Nick stood and put a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, Rachel,” he said softly. “Let’s get you home.” His dark eyes rose to Edden’s briefly. “She can do the paperwork tomorrow?”

“Sure.” Edden rose, taking the vial cautiously between two fingers and dropping it into a shirt pocket. “I’d like you to be at Mr. Percy’s interrogation, if you could manage it. You have a lie-detecting amulet, don’t you? I’m curious to see how they compare to our electronic devices.”

My head bobbed, and I tried to find the strength to rise. I didn’t want to tell Edden how much trouble it was to make those things, but I wasn’t going to go spell shopping for at least a month, to give the charms aimed at me a chance to filter out of the marketplace. Maybe two months. I looked at the black amulet on the table and stifled a shudder. Maybe never.

A soft boom of sound shifted the air and the floor trembled. There was a heartbeat of absolute silence, then the faint noise of people shouting filtered through the thick walls. I looked at Edden. “That was an explosion,” he breathed, a hundred thoughts racing behind his eyes. But only one struck me. Trent.

The door to the break room flung open, smashing into the wall. Briston fell into the room, catching herself at the chair Francis had recently occupied. “Captain Edden,” she gasped. “Clayton! My God, Clayton!”

“Stay with the evidence,” he said, then darted out the door almost as fast as a vamp. The sound of people shouting drifted in before the door majestically closed. Briston stood in her red dress, her knuckles white as she clenched the back of the chair. Her head was bowed, but I could see her eyes welling up in what looked like grief and frustration.

“Rachel.” Jenks prodded at my ear. “Get up. I want to see what happened.”

“Trent happened,” I whispered, my gut clenching. Francis.

“Get up!” Jenks shouted, tugging as if he could yank me up by my ear. “Rachel, get up!”

Feeling like a mule at the plow, I rose. My stomach lurched, and with Nick’s help, I hobbled out into the noise and confusion. I hunched under my blanket and held my injured arm tight to me. I knew what I’d find. I’d seen Trent kill a man for less. Expecting him to sit idle as a legal noose slipped around his neck was ludicrous. But how had he moved so quickly?

The lobby was a confusing mess of broken glass and milling people. Cool night air came in through the gaping hole in the wall where glass once hung. Blue and yellow FIB uniforms were everywhere, not that they were helping matters. The stench of burning plastic caught at my throat, and the flickering black and orange of a fire beckoned from the parking lot where the FIB van burned. Red and blue lights flashed against the walls.

“Jenks,” I breathed as he tugged on my ear to urge me on. “You keep doing that and I’ll squish you myself.”