“Medical Examiner’s here,” one of the officers announced over the police radio. There was a bit of an echo as the message came through the dashboard as well as the speaker clipped to Lacroix’s belt.

  “What’s she doing here?” Lacroix asked and proceeded to open his visor mirror to examine his hair and teeth.

  I peered out the side view mirror to see uniformed officers fixing their shirts and tightening their belts. It was almost as if superior military personnel were coming for an inspection.

  Before I could open my mouth to inquire, there was a knock on the side of my window. I jerked my head around to see a woman leaning down and squinting. I may have been a bit on edge from the Pooka attack, but she nearly scared the beignets out of me.

  As I turned to look at her, I was struck by her appearance. She was wearing a white lab coat over a revealing dress like an actress playing a Medical Examiner on a soap opera. The bottom of her dress was hiked up to show off her long, caramel legs and the top was cut down low to display her supple breasts. Her dark curls were barely tied back, as if she were giving a nod to professionalism. All of her features were perfectly sculpted, but her face was that of sheer beauty. Her golden brown eyes shone behind long lashes, and her thick lips appeared to be in a perpetual pout. She was enchanting, she was terrifying, and she was definitely a faerie.

  Lacroix lowered my window since I was too busy gawking at her. She leaned her elbows on the windowsill with her face a little too close to mine.

  “What brings you out here, maam?” Lacroix asked, and I could see him sit up straighter than usual to suck in his slight gut.

  “Now, detective, haven’t I told you not to call me maam? Makes me feel like an old biddy. Doctor Colette works just fine, Doctor if you’re rushed, and Lillith after hours.” She winked at him.

  The comment was too much for Lacroix. He turned his head as if distracted by something outside his window to keep from revealing the change of color on his face.

  “I know I may be a bit less conventional than your last ME, but I wanted to come down to the scene before the body was collected. With this weather, and it being out there for who knows how long, it’s likely to fall apart when the boys come bag it,” she said and then backed out of the window to get a good look at me. “And what happened here?”

  “O’Malley got bit by a rabbit,” Lacroix explained. “We’re waiting on a horizontal cab to get her checked out.”

  “A rabbit you say?” she eyed me up and down and then met my eyes knowingly. “No need to wait. I have supplies in my truck. Come with me,” she said then added, “and, you can call me Lillith, doll.”

  I didn’t move. Following a faerie like her after I had just been attacked was the last thing I wanted to do.

  “Well, go on, Newbie. You were the one worried about health insurance,” Lacroix said.

  Tentatively, I opened the car door and walked after Lillith. Male and female presenting police officers alike did their best to appear important as she strutted by them. I was, once again, glad not to be susceptible to that kind of faerie magic.

  Parked directly in front of a fire hydrant was a large, purple pickup truck. Lilith dropped the back down and motioned for me to sit in the cargo bed. I did so, as she went to retrieve a bag. Her touch was gentle as she removed my left hand from my right arm and cut away the rest of my torn sleeve to reveal a gnarly gash about six inches long on the back of my forearm.

  “This is going to hurt,” she said, and dabbed my arm with disinfectant.

  She was right. If I had been in shock before, I no longer was. I clenched my teeth to keep from yelling about the sudden firing from all of my nerve endings. My entire arm felt like it was ablaze.

  After she wiped down the area, she examined the injury. “Doesn’t look like you’ll need stitches,” she said, “but you’re going to want to keep it clean and wrapped up for a while.” She globbed antiseptic cream onto bandage pads and wrapped my forearm. Then she said in a smooth, almost musical voice, “The Queen didn’t send you here.”

  I had been waiting for her to ditch the medic act the whole time, but she was actually quite skilled. “I know,” I said.

  Lilith watched my face, expecting a bigger reaction.

  “Jack doesn’t deserve your help, trust me.” With her forefinger, she brushed the hairs which had escaped my braid, off of my forehead and tucked them behind my ear. “Why don’t you help me instead? I’ll make it worth your while,” she whispered into my ear, and felt her slip a card into my pocket.

  Perhaps she knew a way to get the ring off of my finger. I contemplated enlisting her help, but faeries always wanted something in return. Assuming the card she put into my pocket was a way to contact her, I could ask her later.

  Before I could entertain the concept much longer, I heard Jack’s voice yelling from down the road. “Get away from her!”

  Lilith dropped down off of the back of the truck, and stepped towards Jack confidently, like a lion getting ready for her next meal. I had no choice but to follow or miss their exchange.

  “What did you do to her?” Jack hollered

  “Me? Between the two of us, darling, I’m not the one she should be worried about,” Lilith practically purred. Clearly she was taking joy out of his outrage.

  Once I was close enough, I held my arm up and said, “Bugs Bunny bit me, and she patched me up.”

  “See? Us girls were having a pleasant chat until you so rudely interrupted.” Lilith’s eyes were practically glowing as a smile took over her face. “Why don’t you tell her why she’s really here? You hypocrite.”

  To be honest, I really did want to have a longer conversation with her. Sure, I didn’t trust her, but I also didn’t trust Jack. Without warning though, Jack took hold of my hand and yanked me along with him away from the crime scene. I didn’t fight him, and Lilith didn’t come after us.

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  We were several blocks away before Jack stopped. He let my hand fall and then turned to me. “Are you all right?” His expression emphasized his concern.

  “Well, I’ve been better,” I answered honestly.

  He held up his right arm to reveal an identical wound to the one I had, although the gash looked smaller on his gangly arm.

  “How…?”

  “I told you, we share a fate, you and I,” he said, looking more out of sorts than the last time I saw him. “Never talk to that horrible woman again.”

  Literally scoffing at Jack’s remark, I found myself putting my hands on my hips. No one could order me around like that. “I’ll decide who I talk to, and I kind of like her,” I said.

  “She’s a seductress! What do they call them in Ireland? Leannan Sidhe? She lures in humans and feeds off of them. She’s not even done when they’re dead. She’s bad news,” Jack said. Then in a quieter voice, “That and we dated years ago. It ended when she tried to kill me, twice.”

  There was a lot to unpack, but I was having a bit of trouble keeping up with his pace. With his long legs, his stride was about double mine, and I was doing my best not to trip over one of the mounds in the sidewalk.

  “Wait, hold up.” I said. We stopped in front of a bar with jazz music playing. I could hear the low thumps of the double bass and a banjo plucking out a tune. “Don’t act like you’re some sort of hero here. You got me into all of this in the first place. You brought me here, you lied to me, and you put this shackle on me. Now you think you can tell me what I can and can’t do?!” My voice started as an intense whisper but was rising with my anger.

  We caught the attention of a few strangers smoking outside of the bar. One older woman was attempting to bum a cigarette from two guys who were informing her that they only had e-cigarettes.

  “You’re right, I brought you here under false pretenses, and I tricked you with the ring, but I never lied to you, not directly. If I had simply asked you for your help, would you have done it?” Jack asked, paying no mind to the onlookers.

  “I might have,” I said, “I guess we’ll never know.” I really wasn’t sure how I would have responded to Jack if he came to me asking for help solving a murder. It wasn’t that I enjoyed mysteries as much as I obsessed over them until I came to some sort of conclusion.

  The older woman who was clearly drunk yelled, “Just kiss him already!”

  “Let’s finish this at the apartment,” Jack suggested.

  All three of them cheered at that, and then I could feel my cheeks burning.

  “I’m not leaving my suitcase and all my stuff at the police station again.” I said.

  “And I’m not letting you out of my sight until we’ve finished the case,” Jack said.

  “Won’t Chen be thrilled?” I said vehemently.

  Since it was only a few blocks to the station, I decided to walk rather than pay another cab or put my life in the hands of Lacroix’s racecar antics again. Jack walked beside me silently. It wasn’t long before I regretted my decision. It was still many hours from dusk, and the heat was not letting up. By the time we made it halfway there, my arm was throbbing and my throat grew scratchy. From the way Jack was slumping, I could tell he was just as miserable as I was. When we passed a shop, I motioned for us to go in.

  “We should grab something to cool off,” I said, pointing to a glass refrigerator full of drinks.

  “Sno-balls,” Jack responded.

  “What?” I asked, but Jack waved me away.

  He walked up to the counter, placing an order. Meanwhile, the small bell on the door behind me jingled. I turned to see a young woman, her blond hair tucked into a messy bun on the top of her head. I recognized the dark circles under her eyes as sleep deprivation. She was holding a pile of papers with the picture of a woman printed on it.

  “Can I hang this on your bulletin board?” the woman asked.

  “Of course,” said the middle-aged shopkeeper, “Someone gone missing?”

  “Yeah, my sister,” she said, holding up the paper so he could see.

  “She looks familiar,” he said.

  “Yeah, she used to come here when she was on the street, but she cleaned up, had an apartment, job and everything.” The young woman swallowed in an attempt to keep from tearing up. “The cops won’t look for her. They say once an addict always an addict. But she was serious this time.”

  “I had a cousin like that,” the shopkeeper said, “I’ll keep an eye out for her. Hope she turns up soon. You got a number on there to call?”

  “Yes sir,” she said. She pinned the picture to the board.

  “Can I get a copy?” I asked her. Even though I doubted it was relevant to our case. People, especially addicts, went missing all the time. But, I also didn’t want to dismiss anything, so I took the paper and folded it into my pocket.

  She nodded and handed me one. Then she thanked us and took her leave. All the while, Jack had been leaning against the wall ignoring everyone. He was a little worse for wear from walking through the heat. His white shirt was so drenched with sweat that it was becoming translucent. It was certainly going to draw more attention to us.

  When the shopkeep brought Sno-balls, I thought Jack would shove both of them into his face. They were cups of shredded ice with red and blue syrup poured over them.

  “Oh, snowcones,” I said.

  “No, Sno-balls,” he said, handing me one.

  No matter what they were called, I had to admit the ice was refreshing. I was energized to continue our walk.

  Feeling a little less grumpy, I was ready to talk about the case with Jack. “Turns out the victims were suicide,” I said.

  “That’s not promising,” Jack said, likely thinking it was not uncommon for the Fae to inspire humans to kill themselves. “And you were attacked by a rabbit Pooka at the crime scene?” Jack asked, “Could you describe him?”

  “Large, dark brown, ratty fur. Kinda looked like a rabid hedgehog with big ears,” I said trying to recall the thing that bit me.

  “Yeah, that’s Pete,” he said.

  “Pete? As in Peter Rabbit?” I asked incredulously. It was too absurd for me to laugh.

  “That would be why I didn’t mention his name. He’s a real son of a bitch. Terrified so many of the locals that parents tell horror stories about a wererabbit.” Jack said, rubbing his forehead as if to stave off a headache. “Hailey?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I really am sorry I got you involved in this,” Jack said. His voice was airy and remorseful, and I actually believed him.

  Generally I accepted apologies, but the prospect of my life ending in a few hours made me less forgiving. We finished our walk to the station in silence.