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A petulant part of him wanted the lead to go nowhere, but of course, since the director had presented it, it held some weight to it. Cal and the others had split into two groups, with Troya and another officer tasked with speaking with Rhett, while Calix and Amory checked hospital logs and met with family members of the deceased.

He’d wanted to be the one to speak with Rhett, but Troya had insisted, giving him a knowing wink as he left the station before Calix could argue further. The Inspector had gotten it into his head there was something going on between Cal and Aodhan, and he was pushing for them to run into each other.

The thing was, it wasn’t Aodhan Cal was trying to avoid.

His talk with Titus the other day had left him more than a little unsettled. If anything, running into Aodhan would be a good thing. It’d give him an excuse to ask about Titus and whether or not the two of them got along.

Whether or not he felt the director could be trusted.

“Trouble in paradise already?” Amory asked as he begrudgingly followed her down one of the wings in the hospital. They’d already spoken to everyone they needed to, leaving the hospital visit for last.

He frowned, silently asking for her to elaborate.

“Oh, come on.” She gave him a look. “Everyone knows.”

“Knows what?”

“About you and Doctor Solace,” she shocked him by saying. “He’s been going around talking about you to everyone with ears—even a few other species who don’t. Everyone knows how he feels about you.”

Calix came to a halt in the middle of the hallway.

Amory’s brow furrowed. “…Everyone except for apparently you. Wait, you’re joking, right?”

“I…” What was he supposed to say? He sort of had an idea because he’d let the guy dick him down and slice him up? They’d spent time together since, sure, but it hadn’t been anything serious, nothing outside of the hospital even.

No more late-night visits that included food deliveries.

Not that Cal was upset about that.

He wasn’t.

Because it’d been one casual and fun night, and he was leaving soon.

Period.

“It’s not like that,” he ended up telling her. “We just get along, that’s all.”

“Do I look like I was born yesterday?”

“You look very pretty today, actually. Did you get a new haircut?”

“Ha ha.” She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, tell me how you do it. What’s the big secret?”

His frown returned.

“How are you getting all the Emergence men to fall head over heels for you?” She punched him on the arm—and not lightly. “I just don’t see it, no offense. I mean, I see it,” she waved a hand from his face down to his toes, “You’ve got a great body and your face is hot.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, you’ve got that cute, corruptible vibe going for you. You’re standoffish and quiet, but that only makes you seem mysterious and secretly a closet freak.”

Calix blinked at her. “I what ?”

“Hey, it’s not a bad thing. Who doesn’t love tying people up and having their way with them every now and again?” She cocked her head and tapped her chin. “Or, is it the other way around for you? Like to take instead of—”

“This is sexual harassment in the workforce.”

She sighed. “Don’t be like that. I’m trying to be friends here.”

“Why? Because Nero can walk again and suddenly you and the rest of the people who treated me like shit want to believe me?” It was harsh, harsher than she deserved, considering she’d been nice to him ever since that first meeting.

Another thing Titus Mercer had been right about.

“I’m sorry.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and feigned a migraine. “I get defensive when I’m embarrassed.”

“No, you’re right. Just because I feel shitty for misjudging you in the past, that doesn’t give me a pass. Not everyone is comfortable talking about sex, and I just tried to steamroll you into the conversation.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “For the record, I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of when it comes to enjoying sex.”

That wasn’t exactly what he’d been embarrassed about but…okay.

“Anyway, I’m glad Nero came to your defense. Everyone feels really awful about back then,” Amory added.

“I’d like it if we just discussed the case.” So they could take this far, far away from the topic of kinky sex before he had another slip of the tongue and he asked her what she thought about blood play and sadism.

“Of course,” she seemed disappointed, but didn’t push things further. They started walking down the hall again, weaving their way between patients and nurses as they went. This wing wasn’t as busy as some of the others, but they still needed to keep their voices down and avoid saying anything classified out loud. “I may have uncovered something, but I’m not sure how much it has to do with your case.”

“Tell me, I’ll decide.”

“Well, apparently, there have been a lot of domestic abuse cases involving patients of this hospital and their family members, dating all the way back for around eight or ten years. They’re sporadic enough that no one noticed. Hell, I wouldn’t have noticed either if I wasn’t specifically trying to find a pattern.”

“If it’s been going on that long, Rhett can’t be the only one involved.” Rhett was too young and had only been on the job for a couple of years.

“If he’s involved at all,” she said, “you’re right. Here’s the thing: they’re all weird cases, nothing like what you’re here to solve. Most of these reported domestic cases are minor, but at least once a year, someone takes things too far.”

That didn’t sound all that suspicious to Calix, but he tried to see it from her perspective. To him, people lost their cool and snapped all the time. Look what happened with Heathe.

What had happened with Nero.

“How many murders do you guys typically deal with?” Cal asked, and she lost some of her luster.

“I know, it seems like a long shot, and even if it wasn’t, it’s not like I can actually connect any of those deaths since the killer always confesses. The thing is, many of them sound remarkably similar to Heathe. Don’t you find that part strange at least?”

“What do you mean?” They were nearing the end of the hall now. “Sound like him, how?”

“They all said it was like suddenly they were overcome by this outside force that led them to do it.”

“Like being possessed?” Calix quirked a brow. “Do you believe in ghosts, Amory?”

“Of course not. But what if there really is something—”

“Evening, Detective.” Aodhan turned the corner just as they came to it, propping his shoulder against the wall as he grinned at him. His gaze pulled away after a moment, momentarily moving to Amory before he returned all his attention to Cal. “Officer Paige. What are the two of you talking so seriously about?”

“Dead people,” Amory replied bluntly. She went to step around him and mirrored Troya’s earlier move by winking at Cal once she was behind Aodhan. “I’ll go check the other databases myself. It’s not really a two-person job. Calix skipped lunch today, Doctor Solace, in case you were wondering.”

“Thanks, Officer,” Aodhan’s smile dropped despite his upbeat words, “I was.”

Cal waited until she was far enough away before stepping in closer to ask, “What’s wrong?”

“Come with me.” He took his wrist and pulled to the right, entering an empty storage room. He seemed nervous, running his hand through his dark hair as he paced in front of the door.

“Aodhan,” Cal couldn’t help the slight nervousness in his tone, “what’s going on? Talk to me.”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “It’s…No, it can’t be. I had to have misheard.”

“Misheard what?” Calix exhaled and then captured the other man by the arms and led him to a mostly empty table set in the corner. Once he had him seated, he crossed his arms. “It’s okay, just tell me what’s wrong.”

“That officer just now…”

“Amory?”

“Yes. Look, I know how this is going to sound but…I heard the two of you talking before I turned the corner and saw who it was. I’ve worked with Bruce and a few of the others in his department before, but she and I haven’t had much interaction in the past, which is probably why it didn’t register for me until I could hear her but not see her face.”

Cal got a bad feeling. “What are you saying? Are you implying that Amory…No, she can’t be.”

“I’m fairly certain she is though,” he insisted. “Amory’s voice sounds exactly like the one I heard at the party after you left. She was bragging about having a collection of heads.”

“Maybe…,” his mind spun for a way to make sense of this, “maybe you’re right and she is a member. Couldn’t she have been talking about the case then?”

“If that were true, why would they need me to bring you in the first place? She already had an invitation. When I discussed it with Bruce, he was clueless about the event, which means she never brought it up to him herself.”

“Maybe she wanted to try and do things on her own? Get a leg up on me and make me seem incompetent?” This had been before Nero’s return home. Even though she’d been nice to him, she could have still harbored ill feelings toward him. Solving his case would definitely be one way to flip him the proverbial middle finger.

Aodhan leaned back, effectively pulling away from him. “I didn’t realize the two of you had gotten so close these past few weeks.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Then why are you so readily making excuses for her?”

Calix rested a hand on Aodhan’s right knee. “I’m not saying I don’t believe you. I’m saying I don’t want to. I’ll look into it.” Something else occurred to him, and he pursed his lips. “I’ll have to speak to Bruce about this immediately.”

Was it weird? Yes, but there was no reason for Aodhan to lie about something like this. Whether or not Amory really was the woman they were looking for, the doctor believed she was, which meant Cal had to trust him and check. It shouldn’t be too hard, all they had to do was find out where she’d been the night of the party.

“As badly as I was hoping we could grab lunch together,” Aodhan said, “you should probably go do that now. I’ll distract Officer Paige.”

“You sure?” He hesitated, knowing he was right, but also kind of bummed about having to skip out on spending time together.

“Yeah, the sooner we can prove I’m either right or wrong, the better.”

“Thanks.”

“I can think of a better way you can thank me, Detective,” the suggestive lilt to his voice gave him away.

It was super unprofessional, especially given all the circumstances, but Calix moved in and kissed him anyway.