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“I should have gone to the sheriff and told hi his sister I should have done it, even if Jocelyn hated me or they fired me I should have told someone If I had, maybe Mr Ray would still be alive” Helen started to cry harder again, shoulders rounding and starting to shake

We were trying to reassure Helen that it wasn’t her fault when Edward finally came back with her drink I moved back to stand beside Olaf so that Edward could have the rooic on her I was out of sweet talk about this case

So Jocelyn had lied about the affair with her brother because she was embarrassed about it It didn’t mean she’d killed her uncle Ray Marchand could have seen it as incest and told Bobby to break it off with Jocelyn that night Nothing we’d learned—even Jocelyn’s lying—helped clear Bobby of the murder We needed another h evidence to convince the judge, or ere still going to have to kill him

I had a sudden urge to lean ainst Olaf’s arm, because I couldn’t reach his shoulder, just to touch someone It’s one of the ways that lycanthropes soothe theh beasts inside ainst someone for a moment so I could think As if Olaf had read my mind, he moved that small distance to me so that his arm touched my shoulder Yeah, I kneas Olaf, and he was a scary fuck, but I found ainst hi in that puppy-pile kind of way that I’d grown to depend on when I was hoht it was because they were metaphysically tied to me, but s huddled together for comfort

Whatever it was, it helped ht in Bobby’s phone because it had evidence that proved Jocelyn was telling the truth, or so like that How had Helen knoas on the phone? How had she been that certain that it orth bringing in to the police?

Those were good questions—questions we should have thought of earlier I stopped arguing with ood and as a bad idea and just leaned against Olaf, finally feeling in the front of my head what the back part had already noticed, a faint huy: his lion tobad, it just was, and in that ive up the serial killer stuff, maybe we could cuddle

57

BY THE TIME Edward got Helen calainst Olaf Even if he’d been my sweetheart for real, I wouldn’t have allowed ation The other marshals would have made fun of me

Helen was s at Edward, but when she turned to Newman, the smile vanished “Why haven’t you done your duty, Win?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Helen”

“It’s not Bobby’s fault that the ani him into aafter his own sister, and when Mr Ray told him that it was sinful, the animal side of him went crazy and killed him Ray Marchand raised that boy like his own, adopted hi, but Bobby still turned into an animal and killed him He’s not safe anymore, Win”

“Did you see him kill Ray?” Newman asked

“No, I wasn’t there that night I told you that”

“Were you safe and snuggled up at home, Helen?” Edward asked in his best country drawl

“I itha cathedral- pattern None of us has ever tried anything that intricate before”