Burke’s mobile phone rang. “Excuse me for a moment.”
Tess watched sadness fill Burke’s eyes as he said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Problem, Captain?” Vlad asked when Burke ended the call.
“That was Lieutenant Montgomery calling from the hospital. Officer MacDonald didn’t survive his wounds.”
The three terra indigene exchanged a look.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” Vlad said.
“We liked him,” Tess said.
Burke put his notebook and pen in his pocket, a sign he was preparing to leave. The sadness had burned out of his blue eyes, leaving behind a fierce fire. “I may not be able to find the guns used to kill my officer and the Crow, but I will damn well find their killers. That’s a promise.”
Tess looked at Vlad, who straightened up as Burke pushed away from the table and rose.
“You won’t have to look far,” Vlad said. “You’ll find them among the dead.”
Burke stared at him.
Vlad smiled, a bitter yet satisfied expression. “I wasn’t close enough to stop them from shooting, but I caught them before they could blend in with the other humans and escape.”
Burke continued to stare. “Anything I should know about those deaths? Anything that would make someone think a Sanguinati was responsible?”
Vlad shrugged. “Lots of things flying around when Air blew to the rescue. Sharp things that might slice a person’s throat. Easy enough for someone else to slip in all that blood and fall the wrong way, breaking his neck.”
Burke nodded. “That’s plausible. I imagine quite a few people had similar, if less fatal, injuries.”
“Quite a few, according to the special news report I heard,” Vlad said.
In other words, nothing that would point to one of us killing “innocent” humans, Tess thought. Of course, there were attackers who were killed by tooth or claw. But that’s a problem for the city and the police.
Burke pulled out a card and handed it to Vlad. “I need to get to the hospital. If you think of anything else, let me know. Or give Lieutenant Montgomery a call.”
“Tell Lieutenant Montgomery and Merri Lee that we tidied up the apartments and put things back as best we could remember,” Tess said. “We don’t want them to be alarmed if they notice that something isn’t exactly the way they left it this morning.”
“I’ll tell them.”
* * *
Someone knocked harder on Simon’s front door.
Meg jerked awake and caught the book sliding off her lap before it conked Simon on his already sore head. She set it aside, pushed herself off the sofa, then stepped around tails and limbs in order to answer whoever was knocking on the unlocked door.
Simon and Nathan stirred, even looked like they were going to try to stand up and challenge the intruder.
“You two.” She pointed at them. “Stay.”
Grumbling and limping, she reached the door and opened it, saying, “It wasn’t locked for a reason.”
Steve Ferryman stared at her. “You cut your hair.”
Meg huffed. “Yes, it looks like puppy fuzz. No, you can’t pet it.”
He worked hard not to smile. Then they both heard at least one Wolf trying to get to his feet.