Devil May Care by Pippa DaCosta Page B

finished talking with Detective Hill and joined me at the fringes of the crime scene. A strip of tape cordoned off the area around the body. The forensics team was inside, meticulously recording each drop of blood or speck of disturbed leaf mulch.
    I leaned out around Coleman and watched Hill return to the incident van in the nearby parking area, where many of the Boston PD coordinated the investigation. I got the distinct impression Hill was avoiding me.
    Coleman tucked his hands deep into his coat pockets. His shoulders slouched. His expression was grim. The damp air had settled in his hair and on his face. “Definitely something different...”
    I smiled. His human senses were picking up on my newly returned demon.“I thought you were meant to be a detective?” I didn’t want to get into a conversation about my demon, where she had been, and what it meant to have her back, especially with a detective who had no reason to sympathize with demons. “Where’s the chain?” I’d already walked the scene.
    “No chain. Early indications are he used the chain to restrain her but took it with him.”
    “That’s different.”
    “He may have been disturbed. The other victims were attacked in private residences. This one, he’d been watching. He followed her back from a late night drink with some friends at a bar not far from here.” Coleman must have read an unspoken inquiry on my face. “She has receipts in her purse. We’ve already confirmed with the bar owner that she was there.”
    What d’yah know? Coleman can detect after all. I nodded and wondered what Ryder would make of the scene. Wounded, he was technically on desk-duty. Having his arm in a sling wouldn’t have stopped him from coming, but Adam had ordered him to stay behind to discuss my situation. What that meant exactly, I wasn’t sure, but for now, the Institute seemed content to let me roam free.
    “Any witnesses?” I asked. The park sat at the heart of Boston and as parks go, wasn’t huge. Someone must have seen something.
    “Hill is checkin’ out a few leads, but nothing yet.” He removed his hands from his pockets and tugged on a pair of woolen gloves. “Charlie, has anyone considered that this guy might have a source inside the Institute?”
    “Yeah. Adam was onto it straight away. They’ve locked down all the IDs of the Enforcers, but the people who work there... I just can’t see it being them. Most have dealt with demons in the past and not in a good way. They’re the most professional people I’ve ever known, and they take their work seriously, I mean cult-like seriously.” A few Enforcers batted around the motto “committed to the core,” and they weren’t wrong. “It could be someone there, but I doubt it. There’s another, more likely source, beyond the veil. A half-blood. We think he might have given Damien the information.”
    “Half-blood?” Coleman frowned and held up a finger. “Wait, don’t tell me...” He glanced up, searching his thoughts. “A hybrid, right? Part demon?”
    He’d been doing his homework. “What the demons call a hybrid, yeah. Like me. Half demon.” I waited for him to cringe or shrink back.
    He nodded, as if reaffirming something in his mind. “We should talk. About demons, I mean. I could really use your expertise.”
    I didn’t answer immediately. His request had thrown me off-guard. I’d assumed my half-blood nature had spooked him, but I’d been wrong. “I’m not sure the Institute would appreciate it. I’d likely get my wrists slapped for revealing classified information.”
    He smiled, and the smile seemed to lift a hundred pound weight off his shoulders. His eyes brightened, and his face softened. I caught a glimpse of the man behind the badge. “You don’t strike me as the type to care.”
    “I er... I’m...” He must have seen the surprise on my face because he held up a hand, an indication there was no need to defend myself. I hadn’t realized he’d been paying