I pressed my lips together. Somehow, I doubted that. These people were wrapped up in so much shady business, I had a strong gut feeling that there was foul play involved in Richard Rutherford ending up as plant food.
I picked up a picture, but I couldn’t focus. I huffed and tossed it back down on the seat beside me. I rose and stepped over Daisy, who lay at Peter’s feet, to pace. “I’m still freaking out about those trapped shifters at the sanctuary. I’m telling you guys, most—” I raised my brows. “—shell, maybe all of those animals aren’t animals—they’re shifters! And Ludolf’s behind it all.”
Heidi shook her head sympathetically, but Will scoffed. “How sure are you about all that?”
I planted my hands on my hips and turned to face him. “The sloth told me so.”
Will just raised a brow.
I huffed. “Well… he literally just said Ludolf Caterwaul… he’s a slow talker.”
My bear shifter friend crossed his beefy arms. “You’d better be sure before you go around accusing him… and getting us all murdered.”
I shot him a sassy look. “Or thrown in cages.”
Will flashed his huge eyes. “Yeah—or that.”
I sighed. “Fine. Point taken.” I did need to get absolute proof that Ludolf had basically sold fellow shifters to a zoo.
Heidi clicked her tongue, looking pained. “Why would he throw shifters in cages? Is it like jail for you guys?”
Will and I spoke at the same time. “No!”
Peter spoke up. “Bijou Mer’s jail is jail—for everyone.”
Will and I exchanged disparaging looks, then turned to Peter. I snorted, and Will let out a dry, humorless, “Ha.”
Even Heidi giggled. “Yeah, right.”
Peter frowned, and even Daisy lifted her head and looked around the room. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Will crossed his long legs and leaned forward, perching his chin on one hand. “Tell me, Officer, exactly how many people from the upper tiers are in jail?”
Peter blinked.
He held up a long finger. “Don’t forget—I was born in an upper tier family. I had no idea the privilege I had until I lost it. Jail is not the same for everyone—it’s meant for people from the Darkmoon District. For people who can’t afford bail or fancy lawyers, like Jolene used to be.”
I nodded, and Peter’s brows drew together—his deep thinking look. It was true. The justice system favored the rich—it took being rich to afford the insane amounts we used to charge our clients for decent representation. And it wasn’t just the lawyers—every step of the justice system punished the poor more harshly than the rich.
I bit my lip and remembered the appointment in Malorie’s calendar. She’d been about to see a lawyer about drawing up divorce papers from Quincy. What had spurred her to seek divorce? Quincy had seemed blindsided, but maybe that was more about him being out of touch, than the decision being a sudden one.
Something else was nagging at me. I leaned against the wall and nibbled the inside of my cheek. “Heidi has a point though… what if Ludolf is using the sanctuary like jail? What if that’s where he’s sending shifters as punishment? Including the activist leaders he betrayed to curry favor with King Roch?”
Will frowned. “Okay, but why? He doesn’t need to do that. He could just kill anyone he wants to get rid of.”
Heidi nodded. “And why aren’t they just shifting back and like telling everyone, ‘Hey help me! I’m a person!’?”
I nodded. “He probably used some potion on them, and now instead of being stuck unable to shift into an animal form, like me, they’re stuck in animal form, unable to shift back.”
Heidi covered her mouth. “That’s so messed-up.”
Will paled. “All the more proof for my theory. The phoenix, tired of being imprisoned for all these years, attacked and killed Malorie when she fell into her cage.”
Peter leaned forward. “Yeah, but we still don’t know why or how the phoenix got ahold of that poisoned dart.”
I bit my lip. “And we don’t know what that photograph of the hand of her ex, Richard, meant to Malorie. Who murdered him and fed his body to a carnivorous plant?”
Will scoffed. “Uh, maybe the same lady who filled a zoo with trapped shifters?”
I exhaled slowly, already not a fan of what I was about to say. “I’m gonna go snoop around Ludolf’s lair. Maybe he still has records and I can find proof of the potions he used on those shifters trapped at the sanctuary. It’d either lend our theory proof, or maybe we could even figure out a cure for them so the shifters could testify about what Ludolf did to them.”
Peter sat upright. “I’m going with you.”
I grinned but shook my head. “Absolutely not.”
Heidi groaned. “I dunno, Peter.”
Will shook his head. “You can’t. You’ll def be killed.”
Peter dragged a big hand over his mouth. “I don’t like you going in there by yourself. It’s too dangerous—please, don’t. We can go back to the sanctuary and talk to more animals—they’ll probably give us all the answers we need.”
His eyes looked weary and desperate, a muscle in his jaw jumping. I could tell how worried he was, and I didn’t want to make it worse. I nodded. “Okay. Let’s do that.” I turned to my friends. “In the meantime, let’s keep looking through these photos.”
Will threw his head back and groaned. “It’s pointless.”
I raised my brows. “Keep looking, and I’ll buy you some coconut ice cream.”
He tipped his chin down and leveled me a serious look. “With sticky rice? From the cart I like?”
I rolled my eyes but grinned. “Yeah, whatever.”
He grabbed a stack of pictures off the chair beside him and pored over them. I paced as everyone munched and looked at the pictures. I ran over everything in my mind.
So Malorie’s first husband disappeared mysteriously, and we now had some evidence that he—or someone wearing his ring—had been eaten by a carnivorous plant at the last Night of the Phoenix party at the sanctuary.
I nibbled my thumb and traced a path back and forth
