8. Graeme
Graeme
T rent Highmore had been torn limb from limb in my cousin’s bedroom.
My cousin, however, had escaped, at least physically, unscathed.
Mentally, emotionally, he was in a weakened, battered state, and therefore had not appreciated being poked and prodded, having his nails scraped, his hair combed, his penis swabbed, or the hundreds of pictures taken of his naked body.
Then he was told to shift, and it was all repeated.
When he was given permission to return to his human form, only then was he allowed to rest. Small abrasions were bandaged—likely from his fight earlier in the evening—drugs were administered, and he was allowed to hydrate, which was, I was certain, the most helpful.
Shifting required fluids, so replenishing those were the first step in recovery.
Standing near the head of the bed as my mate outlined what he knew, and didn’t, about the evening, I was by turns enraged and horrified.
Those feelings were in sharp contrast to the warm ones I felt for my mate.
He was, again, impressive. The others deferred to him.
Some of it, perhaps, because he was the only wolf on the case, so they were taking their cues from him.
But as they regarded him, as their gazes flicked to him and then away, I saw only respect in their eyes.
Our family lawyer, Agatha Chun, had given Remy permission to speak to the police, but only in reference to the omegas.
Anything else, anything pertaining to the murder or other charges that might come up, fell to me to make a decision on.
She counseled that if the police wanted any footage or pictures Remy might, or might not, be in possession of, they should supply me with warrants and subpoenas, and stipulations would need to be secured before anything could be shared.
When I told Avery and the others that we would hand over everything Remy might have, Agatha left, annoyed with me as usual.
I understood; she was there to protect me, to protect my cousin, and as I was certain Remy was guilty of exploiting and betraying omegas, but not murder, I wasn’t going to impede the investigation by dragging out the judicial process.
“Mr. Talmadge,” Avery began gently, putting his phone down on the rolling tray table beside the bed. “Now that your lawyer has left you in the hands of your cyne , and he has agreed that you should cooperate with us, I’m going to record this conversation while we all take notes.”
Except for a faint whimper, my cousin remained silent.
“Now, Mr. Talmadge, will you please walk us through the events of the evening as you recall them.”
He took a breath and slowly turned his head, his eyes lifting to me. “I need to know what my cyne is going to do to me first.”
“No,” I replied flatly. “Tell them everything now, and then we’ll talk.”
Trembling hard, reacting, I was certain, to the utter revulsion in my voice, he rolled his head on the pillow, returning his gaze to Avery. “I don’t—it was just a regular night, like all the other gathering nights.”
Which was why Remy was never at the parties, he was at his house putting omegas into mock heat for money on those nights.
“And the omegas,” Avery prompted him, “can you tell us who was there?”
“Not by name off the top of my head. Most of them were nineteen or twenty and had already attended their first gatherings, but weren’t successful at securing a bonding.
The brand-new omegas, the debutants, young and fresh, they rarely come to me.
I get a few here and there, those who want to assure themselves a quick bonding, but it’s typically the older ones who are starting to panic. ”
“Thank you,” Avery replied. “Please continue.”
“I was in the living room, giving them the rundown of how things work, how I take each one into my bedroom, but the doorbell kept ringing, so I had to start the explanation over and over, and soon there were more omegas than I was expecting.” He went to rub his forehead, but the bandage stopped him, and his hand dropped back down beside him on the bed.
“I didn’t know what was going on at first, but then I remembered that my cousin, him,” he whispered, “Graeme, he was supposed to attend the gathering. He’d missed others, but for whatever reason, everyone was pretty sure he was going to show up to this one. ”
“Did you attend, Mr. Davenport?” Detective Ness took that moment to confirm.
“I did,” I replied.
He nodded and then looked to Remy. “So the possibility of Mr. Davenport attending this gathering in particular, that’s why more than the usual number of omegas were at your place?”
“Yes. They come to the house, I put them into heat, and they go from my place to the gathering. Some of them have cars waiting, some drive themselves—that part’s not important to me, but I do tell them if they’re not having someone circle the block, they need to park a street over to avoid suspicion. ”
“So you’re telling us there were extra omegas at your place tonight.” Detective Massey was clarifying.
“Yes,” Remy answered. “Like I said, because of Graeme. He’s a cyne . He leads a holt . There’s not a lot of them to begin with, and even fewer who aren’t mated. When he attends a gathering, a party where omegas are presented, all of them show up. No one wants to miss out on––”
“Move on, Remy,” I demanded icily.
“Please, Mr. Davenport,” Detective Massey urged me, “let him speak.”
I was quiet as Remy shivered.
“I was—it was hard to hear all the omegas chirping about my cousin being there and how excited they were, but I know better, right? I know what my cousin wants, and it’s not some throw-away omega.
He was only there because he had to be, but he’d never settle for a waifish little doll.
It’s so stupid that they don’t just say what an alpha is to save everyone from wasting their time.
Like with Graeme, he wants a beta or a gamma, someone strong.
And I wanted to tell the girls they were especially out of luck, because he’s not bi like me; he’s gay, and he’s looking for a––”
“Never mind,” Detective Massey cut him off. “I thought this was gonna be important, but you can stop with all the bullshit and whatever the fuck you’re tryin’ to do here. We don’t care who your cousin wants to fuck, Mr. Talmadge. Unlike you, he’s not a suspect.”
“What?” Remy gasped. “No. You can’t think I did anything to––”
“We do,” Avery assured him sharply, but then quieted his tone, softened it purposely, “until you give us reason to believe differently.”
Remy stared at him a long moment. “Okay. Once I saw how many omegas were there, I knew there was no way I could put them all into heat, so I made a call to my friend Trent.”
No one said a word, all of them waiting on him, all with notebooks in hand, poised to take down every new word he uttered.
“Trent was the only one I told about my business, because I knew I could trust him to keep it quiet.”
Of course Highmore wouldn’t tell; he was a predator himself.
Remy had taken a couple of the omegas back to his bedroom where the camera was set up, and was readying them when Highmore came in with two more.
Finding out that Remy had been putting omegas into fake heat, was getting paid, and then was blackmailing them if they secured a mate, was nauseating. Having to listen to the play-by-play, I was thankful I hadn’t eaten.
“I had to explain to Trent that most of the omegas were virgins. He didn’t need to give them oral, he just needed to use his fingers, gently, and that would be enough.”
My stomach lurched, and I rolled my neck to try and displace the tension that had settled at the top of my spine.
Avery cleared his throat. “So you gave him those instructions, and was he good with it?”
“He was. Once he started, the omegas calmed down, and soon they were all whimpering and whining, like they do, and he was great. He told them good luck and good hunting and got them out. He was even faster than I was, and we got them done and sent on their way, but then there were stragglers.”
Silence in the room. I could hear the ticking of the Breguet Classique 5177 my grandfather had given me when I graduated from Oxford. I was glad, in that moment, he wasn’t Remy’s grandfather, only mine and Stone’s. I couldn’t wait for Avery to meet him.
“First there was a girl at the door, so young, I didn’t think she was eighteen.
I was fairly certain I hadn’t seen her picture in the paper; I comb through the society pages so I can match the announcements with a face, for reference.
But she was young, like I said, so I was going to ask her how old she was, but before I could even get the words out, there was a man, the same one who’d been there earlier that night, and the week before, and he yelled, grabbed me by the jacket and yanked me outside. ”
“You didn’t know him?” Avery questioned.
“No, I…I mean, I recognized him by his size and build, but I don’t know who he was. I don’t know his name. And I’d never seen him before he came to my house the first time.”
“Did you get any pictures of him?”
“Yes, but it didn’t matter.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. He was wearing a hoodie and a gaiter or balaclava or—I don’t know, but I just couldn’t see his face at all.”
“Okay,” Avery prodded gently, “please continue.”
“The first time he knocked on my door, he threw me up against the wall when I answered, said he knew what was going on, knew what I was doing with the omegas and didn’t give a shit, but what he did care about was a girl with platinum hair.”
Avery and the other three detectives were all listening intently, no one saying a word, not wanting to interrupt my cousin.
Remy swallowed hard. “He said as long as I turned away any girls with platinum hair, he wouldn’t tell my cyne what was going on.”