Guilty by Association (Judah Black Novels) (11 page)

Without missing a beat, Sal said, “Not well, then. Dammit. Does Valentino know?”

“No. And he isn't being helpful, not letting me search his place.”

Sal started dropping his dough into the grease to fry it up. “Elias left a few things here if you want to look at them. I'm not sure how helpful that's going to be.”

“I will,” I said. Then, I added, “Just to clear the air, I know you're some kind of powerful practitioner of magick. You were also an army medic. The more I find out about you, the more you fit the profile of my killer.”

“That's why I wanted to help. Not that it's making you trust me any. I'm still your number one suspect then?”

“I haven't crossed you off my suspect list,” I said, trying to sound official. “Exactly what kind of magick do you do?”

He didn't turn away from his cooking but I knew he was smiling or, at least, smirking by the way he said, “Is that so? I thought I was doing a pretty good job of not looking like a magick wielding bad guy. I mean, I got rid of the neon sign above my head and everything.”

He pulled the bread he was frying out of the pan, grabbed a jar from the cupboard and brought both over to me. When he opened the jar and placed it in front of me, I saw that it was honey with the comb still inside. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until he put the food down in front of me. Still, I didn't touch it until he urged me to try it, dipping the bread into the honey. I've tasted a lot of sweets. Most of them are overpowering to the point I can't finish them. This, whatever it was, was that perfectly unhealthy mix of fried and sweet. It was like eating a less processed version of the best doughnut ever.

“My mom's recipe,” Sal was saying. He'd gone back over to the stove to drop another one in the oil. “Chanter's is okay, but mom's...No one could make fry bread like mom.”

I almost agreed with him until I remembered that I'd asked him a question. “So what kind of magick
do
you do?”

I could tell he was hoping I'd just forget about it by the way his posture changed. “You mean aside from shifting into a big wolf with anger issues? Not anything dark, I promise. I think you're giving me too much credit, honestly. Powerful isn't the word I'd choose to describe what I do.”

“What is it you
do
?”

Sal pulled the next piece of fry bread from the skillet and turned off the oil. “It's easier if I show you.”

He crossed the room in even, purposeful strides but didn't go to his chair. Instead, he came to stand behind me. I bristled and jerked away when he tried to put his hands on me. “Relax. I'm doing this to prove my innocence, remember?” I sat stiffly back up but refused to relax. He rested a hand on top of my head. “You're one hell of a contradiction, you know that? You put on this tough girl act and then flinch when a big, scary monster comes close. Are you really afraid of me?”

“I don't trust you,” I growled back. “I don't know you.”

“Then think of someone you do.”

Mentally, I sifted through everyone I knew and everyone I'd known only to come up short. There wasn't a single person that I would have trusted with my life, nobody but me. Maternal instincts aside, Hunter probably wouldn't know what to do if something serious happened. He and I were apart more often than we were together and he always seemed so closed off to me, so distant. There had been a time when I trusted Alex blindly but it had backfired. Now, he was dead and I was alone. I wasn't sure I would know what to do if that changed.

I was all I had. I was the only person in the entire world that I knew I could rely on. When I phrased it like that, it sounded pretty damn depressing.
No, not depressing
, I thought.
It's empowering. How many women out there are victims because they can't trust themselves? How many live constantly in a state of fear? How many put forward a fake identity when they're really sad and empty inside? I don't have to do that. I know exactly who I am and what I want. If that's wrong, then society can kiss my ass.

“That'll work,” said Sal quietly from behind me. “Hold that thought.” And I did.

It's a strange realization how powerful confidence can be. All day, everyone had been doubting me, forcing me to prove them wrong. Most of the time, I had. When I couldn't, I found a way to make it seem as if I had. I rolled around in my mind the satisfaction that I felt at proving Tindall wrong, at being able to fix my own car, even though Sal had offered, and I held onto it tightly.

As I did, the room around me began to change. The colors brightened. The hard lines of the tile in the kitchen sharpened. Even the temperature changed, going from balmy to cool and comfortable. I watched without understanding as the second hand of a clock across the room slowed its trek around the circle. Almost as a side effect, the dull throbbing I'd had all day behind my eyes finally slipped away. The ache in the back of my head from where I'd fallen faded. Even the gnawing hunger in my belly eased up. It all happened quick, in the space of a few deep breaths. When he took his hands away, everything returned to normal. The only difference I felt was the lack of my aches and pains.

I turned around in my chair to face him but he just quietly walked across the room to stir his pot, seemingly lost in a distant thought. “You're a healer.”

“In order to build something, you first have to know how to take it apart.” His voice was dark and distant, deeper in some way. If I had doubted before that Sal had taken lives, I did no longer. I didn't need any extra senses to know guilt when I saw it. “I began my practice doing other things,” he started slowly. “Hurting people. I was young and angry, lost in the intoxication of the Change. I wasn't a murderer, Judah. I never sought out death...It just seems to follow me around.”

“That's not exactly exonerating testimony, Sal.”

“True,” he said, chuckling as if he hadn't just said what he had. “But just because you can kill with magick doesn't mean you do. You're a cop. You carry a gun. Hell, you probably have it on you right now and I'd be willing to bet you load it with silver and iron. If you wanted to, you could whip it out right now and blow me away. You could have done it earlier. But you didn't. Why?”

It was a stupid question and I wrinkled my nose at it. “Because I don't have any reason to. Invading my space is hardly a capital crime.”

“Elias was my friend. He may not have been part of the pack but his absence leaves a hole that won't be easily filled. And with Leo missing—” His eyes went wide and he quit talking mid-sentence, closing his mouth tight.

“Leo?” I asked. “Who's Leo and how long's he been missing?”

“Forget I said it,” said Sal going back to his stew.

“Forget you brought up a missing persons file that I don't have a file on?” I stood and followed him across the kitchen. “I don't think so, Sal.” When he didn't answer me, I grabbed the ladle from his hands and pointed it at him. “You can tell me here or I can take you downtown. Your choice.”

He cracked a slight smile. “Take me downtown in what car, Judah?”

“You know what I mean,” I said, trying to ignore the warmth in my cheeks as he called my bluff. “I'm not messing around. I will call someone to come pick you up. Don't make me.”

Sal's smile faded. “I'm serious, too. If I tell you what I know, you've got to promise not to tell anyone you heard it from me. Not only that, but you've got to promise you won't run off halfcocked and try to do something about it. That's what Elias did. Now, he's dead.”

“Sal, what do you know?” He sighed and gestured to the ladle I'd seized from him. I held it out and he took it back, stirring the soup in silence for a few minutes before I said, “Sal, I promise. Now, please?”

“Valentino and Nina have an illegal baby,” he said quietly. “The pack's been keeping it quiet ever since she got pregnant, since BSI stuck their nose in and told them they couldn't have kids.” He looked up to try and gauge my reaction before continuing. “Leo, their son, he's been the pride and joy of the pack ever since he showed up. Breathed new life into all of us. After all the shit we've gone through, it meant something to us to have new life around. It's like...like there was some good in the world after all, you know?”

“And he's missing?” Sal didn't answer. “Jesus Christ.” I pulled out my phone and started to dial.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling it in. We need to find him. Get an Amber Alert out and boots on the ground before—” Sal grabbed the phone out of my hands and popped the battery out. “Hey!”

“I can't let you do that,” he said calmly. “You promised.”

I glared at him, squared my jaw and glanced at the door. Sal stepped between me and my exit. “We need to get the whole department behind this, Sal, and the sooner the better. Hell, it may already be too late because you selfish idiots don't trust the very people who are supposed to be protecting you!”

“Judah, please. Hear me out. Just sit down and I'll tell you everything. Promise me you won't do anything until you've heard all I have to say, at the very least. Please?”

I took in a deep breath, crossed my arms and marched back to the table to sit. “All right, but only until the end of this conversation. After that, all bets are off.”

Sal turned the burner under the soup down and came to sit across from me again, leaning forward on his forearms. “Leo is the third child to go missing from Paint Rock in the past month. The first was some baby troll on the other side of the rez. The parents went to the police. The cops found nothing, not even any evidence the kid existed because, like Valentino and Nina, they'd been denied a permit. The case got closed. The parents took it to city hall. Chanter sits on the city council so, even though the council didn't do anything, the pack started looking into things. A few days after that, another kid got taken. A fae, I think. Then three days ago, Leo went missing. All three kids were taken from their cribs from behind locked doors with no signs of a break in without disturbing the parents. All were unregistered.”

“What does any of this have to do with Elias?”

“I was getting to that,” Sal said with a nod. “Valentino accused Elias of being involved. He was convinced that no one could have gotten into the house without a key and Elias had been...Well, he'd been acting kind of off. Valentino thought Elias was behind it and threw him out. The night before he died, Elias stayed with me. He was beside himself, more so than usual. Poor guy didn't sleep a wink. He just kept going on about how Leo was in danger. I got the feeling he did know something but not like Valentino said. I think that, while the rest of us were chasing our tails, Elias had already tracked Leo down. I think, that night, when he tore out of here, he was going with the intention of saving his nephew. He wanted to prove to Valentino that he'd changed.”

I leaned back in my chair and tapped my fingers on the tabletop. “You think that the person who took Leo and the person who killed Elias were the same person?” Sal nodded. “Do you have any evidence?”

“Nothing concrete. But, if you could put back together those last few hours, find out where he went from here, I'd be willing to bet you'd find Leo, too.”

“Then why haven't you and your pack tried it? You're the expert trackers.”

Sal snorted and stared at the tabletop. “I tried. Elias covered his scent. I couldn't follow him.”

I thought for a minute and then nodded. “If I let you into the crime scene, do you think you could help sniff out our killer?”

“Maybe,” said Sal with a shrug. “But I'm almost a hundred percent sure neither Tindall or Chanter would go for that. Hell, if Chanter even found out I was talking to you, he'd be pissed.”

“And Tindall would shit a brick.” I gave a cynical laugh before letting my expression sober. “And my superiors would have my ass for contaminating a crime scene any more than I already have. They'd be even more pissed if I brought a potential suspect in to cover up evidence. Apparently, I can't trust anyone in the pack until I can rule each and every one of you out. You wouldn't happen to have an alibi for last night would you?”

“Nope,” said Sal. “Not aside from Elias, anyway.”

I went to the window and pulled aside the sheer curtain that blocked Hunter from view, just in time to see him miss making a free throw. He was sweating and red in the face but clearly enjoying himself. Hunter was eleven, young enough to make me worry that he could be picked up, too.

“Hey,” said Sal, still sitting at the table. “You don't
really
think I'm guilty, do you?”

“No one's innocent,” I answered absent-mindedly and then wondered why I hadn't stormed out of there to call the police.
Because
, I reasoned.
Even if they do find Leo Garcia, they'll take him away from Valentino and Nina
.
I couldn't bear to lose my son. Is it fair of me to subject them to the same punishment? Is it so wrong to love your child?
No, if someone was going to find Leo Garcia and connect his disappearance to Elias' murder, it had to be me. I was the only one I could trust to handle the case with care. But I wasn't going to make any progress tonight. Tomorrow, I'd hit the books hard and tear both cases apart, look at them from all the angles.

Sal studied me carefully. Then, he uncrossed his arms and went to get out a few plates and bowls from the cabinets. He had just enough for the three of us. “Well, since confessions make for awkward dinner conversation, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to interrogate me in front of the kid...What are you going to do about him?”

I pushed the curtain a little higher and leaned my forehead against the window, watching him shoot and miss. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“On how this case pans out.”

Sal shook his head and stirred the soup. “You might not have that long, you know. Full moon's in a couple of days. If Chanter's right, and he's never been wrong, Hunter's going to turn any month now,” he said, pulling down cups to finish setting the table. He pointed at me with a spoon. “You're going to take him to Chanter. Even if you can't trust me, you have to trust him.”

I smiled at him. “I don't have to trust anyone, Sal.” But I knew he was right. If Hunter did turn and no one was there to help him...What? What could happen? I didn't know and I wouldn't know if something went wrong, either. He needed someone there to help him understand what he was becoming. He needed to have more of a chance than Elias had.
I could lose him
, I thought.
But, even if I do, at least he'll be safe.