Children of the Sea 01 - Sea Witch

half and half, male and female. But Caleb bet any female state detective was used to the boys in local law enforcement giving her a hard time.
    “Our sergeant was wondering if we could sit down and discuss the case.”
     
    Caleb lifted his brows. “This case?”
     
    Reynolds cleared his throat. “There’s a good chance the same person committed both attacks. At least until we have the identity of the murder victim, the key to the crime is probably the first assault.”
     
    “So you’re taking over my case.”
     
    Maggie’s case.
     
    “We’re incorporating the two investigations. The sergeant understands you have experience with this place and the people.”
     
    “I have experience in homicide, too.”
     
    “We’re not in Portland anymore, Toto,” Hall said. “We have a dead naked woman at a tourist resort. The lieutenant’s making this case a top priority.”
     
    “Too bad he didn’t feel that way when I was asking for Maggie’s lab results five days ago.”
     
    Or this murder might have been avoided . The unspoken implication echoed between them.
     
    “Look, you’ll still have a role in the investigation,” Reynolds said.
     
    Caleb narrowed his eyes. “A role.”
     
    Reynolds shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”
     
    “I can show you the report,” Caleb said. “Back at my office. ”
     
    His turf.
     
    Reynolds nodded, conceding home field advantage. “We’ll need copies,” the detective said. “Notes, sketches, interviews—”
     
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    “There’s a machine in the office,” Caleb replied evenly. “You can copy whatever you want.”
     
    “We appreciate that,” Hall said. “Right now, all we have to go on is the body.”
     
    Caleb’s mind flashed back to purpling flesh and white-edged wounds and naked toes . . .
     
    He controlled his face. His voice. “How soon can the ME conduct the autopsy?”
     
    “Usually? Tomorrow morning,” Reynolds said. “But the lieutenant is pushing for this afternoon. We need ID.”
     
    “Get me a photo,” Caleb said.
     
    “You want to put it out in the media?” Hall asked.
     
    “If we have to. First I want to show it to Maggie—the first victim,”
    Caleb said. “See if she recognizes her.”
     
    “We can do that,” Reynolds said.
     
    Caleb’s jaw tightened. Not his case, he reminded himself. But—
    “I can go with you,” he said. “She knows me.”
     
    “We don’t want to take up your time,” Reynolds said.
     
    “You have an objection to our talking to her alone?” Hall asked.
     
    “No objection,” Caleb said while frustration ate a hole in his gut.
     
    It wasn’t his job to object. And what the hell else could he say?
     
    He could tell them Maggie thought she was a mermaid and completely destroy her credibility.
     
    Or he could tell them he was beginning to believe her and completely destroy his.
     
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    “Does she remember anything yet?” Reynolds asked. “Did she see anything?”
     
    “ I did not see him at all ,” Maggie had said, her cheeks flushed, her eyes dark and earnest. “ But it was not Dylan .”
     
    “ How can you be sure ?”
     
    “ It was a demon .”
     
    Fuck . That would go over about as well as her mermaid theory.
     
    Caleb forced his jaw to unlock. “She doesn’t remember. I think she doesn’t want to remember. Sometimes she . . . imagines things.”
     
    “She lies.”
     
    The memory of Maggie’s wide dark eyes and earnest voice rose like a ghost to accuse him.
     
    “No,” Caleb said firmly. “She believes what she’s saying. She just.”
     
    “ I am not sick. Or stupid .”
     
    She had webbed toes.
     
    “She’s confused,” he said.
     
    Reynolds and Hall exchanged a look.
     
    “Maybe seeing what this guy did to somebody else will help clear her mind,” Reynolds said.
     
    Maybe, Caleb thought. Or maybe it would convince her she shouldn’t trust anybody.
     
    Including him.
     
    The two detectives flanked Margred, one on the ugly brown couch and one by the Hunters’ living room fireplace.
     
    Tell them the truth ?
     
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    They would never believe her. Caleb had not believed her.
     
    So Margred lied. Charmingly, easily, over cups of coffee. Sitting between them, she told the same lies she had once told Caleb: She did not know. She did not remember. The male detective wrote everything down as if he believed her. The female had doubts—Margred could see the skepticism in her eyes—but she could not argue with Margred’s pretty distress