Chapter 4 #2
He closed the cell door and winced at the clank. Why did he feel like such a heel? And why didn’t she stop smiling at him? He’d arrested her. Fingerprinted her. Took her mug shot. And now she was sitting on a cot that sagged dangerously to the floor. And still she smiled.
“The lighting in here is criminal,” Princess Muffin Top said, examining a paw as she scooted over on the cot to make room for Adeline.
“Pun intended. And is this a cot or a medieval torture device? I genuinely cannot tell.” She turned to Adeline.
“How many years have we been complaining about this cot?”
Adeline laughed and stroked the cat’s head. “Years.”
“Incoming, Adeline,” Officer Casswell called out from her position near the front window.
The front door opened, and a silver-haired woman in an expensive raspberry-colored pantsuit strolled inside, her high heels clicking sharply across the hardwood floor.
She ignored both officers and Beulah, who had slipped back in at some point.
When, he wasn’t sure. The regal woman came to a stop next to him, but her eyes had never left the woman inside the cell.
Mason knew who she was, of course. She’d sat in on the interview panel when he’d gotten the job.
Even over Broom Chat, he could tell Lavinia Beaumont had the kind of presence that made a supernatural sit up straighter without realizing they’d done so.
It wasn’t until she’d come to a full stop that she looked over at him, running her cool gray eyes from his badge to his boots. “You know who I am?”
He nodded once. “I do. Lavinia Beaumont.”
She arched a brow at his clipped tone. “You arrested my granddaughter on your first day. That’s either very brave or very foolish, Chief Wolfe.”
“It’s the law, ma’am.”
“Yes.” She gave him another once-over before turning to face her granddaughter. “It is. It’s the law. And when you break the law, you must face consequences. No matter who you are.”
Adeline smiled from behind the bars. “Hello, Grandmother Lavinia. Lovely to see you, too.”
The older woman frowned as she smoothed back her perfectly polished silver bob. “Which cause this time, Adeline?”
“The squish-squids. You can’t allow them to be moved from their habitat, Grandmother Lavinia. It will not only harm them, but it will harm the marsh.”
Lavinia Beaumont sighed. “Of course it’s the squids.” She turned to Mason. “Is she being charged?”
Mason cleared his throat. “Ivan Johansson hasn’t come in yet to file, but I’m expecting him any minute now.”
Lavinia waved a wrinkled hand through the air. “He won’t be coming in, Chief. I’ve already taken care of it.”
Adeline shot up from the cot, her easy smile vanishing. “You can’t do that! I want my day in court!”
The older woman frowned and looked down her nose at her granddaughter. “That will not happen. Do you know how embarrassing it is when—”
“Oh, leave her be, Vinnie,” Beulah snapped from behind her desk.
Lavinia Beaumont’s nostrils flared. “Excuse me? You know perfectly well my name is Lavinia Beau—”
“I’m your elder,” Beulah snapped. “Don’t you take that tone with me.”
“By a year,” Lavinia ground out through gritted teeth.
Mason looked back and forth between the two women, caught somewhere between fascination and the urge to back slowly out of the room. In all his years undercover with PADA, he’d never had to break up a fight between two women over eighty. But today seemed to be filled with a day of firsts for him.
Adeline sighed from inside the cell. “Fine. We can go.”
“I’ll need to process you out,” Mason said. “Get the paperwork around and—”
Lavinia waved him away. “That won’t be necessary, Chief. She’ll just put it up on the wall in a frame next to her other three hundred arrest records.”
“I’ll take some paperwork,” Princess Muffin Top said from the cot. “I can line my litter box with it.”
Adeline threw back her head and laughed, and Mason was again captivated by the pretty witch. Who was this woman who blatantly ignored the law, hexed trolls in public, and chained herself to heavy machinery, but was soft enough to name a squid Herman and cradle it against her chest like a baby?
He unlocked the cell door and stepped back.
“Come along, Adeline.” Lavinia Beaumont grabbed hold of her granddaughter’s arm and all but dragged her toward the exit.
“Wait.” Adeline pulled free and hurried back to the counter where the bowl of water sat. She scooped up Herman from the water, and the little creature cooed sleepily and wrapped his tentacles around her forearm. “Okay. Let’s go, Princess Muffin Top.”
“Ciao, Wolfman,” the Maine Coon said as she swished past Mason, her fluffy tail smacking against his legs.
“See you tonight, Cassie?” Adeline called before the door closed behind her.
“You bet!” Officer Casswell called back.
The station went quiet. Or at least, as quiet as it could what with the loud cheers outside from the protesters. They’d obviously caught sight of Adeline coming out of the station.
“What’s tonight?” he asked, then immediately wanted to kick himself. He didn’t want to know. Why did he keep asking questions to things he didn’t want to know about?
Officer Casswell grinned over her coffee mug as she waggled her eyebrows. “Full moon.”
Mason scoffed. “I’m a werewolf. I know it’s a full moon.”
“It’s naked moon dancing for witches.”
Mason couldn’t stop the images of Adeline dancing naked under the moon, no matter how hard he tried. It took him a few seconds to find his voice. “Seriously? That’s a thing?”
Officer Casswell laughed. “Are you fishing for an invitation, Chief?”
Mason stared at her...then turned and walked back into his office without another word.
He had another desk in the main room with the others, and he planned on using that as much as possible and leaving his office for meetings and other important things…
but right now he wanted some privacy. Something told him he was going to earn every cent he made in Moonlight Bay.
As he sat down behind his desk, he had to wonder if it was too soon to ask for a raise.