Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Otis
I arrived at the CCC at the same time as Louis and Hailey. It was Hailey’s first day at work, and I wanted to get in early enough to introduce her to team two. I was going to teach her the basics, and hopefully she’d be a natural and could work the phones on both shifts.
First, I had to introduce her to the team. Louis bounded up to me and slapped me on the shoulder, Hailey trailing behind him with a soft smile on her face. She was wearing a pretty white lace dress with blue ribbon straps. She looked… angelic. I almost swallowed my tongue.
“Ready for your first day?” I asked her lightly, and she nodded.
“Nervous. I haven’t done anything like this before. I’m a little worried I’ll mess something up, and someone will get hurt.”
Yeah, that was why she was perfect for this job. She cared, and that was more than I could say about most people. “Don’t stress. We won’t leave you on your own for a couple of weeks yet, and we are always just a call away if you have questions.”
She released a soft, relieved sigh, and I directed her toward the elevator. Louis bounced around her like a puppy, talking nonstop. I hadn’t seen him this happy in a long time, and I wondered if it had anything to do with the sweet smelling human beside us.
Obviously it had everything to do with Hailey, I just hoped he didn’t get his heart broken. Louis was as loyal as he was friendly, and I worried a little that having Eric and Hailey in his home was going to backfire when they moved into their own place and he was alone again.
A problem for another day.
Today’s problems became evident when the doors opened and two uniformed officers from the Central Valley PD stood in the center’s waiting room. We worked with them often, but I knew they weren’t here for a meeting between the crisis team and the PD.
Chet was leaning against the reception desk, and his eyes flashed to mine. It was only because we’d worked together so often that I could decipher the look. They were here for Hailey.
The human officer, Silver, gave me a toothy, human smile as he reached forward and shook my hand. “Otis, good to see you, man.” He patted Louis on the back. “You too, Louis.”
I grunted my agreement and turned to the other officer.
He was an orc. Buck Nextra wasn’t a bad cop, but Eric was proof that orcs held a different belief system than the rest of us.
They liked guns, beer, and giving the finger to authority.
Nextra ending up as a cop was an anomaly, but I knew he’d been given several warnings for excessive force when apprehending suspects.
The real anomaly was Eric. How he ended up as a creature rights lawyer was an actual miracle.
Officer Silver turned to Hailey. “Hailey Swoon? My name is Officer Steven Silver with the Central Valley Police Department. We’d just like to ask you a few questions.”
Hailey stared at him with wide, panicked eyes. “What about?” she squeaked.
“The disappearance of a regular from your previous job.” Silver’s voice was neutral, but Nextra’s nose was screwed up like he smelled something bad. Could he tell she was bonded to another orc? Silver looked over at Chet. “Could we borrow your interview room?”
Chet tipped his head toward the door to our conference room, his own gaze on Hailey and a frown on his face. I hadn’t told Chet about Syke ashing the human, but he knew about Eric mate bonding Hailey. Was he going to toss her out?
“I’ll come with,” I stated firmly.
“That won’t be necessary, Otis,” Silver started, but I glared at him.
“I think it is.” I looked between him and Nextra with a raised eyebrow. “As is her right.”
Hailey reached down and gripped my index finger, her tiny hands almost laughably small wrapped around mine. I waved the officers into the conference room then herded Hailey inside.
Louis watched her go, his face closed down. I shut the door softly behind me.
Silver gave her a reassuring smile. “We just have a few questions, Miss Swoon. This isn’t a formal interview or anything, just an inquiry,” Silver told her softly.
Hailey swallowed hard and gave Silver a shaky smile. “Apologies. I just have a little trauma around police officers from my childhood.”
Now it was my turn to frown at her. What trauma?
Nextra leaned forward. “Because of your parents’ ties to the preservers of humanity movement?”
My inhaled breath echoed around the room. Hailey flinched, dropping my hand. “Yes. They died in the riots when I was nine.”
The riots. Such an innocuous term for a bloody two days in both creature and human history.
A roughly coordinated group of black-clad humans marched on the government buildings, demanding that legislation revoke creatures’ rights and that protections and segregations were put in place instead.
When they were turned away, the more disgruntled and hate-filled faction branched off the following day and descended on places of worship, creature run daycares, and the lower Southside where so many creatures lived, armed with guns and knives, and they went on a killing spree.
Forty creatures died before crisis teams and PD mobilized.
Dozens of humans clashed with the authorities over several hours, and the death toll by the end of the day was in the triple digits.
It was a bleak day.
Hailey’s parents had died there trying to murder my kind. I’d still been in the training academy, but they’d prepared us just in case they needed backup. Chet had been on the front lines.
The scars of the riots had sat heavily across the face of Central Valley for the following decade and a half.
“Yet you mate bonded an orc? I can smell it on you,” Nextra accused.
Hailey sucked in a deep breath and glared at the orc. “My mate is none of your business.” She turned back to Silver. “It was a traumatic day for a lot of people. I’m working through it. Ask your questions, Officer.”
“We are looking into the disappearance of a human man by the name of Graham Sawyer. Do you know him?”
Hailey shook her head. “The name doesn’t sound familiar.”
Silver slid a photo across the table. “What about his face?”
She picked up the photo and stared at it.
The man in the picture looked cruel. It was in the glare he gave the camera and the way one side of his lip curled up.
“I had an altercation with him at the diner once. He doesn’t normally sit in my area, but we were busy that day because of the new apartment buildings going up across the road. ”
“You only met him once?” Silver prompted, and she nodded. “What was the altercation about?”
“He didn’t like that I was serving the creatures before he’d gotten his food.”
“Then what happened?”
“He grabbed me, told me he wanted to talk to the manager and called me a bitch. Some other customers demanded he let me go, and he stalked out.”
“You didn’t want to file a police report? Grabbing you was assault,” Silver chastised.
She let out a bitter laugh. “I’m a waitress, Officer. If every waitress submitted a police report when they were harassed by entitled customers, you’d need a whole new department.”
Nextra leaned forward. “Did you see him again?”
I tried not to tense.
“No. He left the diner, and I went on with my shift.” I inhaled, trying to scent the lie, but there was nothing. That was actually pretty impressive… or scary.
Officer Nextra leaned back in his chair. “Did you know Graham Sawyer was also a member of the preservers of humanity movement?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t, no. Like I said, I met the man once, but I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“He wasn’t an old friend of your parents?”
She shrugged. “Not that I remember, but I’ve blocked out most of my childhood, Officer Nextra.
I don’t remember my parents fondly, if that’s what you’re insinuating.
They starved me, beat me, and worse. I have no love for them or any of their friends.
” She stared down the orc. “I hope you find this man, but honestly, if he tripped and fell on his way home and the city rats ate him, it would probably be the least he deserved.”
They stared at her a little longer, but she didn’t falter. Finally, they stood, and Silver gave her a card. “Call us if you remember anything else.”
We all knew she wouldn’t.
Silver left the room, but Nextra stopped in front of Hailey. She stiffened her spine, and I stepped up behind her. She wouldn’t be bullied.
“Tell Eric I’ll be seeing him,” Nextra rumbled ominously.
Hailey drew herself to her full height, which was still really short. “Is that a threat?”
Nextra grinned, his tusks glinting under the soft lighting. “Just a statement, Miss Swoon.”
Then he was gone.
We stepped out into the waiting room, and Louis gathered Hailey up in his arms, squeezing her tightly. “Are you okay? You smell stressed.” He held her tightly.
“Did you hear all that?” she asked, and he nodded against her head. “You have to know that I don’t share my parents’ beliefs, right? The only monsters who have ever hurt me have all been human. I don’t—” She choked on the words.
Louis kissed her head, holding her tightly. “I know, I know.”
Hailey cleared her throat, stepping out of his arms. She rubbed her forearm over her eyes and pasted a watery smile on her face. “What a first impression,” she said to Chet. “Uh, I’m Hailey Swoon.”
Chet raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I know. We’ve met before, Miss Swoon.”