“Last year I was called in to consult on dying wolves at the zoo. I knew right away their illness was deliberate. Someone was experimenting with an early version. Of course, you’ll probably figure that out too, in a matter of time. But time very much matters. What if your agents aren’t the first to find the next mutated victim? You can only get lucky so often.” Freeman tilted her head, which seemed to be some kind of cue.

“Nothing else, until there’s a deal on the table,” the lawyer said.

Cola sent Cooper and Park home for the rest of the day while she worked on the specifics of a deal with Freeman’s lawyer. Contrary to how it worked on TV, these decisions didn’t actually happen with a snap of the fingers. Particularly not at this hour. Cola had people to consult, negotiations to run, and decisions to make, none of which Cooper and Park could be of much use for. Nor did she want them speaking to any suspects.

“Just...try to keep a low profile for twelve hours,” Cola had said, shooing them away. “Can you handle that?”

They’d spent so many hours sorting through Neil’s room that it was already evening when they got in their car and, not really allowed to do much else, started to drive back home.

“Do you think Cola’s going to do it? Give Freeman time served and witness protection?” Cooper asked as they maneuvered through rush-hour traffic and left the city.

“I don’t know that she feels like she has much choice,” Park said, turning onto the back road that would take them home, and directly into the glare of the setting sun. His skin looked golden in the light and his eyes glimmered and expanded inhumanly. “Freeman is right about getting lucky with who found the bodies so far. It could be anyone next time.”

“You think he’s going to try to expose wolves?” Cooper asked. Neil’s obsession with uncovering their secret existence had taken a serious toll on his life. Was the next logical step wanting revenge? Wanting to show everyone who had dismissed him and forced him into retirement that he’d been right all along?

“It’s not exposure to humans I’m worried about,” Park said. “As the Shepherd, a big part of my job—easiest part of my job—was killing those stories; it’s the responsibility of all the ruling packs. Like Cola said, people want to be told they didn’t see what they saw. Humans would generally rather believe one person tried to pull a trick on them and they were too clever to fall for it than the alternative, which is that an entire population of creatures have been successfully deceiving them for millennia and they’ve only just this one time noticed.”