’ve ever seen. You should use this for a modeling photo.”
Asshole. It hadn’t been funny. And she could only imagine how humiliating it’d be for Luke. She was still furious about hers, and it’d been almost a year ago.
But to be fair, she had pulled the trigger and earned her arrest.
She was sure Luke was innocent.
Furious on his behalf, she waited for them to clear the scene before she reached into her purse to get her phone.
Reyes answered on the first ring.
“Hi, Captain. It’s Sorcha. The local LEOs just arrested Luke.”
There was a brief pause as if the captain had to digest the news before she spoke. “For what?” The fury in her voice was tangible.
“Murdering the college student.”
Total silence on the other end.
“Hello? You there?” Sorcha asked, afraid the phone had dropped their signal.
“I’m here. Just shocked. What the fuck?”
Yeah, she felt the same way.
Reyes cleared her throat. “Sorry for the profanity. I just can’t believe they’d do this and not notify me.”
True. Interdepartmental courtesy…they should have notified Reyes before they went after Luke.
“Where do I go to bail him out?”
The captain gave her the address. “I’ll meet you there.”
“Will do.” Sorcha hung up, then hesitated.
She glanced over her shoulder to Helly. “Will the car let me drive her?”
Raising both hands, Helly shrugged. “Delilah?”
The engine revved high then finally settled down. “Get on the driver’s side. But you don’t touch anything. And I mean anything.”
Uncertain about this, Sorcha slid over the bench seat to Luke’s side. As soon as she was situated there, the car took off on its own.
This was so creepy. Like some Twilight Zone episode.
Helly laughed from the backseat. “Don’t worry. Delilah won’t hurt you. At least I don’t think she will.”
“Go back to sleep,” Delilah said through the radio. “You bore me.”
To Sorcha’s eternal shock, Helly did.
Sorcha wanted to protest being driven against her will but thought better of it. She wasn’t sure how Delilah would react.
And the last thing she wanted was a pissed-off car. So, she put her hands on the wheel to pretend she was driving as the car took her through traffic in record time. That made her wonder if the quick driving that had gotten them to Peachtree City so fast was a result of Luke’s powers.
Or Delilah’s.
Either way, it was extremely unsettling.
They reached the station where Luke had been taken just as the captain was pulling into the lot.
Elana met her as soon as Sorcha got out of the car. “Luke must be in serious trouble if he let you drive his car.”
Sorcha snorted. “The car drove me, but I appreciate the thought.”
Elana acknowledged Helly with a nod while she continued speaking to Sorcha. “Did he put up a fight?”
“Surprisingly, no.” Sorcha let out a long sigh before she told the captain what had happened.
All in all, Elana took it well. “How could they think Luke would do such a thing?”
“Son of the devil?”
“Yeah, but they don’t know that.”
True. “I have no idea why they went for him. The forensics say it was a canine attack. All they have is a partial print detected on the body. How they went from that to an actual arrest…anyone’s guess.”
Elana let out a low curse. “Yeah, and I know for a fact the print isn’t Luke’s.” She pulled Sorcha by the arm. “C’mon, let’s go get our boy.”
Which was much easier said than done.
Once inside, the desk sergeant refused to let them any farther into the station than the reception area.
Swallowing audibly, he shook his head at Reyes’s demands. “I’m sorry, Captain, I really am, but my captain would have my ass if I let y’all back there.”
The look on Elana’s face said that she was about to have a giant piece of it if he didn’t.
Sorcha made a mental note to never anger Elana to that level. It was almost as scary as riding in a driverless antique car.
“This is not a game. One of my finest detectives was arrested for no reason. I want to speak to the watch commander, now. And anyone else who’s in charge. I suggest you get them up here immediately.”
Again, the sergeant gulped audibly. “Yes, ma’am.”
Just as he reached for the phone, the door behind him opened. A captain came through it with Luke trailing. Both were laughing, as was the detective behind them.
Sorcha exchanged a confused glance with Elana.
“Ah! And there she is.” Luke gestured toward Helly. “Imp? Tell them where I was night before last.”
“Streaming The Devil’s Advocate with me. Why?”
Luke slapped the captain’s arm so hard that the man actually staggered sideways. “Told you.”
Rubbing his arm, the captain nodded. “Fine. But I still want to know how your print got on that student.”
“That makes two of us.” Luke moved to stand next to Elana who continued to look like she was ready to collect badges and kick asses.
“Is my detective cleared?” Elana asked in a tone that let everyone know how displeased she was.
The police captain had the good sense to blush. “Sorry. We just had to talk to him. He’s the only lead we had, and this case is under scrutiny.”
“Understood, but from what I was told by the ME’s office, your suspect should be Cujo not my detective.”
Sorcha pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. The police captain wasn’t nearly as amused.
Luke cleared his throat. “It’s okay, Captain. No harm. No foul. They were actually polite. Just doing their jobs, which I respect.”
“Glad you understand.” The police captain extended his hand to Luke who shook it.
Then Luke turned to Sorcha and widened his eyes to let her know that he knew something he was dying to impart to her. “Shall we, Captain?” he asked Reyes who looked at him suspiciously.
“Sure.” But before she left, she had one last thing to say to the police captain. “I hope the next time you want a chat with one of my people, you’ll give me a courtesy call.”
“I will.”
“Thank you,” she said coldly, before following them out of the station.
Luke didn’t stop or speak until they were beside Elana’s gray Toyota. He glanced to his car, then lowered his voice. “Someone’s setting me up.”
Sorcha felt her jaw go slack. “What?”
He nodded slowly. “No idea why or who, but this isn’t going to stop.”
“How do you know that?” Elana asked.
He gave her a dry stare. “Canine shapeshifter? My fingerprint? That didn’t happen by accident, and you know why.”
Sorcha wanted to believe him, but there was one thing that bugged her. “How could they get your fingerprint if you didn’t have contact with the student?”
Luke arched a brow at her question. “Simple. They couldn’t get my fingerprint if they wanted to. Period. It’s not mine.”
There was a peculiar sensation in the air.
One that chilled her to the bone as an extremely preposterous idea went through her head. But it would make sense. “You don’t have fingerprints, do you?”
He held his hand up so that she could see the tips of his fingers were completely smooth, without a single ridge. “I do not. In Hell, they burn off.”
“Then how did they plant evidence?” Sorcha was so confused.
He gave her a bland stare. “Someone used the fake files we made when I had to be printed for the job.”
Imp laughed. “Did they try to take them again in the police station?”
“Thankfully, no. Since I had an alibi…thank you, Imp. They didn’t process me. At the moment, I’m cleared.”
Elana narrowed her gaze on him. “Really cleared or Luke cleared?”
“Does it matter?” he asked.
“I just need to know if they’ll show up at the office later to arrest you again.”
“Nah. It should last until we find the killer. At least, I hope.”
Sorcha wasn’t so quick to be relieved. “Are our personnel files digitized?”
Elana cursed under her breath as she caught on to what Sorcha was thinking. “They’re not. I don’t want any information about my department online to be hacked and disseminated.”
“Then someone was in our offices.” A tic started in Luke’s jaw.
“Are you sure it wasn’t one of our own?” Sorcha asked.
Elana shook her head. “I vet my people too thoroughly. No one would do this to Luke.”