Sealed with a Hiss: Book Four Supernatural Enforcers Agency (15 page)

“Listen to him, Daddy.”

Grant strode over to Gerry, standing an inch from him.  His red face shook as he spoke.  “This is fucking ridiculous.  Of course, he didn’t do it.  Why won’t you listen?”

Gerry resisted the urge to either step back or push Grant away from him –
his snake preferred the latter option.
  “And if someone framed him – we will find out.  In the meantime, his lawyer is going to get a psychiatrist to do an evaluation.”

“A psychiatrist?” repeated Grant in disgust.  “He’s fine.”

“Daddy, he woke up covered in blood next to a dead body – he’s far from fine.  You didn’t see him; he was really upset.  Maybe you
should
go see him.”  This was said with a touch of reproach, although Grant failed to detect it. 
Either that or he just didn’t care
.

Grant started pacing the room again, flapping his arms around for emphasis.  “Huh, I won’t be seen going to jail.  How would it look if I went to visit him in jail?”

“He’s at the SEA,” ground out Edith, with unusual venom - unusual when speaking to her father at any rate.

“Well, he doesn’t need a psychiatrist, I’m firing his lawyer.”

“You have no right to do that,” said Gerry.  “He’s an adult.”

“Then I’ll have him declared an imbecile, and I’ll have power of attorney.”

Edith sighed.  “But Daddy you just said…”

“Shut up!”

Gerry eyed him as his snake slithered impatiently.  “Grant, don’t talk to her that way and don’t interfere in this case.”

“Then fix it!” exploded Grant.

“I will do what I have to according to the law.”

“Fucking lot of good that is!”  With that, Grant stomped out of the house, slamming the door as he went.  He gave it a good slam, too.  Lance could probably hear it all the way over at the SEA.

Edith poured herself another drink.  “Thank you, Gerry.”

“I’m just doing my job,” he said, awkwardly.

“You didn’t have to run down and talk to him.  Technically, I know that isn’t your job.  I hope your night with Jamie wasn’t ruined.”

He gave her a slanted look, and his beast hissed.

“Okay, I know it’s Jessica,” she amended.

“She understands – her team is working the case anyway.  She’s very understanding of our difficult situation.”

Edith leaned her head back and closed her eyes.  “I wish Bruno was – he gets angry all the time about it.”

“Your newest meathead has lasted quite a while.”  His snake sneered at the thought of the empty headed moron she would go for. 

She opened her eyes and squinted at him.  “He’s actually a businessman; he just opened his own gym.  I’m working on the reception, to save him money.”

Gerry almost choked on his drink, and even his snake was dumbfounded. 
Edith working?!
  Had they wandered into the fucking Twilight Zone?  He said as much to her.  “You working?  Didn’t you just offer to give him money so he could hire a receptionist?”

Edith pouted at him before smiling slightly as she presumably pictured Bruno. 
Bruno – good lord.

“No, he went to the bank to get a loan.  He’s not interested in my money.  He says he wants to do it on his own.  He wants me to divorce you so we can get married.  He says he’ll support me,” she told him with an expected mixture of pride and bashfulness.

“He does understand that supporting you involves thousands of dollars in shoes?”  Her closet alone was probably worth the yearly budget for some small countries, or perhaps some larger ones.

“I can cut back if I need to,” she said defensively.  “Besides, I don’t care how much he has.  He’s my mate.”

Gerry looked at her askance.  “You’re serious?  You’d actually forgo your seven credit cards to marry someone?”

“Don’t look so surprised.  Remember, you married me for my money – you’re not exactly a paragon of morality in this respect.”

She was actually serious.  All this time, he thought they were staying married so she could get her hands on her trust fund, instead of living on the allowance her father deigned to give her.

“Why don’t you just divorce me if the money doesn’t matter?”

Edith shrugged.  “I made you a deal – I’ll wait until I can make sure your hotel is okay, and then we’ll divorce.”

Gerry turned that over in his mind for a few moments.  It almost sounded like she was doing selfless, but that couldn’t be right, could it?  “You don’t have to do that.  If you don’t care about the rest of your trust fund, you could divorce me tomorrow.  You wouldn’t lose anything.”

“No, but your family and your den would.  How would they manage without the money?”

“So you’re actually thinking of someone other than yourself?” he asked slowly.  Because he really was having a hard time with this one -
it needed to be spelled out.

“Don’t sound so surprised.  Besides, I am still thinking about me so you can wipe that dumbfounded look off your face.  Once we’re married, Bruno may actually want to set up a second gym – and he’ll cave once it’s our money.”  She threw her drink back.  “Would you mind if I go see Bruno?  I could do with his presence right now.”

“Of course not,” he said immediately.  “Just take a cab.”

She smiled a slightly drunken smile.  Yes, that was how she usually managed to deal with her father –
by being hammered.

“I wish I could say more about Lance.  All we can do is look into it but…”

“If he’s innocent I’m sure you’ll work it out.  And if he’s guilty…”  She left the sentence hanging as she left.

Gerry realized she wasn’t sure about her brother was guilty.  He knew Edith cared about her brother, but it wasn’t the unconditional caring that you saw with a lot of other shifters.  Pythons really didn’t make good family units.  They were too cold, too unfeeling, too ready to believe the worst of people.  His python groaned. 
Yes, he was lucky to have found Jessie.

He would call her.  Just hearing her voice would make him happy and he wanted to tell her he missed her already.

What a fucking mess the whole situation was.  Would Lance really do this?  He was hardly a prince among men, but he didn’t really ever care about a woman enough to kill for her.

And as for the widow of the deceased, something about her didn’t sit right.  Her crying was just way over the top.  Isis, although somewhat dismissive of any feelings in others, could sense it.  There was something false about the woman.

Hmmm
.

Chapter Nineteen

Gerry looked over the report.  Things weren’t looking good for Lance.  The young python had been diagnosed as suffering a mental break and was currently undergoing treatment at a mental facility.  Gerry wasn’t sure how accurate that was, but at least, Lance was sedated and not trying to cry or throttle the agents interviewing him.

Only Lance’s DNA had been found on the body and the murder weapon.  They couldn’t find any witnesses to say anyone else had been in the house or anyone who might have seen Lance at the time of the murder.  In fact, Jessie found out his phone was definitely at the victim’s house at the time of the murder.  Add into that that Lance and Maxwell had been in a fight before, and it really wasn’t looking good for the young python.

However, the victim’s widow seemed to be on shaky ground.  Millie Crescent claimed she was getting back together with her husband.  But according to Maxwell’s lawyer, he was going ahead with the divorce on the morning of his death.

Meanwhile, a young female cougar shifter had come forward with a huge engagement ring and told them that Maxwell had proposed to her, and they were getting married.  Maxwell had booked a Caribbean cruise for the two of them in both their names.  Whether or not the engagement was real was one thing, but Maxwell was definitely intending on taking a pleasure cruise with the young woman.

There was a bit of a brawl when the merry widow turned up at her husband’s lawyers and demanded to see his will.  He apparently hadn’t changed it since they broke up and everything he owned now belonged to her.  But given that they were getting back together –
at least according to her
– maybe he wasn’t going to bother changing his will.

The Alpha Team sensed Gerry’s displeasure.  They were meeting in the conference room to discuss the case.  They were all wary of him – given that their suspect was his brother-in-law after all.

Jessie wasn’t scared of what he might do, but she was worried about him.  He could sense it, and his snake moaned for his mate.

Gunner drummed his fingers on the table.  He was the team leader; he was going to have to bite the bullet.  “There’s not much to say.”

“He did it, end of discussion,” said Cutter – clearly not wary or caring if he annoyed Gerry.

Gunner ignored him.  “We tried to follow the route he said he took when he was out running, but we didn’t get anything.”

“Tons of people go through that park,” added Cutter.  “I couldn’t get his scent.”  Well if anyone could have it would have been Cutter. 
Gerry swore he was practically part bloodhound.

“We tried to find witnesses, but nothing doing.  We couldn’t even get witnesses at Maxwell’s house.  The first time they knew Maxwell was home was when they heard Lance screaming.”

Gerry raised an eyebrow.  “Lance screaming?  They didn’t hear Maxwell screaming?”

Gunner nodded.  “That’s what the neighbor who called nine-one-one reckons, yeah.”

“Odd that he wouldn’t scream while being murdered with a silver knife,” murmured Gerry.  He picked up the coroner’s report.  “There’s no evidence of drugs in his system.  Why wouldn’t he scream?”

He was met with blank faces.

“Maybe he wasn’t a screamer,” suggested Avery lamely.

Isis rolled her eyes.  “All men are screamers.  Maybe it was a spell or something.”

“Witches went through the house, they couldn’t find anything,” said Wayne.

“They couldn’t find anything specific,” corrected Isis, “and there are thousands of spells.  They can’t possibly detect every single one.  Besides, if the spell was on Maxwell, it probably faded after his death.  What?  Why are you looking at me?”

“That’s an excellent point,” said Gerry.

Isis tried to smile modestly, but she was far too smug for that.  “Well, I surprise myself now and again.”

Wayne ignored her.  “I did get a witness who saw Lance leaving for his jog – she said he jogged that time every day, she said she always watched him go because…”  Wayne paused and grimaced.  “she liked to watch his tight, tight buns in action.”

“The eighty-five-year-old witness then asked if Wayne would mind jogging up and down the street so she would watch his tight, tight buns in action,” declared Isis with relish, “but he declined.”  Her beaming smile faltered at Gerry’s glare.

Wayne cleared his throat.  “She said she was surprised he didn’t come home.  Usually, he only went out for an hour and a half at the most.  The lady just sits at her window watching her neighbors, so she knows when they come and go.”

Avery nodded.  “We’re trying to put a timeline together – bit we’re missing about three hours from when he left his house to when he was found with the body.”

“What about the victim’s house?”

Gunner sighed.  “Like Isis said, we had witches do a sweep, but they couldn’t pick up anything in particular – there were strands of magic, but apparently the guy’s housekeeper is a witch, and she uses magic to get the work done in half the time.  Sir, how much more digging do you want to do?”

Everyone stilled and watched him closely.

His snake simmered under the attention.  “You all think he’s guilty, and you’re wasting your time, don’t you?”

“Not exactly,” said Gunner.

“Yes,” replied Cutter unabashedly.

Gunner glared at him.  “But we’ve closed cases with less evidence.”

“If he’s charged,” said Gerry.  “It will cause problems with the Council – as soon as it happened other Council members were already trying to get Grant out of his seat.  Grant and Maxwell were two of the most… forceful members on the Council – I can’t help but wonder at that aspect.”

“Like another Council member wanted to get rid of both of them.”

“Maybe.  Speaking personally, I have trouble believing Lance did this.”

“He had a lot of fae dust in his system,” argued Gunner.

“But he says he didn’t take it,” said Avery.

“Yeah, no reason he’d lie about taking an illegal drug right,” drawled Cutter.

“If it were between telling the truth about drugs and getting charged with murder – he would probably tell the truth,” said Gerry.  Lance was an idiot, but not one dumb enough to get himself charged with murder when he could get a lighter sentence for drugs.

Jessie nudged Isis.

“Actually, we suspect the wife,” piped up Isis.

“You always say it’s the wife,” complained Cutter.

“Because I understand women better than you, and I know what we’re capable of.”

“I understand women fine,” growled the wolf shifter.

“Would your mate agree with that?”

Cutter snarled.

“Is there a point to this?” sighed Gerry.

Isis all but stuck her tongue out at the wolf.  “I talked to the wife again, and she reckons that she and Maxwell got back together the night before the murder.”

Jessie cut in.  “So why did she pay for a further seven nights stay at her motel the next morning if she was expecting to move back home?”

Gerry smiled at Jessie.  “Good point, Jessica.”

“And why did Maxwell pay off his cruise that same morning too?  Not to mention talking to his divorce lawyer.”

“He could have been intending on taking the wife on the cruise,” suggested Wayne.

“I spoke to the travel agent,” said Jessie, “the tickets can’t be transferred.”

She thinks of everything thought Gerry as he snake did the smiling for him.  “So the wife is lying.”

“One hundred percent,” said a smug Isis.

Jessie winced.  “Well, we’re pretty certain she’s lying about getting back together with her husband.”

“Hey, her husband’s dead, he can’t disagree with her.  She can just say they didn’t tell anyone of their reconciliation.  But she was expecting to stay longer in that motel.  When I asked her, she said she was intending on moving home straight away.  But she can’t move in now because it’s covered in blood and a crime scene – it’ll be a few days before she gets in.”

“And her husband’s will is still all in her favor,” said Jessie.  “If he’d died any later, it might not have been.”

Gerry nodded.  “I agree, I think there was something false about her crying on the night her husband died.  But it seems unlikely she could have done this alone – look closely at her, but carefully, the last thing we need is to be seen to be harassing a grieving widow.”

“Sir,” said Gunner as he motioned for the team to leave.

Gerry reread the medical examiner’s report. 
Stabbed with a silver knife seventeen times
.  Given shifters’ reaction to silver, the bull shifter must have been in agony.  He had to have screamed about that.  He didn’t care how tough the damn bull was; he had to have made some noise.  Even if it was just shouting
‘hey stop stabbing me, you demented python shifter’
.  He looked at the neighbor’s statement again.  She clearly stated that she heard a stranger screaming in Maxwell’s house.  How could she be sure it wasn’t Maxwell?  Maybe he’d get Cutter to re-interview her.  Cutter was like a hammer, unsubtle and he had a tendency to view anything in the world as a nail, but he was quite effective at times. 
At other times, he was a downright liability.

The team filed out, and Jessie busied herself putting her laptop away.  When they were the only two left she came over to him and squeezed his hand, mouthing the words ‘are you okay’. 
She was a ray of sunshine on the blackest of days.

He nodded and silently asked her the same thing.  She nodded and smiled.  She left after she wrenched her hand free from his.  His snake didn’t want to let go.  They hadn’t been together intimately since the night his brother-in-law was arrested – his birthday.  He longed to be with her, but he was just too busy.

It wouldn’t always be like this he told his snake.  Wouldn’t it? hissed the grumpy beast.

No, he insisted. 
It wouldn’t.

*

Poor Gerry thought Jessie as she wandered back to her office.  Her squirrel whined in agreement.  She knew the situation was difficult for him, but she couldn’t help but feel pity for herself over the situation. 
She missed him.
  They had precious little time together before this mess happened.  Now their time was non-existent.  And he looked tired and stressed.  He must not have been sleeping right.  Her beast wanted her to go to him and look after him, but she couldn’t. 
No, because she was still just his employee and he was still just her boss.

Ugh.  She wished he’d never met that damn Grant Collier and his horrible daughter with her perfect hair, and perfect teeth and perfect everything!  For once, the squirrel did the soothing.  Edith wasn’t that great.  Gerry clearly couldn’t stand her never mind love her.

Poor Gerry
.  This really was a difficult situation.  She just wished she could do more for him.  He was facing pressure from Council members to close the case and charge Lance.  Meanwhile, she knew his father-in-law was trying to bully him into letting Lance go.  At the same time, the SEA lawyer Hester was trying to persuade him to charge him, too.  Added to that even her own teammates were starting to think that Gerry wasn’t thinking clearly. 
And it wasn’t just them either.

Other members of the SEA, other agents were starting to look at him askance.  They believed he wasn’t charging Lance because of his relationship with him.  She’d heard them gossiping about Gerry; she’d heard Cora calling Lance all sorts of indecent names, and saying he deserved to be punished and that Gerry was just as bad as him. 
Stupid Cora.

Gerry probably already knew what they were saying.  Thankfully he didn’t seem to be angry about it.

The thing actually pushing him most was the gut feeling that Lance was innocent.  Gerry couldn’t get over the feeling that someone was setting up Lance, and Jessie just wanted to help.

Gerry always worked long hours, and over the past few months, Jessie had also fallen into the habit of working the same hours, usually so they could, at least, ride home together.  But Gerry was virtually working around the clock.

He came by to see her the previous night, and he was so tired he fell asleep while she was giving him a massage.  It made her heart and her squirrel ache to see him like this, she needed to do more for him.  But she didn’t think she had the skills to help him.

Wait a cotton picking moment!
  There was something they hadn’t tried – a psychic.  Psychics weren’t exactly reliable and couldn’t force themselves to have a vision, but they did have one who was pretty powerful.

Jessie bit her lip.  There was a slight problem with that idea.  Erin was mated to her team leader Gunner, and since she was pregnant, she wasn’t actually supposed to go out in the field anymore.  Gunner had been quite vocal on that point.  Erin had smiled and let him shout and rant, but she hadn’t actually said much on the matter.  Maybe if she asked Erin, she might be willing.  Gerry had quite a soft spot for Erin –
nothing so much that Jessie would feel jealous and have an urge to gnaw the human woman to
death
– but he liked Erin.  And Erin liked him, too.  He’d given her a job as an agent when no other branch of the SEA would.  They believed that human agents would cause problems because they weren’t as strong or fast as shifters and vampires.