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Burnett frowned. “I would prefer that—”
“I know you would prefer it, but I prefer to stay there. And I’m an agent, not a Shadow Falls student.”
Burnett nodded. “Fine.” The man ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t mention this to Della. She’s got enough on her mind right now, but I just put two agents on her parents’ house.”
“Why?” Chase asked.
“Because I don’t believe in coincidences,” Burnett said. “If you’re right about the half were being a part of the group that murdered Mr. and Mrs. Chi, then it’s probably the Bastard gang doing it. All three of the murders that we’re looking at them for were less than three miles from Della’s home. It got me thinking, why there? Maybe Stone wasn’t so much looking for you, but for Della’s uncle. He might be watching Della’s house, thinking one of you would show up there. If we suspect that Della’s father saw the murder, then Stone might think Della’s father knows about his brother and has contact with him.”
* * *
“The examiner listed the girlfriend’s cause of death as homicide,” Burnett told Della the next day when she walked into the office.
Yesterday, Burnett had made Chase bring her back to Shadow Falls, before he’d called the regular police and other agents to come help out with the murder investigation of Jamie Brown, Stone’s girlfriend. Della spent the afternoon and last night mulling over everything and worrying. Kylie and Miranda had tried to get her to talk, and Della had pretty much lost it. Again.
Knowing Miranda, she was probably pissed, but Kylie … Kylie was always more forgiving, and she probably told the witch to just give her some space. But it wouldn’t last for long.
With no other leads to hunt down on her father’s case, Della had been expected to go to school today. Fifteen minutes into English, she’d gotten up and walked out.
“Did either of the half weres give us anything? Have you proven that the two cases are connected?” she asked, and bam, just like that, the smell of death found its way back into her sensory memory. She’d actually thrown up twice today.
The look in Burnett’s eyes told her the answer before he did. “No, but I’m going back in a while and taking another go at it.”
“I heard you chose not to go to school,” Burnett said.
“Couldn’t do it,” she answered.
After she’d left English she’d gone back to her cabin and written her sister another email, asking if things were okay. The email she’d gotten yesterday and hadn’t read until the middle of the night when she’d given up trying to sleep was just another angry message about how she wouldn’t forgive Della for abandoning her.
Della had written her back and tried to explain that it hadn’t been her choice, but of course her sister wouldn’t believe it.
This morning Della had also called her mom to see how things were. Nobody answered.
Was it already happening? Had her father forbidden either of them to communicate with her? The possibility that he knew she was vampire seemed more and more likely.
Della dropped into the chair across from his desk. “We already knew the girlfriend was murdered. How does that help?”
“We can have the FRU investigate it.”
Tears filled her eyes. “We’re not getting anywhere. We don’t have anything to prove my dad innocent.”
“We have Mr. Timmons—he’s a damn good lawyer—and we have a DA assistant working with us.”
“The judge? Any news on that yet?” Della asked.
Something in Burnett’s eyes told her he had news about that, but bad news. “They’ve assigned a judge to the case.”
“And he’s not one of us?” she asked and felt a tear slip from her lashes.
“No, but the FRU is still trying to get that changed.”
She shook her head. “If he’s convicted, Burnett, I’m not going to be able to live with this. I swear, I’m not.”
Burnett frowned. “Della, I know this is hard, but you’re looking at this all wrong. Even if we went to court right now, Mr. Timmons says he feels certain that we have a good case.”
The knot of pain rose higher in her chest. “They have what they think is his blood on the murder weapon.”
“I know, but he was there during the attack. I spoke with Mr. Timmons this morning. He said the police forgot to take pictures of your dad, or they got lost. He’s going to argue that your father tried to defend his sister and received a small cut that went unnoticed.”
