Page 28 of Heart and Soul
“What about you?” Brenner asks. “How’d you know we were here?”
Russo holds up his phone. “Buddy Bubble app. When the game started and you weren’t back, I knew something was wrong. Showed you way over on the west side.”
“I’ll explain later. Right now, we’re standing in a crime scene for a case we just got assigned.”
“You can’t do that,” Hillerman objects.
“Attempted hit-and-run on a Detroit detective by East Side lowlifes?”
Hillerman gestures between herself and me. “And two federal agents.”
Brenner shakes his head. “Ourlowlifes,ourcity,our case.”
“Our bread and butter,” Russo adds with a cocky grin. “We know this city, and it knows us.”
Hillerman stabs him with her eyes. “Spare me the bullshit bravado. You just moved here amonthago.”
Russo’s face lights up. “Youknowme? Does the FBI have a file on me? If you’re here recruiting, I’ll tell you right now: I’m in.”
Hillerman lifts her eyes to the ceiling, as though praying for patience. Or to be struck by lightning. One of the two.
“We can’t stay here,” Brenner says. He looks at me. “We can take your statements at home.”
“What, our place?”
“Agent Hillerman should stay the night there, don’t you think? It’s got special…” Brenner’s voice trails off, and he glances quickly at Russo. I realize that he was about to say ‘special wards,’ but he can’t mention magic in front of Russo. “…specialsecurity,” he finishes.
“That’s right,” Russo says, and he jabs a thumb at his own chest. “It’s got me.”
Hillerman slides me a flat look. She doesn’t like this any more than I do. Elle Harrington warded our house when I officially moved in. Alarms will sound if any underworlder steps within a quarter mile of our front door. While a night with Hillerman is not my idea of a slumber party, Brenner is right—it will be the safest place we could go. When I don’t raise any objections, Hillerman spins on a heel and storms out of the room.
Russo chuckles. “That is so like her. I’m totally fan-girling right now.”
“You really followed her story in the news way back then?” I ask.
“Oh, hanging on every word,” he says. “Most people don’t believe some of the stranger things about her story. I mean, we’re talking the supernatural realm. Ghosts and voodoo dolls and séances. Nobody really took her seriously.”
“But you did?”
“I always did.” He takes a deep, satisfied breath. “And I still do.”
When his face flashes a quick shade of red, I gasp with a realization. “Oh my gosh, Agent Hillerman is totally your celebrity crush!”
“No denial here.” Russo points to the cut that is bleeding into his eyelashes. “And now I’ve got something way better than her autograph.”
“For sure. I mean, Hillermannevertouches people. You might be pregnant.”
“If you know her story,” Brenner says, “then you’ve heard of Tabitha Durran.”
Russo’s face drops, as if Brenner has just said the worst possible thing. “Now there’s a bad apple, let me tell you. She was in prison for a stretch. Got out maybe ten years ago, hasn’t been seen ever since…” A thought strikes him, and he goes on high alert. “Wait, are you guys…” He’s too excited to form the necessary words.
Brenner confirms with a nod. “Yes.”
“You guys are going after Tabitha Durran?”
Brenner claps him on the shoulder. “Now you are, too. And this case, I can promise you, we win.”
The intense conviction in Brenner’s face scares me. I don’t doubt we can win, but I’m pretty sure that he and I have very different ideas of whatwinningis. For him, avenging Haley’s murder is the prize, no matter the cost. But for me, the only win is for Jay to still be alive when the dust settles.
