"Ma'am?" I asked with a raised brow, did she just say therewould be no investigation?.
Lucinda puled the girl closer. "My wolf has been through the house," she nodded at a short red head to the side who nodded to acknowledge our look. "Our nose cannot lie, you have worked with shifter denizen yes?" She asked and I nodded. i knew just how powerful their noses where.
"Good, then you believe me when I tell you there are no illusions to exactly what happened in that house."
I swallowed and nodded.
"There is no need to investigate, the perpetrator is dead. According to the laws of restitution the children exacted a rightful payment for the suffering they endured."
Mulholland flushed and came at us angrily, "They killed a man, we cannot just let them go like that,"
Lucinda angled her head and looked him over. "These children are not going anywhere with you, agent, so don't bother. I can smell the denizen blood on your hands, I know exactly the kind of darkness that lies in your heart. One day you too will pay the debt you owe; I wish I could be there to see it." She smiled, if what she did could be called that. The teeth of her human veneer fell away to reveal the sharp canines in her mouth.
She turned to one of her people and they slowly came forward for the children. Mulholland knew he had no grounds to stand on and stepped aside. The children were taken away and Louis and Fresco came towards me.
"What now?" he asked as Mulholland and Barnaby moved away to talk among themselves.
"They will try to take over the investigation, now that the denizen element has been removed there is nothing I can do about it, but we can stall for at least a day, long enough to find a clue about where the old fuck got those children. He got the two oldest four years ago and the two youngest two weeks ago. We need to know where he is getting them. There could more of them out there," I said and sighed. My forehead throbbing. Iboth wanted and did not want to run the case.
"Okay, the police will hand over everything we find to your team." Louis said and I nodded and turned to fresco.
"Go with him, coordinate the transport to the field office. I will talk to the director about what we will be doing next." She nodded and patted her arm before following lousi.
I hurried to the alpha, and got there just as she closed her door. Iknocked on the tinted glass and had to wait a few tense minutes before it was lowered.
"What is it Agent?" Lucinda asked.
I caught a glimpse of the children, buckled into the seat belts but holding onto each other, before I looked away.
"The oldest girl told me they'd been purchased from a place with others like her. My agency will like to follow this up seeing as four years after her purchase the dead man purchased the younger ones. Stands to reason the organization is still running, or at least a similar one. Will it be possible to find out what they remember from where they were before? Anything you can give us will help." I said in a rush while the older woman looked at me.
"We have ways of getting the information you need, we intend to investigate this as well. There are very few shifters living away from pack support, first we will find their parents. Then we go from there. I will call you if we find something." I nodded and stepped away from the car as the fleet pulled out,
I turned back to the manor. Many of the police were pulling out as well. They'd stopped gathering evidence pertaining to the crime and were now looking through documents for anything that could lead them to the people selling kids to perverts.
I sighed again when Mulholland came my way. I was ready to be done with this day.
"We need all the evidence you have gathered."
"Yeah, about that. You see, there is a chance someone is out there running a very disgusting business involving children, I need to find them. And since those children may be denizen my organization cannot step away from this just yet. You need the evidence?" I smiled. "Get a warrant." I turned away from him and headed to my car.
Louis was waiting. "How long do we have?" he moved out of the way as I unlocked it.
"No more than a day, probably less." I looked at him, "Anything?" he sighed and shook his head.
"He has many secret rooms in the place, we already found a wall full of cd's." his face told her exactly what kind of cd's they were.
"Did he video himself with…"
He shook his head. "No."
I sighed in relief, "okay, I have to go and report to my director. I do not think I will be able to head this one but I will make sure whoever it is will work well on it."
He nodded and stepped back as I opened my door and got in mysmall salon car. I poked my head out the window as I started the car. "You know, I won't have to find someone to work on this if you just throw in your hat with us you know. We work well together."
He gave a small smile and shook his head, "I cannot stand the denizen, you know that, that fear that comes on us when they're near." He shuddered. "Cannot stand that longer than a minute." He looked at me, "I mean, you guys probably feel it less than us right? That's why you're able to work with them."
I nodded. "I understand, okay. Work with fresco and send whatever you find to me." he nodded and I forced a smile as I drove off. Forcing myself not to think about what he had just said.
The denizen gave off certain signals that humans picked up on. Chief of which was fear, such crushing fear you couldn't move or do anything. I had known people to pee themselves or worse if they weren't removed from the situation.
But the only thought in my head was the fact that it had been months since I'd felt it.