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‘Can we do something with the footage?’ I asked Greg out of the blue.
He blinked. ‘Give me a clue.’
‘The footage of the car that Ramsay delivered the laptop to,’ I expanded.
‘Ah. I’ve shot it to Fritz to see what he can do, but the reality is that it was dark, the CCTV is grainy – and it’s not like in the movies. He can’t just clear up the CCTV by creating pixels that weren’t there.’
‘Damn. Okay. So what can we do to make it better quality next time? I thought it was top-of-the-line stuff?’
‘The cameras on the property are, and they have a special light fixed next to them to help illuminate the video feeds when they’re in night mode. We couldn’t fix a light by the gate because it would distract and blind drivers on the road outside.’
‘Damn,’ I repeated. There really wasn’t much we could do about that, but at least that issue hadn’t been another balls-up by us. ‘Well, if cleaning up the footage isn’t possible then I guess we’re back to good old-fashioned police questioning. I think we’d better get Elena in to talk to us, don’t you?’
He grimaced. ‘Yeah.’ He paused. ‘But it needs to be handled delicately. We can’t afford to alienate our pack.’
‘No asking Elena outright if she killed Larsden?’
‘Best not,’ he said mildly.
I was pretty sure I used to be able to do subtle but having Esme in my head with her blunt questions and solutions had started to influence my behaviour. Her attitude cut out a lot of shit, but a bulldozer wasn’t always the solution. However, I’d have to dig deep to find some of my former finesse.
Greg found Elena quickly and brought her to my office. I smiled brightly at her. ‘Good afternoon, Elena. How are you?’
‘Curious,’ she replied, still standing behind the desk chair. ‘What do you want to see me about?’
I floundered. If I couldn’t accuse her outright of killing Larsden, I needed a reason to question her. ‘Um, you were working together with Lord Samuel to bring down the black tourneys, right?’
‘Right.’
‘I know he suspected that some of the Werewolf Council were involved.’
She sat down. ‘They must be. Loners were specifically targeted, not one or two but virtually every single one. When you go lone, your name is stricken from your pack’s records and the Council is notified of your defection so it has a record of every lone wolf. It’s one of the reasons Finley and Daniella both petitioned to join a pack. All the loners know it’s a ticking time bomb to stay lone.’
‘Do you know which packs they were from?’ I asked, knowing full well it was a rude question.
Elena licked her lips. ‘I don’t know about Finley, but Daniella was from the Cheshire pack.’
‘She was one of Rain’s?’ I said in surprise.
Elena grimaced. ‘I don’t think she ever really was – that was the problem. He groomed her into a medical position so she could help the pack with any severe injuries. She would help get them into the hospital and seen by crossover healing wizards rather than Common doctors. Through her position, she saw how many of the pack were getting injured – really badly injured. And worse, she knew Rain was the one doing the injuring. One day a kid was hurt and Daniella couldn’t save him. She left that night and didn’t look back, no matter the risk of being lone. She couldn’t be a party to Rain’s ghastly behaviour, and she saw her nursing as enabling him.’
I tried to keep how much her words horrified me off my face. An alpha should provide a safe space for their pack, not terrorise them. Jimmy Rain had been on my shit list for a while – after all, he’d tried to kill Lord Samuel – but I’d had a ‘he’s not my most pressing problem’ attitude. Maybe I needed to rectify that.
I was Queen now – almost – and that meant something. Once I took the seat of power, I’d be responsible for all these werewolves, and if they had abusive alphas in place then that was all kinds of wrong.
But how the heck was I supposed to sort out which packs had abusive alphas and which didn’t? I couldn’t exactly ask. The abused would go to great ends to cover up for their abusers; it was all part of the terrible cycle that was so difficult to break.
I studied Elena: so far, so truthful. Time to bring it back to the black tourneys. ‘Did Lord Samuel ever speak with you about who he suspected from the Council was in cahoots with Ghost?’
She hesitated. ‘He had his theories and I had mine.’
‘Tell me,’ I ordered.
‘I suspected William Walker,’ she said finally.
Walker was one of the few Council members that I actually liked. He had a warm smile, he made eye contact, and so far he hadn’t said or done anything sleazy. He also didn’t stutter or look like he’d swallowed a frog when he said ‘my Queen’.
‘Why?’
