be.
"And you know a lot about this world that we're just learning about. We got Lizzie out of their hands because you knew to bring in witches - and because that witch was scared enough of you to behave herself."
That was fair enough. He waited for her to get to the point.
"Lizzie says that there were three of them," Leslie told him. "Two young men and an old man. One of the young men called the old guy 'uncle' before he was shut up. The old man made the cuts on her skin. Both of the young men raped her first, 'while she was still pretty.' They told her the old man preferred women after they were broken."
He'd hoped that they had gotten to her soon enough to spare her that, but he'd been pretty sure they hadn't.
"I thought Beauclaire had refused to have her questioned," Charles said. He'd heard Lizzie talking, but Leslie didn't need to know just how good his hearing was.
"I didn't ask her a question. She just talked. Told me she wants them caught and caged so they can't do anything to anyone else. Tough woman. She fell asleep mid-word - and I think her father had something to do with that. Can the fae send people to sleep?"
"I am not an expert in fae magic," Charles said carefully.
She turned her head and nodded. "You are very good at skirting the truth." Leslie sighed. "You are an experienced detective and you met the enemy. What are your impressions?"
"I've only met the one," Charles said. But her request for information was fair - and he wanted the perpetrators caught. "The fae is definitely the junior member of the group, even though he's probably the only one with magic - and he's the reason they can take on fae and werewolves."
"What makes you think so?"
"He's not a hunter," Charles told her. "He's a stag - he's not a predator, no matter how tough or deadly he is." Herne the Hunter notwithstanding, Brother Wolf knew that the fae they'd fought with was prey. Maybe Herne was more huntsman and less deer, but this one...This one ran from his foes. He was not a hunter; he was a tool of the real hunters.
"You think he's a victim?"
Charles snorted. "No. He's no angel - but he'd never go out hunting victims. He might rape and kill someone who came too close to him - but he wouldn't hunt. That's predatory behavior. Doesn't mean he's not dangerous. Most years, moose kill more people in Canada than grizzlies do. Moose, though, generally don't trail people with the intention of killing them like a grizzly will."
"All right," Leslie said. "We have a moose, not a bear. What else?"
He reflected on the fight. The horned lord fought instinctively instead of strategically, seemingly incapable of focusing on more than one attacker at a time. "That fae isn't smart. If he has a day job - and I'd guess that he does - " Charles tried to verbalize the instincts that allowed a dominant wolf to control his pack. "If you are going to keep someone that dangerous under control, you don't let him start thinking that he's too valuable. You don't support him just because he's useful in your hunt. He has to go support himself."
"Okay."
Leslie sounded doubtful and Charles shrugged. "It might be different if our family of killers didn't come from money - then they'd find some other way to make sure he knew he was subordinate."
"They come from money?"
"This much traveling, this many years - if you were looking for a group of poor people, you'd have found them. Money makes a lot of things easier. Murder is just one of them. And they had to have money to be able to afford Sally Reilly."
"Fair enough. Our profilers figured that the Big Game Hunter was well-to-do about fifteen years ago. You were going to speculate about a job."
"Right. He's not bright, and because of that his other nature is going to be difficult to conceal."
"'Other' as in fae?"
Charles nodded. "Yes. So he'll be a box boy at a grocery store or a stocking clerk. Maybe a janitor or handyman. He'd be very strong. Dockworker, if you still have them here."
"Would people remember him?"
"Is he scary, do you mean? Like your husband?" Charles shook his head, following Brother Wolf's instincts. "I don't think so. I think people are going to feel sorry for him. Otherwise he'd be in jail. Scared people generally run or