“Or whoever set the fire only needed it to burn enough to cover their scent trail,” Park said. “A wolf, a human aware of wolves, or just somebody who wanted to make picking up a fingerprint pretty impossible.”

“Don’t narrow down the suspects too dramatically there,” Cooper said, stepping carefully into the room. “It can’t be a coincidence that we theorized someone being blackmailed by James Finnigan set fire to his apartment and now a fire has been set in the other space we theorized James might have stashed Eli’s recording and whatever he has on this second victim. A second victim we theorized, based on suspicious recent behavior, was most likely Arthur Crane.”

“Yes, if Neil’s to be believed,” Park said, nudging over a book on the horrors of elephant poaching with his toe.

Cooper looked at Park, whose face had gone carefully blank. “Do we have any reasons not to believe him?” he asked. Park didn’t respond. “Any reasons that don’t have to do with the fact he’s a dick I used to...dick?”

“I’m just remaining cautiously skeptical until we can get this ‘suspicious recent behavior’ verified by someone who I didn’t just scent fingering the woman whose husband he’s fingering for murder. Never mind the ethics of engaging in a sexual relationship with someone you’re investigating for embezzlement at all.”

“I’m not defending him,” Cooper said, crouching to sift through the pile of books that had undergone the worst damage and had thus possibly been where the fire began. “I just want to make sure we’re not thinking with our little heads.”

“Am I the type to get jealous?” Park protested, sifting through his own pile.

“Nothing so mundane,” Cooper said. “Protective, though? In the name of a hurt you imagine I’ve been holding on to all these years? Hmmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm.”

“Hmm yourself,” Park mumbled. “Let’s say Arthur Crane was being blackmailed. We’re back to the question, over what? The embezzlement? That gives Genevieve motive too, if we think they’re in on it together.”

“It’d be about the only thing they are in on together,” Cooper said. A slightly singed book with a wolf face on the cover caught his eye. My Year with Wolves: Wolf Behavior, Ecology and Mythology Demystified by Niko Hirano. Hello.

“Could he have been threatening Arthur that he’d tell Genevieve he’s a wolf?” Cooper asked, flipping it open.

Park was quiet for a moment. “Maybe. I don’t know. That whole situation is...” He trailed off, clearly troubled. “Regardless, we don’t know if Arthur and Eli were the only people James was blackmailing.”