loss, but are you saying you saw the killers?"
She just nodded without moving her hands from her face, and began to weep louder, an amazing amount of noise from a being so small. The weeping had an edge of hysteria to it, but I guess I couldn't blame her.
Robert moved around her to Eric, and they held hands as Eric asked Robert if he was hurt. Robert just shook his head.
"I have to make a call," I said.
Robert nodded, and something in his eyes let me know that he understood both who I was going to call and why I wasn't doing so in this room. The little fey didn't seem to want anyone to know what she'd seen, and I was about to call the police.
Robert let us go back into the storage room that was behind the offices, but not before he had the Fear Dearg come in and sit with Eric and the demi-fey. Extra security seemed like a really good idea.
Frost and Doyle started to come with me, but I said, "One of you stay with her."
Doyle ordered Frost to do so, while he stayed with me. Frost didn't argue; he'd had centuries of orders followed from the other sidhe. It was habit for most of the guards to do what Doyle said.
Doyle let the door close behind us as I dialed Lucy's cell phone. "Detective Tate."
"It's Merry."
"You think of something?"
"How about a witness who says she saw the killers?"
"Don't tease," she said.
"No tease, I plan to put out."
She almost laughed. "Where are you, and who is it? We can send a car down and pick them up."
"It's a demi-fey, and a tiny one. She probably can't ride in a car without being hurt by the metal and tech."
"Shit. Is she going to have problems just coming in the buildings at headquarters?"
"Probably."
"Double shit. Tell me where you are and we'll come to her. Do they have a room where we can question her?"
"Yes."
"Give me your address. We're on our way." I heard her moving through the grass fast enough that her slacks made that whish-whish sound.
I gave her the address.
"Sit tight. I'll have the closest uniforms come babysit, but they won't have magic, just guns."
"We'll wait."
"We'll be there in twenty if the traffic actually gets out of the way of the lights and sirens."
I smiled, even though she couldn't see it. "Then we'll see you in thirty. No one moves in traffic here."
"Hold the fort. We're on our way." I heard the wail of the sirens before the phone went dead.
"They're on their way. She wants us to stay here even after the closest uniforms arrive," I said.
"Because they do not have magic, and this killer does," Doyle said.
I nodded.
"I do not like that the detective asks you to put yourself in harm's way for her case."
"It's not for her case. It's to keep any more of our people from dying, Doyle."
He looked down at me, studying my face, as if he hadn't seen it before. "You would have stayed anyway."
"Until they kicked us out, yes."
"Why?" he asked.
"No one slaughters our people and gets away with it."
"When we know who did this thing, are you determined to see them stand trial in human court?"
"You mean, just send you out to take care of them the old-fashioned way?" It was my turn to study his face.
He nodded.
"I think we'll go with the court."
"Why?" he asked.
I didn't try to tell him that it was the right thing to do. He'd seen me kill people for revenge. It was a little too late to hide behind the sanctity of life now. "Because we're in permanent exile here in the human world and we need to adapt to their laws."
"It would be easier to kill them, and save the taxpayers' money."
I smiled, and shook my head. "Yes, it would be fiscally responsible, but I'm not the mayor, and I don't manage the budget."
"If you did, would we kill them?"
"No," I said.
"Because we are playing by human rules now," he said.
"Yes."
"We won't be able to play by human rules all the time, Merry."
"Probably not, but today we are, and we will."
"Is that an order, my princess?"
"If you need it to be," I said.
He thought about it, then nodded. "It will take some time to get used to this."
"What?"
"That I am no longer just a bringer of death, and that you are also interested in justice."
"The killer could still get off on some technicality," I said. "The law isn't really about justice