I really did have the world’s most amazing wife. “Nice job, honey. Way to keep us alive.”

“Thank you.” She took a little bow. “I still desperately have to pee. Can you call Chief Knolls? Maybe ask her to come alone. Or at least only with officers who understand the supernatural side of things. I don’t want to have to explain how I put him in a deep freeze to the human ones. Anyway, let her know the situation. Oh, also, I started recording on my phone the moment you came into the office, so tell her that too.”

“I’ll handle it. You go.”

“I’m gone.”

As she left, I got my phone out but had to take a second to study the block of ice that was Glen Hewitt. My wife had done some fine work. Jayne had frozen his gun to his hand first, then built thick walls of ice all around him. He was currently struggling to free his hand from the ice while cursing and banging on the ice.

At least I assumed he was cursing. The ice was pretty thick and made a terrific insulator. Hard to hear much, really. I shook my head at him. “You’re using up a lot of air.”

He kept on banging and cursing.

I called Chief Knolls.

“Knolls here.”

“Chief, this is Sinclair Crowe.”

“Hello, Mr. Crowe. What can I do for you?”

“I’d say a visit would be in order.” I smiled and leaned on Glen’s desk. “We’ve got Chad’s killer. And I’m pretty sure we’ve got the murder weapon too. Plus, an accomplice of sorts, and a full confession recorded on my wife’s phone.”

The briefest silence answered me. Then, “Boy, you two don’t fool around, do you?”

“We wanted to be thorough.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Here’s the thing. He’s currently encased in ice. Might be hard to explain to some of your more … human officers.” I wouldn’t have thought twice about it in Nocturne Falls, but here? Jayne was right to want to give Knolls the heads-up.

“This is Nashville. You’d be surprised at the amount of crazy we see. But I get what you’re saying. I’ll handpick a few who can handle it. Where are you, by the way? And who’s the killer?”

“We’re at North Forty. And it’s Glen Hewitt. We’re in his office, to be precise.”

“Get out of town! We talked to him. I had my suspicions, but we had no evidence. I’ll be there as fast as I can. Ten minutes or so. If you can safely get him defrosted but keep him incapacitated, that would be great. If not, we’ll deal with it when we get there.”

“He’s got a firearm.”

“Let him chill.”

Jayne returned. While we waited, she did two things. She trimmed the recording so it ended with Hewitt’s final threat and not her words about turning things nippy. Then she made an air hole in the ice surrounding Glen. Necessary for him to breathe, but unfortunately, we could now hear him. He alternated between threatening us and pleading to be let out.

He promised us all sorts of things in exchange for his freedom. Including his vacation home in Gatlinburg and a brand-new Corvette.

I didn’t bother telling him that those weren’t much of a bribe when your in-laws owned the North Pole.

I heard sirens getting closer. Chief Knolls showed up in nine minutes. She wasn’t joking when she said she’d get here as fast as she could. I liked her.

She came in with two uniformed officers and one in plainclothes. “Stubbs, Shipley, round all the employees up. We’ll need statements.”

She looked at Hewitt and shook her head, grinning. “That is fantastic.” She nodded at Jayne. “Well done, Princess.”

Jayne came over. “Thank you. He intended to kill us.”

Knolls hooked a thumb at the man next to her in the navy suit. “This is Detective Amet Chopra. This was his case. He’s also a shifter, just so you know he’s cool with—” She laughed. “I didn’t mean that as a pun. Anyway, I filled him in on you guys. And the uniforms I brought with me are mostly wolves. I’ve got a few more guarding the exits.”

Hands were shaken.

“What kind of shifter?” I had to ask. “I’m a necromancer, in case you were wondering.”

“I heard.” A cool light flickered in his eyes. “Cobra.”

My brows shot up. “How about that.”

“How did you figure out Hewitt was the guy?” Chopra asked. “I hit dead end after dead end on this one.”

I looked at Jayne. “We had a little supernatural help.” Jayne had explained to me about Chad recognizing Hewitt’s cologne once they’d entered the room.

She explained it again for Knolls and Chopra. Then she played them the recording of his confession.

Knolls shook her head. “Johnny Lee Dixon. Part of me isn’t that surprised. He comes off as shifty, you know?”

I nodded. “I do know. I feel for him a little bit, though. He’s got a three-year-old daughter.”

“I can work with him if he gives us good testimony. No funny business,” Knolls said. “But if he claims innocence …” She shrugged.

“Right.”

Knolls turned to Jayne. “Can you release him from the ice?”

“Sure,” Jayne said. She started the defrosting process, and in a few short minutes, Hewitt was in cuffs, his gun secured, and the sawed-off pool cue bagged into evidence. Jayne also emailed Knolls the recording of Hewitt’s confession.

Chopra took him out to one of the waiting squad cars, leaving us alone with Knolls.

She faced us. “I appreciate your work on this. Always good to get a killer off the streets. I realize you were sort of roped into it, but it’s still a big deal.”

“Thank you, Chief.” I put my arm around Jayne. “Very kind of you to say.”

“You two need a ride anywhere? We’ve got to process this scene, but I’d be happy to call a squad car for you.”

“No, our car’s not far away,” I said. “Thank you, though.”

“I’ll need to get statements from both of you, but we can do that tomorrow, if you like.”

Jayne nodded, hand cupping her belly. “I’m a little tired. And hungry. Tomorrow would be great.”

“If there’s anything I can do for you during the rest of your stay, please don’t hesitate to ask. I mean it.” She smiled suddenly. “Say, have you been to the Grand Ole Opry yet?”

We both shook our heads.

“Then I have tickets for you. The Opry sends them to us regularly as a thanks for our work. You two have earned a pair. I’ll give them to you tomorrow. It’s a great experience. You have to go at least once.” She laughed. “I live here, and we still try to get to the Christmas show every year.”

“Thank you,” Jayne said. “That’s definitely something we wanted to do.”

“Perfect. Call me in the morning and let me know what time you can come in.”

“We will,” I said.

We passed Chopra coming back in on our way out. He gave us a nod and an appreciative smile. I kept my arm around Jayne. I couldn’t imagine how tired she was, carrying both Chad and the baby.

I glanced down at her, trying to determine if she looked paler than usual. “You okay, sweetheart?”

“I’m good,” she said softly. “Just a little worn out and hungry.”

“Chad still there?”

“He is. Quiet though.”

“How about I get you home, then grab us something to eat? Whatever you want.” We left North Forty by the front door. Uniformed police officers stood on either side of it, and several squad cars lined the curb. We made our way down the sidewalk.

She shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to Mama Del’s. Then we can just go home and crash. That okay with you?”

I smiled. “That’s perfect with me.”

She napped on the drive there. I wondered if Chad was preparing to move on. He hadn’t said much lately, and Jayne hadn’t passed on any of his comments for a while, either.

Could be that Hewitt getting taken into custody was all the closure he needed.

The drive to Mama Del’s took us nearly an hour because of traffic, but I figured Jayne could use the sleep. I thought about taking her straight back to the RV and carrying her to bed. I didn’t think she’d wake up.

But I also knew my wife well enough to know that food was occasionally more important to her than sleep.

I shook her gently awake when we arrived. “We’re here, sweetheart. You still want to eat or just go home?”

Her eyes came open. “I need pasta.”

I smiled. I’d never loved a woman more in my life.