and laughing.”
“That sounds about right.”
I nodded. “And I saw you… you were angry and I think you were talking to him about your ex-girlfriend—the one who left you to be with him.”
“That also happened.”
I nodded. “But you know nothing about the hows or whys of it?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry I can’t help you with that, Elodie. I think those answers have to come from you.”
I grew quiet as I inhaled deeply. “This is just… it’s all too much.”
I felt his eyes on me. More, I felt him in my mind. “It’s natural to want to talk about it,” he said. “It’s not every day you see a man turn into a wolf. Or rise from an autopsy table, for that matter.”
He was right. I did want to talk about it. Except... except I hadn’t wrapped my brain around it. I didn’t feel stable somehow. Seeing what I’d seen was disconcerting and world-shattering, all on its own. And it was going to take more than a cup of tea to calm me down.
Now that Alex had put away his damned sausage, and I had a little more time to process what I’d seen in the alley, I could only conclude that I was losing my mind. That all this cold and ice and the long, long winters paired with my constant insomnia had finally gotten to me. It was official: Elodie Matthews had gone bonkers.
“When you’re done with your pity-party, Chief, maybe we can finally talk.”
“Pity-party?” I mean, I’d just seen a grown man turn into…
“Yes, a wolf. Big deal. Try being the one doing all the turning. Like I said, when you’re done questioning your sanity, God, and whatever else is rattling around in that head of yours, let’s talk, because there’s some serious shit going on in this town, and you’re going to need my help.”
I huffed and puffed a little more. I was, after all, the chief of police of this ragtag town. And Alex was, technically, still a suspect…
“Oh, cut the shit. I’m no more suspect than you are. I would never kill my brother or even attempt it, no matter how much of a bastard he is.”
“He stole your girlfriend,” I said as I took a sip of my tea, enjoying the warmth in my mouth and throat.
“It’s not stealing if she went willingly.”
“But there’s motive…”
“Trust me, Chief. Had I done the stabbing, my brother wouldn’t have gotten up from that autopsy table. The blade would have hit home, and his body would have been long since burned. That’s how you kill a werewolf.”
I opened my mouth, if only because every cop instinct I’d ever had was screaming at me to challenge everything he was saying. The truth was, for now, I had to take him at his word. Unless the guy was Criss Angel in disguise, I really had seen him turn into a wolf, and back again.
“Tell me more about you and your brother. You were adopted into an Inuit family?”
“In a way, yes.”
“Explain to me how you ended up getting adopted into the tribe.”
“I was found in the woods. Alone. A helpless babe, you could say.”
I shook my head. “No, not buying it. No one just finds a baby in the middle of the woods. A baby would last maybe ten minutes before it would succumb to animals or the elements. So, try again, Tarzan.”
“Tarzan or not, you can just find a baby in the middle of the woods because that’s exactly what happened to me, Chief. My adopted mother found me and decided to keep me. End of story.”
“Not end of story. The judicial system doesn’t work like that.”
Alex shook his head. “Tribal courts operate differently, and the main point was that no one came looking for me. Hell, no one even reported me missing.”
I found myself pacing from one end of the room to the other, all the while clutching my mug of tea like it was a lifeline. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Nope, I’m not.”
“So your adopted mother randomly finds you in the woods and decides to keep you?”
Alex nodded. “My ma had been childless up to that point. She was more than happy to take me in.”
“And no one reported you missing?”
“Not to the general public, no.”
“Your mother didn’t alert the authorities in Hope?” I continued as I stopped pacing and leaned against the desk, so I was facing him.
“Nope. In general, my people tend to try to avoid the authorities.”
I shook my head and sighed. “That’s