Edgar rubbed his temples, trying to gather his wits. Normally, he was the problem child in the family, but he seemed woefully outmatched here.

"Here, let me do that for you," Joanna said soothingly.

"Really, that's not . . . okay," he said as she put her hands on his temples and her tee-shirt clad breasts on the back of his neck.

The door opened and Heda came in, growling in a most unladylike manner.

“The nerve —

“What happened?"

“My battery died," she said, plugging her cell into the charger.

“And they were going to head out to a party before I could get inside and use the land-line."

"So all of that and no resolution?" Peter asked.

“Technically, that conversation has been going on for three years,"

Ed informed him.

“It'll pick up where they left off next time. Mark my words."

Heda rolled her eyes, then managed to look cheerful for a moment.

“Hey, Reichert's gonna help us get out of our housing contracts, so operation big-house-full-of-shifters is all go. Seriously," she added, looking at her brother, "you have GOT to see this place. Peter's uncle is amazingly cool for doing this for us."

"Well, I'll probably have plenty of chances, since I'm here until this case is solved. North American Shifter Council is footing the bill. You guys getting a house together? That's cool. I missed that part of the college experience."

“You missed the ‘college’ part of the college experience, you dumbass."

"That too. Hey, these guys won't give me a straight answer, so what is the deal with Madison Sloan?"

Heda countered his eyebrow raise with one of her own.

"What about her?"

"She's listed as a material witness, but she's also listed as blind."

“That's true."

"So she really can't tell me anything.”

“That's false."

"She what? Smelled the cage? Heard it?"

"She could tell you exactly what it looks like and probably give you a good guess as to what it was made of. But you've probably got all that in your report."