“I don’t know. Some guy. Some . . . I’ve never seen anything like him. He was really handsome. Like a movie star or something. He had long hair, really pale long hair, and he was there one minute and gone the next. He talked to Basim while Basim was in his wolf form. Basim was by himself. After we ate the deer, I’d fallen asleep on the other side of some laurel bushes. When I woke up, I heard them talking. The other guy was trying to frame you for something because you’d done something to him. I don’t know what. Basim was going to kill someone and bury him on your land, and then call the cops. That would take care of you, and then the fair . . .” Ham’s voice died away.

“You knew it was a fairy,” I said, smiling at Ham. “You knew. So you decided to do the job first.”

“It wasn’t something Alcide would have wanted Basim to do, right, Alcide?”

Alcide didn’t answer, but he was pulsating like a skyrocket on the periphery of my vision.

“And you told Patricia. And she helped,” I said, stroking his face. He wanted to make me stop, but he didn’t dare.

“Her sister died in the war! She couldn’t accept her new pack. I was the only one who was nice to her, she said.”

“Aw, you’re so generous to be nice to the pretty Were woman,” I said mockingly. “Good Ham! Instead of Basim killing someone and burying them, you killed Basim and buried him. Instead of Basim getting a reward from the fairy, you thought you would get a reward from the fairy. Because fairies are rich, right?” I let my nails dig into his cheek. “Basim wanted the money to get out from under the government guys. You wanted the money just because you wanted the money.”

“Basim owed a blood debt in Houston,” Ham said. “Basim wouldn’t have talked to the anti-Were people for any reason. I can’t go to my death with that lie on my soul. Basim wanted to pay off the debt he owed for killing a human who was a friend of the pack. It was an accident, while Basim was in wolf form. The human poked him with a hoe, and Basim killed him.”

“I knew about that,” Alcide said. He hadn’t spoken until now. “I told Basim I would loan him the money.”