Pete ticked off the items on his fingers. “She heard something, saw something, knows something that can implicate the person who murdered her mother.”
Simon huffed. “She was in a stall teaching Boo Bear how to poop in the toilet. Then she went to the train, which she was supposed to do, and came back to find her mother, which she wasn’t supposed to do.” That last part could have gotten the pup killed. “And she’s short, even shorter than Meg. What could she have seen with all those grown humans rushing around to catch their trains?”
“You’re probably right about Lizzy being safe now.” Despite saying the words, Pete didn’t sound like he really believed that. Then he added, “However, I’ve heard that Celia Borden may challenge Monty’s right of custody. And sometimes when there is a fight like this, one of the people will hire someone to snatch the child away from the parent who has custody.”
Simon stiffened. “That female would take the pup away from her pack?”
Pete hesitated. “I’m not saying Celia Borden would try, but you have to admit, you have excellent security, which is something I’m sure Lieutenant Montgomery values right now.”
What they had was a lot of sharp teeth and a taste for special meat.
Probably best not to mention that.
He would have to talk to the other members of the Business Association to figure out where Lieutenant Montgomery and his pup could live—temporarily. He and the rest of the residents weren’t ready to have humans living in the Courtyard beyond the area designated for business.
Except Meg.
“Here.” Simon held out a key. “This opens the outside door and both doors upstairs.”
Pete pocketed the key. “Thanks.” He hesitated. “Do you wish you hadn’t started this, hadn’t changed the dynamics between the Others and humans?”
That was a bit like wishing you had taken another path through the trees and caught the deer instead of taking a tumble and landing in a creek. He hadn’t wanted to become this tangled up with humans, but the choices he made now were still aimed at benefiting the terra indigene, and Meg, first.
He didn’t think Pete wanted to hear that. Still, it was better if the human understood now. “Some of you have become like the Intuits—you’re considered not edible because you have made a bargain with the terra indigene that will benefit both sides.” He looked at Pete and let a hint of the Wolf show through the human form. “But most humans are clever meat. They are also predators that came to our land and keep trying to encroach on our territory. We won’t allow it. We never have. That’s something humans tend to forget.”
* * *
Vlad pushed his chair back when Merri Lee, Ruthie, Theral, and Eve Denby walked into HGR’s office and lined up on the other side of the desk.
“If this is another girl intervention thing, go talk to Simon,” he said. “If this is about Meg and Simon, let them work it out for themselves.” The last time the fluffballs ganged up on him for one of these interventions, the topic was sex and the result was all kinds of confusion.
“Nothing to do with Meg or Simon,” Merri Lee said.
“It’s more to do with furniture,” Eve Denby said.
“And the Crows,” Ruthie added.
Theral just smiled at him, as if to say no other information was required.
If only that were true.
“I’m listening.” Vlad didn’t see any way out of it that wouldn’t cause more trouble.
“We were helping Mrs. Tremaine pack up some of her things, and she said it was too bad there wasn’t time for a yard sale so she could sell off what she wasn’t going to take,” Eve said.