me.”
Closing her eyes for a moment Keegan took a deep breath to keep her cool. “He tell anyone else?”
“No. And for what it’s worth, I may be an asshole but I know you aren’t like that. You’re a cop. I might not understand how you work but you get shit done and you put the bad guy away. That’s all that matters to me. Got that?”
Keegan smiled at him, “Thanks. Let me know if you come up with anything.”
“Will do,” Cassidy ushered her out of the room, “Now go get some work done. We don’t need lazy people in the building. It makes the rest of us look bad.”
After Keegan finished with Cassidy and the parents she went to visit Bryton Anderson, the alpha of the local leopard prowl at the coffee house he owned, The Jumping Bean. The coffee house was small and broken off from the nearly identical shop faces in the shopping center. It didn’t matter that it was almost three in the afternoon, the parking lot and the drive-thru were crammed full of cars.
“You think he’s actually going to talk to us?” Leeroy asked as they got out of the car and headed towards the entrance. “I mean, two members of his prowl were just murdered. He might be a little busy trying to calm the natives and making sure that they don’t do anything crazy.”
Keegan shrugged, “If he wants to find their killers he’ll talk.”
Leeroy held the door open for her and the entire coffee house went silent as they walked in. Keegan looked at the angered faces and knew that there weren’t any humans inside the building. The entire prowl was here.
Bryton Anderson emerged from the back of the building. Carmel colored skin had turned pallid and his eyes were bright amber yellow as he stalked forwards out of the crowd. “May I help you?”
Both Keegan and Leeroy automatically grabbed their badges for identification as Keegan introduced them, “I’m Detective Keegan Morne and this is Leeroy from the SIU. We’re hoping to have a moment of your time Mr. Anderson?”
Bryton grabbed their badges and inspected them for a long moment before he fixated on Keegan. “You I will speak to. Leeroy may wait for you up here and anything he would like to drink is on the house.”
Keegan looked over at Leeroy to see if he was okay with the arrangement. He looked miffed about it but if it was the only way they could speak to him then it would have to do.
“I’ll be waiting then.” Leeroy sent a good natured smile towards Bryton before heading towards a window seat and settling down from the duration.
Keegan followed Bryton through the maze of tables and they finally reached the furthest table in the shop. Bryton motioned for the members of the prowl that were sitting to leave. Keegan waited silently as they scooted from the booth and headed towards the front of the shop.
Bryton gestured for her to sit. “I apologize if we seem a little on edge today detective but when a family of my prowl gets murdered it does make the rest of us upset. What would you like to speak with me about?”
Keegan set her notepad on the table and grabbed the pen out of her shirt pocket before beginning. “Did you know of anyone who might have wanted to harm the Barr family?”
“Inside the prowl?” Bryton asked. His eyes grew wide and furious that the investigators could think that someone in his prowl could do something so vile.
“Not necessarily inside the prowl,” Keegan amended. “It could be someone that they had been having trouble with, meaning human or other supernatural beings.”
Bryton tangled his fingers together before humming underneath his breath. “I haven’t heard of any troubles with anyone inside of the prowl. If there had been, I would have taken care of the issue, or issues, before it have gotten this far. As for any troubles going on outside of the prowl, I’m not going to be much of a help to your investigation detective. Both Cody and Alice have been less than present at any meetings that we have held. It’s understandable with a new child but I haven’t had much one on one time with either of them since they found out that Alice was pregnant.”
“Are there any members that are closer to the Barrs that might have any idea of something going on that could have prompted something like this?”
Bryton narrowed his eyes before he shook his