“Alone?”
“Yes.” I sucked in a deep breath. “Are you accusing me of something, Detective?”
“Just trying to get a full picture of what went on around the time of Elizabeth Proctor’s death.”
“You can’t seriously believe I had anything to do with it!” I blurted.
He leveled me with a solemn look. “Gwendolyn… I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t at least consider the possibility of your involvement. Not only were you in possession of the murder weapon, you were found standing over the body. You have no alibi and were seen fighting with the victim mere days before her death.”
I had to admit, when he spelled it out like that, evenIthought I sounded guilty.
Stone-faced, he stared at me for a long time. I stared back, knowing anything I told him would only make me appear guiltier in his eyes. What sort of salt-of-the-earth, straight-laced cop from Baltimore, of all places, would buy into a twisted tale about witch covens and blood feuds?
“If you don’t come clean with me, I can’t help you.” His voice dropped lower, nearly to a whisper. “I can’t protect you.”
I swallowed hard, struggling not to fold. I didn’t want to lie to him. I respected the man. And I liked him.A lot.In fact, since the first moment I’d met Detective Caden Hightower, I’d thought he was pretty damn close to perfect. If not for Graham staking irrefutable claim to my heart, I’d probably be halfway in love with him.
He was so unguardedly handsome, so full of warmth and kindness, it would be hard for any girlnotto fall in love with him. And yet, looking at him now, I saw a different side to him beneath that gentlemanly exterior. An undercurrent of unflinching steel. The kind I supposed you’d need to hack it as a homicide detective.
“I think…” I took a deep breath. “I think I might want that lawyer after all.”
“You’re not being arrested, Gwendolyn. Not today, anyway,” he informed me — doing approximatelynothingto soothe my ragged nerves. “Level with me, here.”
I shook my head back and forth. My mind was spinning so fast, I could barely think straight. “Someone is setting me up. That’s the only explanation for all of this.”
“Why would someone want to frame you for murder, Gwendolyn?”
“I have no idea!”
“Who would do something like that?”
“I don’t know! Maybe the same people who are leaving animal sacrifices all over town?”
Cade reached to the opposite side of the table where a manila folder sat waiting, and flipped it open in front of me. I’d seen the contents before, the last time I’d sat in this chair — a stack of glossy pictures depicting the Heretics’ sinister activities — but felt my stomach roil anyway as the bloody symbols and severed parts assailed my eyes. In addition to the original photos, they’d added snapshots of the slaughtered donkey from my alleyway.
“We have no concrete evidence that these—” He tapped a finger against the top photograph. “—have anything to do with Elizabeth Proctor’s murder. Nothing ties the two together. Exceptyou, Gwendolyn.”
My eyes shifted from the gruesome photograph to the other side of the folder. Tucked halfway in the flap there was a paper map of the city limits, printed in black and white. Someone had drawn small Xs in red marker at the spots where the animals were discovered. One at The Gallows, another down by Bertram Field, a third by the dog park near the river, a fourth by the community garden at Palmer Cove, a fifth up at Gallows Hill.
It was all so random.
Random places.
Random times.
Unless…
The breath caught in my throat.
“What?” Cade called softly, drawing my gaze to his face. “What is it?”
“Probably nothing.”
“I’ll decide if it’s nothing, Gwendolyn.”
“The sacrifices… they were all found several weeks apart, right?”
He nodded.