Pure Blood_ A Nocturne City Novel - Caitlin Kittredge [6]
I didn’t even slam the door when I left Morgan’s office, and I didn’t let anyone in the hall see the tears pricking my eyes until I got to the empty file room and let myself cry.
Rick caught me as I came out, scrubbing my eyes against the back of my hand. “That guy who tried to stab you just rolled in. We put him in Interrogation Three.”
I smiled perfunctorily, my Nothing-to-See-Here smile. “I’ll be right there.”
Rick cocked his head at me. “You okay?”
“Will everyone stop asking me that?” I demanded loudly. “If I wasn’t okay, I wouldn’t be back on the damn job.”
“Hex me,” Rick said, stepping back. “I’m sorry. Bring the guy to the front when you want him booked.” He turned and shuffled back to his desk. I immediately felt like an even bigger witch than Morgan for snarling at him. I needed to get out of here in the worst way. I shouldn’t have come back yet. I could have taken that last month of paid leave to get my head together.
I stopped myself as I pushed open the door to Interrogation Three. Another month to sit around the house wouldn’t have improved my outlook any. My life rotating around a clock ticking down the seconds until the phase, knowing I would be alone when it happened. At least going back to work would keep my mind off that.
The junkie was handcuffed, his head nodding against his chest. I kicked the leg of his chair. “Wake up, jackass.”
I smelled a faint wave of body odor and perfume from behind the observation mirrors and felt my neck prickle. Was Morgan out there, watching me? I pulled the curtain across the mirror with a grim smile of satisfaction for whoever was on the other side and turned back to the junkie.
“What’s your name?”
“Edward,” he said sullenly.
“You’ve been advised of your rights, Edward?”
His burning brown eyes raked over me, settling on my face, and he grinned with cracking lips. “Nice haircut, Officer.”
He just had to push my buttons, didn’t he? I was on him in a second, hand around his throat, taking him back to the wall and slamming his head into it with an impact that made his yellow teeth snap together. The back legs of his chair left skid marks on the linoleum floor. Were strength definitely has its perks.
“You listen to me, you strung-out asshole,” I growled in his ear. “Assaulting a cop is a felony, and I doubt any judge is going to suggest a cushy rehab for your junkie butt.”
He choked and struggled a bit, more dramatics than anything because I wasn’t holding his throat tightly enough to cut off his airflow. Not that it wasn’t a tempting idea.
“Who’s your dead friend?” I demanded. “Tell me and I might look into getting the charges reduced to misdemeanor assault.” Which was all Hexed talk, of course. I had less than no relationship with the DA’s office after what I’d done to their boss.
“You can’t help me,” Edward rasped. “Bitten bitch!”
I let go of him, startled that he’d made me as a were. He grinned again, eyes rolling around the room before resting on his lap. “He felt the poison in his veins,” he said abruptly. “He saw with the empty eyes.”
I stifled a sigh and rubbed my eyes. Crazy ramblings were just what I ordered for my first interrogation. “What are you talking about, Edward?”
His head was down on his chest again and he was mumbling. “Empty eyes … every one of us. He sees every one of us.”
Well, this was going just wonderfully. Maybe if I got lucky he’d start chanting “Redrum!” and drawing on the walls.
“He sees every one of us!” Edward moaned again. I reached for him to take him to a holding cell and abruptly his head snapped up and he locked eyes with me, lucid as a sober judge. “He sees you too, Detective.”
I gripped his arm and hauled him up. “Yeah, okay. Move it along.”
Edward let me lead him to Rick’s desk, where he refused to say a word as Rick booked him. I handed him off to a uniform, unable to take the proximity of insanity any longer, and leaned on the outside of the metal detector. “Remind me again why I took this job.”
Rick wordlessly offered me a toffee from the dish he kept on his desk and