"What?" asked Tony sharply. "What were you thinking?"
Whoops. "I thought that it might be a good idea to let Zee know what you just told me. Just in case there's something they can do about it." I can lie, but living among werewolves, many of whom can smell a falsehood, had made me pretty adept at using the truth to my advantage.
"And the werewolves?"
I shook my head. "Werewolves are pretty simple creatures-that's why they make good soldiers. If there were a rogue werewolf out here, there might be dead"-I found a hasty substitute for bodies - " animals, but not regular people going berserk for no good reason. The wolves aren't magical like the fae are."
I slapped my hands lightly on my thighs and leaned forward. "Listen, I am happy to help you with what little I know about fae and werewolves. I will make a point of talking to Zee-but, as you said, we're in the middle of a heat wave. We've been in the three digits for a long time with no sign of cooler weather. It's enough to make anyone crazy."
He shook his head. "Not Mike. He didn't lose his temper when his wife wrecked his '57 T-Bird. I tell you I know this guy. I played basketball in high school with him. He doesn't have a temper to lose. He wouldn't just lose it and beat up his wife because his AC frizzed out."
I hate guilt. Hate it worse when I know that I have nothing to feel guilty about. I was not responsible for Littleton.
Still, how would it be to hurt someone you loved? I could see his friend's situation was eating at Tony-and I had a strong surge of sympathy, and guilt. I couldn't do anything either.
"Get your friend a good lawyer-and get him and his family to see a therapist. If you need names, I have a friend who is a divorce lawyer-I know he has a couple of counselors he recommends to his clients."
Tony jerked his head in a motion I took to be a nod, and we finished lunch in silence. I took a couple of dollars out of my pocket and tucked them under my plate for a tip. They were damp with sweat, but I expect the waitresses were used to dealing with that this summer.
As soon as we exited the restaurant, I could smell a werewolf-and it wasn't Honey. I glanced at the people around us and recognized one of Adam's wolves looking in the window of a secondhand store. Since he didn't look the type to be really interested in the display of old baby buggies, he must be guarding me. I wondered what had happened to Honey.
"What's wrong?" Tony asked as we walked past my security detail.
"Stray thought," I told him. "I guess the heat's making me crabby, too."
"Listen, Mercy," he said, "I appreciate you coming out with me like this. And I'd like to take you up on your offer to help us. Seattle and Spokane have specialists who deal with the fae for them-some of those cops are fae. We don't have anyone like that. We don't have any werewolves either"-they did, at least the Richland PD did, but if they didn't know that, I wasn't going to tell him-"and it would be good not to be wandering around totally in the dark for a change."
I hadn't meant to offer to help the police-that would be too dangerous. I opened my mouth to say so, and then stopped.
The trick to staying out of trouble, Bran had told me, is to keep your nose out of other people's business. If it became known that I was consulting with the police, I could find myself in big trouble.
Adam I could deal with, it was the fae I worried about, them and the vampires. I knew too much and I didn't expect that they would trust me to judge how much to tell the police.
Still, it didn't seem fair that the police were responsible for keeping the peace when they only knew the things that the fae and the werewolves wanted them to know. There were too many ways that could prove deadly. If something happened to Tony or one of the good guys and I could have prevented it, I'd never sleep a night through again. Not that I'd been doing particularly well at sleeping lately anyway.
"Fine," I said. "Here's some free advice. Make sure that none of your co-workers starts stirring up the fae over this."
"Why not?" he asked.
I took my first step out into the abyss, and told him something that might get me in real trouble. I glanced around, but if the werewolf was still tailing us, he was doing a really good job. Since Adam's people were usually more than competent, I dropped my voice to a bare whisper. "Because the fae aren't as gentle or powerless as they try to let on. It would not be a good thing if they decided someone was looking their way for this rise in violence."
Tony missed a step and almost tripped over a railroad tie. "What do you mean?"
"I mean never put yourself in a position where harm to you would make the fae community here safer." I gave him a reassuring smile. "It is not in their best interest to harm anyone-and they usually police themselves so that you don't have to. If one of them is breaking the law, he will be taken care of. You just need to be careful not to make yourself a threat to them."
He absorbed that for half a block. "What can you tell me about dealing with the werewolves?"
"Here?" I asked waving my hand vaguely at the city around us. "Talk to Adam Hauptman before you try to question someone you think might be a werewolf. In another city, find out who's in charge and talk to them."
"Get permission from their Alpha before speaking to them?" he asked a little incredulously. "You mean like we have to talk to parents before questioning a minor?" Bran had let the public know about Alphas, but not exactly how rigid the pack structure really is.
" Mmm," I looked at the sky for inspiration. None came, so I tried to muddle through it on my own. "A child can't rip your arm off, Tony. Adam can see to it that they answer your questions without hurting anyone. Werewolves can be... volatile. Adam can help with that."