Rule did his best to ignore the locked door behind him. “I can’t remember if you met my nadia at the gens subicio. You know who she is, though.”
“Cop,” Cobb said without opening his eyes. His voice was hoarse and soft. He would be trying to inhale as shallowly as possible with that wound in his chest. “FBI cop.”
“That’s right. I require you to answer her questions fully and honestly.” He put a whisper of the mantle behind that order, just enough to make it clear he meant exactly what he said.
Cobb nodded fractionally. “I have a request to make of my Rho.”
Rule’s throat tightened. He feared he knew what that request was. “You may make it after you have answered Lily’s questions.”
Lily took a recorder out of her purse, set it on the floor, and turned it on. “Special Agent Lily Yu of Unit Twelve, MCD, Federal Bureau of Investigation, interviewing suspect Raymond Cobb.” She gave the date and time and recited the Miranda warning. “Mr. Cobb, this is an official interview. It is being taped. Do you understand your right to counsel?”
“My Rho’s here. He’s my counsel. Get on with it.”
“You’re wounded. Your doctor is unsure of your ability to withstand questioning, due to your nature and your refusal to allow him to examine you. If at any time you feel unable to continue, or if you require medical help, let me know and we will end the interview.” She paused. “For the record, Rule Turner is present at this interview, acting as counsel for Raymond Cobb. I am delegating the initial questioning to him, due to his position as Rho of Raymond Cobb’s clan.”
Cobb’s eyes popped open in the same startlement Rule felt. He glanced at her. She gave another small nod.
Rule looked down at the man who’d killed so suddenly and wantonly. He kept it simple. “Ray, what happened?”
“I don’t know.” Cobb’s eyes were a muddy brown. He fixed his gaze on Rule’s chest, emphasizing his submission. “It was … I was fine. Annoyed with that jerk Reynolds, but that’s nothing new. He’s a …” Cobb stopped. Swallowed. “He was a prick. Maybe he still is, if there’s an afterlife. So I was kinda pissed, but not paying that much attention. All of a sudden my stomach cramped—a real monster of a cramp, like someone squeezed my guts. I thought, what the hell?”
“Was it like bane sickness?”
“I dunno. No nausea, and there was just that one huge cramp, but I guess it was kinda like it. Then …” His voice flattened. “Then I picked up Reynolds and broke his neck. Then Sonja … Sonja …” Tears gathered in his eyes. “I killed Sonja. I don’t—I can’t—there were more. I don’t remember it all, but there were more. I didn’t … after Sonja, I almost came back. I knew I’d killed her and I—I tried, but it was too much. I couldn’t stop, but I threw people instead. I didn’t break their necks, but I threw them hard.” His voice sank. “I guess I killed more than Reynolds and Sonja.”
“One more, with ten injured,” Rule said. “What was too much?”
“The rage. The rage.” His faded to a whisper. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Lily spoke. “Was it the fury, Ray?”
Cobb’s gaze flicked to Rule. Rule nodded, telling him it was okay to speak of it on the record.
“It must have been. It was different than I remember, but it’s been a long time, so maybe I don’t remember right. The fury, yeah … only it wasn’t about enemies or winning. It was just … rage.”
Lily took up the questioning now, asking more specific questions: Who was nearby when the rage hit? What had he eaten, what had he drunk? Had he felt threatened? Had he specifically wanted to kill Reynolds?
He’d eaten three hamburgers and a handful of fries. He’d drunk two or three Cokes … no, not out of a can, but from one of those red plastic cups. Someone had put booze in the last one … sure, his human friends did that sometimes. They didn’t know he was lupus, so they teased him about being a teetotaler. He hadn’t finished it. He didn’t like the taste of bourbon.
He didn’t remember who all was nearby, other than Sonja and Reynolds. He’d just killed whoever was closest. There’d been nothing to him at that time but rage—no memories, no thoughts, no fears.
Lily said, “Yet you almost came back after you killed Sonja.”
“Almost.” His eyes were haunted. “Wasn’t horseshoes, was it? Almost doesn’t count.”
Rule spoke quietly. “What about your wolf, Ray? The moon’s three quarters full. Your wolf was close, but you didn’t Change. Was your wolf enraged, too?”
Ray blinked in dull surprise. “I dunno. There wasn’t enough of me present to notice if my wolf was in on the rage, and I didn’t think of it. Changing, I mean.”
He was clearly tiring, his pain mastering him. Rule glanced at Lily. “He’s spent. He’ll keep answering as long as you keep asking because I told him to, but I think he needs to rest.”
“ All right.” The vee between her brows told him she was as little satisfied with what she’d learned as he was. “Mr. Cobb, we’ll prepare a statement—a confession—from the transcription of this interview. I’ll bring it to you to sign in the morning.”
Cobb nodded weakly. But his grip wasn’t weak when he reached for Rule. “She’s through. You said I could make my request when she was through.”
“Yes.” Rule glanced at the recorder, lifting his eyebrows to ask silently if it could be turned off.
Lily considered the request briefly, then clicked the recorder off.
“I’ve shamed the clan.” Cobb was hoarser than ever, but his eyes had lost their film of despair. They burned. “I have to be put down. I understand that. Whatever went wrong with me, I have to be put down. But I can’t live in a cage. They’ll turn me off, shoot me full of that goddamned drug, and lock me away. I can’t do that. I can’t live in a cage, not hearing the moon. Maybe I deserve to, for killing Sonja, but I … something broke in me. I didn’t—I wouldn’t—” He stopped. Swallowed. “I ask for final mercy from my Rho.”
It was what Rule had expected. He nodded slowly. “Your Rho grants—”
“Wait a minute,” Lily said sharply. “Wait. Is he asking you to kill him?”
“He isn’t asking for anything illegal.”
“Because he’ll Change first. That’s what you mean, isn’t it? No.”
Cobb’s gaze flicked to her, then away, dismissing her. He was over seventy and Leidolf. It didn’t occur to him that a female could have any say in this.
Rule knew better, but this time Lily couldn’t have her way. Pity, regret, fury, fear—all crowded up in his gut, in his throat. They burned the way ice does, a cold sear. “I don’t tell you how to do your duty. You won’t tell me how to do mine.”
“You are not offing my witness. I don’t care whether he’s furry or not.”
“I am honor-bound to grant his request unless I believe he deserves to suffer. I don’t believe that.”
“Forget it.” She pushed to her feet. “I’ll stop you. If you try, I’ll stop you, and if I can’t, I’ll charge you with interfering with a witness.”
Rule’s eyebrows lifted. “You would put me in a cage?”
“I can’t—hell.” Her phone was chiming the opening bars of “The Star Spangled Banner.” That ought to mean it was Ruben, but with him hospitalized it must be Ida or Croft. She bent and dug the phone out of her purse. Lousy timing, but if there was news about Ruben, she’d want to hear it. “Yu here.”
“Lily, I have news. You aren’t going to like it.”
It was Croft. Rule spoke quickly and subvocally to his clansman: Wait. I need to hear this.
“How is he?” Lily demanded, as if she could force Croft to make it good news after all. “How’s Ruben?”