by Erin R Flynn
I pulled out my badge, seeing Brian doing the same out of the corner of my eye. “I’m Division Chief Seraphine Thomas of the FBI, sir. This is Chief Brian Havers of the regular FBI.”
“You’re not human,” he put together. “She was killed by a paranormal?”
I cleared my throat, knowing I was about to dance around that and not liking it but understanding why I had to.
“Your daughter saw something and tried to call the police. She tried to do the right thing, and you should be proud of that. She was killed by an associate of the mob. I’m involved because of other crimes that were committed against paranormals. During the interrogation, information about your daughter’s murder was confessed to, and we recovered her body because of that.”
“Who? Who killed our baby girl?” he demanded, shaking in rage even as tears filled his eyes. “Who hurt her?”
“A name won’t help you, Mr. Lake. Giving you the name won’t bring Jessica back,” I said gently, shaking my head when he opened his mouth. “I’m sorry, but I cannot give it to you. It is a pending investigation, and there are others we are still contacting. I know this is hard, but we wanted to speak with you right away and not leave you wondering.”
“These are dangerous people we’ve gone after, Mr. Lake,” Brain added, seeming to know I was struggling. “People with dangerous friends. The last thing Jessica would want is to make you and your wife a target because of this. And if the name of the person or the group he was part of catch wind of Jessica being part of the reason he is punished, they could come after you in retaliation.”
He gave us each a hard look. “You’re talking like this is cartel or something. I saw on the news that Russian mafia was rounded up. Are you saying that the Russian mob killed my girl?”
“No, we are not, and I would advise you against saying that either,” Brian warned him.
“The person who did this will be punished, you have my word,” I cut in, knowing what an angry parent wanted most.
“How?” he scoffed. “How can you promise that when you can’t even tell me a name? How can there be a trial if you won’t make Jessica’s murder public?”
“Because the crimes were not just against humans, Mr. Lake,” I answered, giving him a confident look. “The interrogation wasn’t with the NYPD. There’s a reason I’m involved.”
“What happens to him?” Mrs. Lake demanded, pushing past her tears and now ready for her pound of flesh.
“He will be executed for his crimes, and they are many and they’ve been confessed to.” I nodded when they both blinked at me in shock. “I believe in due process, please don’t mistake that or think this isn’t by the law. It is. There’s simply no fooling the jury or lawyer loopholes when the people involved can hear heartbeats or smell if people are lying.
“The minute they’ve extracted every crime and all the needed information out of the person, he will be put to death. The council will see to that, and if you like, I can have someone from my office contact you when it’s done or I can see if a representative of the council will reach out directly. Understand that this is still an ongoing investigation, so what we can tell you is very limited.”
They seemed to sit with that a moment before Mrs. Lake spoke. “Did she suffer?”
“No, she was killed with one blow and died instantly. I am so very sorry for your loss.”
She bobbed her head, wiping under her eyes. “You make sure those monsters never hurt anyone else, and that’s enough for us. No other family should have to go through what we’ve been through.”
“I can promise you we’re taking them all down,” I swore to her, letting her see the determination in my eyes. “They won’t hurt any more people, human or non-human, you have my word.”
She held up her hand to Mr. Lake when he opened his mouth. “That’s better than a name. We have other children and grandchildren we don’t want to become Russian mob targets, or I heard Chinese mobsters were rounded up too. Thank you for coming and telling us about Jessica. Do we—she was officially identified?”
“Yes, dental records confirmed it’s her,” Brian answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the cards we’d brought with us. “If you contact this agent, she is handling that part of the investigation. She will have your daughter’s body brought to whichever funeral home or arrangements you make. She’s local and knows the procedure.”
“Right, you’re from Chicago,” Mr. Lake muttered as he took the card, staring at me. “I saw you on the news about your senate hearing. You got that vampire SWAT team approved. That’s going to be a thing to help everyone, right?”
“That’s the plan,” I answered as I stood, Brian as well.
The Lakes did too, and Mr. Lake glanced between us. “You’re the chief she was accused of having a relationship with, right?”
Brian chuckled when I flushed, not ready for the switch in topic. “Yes, we’re together.”
“It’s how he got dragged into a huge mess that’s seriously dangerous for him,” I grumbled.
Mr. Lake gave a watery laugh as he hugged his wife. “I would have followed her anywhere. That’s how you know it’s real love. That’s how you know it’s forever.”
I had no idea what to say to that, wondering how an older couple was giving us relationship advice or whatever when we were there to inform them about their daughter. Then again, there really wasn’t a good way to wrap that up or… Yeah, it just overall sucked.
And we had a bunch more to do.
We drove around the block to where the others were and the surveillance van was parked. I got out and headed to the techie so he could get the camera and microphone off of me. We didn’t record the talk with the Lakes, we just wanted them to see how to handle this different than training.
“Did you all get a chance to see? You get the difference now?” I glanced around, glad when they nodded. “It’s inherent to want the name, to put the face with the crime and devastation this brings to their family. It won’t help them but can maybe hurt the rest of their family. That is the point you need to make clear.”
“That and we did this so they weren’t left not knowing,” Brian added as someone else took off his wire. “There are lots of circumstances in life where people don’t get all of the answers. The family of CIA are never told. FBI at times too. Yes, this is different, they didn’t sign up for that, or like the military can’t tell much. We are telling them as much as we can because they deserve to know, but we have other people to keep safe too.”
“You lied to them though,” one of the local human agents muttered, looking upset. “Jessica Lake was killed by a wolf.”
I swallowed my anger. “Jessica Lake was killed by a man, a criminal who was doing all kinds of bad shit. He was in bed with the Russian mafia and Triad. We’re giving the same answers to those killed by humans. They were murdered by citizens.” I held my hand up when he went to argue. “If she was killed because he was feral or lost control or something wolf related, I would agree they deserved to know.
“But this is not a shifter thing. Telling them it was a shifter won’t help them. She witnessed a man committing a crime and he killed her. What does it matter he was a wolf? Does it matter he was white? Italian? No, but there are enough problems and tensions at the moment that we are tasked with keeping the peace. There are enough problems right now without someone screaming shifters or vampires are murderers.”
“And don’t for one second think about slipping word to the press about that to take the spotlight off your office,” Brian warned. “We will know, and not only will you be out of a job and your pension gone, but you’ll start shit you cannot understand with the council that is helping us. You know the chances of us ever getting a conviction on someone connected like these mob guys. Or they get deported and are never punished.”
“I get it,” the guy conceded, holding up his hands in surrender. “I get it, okay? I get what you’re saying now. It just seemed a bit shady to hide that, but you’re right, he was j
ust a guy and he didn’t kill her because she was human. It’s not a racial kill so it doesn’t matter.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, glad when everyone seemed of the same opinion. And maybe it was wrong not to tell the family that, but it could cause problems later the more they knew. What if other wolves got pissed if the Lakes went on TV and were bitching about wolves because one killed their daughter? We weren’t sweeping the crime under the rug. The guy would be punished.
We just didn’t want anyone else being punished too. On either side.
We did however let Apollo and Dubois see what we did from their phones so they understood how we were handling the situation. It worked because they had their teams locating bodies and calling them in just as the Shifter Council people had been doing.
Which was why the number kept growing, as it didn’t take very long to identify some of the remains. Others we’d need dive teams for, but at least we could get as many done as possible.
And after we found out the Russian mob owned a huge storage unit place outside of the city… There were a lot of bodies to identify. Axel brought me away from everyone else to inform me of what they’d found in the interrogation. I was glad because I needed a moment away from everyone to process it.
Not even a fraction of the interrogations had happened, but we started from the top so it made sense that they knew the most about who had been killed by their group. We started the morning with eight notifications, but now we had another ten murders we knew of. I knew that wasn’t going to be all of it given it was dirty wolves, a bad coven, Russian mob, and the Triad. No way there were only eighteen murders to confess to.
I really hadn’t foreseen the Russians had a fucking self-storage place under a shell corp that they not only hid their kills at but got paid to dispose of bodies as a side gig.
And we still had other groups we were going to bust. Did they have a section of the East River we had to dredge? Would that be what we had to handle next?
The only, only good news was so far the media hadn’t gotten wind of any of it because it would be a nightmare to try and contain.
With an early morning of business and feeling the weight of so many who needed my help and for us to succeed, followed by a mid-morning of notifying parents and families of the death of loved ones, and rounded out with a late morning discovery of the storage place… I needed a break. I needed a moment to fucking breathe.
And I wasn’t the only one.
After checking out the fourth unit and finding a few more freezers with bodies, I went over to Detective Pratt and SAiC Gere—the brownie I was thinking of recommending to take over the New York non-human office—and pulled them off to the side. They both looked a bit frazzled too, but it wasn’t their show. It was ours.
“Can you both handle this for the next couple hours?” I asked them, ready when they both gave me shocked looks. “We need a lunch break. We’ve been going and going since landing here and I’m—I’m not the only one about to just pop.”
Gere gave me an understanding look. “Yeah, we got this. It’s a lot of the crime scene guys taking pictures and handling bodies. Everyone on the scene is clean. If there’s a problem, we’ll call you. NYPD is close in case the media gets wind of this.”
“Thanks. We won’t be long. We just need a break before the next bust.”
Pratt’s eyes went bug wide. “You’re going after more?” He let out a harsh breath when I nodded. “Fuck, yeah, take a break or damn, hit the spa. Shit, Thomas, you really, really go balls out.”
“Kinda hard to just stop when you keep uncovering more,” I drawled, gesturing to the storage unit they’d just opened with five freezers in it.
“Yeah, kind of hard to stop,” he agreed, shaking his head. “We’re good here. I’m gonna have nightmares, but we’ve got this.”
We were all going to have nightmares for sure.
“Havers, Sands, you’re with me,” I called over as I caught the rental keys from Carter when he tossed them. He knew what I was up to so he didn’t even have to ask.
“You’re not the boss of me, Thomas,” Sands hollered back.
“Fine, it’s for Havers, but I thought you’d like to come since you’re his friend. Stay here instead.”
He got his ass in the SUV. Yeah, any reasonable excuse to get the hell out of there for a while I was pretty sure all of us would have taken.
“Where are we going?” he asked once we were on the way.
I tossed my phone back to him. “You know New York, so you navigate. This is my first time here besides a layover.”
Brian grabbed my phone from Sands. “I know New York too, Sera. I worked at this office for two years.”
“I didn’t know that, but it’s a surprise,” I growled, trying to get my phone back to Sands.
Except he already saw where we were going.
“Sera, why are we heading to a luxury car dealership and you said this trip was for me?”
“You have an appointment to take some test drives.”
He was quiet a moment. “Just test drives?”
“No.”
“Un-fucking-real,” Sand whispered and then burst out laughing. “Oh fuck, shit, just marry me, Thomas. I mean, seriously, just pull over so I can get down on one knee.”
“I will flatten you,” Brian snapped, reaching back and smacking his friend. “Sera, you’re not buying me a car.”
“No, I’m not,” I agreed, clearing my throat. “Technically.”
“What does technically mean?”
I sighed and pulled over at the next stop sign. “Sands, switch with me. You know where we’re going?”
“Yeah, everyone knows this place, Sera. You’ve gotta have several mil in the bank to even get an appointment. It’s where the rest of us just wish we could go.”
“Which is why you were invited. I don’t know a thing about cars.” I got out and we switched spots.
“Wait, stop, we’re not doing this,” Brian argued as Sands threw the SUV into drive.
“Why not?” I challenged as I pulled my tablet out of my bag.
“Because it’s insane!”
I glanced between him and Sands. “He’ll keep his mouth shut, right? I mean, he won’t gossip?”
“I hear nothing. I see nothing. I just want to drive the car you get him,” Sands promised.
I smiled at Brian’s frown. “You act like I’m trying to beat you.”
“Sera,” he sighed, scrubbing his hand over his head. “Why would you buy me a car like this?”
“I love you,” I reminded him, waving off whatever else he would say next. “Do you know the twins make six figures each now?” I nodded when his eyes went wide. “That’s what it came to for the Betas after we got so many of the pack jobs last year. So they make more than you. Yes, they earn it and then some and they’re always going. Like always.
“Noah—I don’t know the numbers, but I did good by letting him keep those businesses with Vlad. I mean, I did him a solid and got him more business, plus what he gets with the FBI. Plus, he gets free blood and can give blood as perks. He gets lots of perks. The twins—I basically bought a mansion for them and the boys and Noah. I’m not there. Dain has his FBI salary but also gets paid for all the legal stuff.”
“Where are you going with this, Sera?” he whispered, glancing from my hands to my face.
“How many times have you gone after work and worked at the club? Helped train security with Noah? Go visit the local law enforcement in Kane County to make sure the fish farm would be okay? Head to the club to handle turning over someone to CPD when I’m too far away or tied up? You get called more often than I do because you’ve been closer and CPD likes you better than us who use our security system to catch baddies.”
“So your answer is to buy me an expensive sports car?” he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Sera, you already let me rent my super swank apartment in a prime area and cool building for next to nothing.”
“I did that for everyone,”
I reminded him. “You know I fronted most of the money for the club, right? I’m half owner with Simone, and I bought the land and handled most of the startup costs, took that risk or whatever. I revamped and added to her idea, but it was a lot of my connections that made it happen, and hi, I’m the main siren that feeds there plus the others I brought in.”
“Yeah, Simone told me already you guys recovered your startup costs.”
“Did she tell you we did it before the first of the year because she added those Sunday brunches?”
He blinked at me a moment and couldn’t seem to get his mouth to work. “You guys did that in just a few months? The cost to build it and everything? Seriously?”
“We did. I needed a few moments to digest that one too. We were also able to raise what we were paying everyone in the burlesque show too because we didn’t know if that would be a hit, so they were getting paid the lower range and what they made as hosts made up for that. So yeah, this is what we took in last month, and scroll down after all the costs and that’s what we made. In one month.”
He took the tablet from me and started coughing as he saw the first figure. Brian thumped his chest a few times before scrolling down and seeing the end figure. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Sera.”
“Wait, what?” It was my turn to blink at him.
He smiled at me as he handed back the tablet. “That’s awesome. You are so amazing. Look at all those salaries you paid out! You employ that many people, you give that many jobs. I’m so in awe, babe.”
“Oh, um, thanks, but that wasn’t the point.”
“Yeah, I get that. I saw the insane number you and Simone split of income. You’re still not buying me a car.”
I sighed. “Bri, how much of that was because of you? How much have you gotten shit on because of me and the club and just all of it? All that shit last month with CPD and starting trouble with you. I know they’re not the only ones.”
“Sure, that’s worth a six figure or more car,” he chuckled. “No.”
“I’m not buying it. The company’s going to lease it and you’ll just drive it.” I hurried on when he opened his mouth to object. “Simone came up with it when I said I was going to buy you a fancy car like you always wanted but I didn’t know anything about cars. So we’re going to lease one, and it’s yours. It’s allowed. Dain assured us it was allowed. Timequake has a bunch of vehicles to drive guests or whatever.”
