Chapter 71

Gryph

“The car that followed Trevor here is still parked outside,” I told the others as we prepared to leave the club. This was the tricky part. We all needed to get to our cars safely, and we had no clue what was waiting for us outside.

“I’ll go out first and talk to them,” Rainer offered.

“No!” Evie nearly shouted before struggling to seem unaffected by his suggestion. “It just seems foolish for only one person to go out there to talk to them.”

“I’ll go with him,” I told them all. “Before anyone argues, we also have security outside.”

“You should let me come, too,” Melina insisted.

I nodded. “Good idea, Melina. There are few people who aren’t afraid of you.”

I looked at Trevor to see if he was going to argue about his witch confronting the people in the car outside.

Trevor raised an eyebrow. “I’m not about to argue that Melina can’t take care of herself. She’s much more powerful than I am. This also doesn’t strike me as all that dangerous.”

“How do you figure that?” I asked.

“LaCroix isn’t likely to bring someone with him to kidnap Julia,” Trevor replied.

“I’m not ready to assume he didn’t hire people to help him,” I told Trevor.

As I walked out of the club with Melina and Rainer, tension was radiating through my body.

“I know those guys,” Melina stated as we neared the car. I recognized them, too.

These weren’t the two men who’d followed Trevor’s car. The outside security hadn’t noticed them change places with the original occupants of the car. I was certain that would bother Joey later. I suspected they’d done their best to keep an eye on the car, but the activity outside the club had kept them busier than any of us had expected.

In the car sat two shade detectives. Both had been assigned to Melina’s case when she was being threatened by a crazy half-werewolf. Unlike Detectives Hardy and Mason, Detectives Anson and Morelli were a true odd couple. Detective Anson was watching us with beady brown eyes. He was stuffing a donut in his mouth, looking very much like the cliché cop. As for Detective Morelli, he regarded us from the passenger seat with a smirk. His green eyes seemed to glow in the dim lighting.

“What are you doing out here, detectives,” I asked from the side of the car.

Detective Morelli’s eyes moved along Melina’s body. “Would you believe me if I told you we were hoping the lovely Miss Blackwood would come out to see us?”

Detective Anson sighed heavily as he dusted donut crumbs off his rumpled shirt before climbing out of the car. He leaned his arms on the top and looked across at us. “Sorry for Morelli’s lack of professionalism. As you can see, he hasn’t learned much since the last time you saw him.”

Detective Morelli’s face sobered as he stepped out of the car. “I apologize for my unprofessional remark, Miss Blackwood,” he told her with sincerity. “Considering what we’re investigating, I shouldn’t be joking around.”

“What are you investigating?” I asked.

“Mr. Dupree called to tell us about your concerns involving Desmond LaCroix and the possibility of him having infiltrated the police department,” Detective Anson explained.

“Trevor knew you’d be here?” Melina asked irritably.

“No,” Morelli replied. “We had our doubts about his story at first.”

“After we met with the detectives involved with Miss Dupree’s case, we decided it was worth looking into. Mr. Dupree mentioned his concern that something might happen when you went out tonight, so we arranged protection. Two other officers followed you here, and we took their place as soon as we could.”

“We needed to run all this by our lieutenant,” Morelli added.

“So, you think we’re right about LaCroix posing as one of the detectives?” I asked.

Anson shook his head. “I’m not so sure about that. It’s obvious neither detective cares much about doing their job, but this doesn’t seem to be new behavior for them.”

“No one’s had any personality change?” Melina asked skeptically. “Desmond must have someone inside the police.”

“I agree,” I added. “LaCroix is posing as someone at that police department.”

Anson nodded. “I agree, but we still have no proof. We’d like to make sure Miss Dupree has protection while the investigation is going on.”

“You aren’t going to push for protective custody, are you?” I asked.

“Why would we do that?” Morelli asked, looking baffled.

“The detectives working her case tried to insist she go into protective custody,” I explained. “They said she’d be safer with them.”

Anson studied me for a moment. “That’s unusual. We generally only recommend protective custody if we believe the person is staying in a particularly unsafe area.”

“It’s perfectly secure,” I assured him. “She’s staying with me. Since the detectives don’t know where I live, they can’t use that as an argument.”

“This just keeps getting stranger,” Morelli mused.

“There has to be something else going on,” Anson mused. “Why would both detectives push for Miss Dupree to go into protective custody?”

“Maybe LaCroix convinced the real detective that this was a good idea,” Rainer suggested.

“They’d also need to convince their lieutenant, at the very least. There’s a chance they’d need to convince the Captain,” Morelli explained. “We don’t simply put people in protective custody. It’s too costly and hard to manage.”

“They do it all the time in movies,” Melina mused.

“Human police might do it more than we do,” Anson began. “We deal with too many variables involving all the preternatural beings to come up with an adequate safe house.”

“This just keeps getting stranger,” I grumbled.

“Would it be possible to meet with you tomorrow afternoon?” Anson asked. “We still have a lot of questions, but this isn’t the best place to talk.”

“Sure,” I agreed. “Let me give you my number so we can arrange a place and time.”

“We already have it,” Morelli told me with a smirk.

“We also know where you live,” Anson added. “I agree it’s a safe place.”

I was honestly shocked by their admission. “How did you find out?”

“We’re good detectives,” Morelli boasted. “I simply hacked into the Council of Witches’ records. You had to provide your address and phone number when you applied for your security clearance.”

“We’ll be in touch to arrange a time to meet tomorrow,” Anson told me. “We’ll also stay out here to make sure you don’t have any problems when you leave.”

I nodded and started back toward the club when Melina’s voice stopped me. “You had better find out what’s going on. I’m going to be seriously pissed if Julia gets hurt.”

I grinned, grateful that my witch had so many people looking out for her.