Tempting Danger by Eileen Wilks Page A

bureaucrat—well-fed, not too bright. It was a misleading impression.
    The other two men wore suits and professionally grave expressions.
    Uh-oh, Lily thought. Feds. “Yes, sir. Sorry I’m late.” “These are Special Agents Karonski and Croft from the FBI. They’re interested in the Fuentes case.”
    Got it in one. Lily nodded a greeting, but doubt tugged at her. Randall wouldn’t have told them about her—would he?
    The two men started to stand. Randall waved. “Sit, sit.”
    It was a corner office, but it wasn’t large or fancy. The only empty chair was plain wood and sat on the right of the captain’s desk, which put her sideways to him and to the men sitting across from him.
    The agent closest to her had good teeth, skin several shades darker than Mech’s, and a pleasant smile. He was growing more forehead than hair these days. “I’m Martin Croft,” he said. “As I explained to your captain, we’re not claiming jurisdiction—”
    “We could.” The other one didn’t smile. “Karonski,” he said to Lily.
    The captain snorted. “You don’t have a leg to stand on.”
    “Murder by magical means is a federal offense.”
    Lily tried to be tactful. “Um . . . magical means? Fuentes was killed by teeth, not a death spell.”
    “According to the captain, he was killed by a magical creature,” Karonski said. “That’s murder by magical means.”
    Her eyebrows rose. Her captain’s response was more direct. “Bullshit. Even if you convinced a jury that murder done by one of the Blood constitutes murder by magic, the courts would throw out any conviction.”
    “Maybe.” Karonski was eyeing Lily with disapproval. “She’s young.”
    “Not as young as she looks, and she’s fully qualified. In addition, she has contacts in the, ah, paranormal community that may be useful. Is that your report you’re clutching, Yu?”
    Okay, he hadn’t told them. She hadn’t really thought he would. “Yes, sir.” She leaned forward and handed it to him.
    Croft said wryly, “There’s some disagreement here, obviously. Since this is the first murder purported to have been committed by a lupus in wolf form since the Supreme Court’s ruling—”
    “The first?” Lily said, surprised. “In the country?”
    “The first when the killer’s identity is unknown,” he amended. “There was a murder in Connecticut, but the case was, ah . . . solved by the lupus community.”
    He meant that the killer had been killed by his own people. She remembered reading about it. His body—in wolf form—and a signed confession had been left at the courthouse. “And that business in Texas last year was ruled self-defense.”
    His eyes widened slightly. “Yes. An interesting case, from a legal standpoint.”
    She nodded. The lupus involved had been in man form when attacked by a dozen gang members. He’d Changed. Three of the gang members had survived. “The ACLU was involved.”
    “It’s a landmark, the first judicial recognition that the right of self-defense can apply to a lupus in wolf form. Limited in its application, of course, because of the way the judgment was worded.”
    The defense had argued that, under the circumstances, Changing was no different than loosing a trained guard dog. That the defendant’s wolf form had protected his human form, which was legally entitled to self-defense. The appeals court had agreed, but . . . “The judges waffled around about what constitutes sufficient ‘clear and present danger’ to justify turning wolf. So it’s a precedent, but not a clear one.”
    He smiled. “I begin to see why your captain wanted you on this case. I don’t often encounter officers with such a good grasp of my turf. Ah . . . I don’t think Captain Randall mentioned it, but we’re MCD.”
    Magical Crimes Division. Well, that made some sense, but calling this a federal case was a stretch. But they weren’t claiming it officially, were they? Just putting the captain on notice that they could make