Page 34 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir

The worst part was over. Now came the hard part – finding the killer.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Yanni sighed as she closed the car door. Eva jumped up and gave her a hello lick designed to make her feel better. It was the canine equivalent of a motivational speech: short, effective and slightly damp. It worked, because a small smile tipped up Yanni’s lips.

‘Good to see you too, Eva,’ she murmured. As she put the key in the ignition and Eva sat back down again I was only a little jealous that I hadn’t got the same greeting.

Yanni’s gaze shifted to me. ‘If you’re gonna spend all day out with me, we’ll have to sort a mobile line from the station so calls come to you wherever you are. Otherwise I’m in no better situation than I was before.’

She gave a half-hearted chuckle. It was already nearly six in the evening and I could see how much the day had taken out of her. I imagined that no matter how many times you had to tell someone that a loved one was dead,it didn’t get any easier – not that you’d make that kind of call very often in a place like Witchlight Cove. Other than after my grandmother arrived, I couldn’t recall a time something like this had happened. And it didn’t look like the crime rate had soared during my absence or Yanni would definitely have recruited more support.

I thought about the phone issue and grimaced internally. I really did want to help Yanni; I owed her so much. ‘I’ll make some calls tomorrow,’ I promised, wanting to take some of the weight off her shoulders. ‘See if there’s someone who can sort the phone for me.’

She patted my hand. ‘Don’t worry. Dove’s husband Samuel tends to deal with any practical issues like that. It keeps the station costs down. He’ll know a way to divert the calls.’ A yawn escaped her but she immediately shook it off. ‘Do you want me to drop you home?’ she asked. ‘You don’t need to come with me for the other interviews.’

‘It’s okay – I’m happy to come. It’s not like Eva is pining for me at home.’

Eva barked; it was the unmistakable equivalent of a dog rolling its eyes. ‘We don’t want to leave you on your own,’ I told Yanni firmly. The last thing I wanted was to go home and tell Maddie that I’d let her grandmother work an unreasonably long shift alone after such an emotionallytaxing day. ‘So where are we going? The stepmum or Toby?’

Yanni didn’t ponder the question for very long. ‘There’s no reason not to believe Rory about the dance classes because those messages seemed in order. We’ll go find Toby, see what we can get out of him, then visit the stepmum in the morning when she should be back.’

‘Do you think one of them did it?’ I asked nosily.

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know yet. We need more evidence before I have any thoughts either way. Using a bullet doesn’t seem like the easiest way for an elemental witch or a bear shifter to kill someone. Then again, if they were trying to keep what they were about to do hidden from Warren, a gun might have been the quickest and easiest option.’

‘You said before that it was likely someone he trusted enough to turn his back to them,’ I said. ‘Would Warren have trusted both of those two?’

‘Maybe.’ She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel as she thought.

‘Do you know the Browns?’ I probed. Jennifer had said Toby was a teddy bear, and Gilbert had said he was a land shifter. Yanni was a bear shifter so I wondered if they ran in the same circles.

‘Not especially,’ Yanni admitted. ‘I have to keep myself separate so I don’t socialise with any of the sects.’

A pang of loneliness hit me and I realised with horror that it was from her. Yanni was lonely? I’d never got that vibe from her before; her police chief poker face was hiding more than I’d realised. ‘That must be hard for you,’ I said softly.

She shrugged, her face showing none of the emotion that I could feel. ‘You get used to it, and I have Maddie.’

I kept my face blank with effort. ‘What about your amateur dramatics group?’

‘I don’t do it any more – I don’t have the energy I used to. I still go and watch the shows, and I heckle supportively,’ she added with a smirk.

Silence fell, and for me it was filled with gnawing guilt for abandoning Yanni and Maddie for so long. ‘You have me too,’ I blurted.

She kept her eyes on the road. ‘Until you go back to London.’

Ouch. Direct hit. If guilt had a physical form, it would be punching me in the kidneys right about now. ‘I’ll stay in touch this time,’ I promised.

‘You said that last time.’ Her tone was matter of fact rather than accusing.

‘I was a self-involved teenager last time. I’ll do better,’ I promised.

Yanni lifted a hand from the wheel and patted my arm. ‘You were grieving. You don’t have to explain yourself to me.’

‘Maybe I don’t need to but Iwantto. I’m sorry, Yanni. I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

She squeezed my arm before returning her hand to the wheel. She didn’t contradict me, though, and that made me feel even worse. ‘You’ve already apologised, Beatrix, you don’t need to keep doing so. It’s in the past. Now, let’s focus on the present.’

She was right, I needed to get my head in the game. Toby lived further away from the coast in an area of Witchlight Cove I knew well. It was only a couple of miles from the border barrier, and I’d spent a lot of time playing there when I was a kid with Ezra and some of the other wolf shifters.

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