“Do you mean Ari?” Chills danced down my spine. “Or the person he’s searching for?”
She blinked free of her vision. “I don’t know.”
Fifteen
Boaz figured Oracle was a code name, not a designation. Otherwise, he might have told Addie to skip the spectacle, bought her a funnel cake, and then walked her back to Cass’s car to follow up a real lead.
“I know what you’re thinking.” Addie slanted him a glance. “You think it’s a bunch of hooey.”
“Given I know people who raise the dead for a living, I have a much less rigid belief system than you’re crediting me.”
He could have told her about Odette Lecomte, about how he had grown up around the famed seer, but then Addie would ask how he knew her. He would have to tell her about Grier to explain the connection, and he wasn’t ready for that. He might never be ready for that, but the day was coming on fast when he would have to confess all. She couldn’t very well live in Savannah, as his wife, and not hear about Grier.
Goddess, what a mess he made of everything.
“So you’re willing to believe in the divine message,” she mused. “Just not this particular messenger?”
“Something like that.” He had heard enough of Odette’s prophecies to understand they weren’t straight lines. Mary Sue had given them more direct information than he ever got from Odette. “You trust her?”
“Yep.” She patted his arm. “What she told us is pure gold.”
One thing was bugging him about the Oracle’s accessibility. “Why didn’t you go to her at the start?”
“How much do you think we get paid for bounties?” She laughed. “We can’t afford her to lead us around by the nose. She costs a small fortune. We’d go broke if we relied on her. The only time we use her is if kids are involved and we come up empty on our own.”
“You were hunting bounties,” he said, thinking it over, “not a killer. The priority wasn’t there.”
“That too,” she agreed. “They were reported to us as runners. That’s how we pursued them.” Her lips curved in the beginning of a smile that forced him to do a double take. “Now we know that all the steps the killer has taken up to this point lead to one target.”
“That’s much vaguer than you seem to believe.”
“Lucky for us, I happen to know an Elite sentinel with access to all of the case files. That’s got to cut down on the amount of time it takes us to identify the perp, the target, and locate Ari.”
Mild amusement trickled in, and he couldn’t help but return her smile. “You’re using me.”
“We’re using each other,” she reminded him, a bit somber. “Are you in?”
Any small thing he could do to smudge the black marks on his soul was worth his time and effort to do. “What do you think?”
The spark returned to her eyes, and she led him back to the car, where Cass waited for them.
The vampire swept her gaze up and down Addie then relaxed to see she was in one piece. “Any news?”
“Patel hit up the Oracle.” Addie rolled her eyes. “Mary Sue gave him what he paid for.”
The killer was moving fast, his timeline accelerating beyond what he had done in Savannah or the other cities he hit on his way to this one. That hinted the Oracle might be onto something with her intel. He would have to pull the files on the other killings and share what the sentinels had pieced together so far.
“Well?” Addie smiled up at him. “Are you still interested in a little interdepartmental cooperation?”
His unit wasn’t the type to share information, or give it away for free, but lives mattered more to Boaz than procedure. If they had a chance to stop the killer here, then he would be a fool not to take it.
“You don’t belong to a department.” A flicker of uncertainty crossed her features, and he felt like an ass for teasing her. “Come on.” He opened the door for her. “Let’s go find us a killer.”
On their way back to the old Whitaker place, he texted Honey an update and a request that included her bringing the files on all the local cases with her when she came to meet up with them.
Cass pulled in and found two unmarked cars sitting in the yard. “Are you sure this is wise?”
“I can handle it,” Addie assured her. “I give a statement, and they go away, right?”
“Not exactly.” He got out, and she followed him. “Honey brought the local files. I can pull up everything in the cleaner’s database on the other killings. We’re going to make this a joint effort to show the locals we’re willing to play nice.”
There was that pesky we again.
These were his coworkers, and Honey was his friend, but he hadn’t hesitated to pitch his lot in with Addie.
“That won’t get you in trouble?” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “I don’t want to make this worse for you.”
“Pritchard,” Honey called from across the yard. “This better be good.”
Parker and Abernathy stood behind her, and Abernathy froze when he spotted Cass.
“Jessica Honeywell.” He took Addie’s hand in his. “This is Adelaide Whitaker.”
“You’re in my thoughts and prayers,” Honey told her. “I’ll light a candle for you.”
“Nice to meet you.” Addie chuckled at the joke, but it was clear in her expression she hoped that was what it was—a joke. “Boaz was singing your praises just yesterday.”
Honey’s eyes rounded. “Oh?”
“He said you’re very good at what you do.” Addie pinned her smile in place. “He also said you dated.”
“I don’t know that you’d call it dating.” Honey palmed her forehead. “I did not mean that
