Body Swappers 8
Maya thinks about what she wants.
Jeff’s aura was almost completely purple. Curiosity burned around him, and when he saw her it spiked. Then he took a breath, and she watched as he tamped it down, put a lasso of blue around it before speaking.
“Please explain.”
“The lawyer, Robert. He’s the one who exorcized me.”
Jeff whistled, and about half the purple dominating his aura blew away, replaced by an infusion of his typical yellow and pink.
“He wants us to help him investigate some weird murders. It seems his client was possessed during the time of the murder he’s been accused of, and Robert doesn’t think this is an isolated incident.”
Orange and yellow flashed through Jeff’s aura. “That’s a dangerous line of inquiry, in many ways.”
“What do you mean?”
“If a possessor is murdering people, and they find out someone is onto them, you’re in mortal danger. Especially since the law won’t protect you because magic isn’t recognized right now. And because it isn’t, the authorities might get in the way, making it impossible to move forward. And if you do track the possessor down, what exactly do you plan to do with them? And if it comes out that someone killed people using magic, all of us sensitives could be in mortal danger because there will be a literal witch hunt.”
“Oh.” Maya rubbed her head. “Well, Bethany might not want us involved at all. Ruth was going to talk to her.”
Jeff’s brow furrowed. “I think I will, too.” He picked up his laptop.
Maya texted Camille.
Guy who exorcized me came to my work. Turns out he had a good reason. Thought I made Frank jump. He’s annoyingly cute. >:(
Camille’s response came back quickly. Oooo… One question. Is he annoyingly single?
Maya’s cheeks flushed as she typed, Um, idk. She had noticed he didn’t have a ring, or a ring dimple, or a ring tan. And she was pretty sure the business card was a smooth way to give her his number. At least, she had been, before he’d given one to Ruth, too. But maybe they’d be working together? That made it worse. It was a bad idea to taint a professional relationship with dating. She texted, We’ll see.
She thought about what Jeff had said, about all the difficulties in investigating this murder. He had a lot of points, and she wouldn’t be shocked if Bethany said they wouldn’t take part. But despite all the difficulties, Maya wanted to do it. She’d gotten a degree in Criminal Justice because she wanted precisely that: justice. Cops had saved her, and finally made her safe. Before Bethany had headhunted her for this position, she’d planned to become one. She valued justice, higher even than her own life.
Bethany saying no would mean that Maya could go after Robert without professional qualms. But someone was getting away with murder in her city. Maya found herself thinking that if Bethany said they weren’t investigating, that she would want to take a sabbatical from work and go do it anyway.