Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) (11 page)

“There are always going to be idiots out there Keegs. I believe that I have told you that since you were a child. So what is really going on that has you acting like you’re about to
hulk smash
someone?”

Keegan rolled her eyes at her mom’s reference. She took the offered sandwich and chewed a bite in thought
. “I didn’t realize someone’s opinion meant so much to me until he found out that I was a necromancer. Now, all of a sudden he doesn’t want to talk to me. He is so disrespectful. He acts like every case we had worked on, every case we solved together doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is the fact that I’m a necromancer and past necromancers prove that I’m just the same. I’m evil.”

“Sounds like this fellow means an awful lot to you,” Maria murmured in thought. “But did you ever think maybe he’s just trying to process everything. Not that it excuses his behavior but maybe he is trying to understand how someone so good could be
something that is associated with the bad.”

“I just,” Keegan shook her head.
“I messed up earlier and I know it. I got so mad at him and I called him out in front of my entire squad. I was so unprofessional and angry I just couldn’t think straight.”

Maria graspe
d her daughters hand in her own. “You do know that apologies are still known to go a long way.”

“I know. I just needed to get all of my thoughts out of here,” Keegan pointed towards her head, “And understand how stupid I was acting. Normally you straighten me out when I get like this but Jaime and Gordon
was over and looking at me like I was a cockroach and it made me so angry.”

“Well, are you at least feeling a little bit better now that you’ve gotten everything out of your system?”

“Yeah,” Keegan smiled up at her mother. “I do. I’ll probably spend an hour or so running on the treadmill before bed but I am feeling a lot better. Thank you for stopping by tonight. Even if you didn’t bring the gumbo.”

“That’s what mother
s are for dear.” Maria smirked. “And maybe I had other reason for leaving the gumbo at home. So I could guarantee another visit out of you?”

“You devious woman!” Keegan
wrapped her arms around her mom in a tight hug. “Thank you again.”

“All part of my job honey.
” Maria patted Keegan’s back before donning her coat before she opened the door to head out she stopped and looked critically at Keegan. “Where is your holiday cheer? Do you plan on doing anything for Christmas or are you going to just let your house be the neighborhood’s sore spot?”

Keegan grinned knowing she was going to hear somethin
g about her lack of decorations. “Someone has to do it. It might as well be the workaholic who would leave the Christmas lights up all year round.”

Keegan watched as her mother backed out of the drive and then huffed to herself. She wanted that drink that Biggerson spoke about earlier and she really wasn’t feeling a cold sandwich for dinner. She grabbed her coat and darted through the cold and back out into the cold.

A drink or two is indeed what Keegan had accompanied by greasy bar food, a cheeseburger and steak fries. Her arteries were going to
love
her in the morning. She was sipping on her first beer when someone plopped down beside her. She turned towards her new companion and groaned. It was bad enough the bar was playing a mixture of Christmas music and the saddest country music she had ever heard but she really did not need any more drama for the night.

“Don’t be like that.
” Matt rolled his eyes.

“Well,” Keegan dipped a fry in ketchup before chewing a bite of it to thin
k over her next words carefully. “The last time we spoke things did not go so well. So you have got to see why I would be hesitant to share my dinner and drink my beer sitting next to you tonight Hollis.”

“Maybe a little bird said you would probably be here once I decided I needed to apologize
to you.” Matt shrugged and smiled in thanks as the bartender set a beer and a plate of nachos down in front of him without having needed to ask Matt what he wanted.

“I’m goin
g to kill Gary.” Keegan muttered under her breath as took another sip of her beer.

“That’s Professor
, right?” Matt asked and Keegan nearly spit out her beer. She looked over at him with wide eyes. “He’s going to love that.”

“What? It’s the truth. The way he gets that scolding look and voice makes reminds me of one of my old college professors.” Matt held his hands out in mock surrender and grinned once he realized Keegan was entirely amused by his observations.

“He kind of does remind me of a professor.” Keegan took a big bite out of her burger. She turned to face Matt, her knees knocked against his before she straightened her self out on the stool. “I should apologize too.”

“Uh
, uh I haven’t even gotten to my apology so you can’t apologize until after I have Keegs.” Matt shook his head before he focused on the television playing a replay of a football game from Monday night. “I did check into your files. Once the can of worms was opened I couldn’t just not look, you know? For some reason I needed to know. It was you Keegan. The thing is I should have let you tell me on your own terms. It isn’t like we’re partners, not really, it is just the fact I didn’t know and we have worked together so many times before I felt like I needed to know. So I went looking for the answers you didn’t really want to give me.”

“And let me guess, once you found out you wish you would have just waited for me to tell you
that I’m a necromancer.” Keegan raised a brow in question and rolled her lips together when Matt nodded affirmative. “And then you were a jackass and I was one right along with you.”

“I needed to process what it meant, not that you being a necromancer really means anything, I just – there are so many bad things associated with other necromancers it caught me by surprise
to find out that you are one too. Then it threw me even more for a loop when I saw the newspaper articles linked to your file. Declan Phillips was your mentor and you’re working here. What I knew and what you are like didn’t really match up with each other.”

“Of course they didn’t
.” Keegan resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m nothing like Declan Phillips. What he did, that was beyond evil. I try my best to help the dead. It’s bad juju to mess with corpses anyways. I would never go there.”

Matt chuckled a little at her off-h
anded comment. “That is excellent to know because I wouldn’t ever want to show up for a Christmas party and find a dead body in the freezer.”

“Ps
h,” Keegan waved him off.“That is what the basement is for.”

“Oh good to know.
” Matt signaled for another beer and asked if Keegan wanted anything else and ordered a coke for her. “So wasn’t there something you wanted to apologize or was that a momentary lapse in judgment for you?”

“Look,” Ke
egan turned further towards him as she spoke. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you, especially in front of the rest of my squad. That combined with me ranting at you was most definitely unprofessional. I apologize for that.”

“I’m sensing a but
somewhere in there.” Matt huffed out an over-dramatic sigh.

“But,” Keegan smiled at him soft
ly. “What I said was true. Your guys treat us like we don’t help you at all. They give off an air that anyone in the SIU isn’t worth their salt. That we didn’t go through the same training and more than some of those guys did. People, civilians, they pick up on that kind of thing. You make it okay for them to treat us just as badly as you do. We already have it pretty bad for just being freaks with a badge. I go on home invasion calls, destruction of property and hate crimes for supernaturals and then we get called in for homicides. When you cut us out of the investigation while you were trying to figure out how to deal with finding out that I’m a necromancer, you cut off all lines of communication. You challenged Leeroy’s authority as second in command by posturing the way you did and you disregarded some of the most basic of respects. Even some humans would have been ticked off with what you had done.”

“What?” Matt blinked at the last bit of information Keegan threw at him.
“What did I do?”

“Your feet on my desk
? You were sitting them on top of my case files. Gary was probably this close to charring you to the bone for invading my space but topped with that I was surprised he wasn’t spitting fire.” Keegan shrugged. “Dragons are probably the most old fashion out of all the supernaturals in Misery. The angry exchange of words between the two of us combined with your feet on my desk? It made steam come out of his nostrils. Just saying.”

“I was a jackass, and I should probably apologize to them also.” Matt drained the rest of his second beer. “God, I want another but I’m driving home.”

“The faults of being a cop, the killer conscience telling you what you can do and what you can’t do.” Keegan patted his shoulder and threw enough money down on the counter to cover them both. “Get some sleep Hollis. We’ve got work to do in the morning.”

Matt grabbed her hand, stopping h
er trek towards the door. “We’re good right?”

Keegan ignored the warmth that spread across her chest at how intimate the touch seemed in a bar crowded full of people. Even if it were just to get her attention. “We are good. Olive branch extended and accepted.”

“Good.” Matt nodded and released her hand slowly before turning back to the bar with a whisper of a smile on his lips.

Cursing the warmth that bloomed across her chest in response from his smile and the softest of touches, Keegan kicked at the floor.
Life had just gotten a little more complicated thanks to Matthew Hollis and his simple touches. At least that is how it felt to Keegan.

Leeroy and Gary had gone down to track down another lead on an old vandalism case. Hopefully this time they would catch the kid who was destroying ghoul property before the ghouls got to them. They wouldn’t be as kind as the police would.

But who knows with the two of them. They could have just disappeared to go get breakfast and left the note to cover their asses. They had done it before. Packing her bag, Keegan grabbed her car keys hoping to finagle some information off of sleepy wereleopards to see if they had any thoughts on the Barrs’ death.

She pulled up outside of
The Jumping Bean
and she could feel the residual energy of last night’s run pouring out of the building. Her visits to Diyo’s actually got her an in with the local leopard prowl. Helping an alpha out of a sticky situation is always a good thing for the person who could lend a hand.

As soon as she stepped into the coffee house she felt every eye on her. She didn’t shrink into herself nor did she pay any attention to any of the occupants except for Bryton Anderson. Bryton was the alpha and probably the oldest supernatural in the area, even if he still looked like he was forty
Keegan knew he was pushing eighty at least.

Keegan stood at the foot of his table ignoring the glares she wa
s receiving from his companions. “I’m sorry for disrupting you, especially after a full moon but do you a moment so I can ask you a few more questions about the Barrs?”

“A
nything for you Detective Morne.” Bryton rubbed a hand over the scruff left over from the day before and he ushered everyone from the booth to make room and provide privacy for Keegan. She watched as he licked his lips and sprawled back in his seat. “So what can I help you with?”

“
Does anyone in the prowl, did anyone in the prowl,” Keegan corrected herself. “Did they have a problem with either Cody or Alice that you know of?”

“
I believe you asked me this question already but I’ll answer you again. No one had issues with Cody. Though some of the prowl didn’t like the fact that he was a human that had mated with a shifter.” Bryton answered with a shrug. “I think it was more jealousy rather than murderous rage if you know what I mean. A lot of people don’t think they can handle mating with a human but Alice and Cody? There was no separating the two of them once they got together.”

“Do you mind letting me know who exactly didn’t like the fact that Alice mated with a human?” Keegan pulled out her notebook and rolled her eyes when he shook his head before he grabbed the notebook and jotted names down
himself.

“You know me better than that Detective. As much as their deaths have shocked the supernatural community my first priority is protecting my people and I will do that until I have no other choice to do so. So no, I can not give you their names.”

Keegan understood his game and played along to make it seem legit. “I could get a warrant for the information if it really came down to it.”

“I sincerely doubt that detective. What evidence do you have that could persuade a judge, even one supernaturally inclined, to grant you a warrant on just trying to suss out information?
I cannot think of one.”