Jesse sank down in the nearest chair, flummoxed. “Scarlett . . .”
“That’s why Molly is evicting me. And I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to know that I murdered someone,” she rushed on. “And I didn’t want you to look at me the way you are right now.”
He stared at her. “Anastasia’s really dead?”
“Yes,” she said in a small voice.
Sighing, he leaned back in the chair, taking that in. “You’re not a murderer,” he said, toward the ceiling. Deciding that was unfair, he sat up and looked at Scarlett. “I know I’ve been hard on you,” he said quietly. “And I know we haven’t been on the same page on this case. I should never have taken Dashiell’s deal; it’s knocked everything out of whack. But I also know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t have killed Anastasia if you’d had any other choice.”
Scarlett visibly relaxed in her seat on the couch. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“You’re welcome.” He absently rubbed his arm, which still hurt where Anastasia had wrenched it. “I just don’t know where that leaves us, as far as the investigation goes.”
Scarlett looked at him thoughtfully, her fingers fidgeting in her lap. “You said Ana was the last link in the chain. Ana and Terrence made the nova and brought the Luparii.”
“Yeah . . .”
“But we’ve been assuming that they brought the Luparii here to go after the nova,” she pointed out. “What if they made the nova in order to bring the Luparii here?”
He stared at her. “Why?”
“What do the Luparii do?”
“Kill werewolves,” Jesse said promptly.
She sat up, swinging her legs to the floor and leaning forward. Despite wincing a tiny bit at the movement, Scarlett plowed on. “Ana’s upset about Lydia. So she comes after me, for the cure. And maybe she goes after Will, for not protecting her girlfriend from Eli in the first place. She’s not strong enough to kill him herself, and her pal Terrence is too crazy to do it. So she gets the Luparii to send a scout here who can take care of Will. But the scout doesn’t appreciate being used as someone else’s tool, so he kills Terrence and his henchman.”
Jesse considered Scarlett’s explanation. It made sense. It would have been much easier for Anastasia to just shoot Will with a silver bullet, but even that might not necessarily kill him unless the circumstances were perfect. And then Ana would have had to face the rest of the pack for killing their alpha.
Instead, Ana had managed to arrange for someone else to do all her dirty work, without even paying them. It wasn’t a bad plan, except for the part where the Luparii aren’t anybody’s puppet. “Why go after Will, though?” he asked Scarlett. “Why not go after Eli?”
“For one thing, she couldn’t find him,” she pointed out. “But more importantly, everything that happens in a wolf pack is the alpha’s fault, good or bad. To Ana, part of Will’s job was to keep Eli and Caroline from attacking humans. He failed at that.”
“So she and Terrence found a bigger, badder asshole to go after Will,” Jesse said slowly, shaking his head a little in amazement. “If it’s true, I don’t think Terrence even knew the whole plan. I could see him calling the Luparii, but when I suggested he made the nova, he flipped out on me. I don’t think it was faked.”
“Ana used him,” Scarlett said simply. “I don’t know how much of it was always the plan, or how much of it was her taking advantage of a moment, but Lydia’s change was ripping her apart. It was destroying their relationship. Add that kind of stress to the regular tension and discomfort that the werewolves have to deal with every day . . .” She shrugged helplessly, looking a little sad. “It’s kind of tragic. Ana and Terrence were both miserable, but they were too weak to get what they wanted. They found someone stronger to do it for them, but then they were too weak to survive the help.”
“And now we have to clean up their mess,” Jesse grumbled. “Okay. I think we’re right about what’s happening—”
“Jesse,” Scarlett broke in, fear in her voice. “If we’re right, then the Luparii scout knows who Will is. And tonight’s the full moon. There’s no guarantee that he’ll go after the nova when he could go after the pack.”
That chilled him. “Remember, if we can take away the bargest, the Luparii isn’t going after anybody, not today,” he said to Scarlett. She nodded resolutely, and he went on, “But how do we find the scout?”
“You’re asking me?” Scarlett asked, wide-eyed.
“Shh. I’m thinking aloud.”
“Oh.”
Jesse snapped his fingers. “Phone records.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket again and began scrolling numbers.
“Who are you calling?” Scarlett asked.
Listening to the phone ring, Jesse said quickly, “If Terrence called the Luparii in France, maybe he and the scout talked once the scout was here.”
“Unless they set up their meeting before the guy left France,” Scarlett pointed out.
“Shh. Be hopeful,” Jesse told her. She gave him a tiny smile, and motioned that she was going to the downstairs bathroom. He nodded and she hobbled away.
After five rings, Glory finally answered her phone. “Sherman.”
“Glory, it’s me. Has Bine identified the two bodies yet?” he asked. No point in tiptoeing around it.
“Well, hello to you too. Yes, they got the IDs in this morning. Terrence Whittaker and Drew Riddell. But you already knew that,” Glory said angrily.
Jesse blinked. “You know why I couldn’t tell her,” he said, and then winced at his own voice. He sounded just like Scarlett when she talked to him.
“Yeah, but you left Runa and me holding the bag. Bine really tore into us.”
“What’d you say?”
Glory sighed into the phone, a heavy static sound. “I don’t know; Runa made something up.”