Chapter Six
Miles
Higgins walked out of the interrogation room, so I walked toward the observation room’s door to meet him in the hall, but he rushed in before I had the chance. Damn, he was fast.
“Thank you for coming, Miles,” Higgins said, offering me a tired and grim smile.
I gave him a nod. “He lied about everything.”
Higgins sighed and ran a hand over his face, rubbed at his temples, then ran a hand through his hair. “That’s what I thought. Fuck.” He dropped his head back, staring at the ceiling as he sighed.
“Yeah… everything he said about the feed company and having to return a bad batch of food, it was all lies. I’m sure you knew that already.”
“I assumed.”
“I could’ve told you that, Gerard,” Cunningham said, moving to stand close to Higgins and eyeing me like I was an unwanted bug.
Sigh.
Higgins stared at his partner for a moment, his mouth flat, before he looked at me. “How’d you know there were cages inside the boxes?”
I glanced at the stranger in the room with us, then sighed because there was no getting around this. I didn’t want Cunningham to know what I could do, but here we were. “I saw it.”
Higgins’s eyebrows rose. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m a hundred percent certain they’re trafficking faeries.”
He let out a very long sigh, looking and sounding exhausted. “That’s what I figured. Just to be clear, was anything he said in there the truth?”
“Nope. Not a single thing.”
“Fucking hell.”
Before I could respond, Cunningham interjected. “Why did you bring him in, Higs? You and I already know Ferguson’s a lying bastard, and it’s not like his… his… his empath testimony will hold up in court.” The way he said empath made it clear it was a terrible curse word in his eyes.
Lovely. He was a bigot.
Sola chirped angrily at the man, and I had to hide my smile as I petted her to calm her down.
Higgins frowned at his partner, looking really displeased with him.
I wasn’t very happy with the guy myself, but he was, unfortunately, telling the truth.
Society as a whole might finally believe what empaths and other practitioners could do, but that didn’t mean they trusted us.
And since my word alone was all they had as evidence, it didn’t count. At all.
The courts really needed to get with the times and start utilizing people like me, but they wouldn’t even take a victim’s own word as truth.
I’d heard that when the agency used a necromancer to bring back a murder victim, and the victim themselves told police who murdered them, they couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
At least not until they had other evidence to back up the claim.
Sure, necromancers said the souls they brought back couldn’t lie, but that didn’t mean other people—the government especially—believed them. Only other necromancers would know whether they were lying or not, and people didn’t trust them.
Thinking about necromancers made me think of Chaos, the kid necromancer who’d helped Winter and me with the gnomes over the weekend, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he and his twin brother Aeson had eaten today.
I could only assume they were at least getting the free meals at school, although I knew those meals weren’t actually enough food for teenagers—they gave elementary schoolers the same exact portions.
Chaos and Aeson were both far too skinny, and it was clear they weren’t eating enough meals for the growing teenagers they were. I wondered if Winter and I could find out where they lived so we could drop off some food or have some delivered. They’d never even have to know it was from us.
“Miles?”
Shaking off the random thoughts, I refocused on Higgins. “What?”
He grimaced, but before he could say anything, Cunningham interrupted. Again. “Thanks for coming in, but we have it from here.”
I blinked at the guy, unimpressed with his territorial bullshit. It wasn’t like I wanted to be here. It wasn’t like I was trying to come back. It wasn’t like I wanted to be partnered with Higgins again.
In fact, it wasn’t like I needed to be here at all.
So I shrugged. “Fine.” Then I headed for the door.
“Wait!” Higgins called out before I could open it, and I paused. Probably out of habit after being his partner for so long. “Please just wait.”
I glanced at him, then at his partner, then focused on Higgins.
“I’m clearly not wanted here, Gerard.” I could tell that using his first name for the first time in I didn’t even know how long affected him.
“I don’t want to step on any toes, okay?
I told you what I saw. I told you Ferguson was lying.
The guy’s clearly trafficking faeries, and probably faerie parts too.
You need to put a stop to it. Maybe follow that delivery truck and see where it goes.
Follow the trail. Follow the money. You’ve got this. ”
“Miles…”
I sent him a sad smile, then reached over to pat his arm, surprising us both. I never touched other people. At least… not before Winter came into my life.
Clearing my throat, I said, “I mean it, Gerard. You’ve got this.”
He took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
After staring at him for a few long seconds, fond memories coming to the surface, a pang of guilt shot through me.
“Listen…” I glanced at Cunningham and lowered my voice.
“The next time you want to, you know, hang out, just… just come over. You don’t need to pull me into all of this to see me, okay? ”
He blinked in surprise. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really.”
Sola added a friendly trill, clearly agreeing with me.
His smile was small, but it lit up his eyes with pleasure. “I’m gonna take you up on that offer.”
“Good.” I dropped my hand, sent him a small smile and a nod, then glared at the other man in the room, saying, “Nice meeting you, Cunningham.” It was clear I meant asshole when I said his name.
Higgins’s eyes widened in surprise, and Cunningham’s narrowed as he said, “Right back atcha, empath.” He said empath like it was a dirty word again.
Higgins turned sharply to his partner. “Hey! We don’t discriminate against anyone, let alone an ex-detective.”
As he continued his lecture, I slipped out of the room and rushed toward the elevator, hoping no one else noticed me. Sola rubbed against my cheek, comfortingly, and I somehow made it to the elevator without anyone stopping me.
As soon as the doors closed, I leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. God, I hated going there. I really, really hated it.
I hated the memories it brought back.
I hated the looks I got.
I hated that a part of me missed it.
Sola let out another trill, then started chirping, like she was singing a song and trying to cheer me up. It was sweet, and I gave her scratches for it.
But I needed something else.
Without missing a beat, I pulled out my phone and hit call before I could stop myself. Winter answered on the second ring.
“Hey, handsome.” Just hearing his voice helped ease some of the tension. “You still at the station?”
“Unfortunately. But I’m on the elevator and on my way out.”
“What’s wrong?”
Something inside of me softened at that.
After only really getting to know each other so recently, I was surprised he could tell something was wrong when I was trying my best to hide it.
“Just… brings back a lot of memories, and not all of them are good. I… I don’t want to be here anymore, and I… well, I want to see you.”
“I’m here if you want to talk, okay? And I want to see you too.”
How was this man so good to me? “Want to meet at my house in half an hour? Bring Goliath.”
“That sounds perfect. Do you need company while you drive home or would you rather be alone?” He really did know me well.
“I wouldn’t mind the company. I kinda wish I would’ve taken you up on your offer to come with me.” I felt my cheeks flush at the admission.
Winter was quiet for a beat, and I felt my cheeks heat even more. But then he said, “I’m sorry you had a rough time, but that wasn’t a one-time offer. If you need backup or just another person with you, you can call me. Anytime. Anywhere.”
I sucked in some air. “I… um… thank you.”
“Anytime.”
“I’m not coming back here… at least not anytime soon. Not for this case.”
“Is… that what you really want?”
“Yes.” I answered without delay, because I knew what I wanted, and it certainly wasn’t dealing with all the bullshit that came with this place. Give me faeries any day… even if they were all gnomes.
“Okay. That’s good, then, sugar butt.”
“I think so, sweet cheeks.”
There was silence for a beat, and then he barked out a laugh that made me smile.
“Hey, you started it.”
He snorted. “That’s fair.”
Winter didn’t hesitate to keep talking, telling me a story about Goliath chasing a groundhog at the dog park.
He had me laughing in minutes.