"Ah, the truth comes out. You're not afraid of lycanthropes. You're afraid of you."
He raised a large fist, not to hit me, but just somewhere for his anger to go, "You don't know anything about me."
"They make my skin crawl, too, Padgett."
That calmed him, a little. "How can you stand to be near them?"
I shrugged. "You get used to it."
He shook his head, almost shivering. "I'd never get used to this."
"They aren't doing it on purpose, Detective. Some shapeshifters are better at hiding what they are than others, but all of them give off more energy during strong emotions. The more you questioned them, the more distressed they got, the more energy they gave off, and the creepier you felt."
"I had the woman in a room alone and I thought my skin was going to crawl off my body."
"Wait, alone? Did you Mirandize her?"
He nodded.
"Did she tell you anything?"
He shook his head. "Not a damn word."
"What about the others?"
"The men didn't do anything."
"Are they free to go?"
"The big one won't leave her and the other one is in the room with the two injured ones. Says he can't leave them unguarded. I told him that we could take care of it. He said, apparently not."
I agreed with Kevin. "You've got witnesses that say she didn't mean to hurt the man. He isn't even dead yet. Why is she still here in handcuffs?"
"She has already killed one man today. I think that's enough," he said.
"Two things, Detective. First, she could snap those cuffs any time she wanted to. Second, if she were human, you'd have let her go home by now."
"That's not true," he said.
I looked at him. He tried to stare me down, but he flinched first. He said, looking at a spot above my head, "The man is dying. If I let her go, she could skip out."
"Skip out on what? She saw a cop about to get his head blown off and jumped an armed man to save him. She didn't cut him up. She pushed him into a wall. Trust me, Detective, if she'd meant to kill him, it would have been a more thorough job. She risked her life to save one of your own."
"She didn't risk anything. Bullets don't hurt lycanthropes."
"Silver bullets do. They work just like real ammo on a human. Every hit that they've investigated today had silver ammo, Padgett. Lorraine could have been killed, but she didn't hesitate. If she had, we'd have a dead cop on our hands. How many citizens would risk their lives to save a cop?"
He finally looked at me, eyes so angry they'd darkened two shades of blue. "You've made your point."
"Have I?"
He nodded. "Yes." He walked back down towards the waiting uniforms and the sobbing werewolf. "Uncuff her."
Murdock said, "Sir?"
"Do it, Murdock," Padgett said.
He didn't question it again, just knelt in front of Lorraine and unlocked the cuffs. His partner on the other side unsnapped his holster and took two big steps back. I let it go. We were winning, no need to fight.