“Now that could be.”
“Why would he leave her like that? Why not hide the body?”
“Lori and Rose’s arrival might have stopped him.”
“Why would he call the police to warn them about the killing, if he was the one who called in anonymously?” Allan asked.
“Because he’s proud of the kill? Maybe he thought the coroner could prove she’s a werewolf through DNA. Then he could brag about killing a werewolf.”
“Then he had to know or believe the woman was a werewolf. She had to have known him, probably trusted him.” Thinking of an even worse-case scenario, Allan ran his hands through his hair. “What if he was watching when Rose and Lori arrived? And when they left, he followed them?”
“That’s what I’m worried about. The police were at the crime scene while you were at work this morning. I told the homicide detective in charge that you’ll also be looking into it since it happened so close to our cabin and we’re concerned about more trouble for the two ladies who found the victim.”
“Good. What were the police told about how Lori and Rose located her?”
“They were taking a hike through the woods. There’s a trail near there. They were headed up to the lookout over the lake. Anyway, that’s the story. In truth, they smelled blood—and lots of it. So they headed that way to locate the wounded wolf and help if they could. When they discovered the woman and realized she was one of us, they hated to have to leave her body behind, but they didn’t have any choice. They went to the cabin, shifted, dressed, called me, and then headed back to the killing site to ‘find’ her as humans.”
“They didn’t wait for you though?”
“No. It would have taken me too long to get there. I was at Lori’s dojo, working out some of the stiffness in my leg. Lori called me to make sure she and Rose were doing the right thing. Of course, I didn’t want them returning to the scene in case the bastard was still in the area. But understandably, they wanted to call it in before the body happened to vanish, if the murderer decided to dispose of it.”
Allan swore under his breath. “Rose is too far along to be running as a wolf, and both she and Lori could have been in real trouble. Still could be.”
“Rose said it was her last time to run. They didn’t expect to find the dead woman.”
“Hell. If the killer was watching the women arrive as wolves and then return as humans, he could have put two and two together, tracked them back to your cabin, learned you’re Lori’s mate, and well, hell, about everyone related to them—Lori’s grandmother, Mom, Rose’s mate, and his mother and sister. And that’s just the few of us from the original pack.”
“You and me. Yes, very possibly. Which means we have to catch this bastard pronto. Rose contacted everyone on the pack roster to let them know they need to avoid seeing any of us for the time being. We don’t know if this guy has any way to track the rest of the pack members, but if we cut off seeing them in person, that might help.” Paul pointed to a map on the wall showing the whole area: lakes, parks, trails, even elevations. “Here’s where the woman was found.”
“I’ll let you know if I discover anything further.”
His blood cold with anger, Allan left the cabin and drove to the logging road closest to the location of the crime scene. Even if the murderer had witnessed Rose and Lori discovering the body as wolves, then returning later as humans, Allan knew they would have pretended they had suddenly come across this horrific scene, screaming and calling Paul on his cell, maybe pretending to be calling 911. So if the murderer was watching, he might not have made the connection between them and the wolves. But they still couldn’t chance it.
On the way to the site, Allan made a call to Debbie, wanting to know how she was doing and how Franny and her baby were faring. He had already called ahead to let the staff know that Debbie would be arriving to check on them on her own, but he had learned from them that she had called ahead. He felt bad that he hadn’t been able to go with her, that he hadn’t been able to see to Franny and the baby, that he’d had to break his lunch engagement with Debbie, and that he hadn’t been able to discuss this other business with her.
“How are the baby and Franny doing?” he asked.
“I’m still at the clinic and the doc is keeping them overnight. They’re going to be just fine. Thanks to you.”
“And you. Hell, you saw the vehicle first.”
He mentioned that only because she’d commented on his keen vision too many times to count, and he didn’t want her to find that odd. “I’m sorry about lunch. I’ll make it up to you later.”
“No problem at all, Allan, but I’ll certainly take you up on it. Is everything all right?”
He couldn’t lie to her and say everything was fine. Everything wouldn’t be all right until they caught this maniac. “It’s a small family crisis.” Which was the truth. Anything that affected lupus garous in their territory affected them. So it was a family crisis. But small? Not really. Especially if the man was a newly turned wolf who had shifted and was wholly out of control. “I’ll be back tomorrow to help investigate the Van Lake accident scene.” It was located fifty-three miles from where Allan lived, so not too far.
“Can I help in any way?”
“No, thanks. I’ll…I’ll call you later tonight.” He hated this part of their relationship, where he couldn’t be completely honest with her. He could imagine just how well telling her the truth would go over. That he even considered such a notion bothered him. Normally, he never gave it any thought when he was around humans. He and his kind were what they were and that was their own business.
“All right. I’ll fill out the accident report on the mother and baby. I’ll…talk to you later.”
He knew she wasn’t happy with the way he always shut down about his family when there were issues. She’d told him about her alcoholic father, and he suspected it bothered her that he wouldn’t come clean with his family “issues.”
“Talk to you later, Debbie.” He hung up as he reached the area where the killing had taken place.
He hated that tens of thousands of leghold traps and snares were legally set up on Montana’s public lands and along waterways. Reportedly, fifty thousand wild animals were trapped a year, but trappers weren’t required to check traps regularly or report numbers. People and pets could be the victims, as well as any other animal the hunter wasn’t interested in capturing. One of the former vice presidents of the Montana Trappers Association had agreed that trappers cause pain and suffering to animals, but would apologize to no one. Really a sad state of affairs.
Allan reached the murder scene and found yellow police tape roping it off. He left his vehicle, smelling around the area for the scent of the trapper who had set the leghold trap. Allan was careful not to look like he was trying to breathe in scents in case the killer was in the area observing.
He found the victim’s blood splattered all over the fresh snow. Tracks were everywhere from the wolves who found the victim and the humans who had come to retrieve her body. He looked around at the thick pine forest and where the trap had been set near a tree, buried by the snow. He tried to sense if the murderer was in the area. The trappers were a danger to them all. But this guy, even more so.
So many people had been in the area, it was hard to say who might have done this. Allan followed boot tracks in the snow for over a mile, then went back and followed another set of tracks. None of them led him to anything suspicious. Tons of tire tracks were on an old logging trail nearby too—the ambulance and police vehicles for sure. So again, nothing that could help him.
Once he climbed back into his vehicle and shut the door, he called Paul. “I didn’t find anything that stood out to me.”
“I just got the preliminary report on the autopsy. She was shot five times, and all the rounds were silver.”
“He has to be a werewolf hunter then.”
/> “You know, we’ve been thinking it’s a he, but it might have been a she. Some of the murdered woman’s wolf fur was stuck to the blood on the jaws of the trap, though the coroner believes that a wolf had been caught earlier. Rose and Lori identified it as the woman’s fur by its smell. So the victim couldn’t have been a new wolf or she couldn’t have been in her wolf form.”
“We need to put this guy down.”
“I’d like to, but as long as the killer might be human and the police are involved, we have to let the homicide detectives working the case deal with it. We’ve got to catch the guy before they do to determine if he’s one of our kind now. If we catch him and he’s still human, we turn him over to the police. I’ve let everyone know to be extra vigilant if they think they’re being followed. I don’t want anyone to see our families except for you and me. I don’t want him to identify anyone else as a pack member so no one else will be put in harm’s way.”
“Agreed.” Allan couldn’t believe what a nightmare this could be for all of them.
“We have another situation that arose. Lori went to see Franny and she wants to speak with you about her car crash. Lori thought maybe she was confused, but Franny was adamant it wasn’t an accident.”
“That’s what she told me. She talked to Debbie about it too.”
“Franny knows you’re the only one in the pack available to investigate it right now, but I think there’s something else she’s hiding.”
“From Lori?”
“Yeah. If you’re going to investigate this, she’ll have to tell you what she knows.”
“All right. I’ll drop by the clinic next.” What else could go wrong?
* * *
“Hey, Debbie,” Rowdy said, meeting up with her as she headed to the clinic lobby. She was ready to get takeout somewhere close by and then work on the accident report back at the sheriff’s office. She was relieved Franny and baby Stacy were doing well.
She was surprised to see Rowdy here, since he was a homicide detective.
“Hey,” she said, disliking the speculative gleam in his eyes.
He glanced around the lobby and, seeing it was empty, said to her, “I heard you were here by yourself and wondered where your partner had gone.”
She shrugged it off. “He had a minor family crisis.”
Rowdy raised his brows.
She suspected then that he knew something she didn’t and that it wasn’t good news. Especially since he was a homicide detective. But if someone in Allan’s family had been murdered, she was certain Allan would have told her. “Well, spill.”
“Allan’s twin sister and Paul’s wife were hiking in the woods when they came across a body near Paul’s cabin. Didn’t he tell you?”
Chapter 4
Debbie couldn’t believe Allan hadn’t told her what had happened to his sister and her friend. Was Allan so upset that he felt he couldn’t discuss it with her? She knew whatever he’d been worried about had to be bad, the way that he had been so distracted. Allan had to know she would hear about it eventually.
“Thanks, Rowdy. Can you fill me in on the details?” Debbie asked him.
After he did, he told her about an earlier case that he hadn’t worked—bank robbers found dead at the scene—but he had reviewed it and found it disquieting. “One man was found floating in the lake, naked, dead, near the jumping cliff. And another man had been torn up by a wild animal—confirmed wolf saliva. Not only that, but the tires of one of their vehicles had been bitten into.”
“By…? Wait, the wolf did it.”
Rowdy shrugged. “Any canine could have done it. Since one man had been bitten by a wolf, I assume a wolf also tore up the tires at the crime scene. I read about a case where car tires were regularly being punctured along a stretch of street in front of a housing development. Police tried to catch the culprit for months and finally put up cameras to see who the vandals were, figuring they were kids. But a dog? No one in a million years would have believed it. Seems the owners would walk the dog off leash, and the dog would bite into the tires and puncture them.”
“That’s weird.”
“A couple of months earlier, the dog had been hit by a car.”
Debbie was glad the dog was fine after being hit and could hardly believe it had been attacking tires in revenge. She didn’t blame the dog, and she imagined how the police had felt when they discovered the culprit. “So why would a dog—or should I say, wolf—do that to the perp’s vehicle?”
“To keep the criminals from escaping.”
“So the wolf had been trained to sabotage tires.” She couldn’t believe what Rowdy could come up with. “Wolves don’t normally attack humans.”
“Not usually.”
“Okay, so another scenario?”
“The wolf wasn’t a wolf. And that same wolf or part of its pack killed the one bank robber.”
“Wolves don’t do that. Not normally,” she repeated.
“You’re right. They don’t. But what if they were werewolves?”
“Ah, come on, Rowdy. So the naked man was a werewolf too?” She knew he loved paranormal shows, but this was going a bit far.
“Makes sense. Too many unanswered questions in the case. I would have figured okay, so wolves were involved in this other case too, but a lot of shooting went on.”
“No silver rounds, right?” She wasn’t buying this werewolf business, but if silver bullets had been used, then, yes, she would believe a connection existed between the two cases.
“Correct. No silver rounds. But guess who was involved in the shoot-out.”
“Lori and Rose?” Debbie asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. Now that would be a weird coincidence.
“Lori, Paul, Everett, and Allan.”
“They weren’t involved in the killing of this woman.” No way did she believe anything bad about Allan and his friends.
“No, I doubt it. But don’t you think it’s a bit odd that two strange cases that have some similarities come up only a few months apart? First, some of the same people were involved in both, but in any case, they’re all related in one way or another. And second, we have two unexplained naked bodies.”
Debbie folded her arms. “But there were silver bullets in this one and none in the other.” She had been known to come up with some fairly far-fetched notions herself in trying to solve crimes, but this line of reasoning was going way out of the ballpark.
“True enough. So what if in this case, we have werewolf hunters armed with silver rounds, and in the other, they were all wolves, so no one was using silver rounds.”
“Okay, so if they’re all werewolves, why wouldn’t they use silver? They can’t be killed by regular bullets, can they?”
“Maybe they can. And the only ones that don’t know that are the werewolf hunters.”
Debbie shook her head and patted Rowdy on the chest in an appeasing way. “You need to be working with the detectives on The X-Files.”
“I’m just saying you need to watch yourself.”
“Wait. You’re saying that Allan, Paul, and the rest of their family could be werewolves?”
Rowdy glanced at the receptionist, then turned his attention to Debbie again. “You never know. Just…keep your eyes open, consider what I’ve said, and if anything seems…unusual, let me know. I’ve got to run. Take care.”
Werewolves.
Debbie couldn’t believe how Rowdy teased her, though she suspected that making light of something dark sometimes helped him keep from becoming totally numb to the killings he investigated.
Now she had a choice: call Allan and ask if she could do anything for him or his family after learning the horrific news, or let it go and give him time to deal with this on his own.
She still couldn’t believe it. To think poor Rose and Lori had found the dead body when Lori was pregnant with t
wins and Rose with triplets. And Rose was near term, Debbie thought. They had to have been terrified that the maniac might still be in the woods. She frowned as she got into her Escort. She hoped Allan wouldn’t try to locate the guy and take him down on his own.
Before she hit the road, she punched in Allan’s number.
“Yeah?” Allan answered right away, sounding concerned.
Which she appreciated, considering the frame of mind he had to be in. “I heard about the murder near Paul’s cabin. Are your sister and Lori all right?” She wanted to ask if he was all right. He had to be distressed over the whole situation, but she suspected he wouldn’t appreciate her asking him that.
“Yeah, thanks, Debbie. I really didn’t want to talk about it.”
“I understand. Were you digging around at the crime scene?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t find anything else.”
“The guy has to be some sick bastard.”
“I agree.”
“Can I do anything for Rose and Lori? I’d like to help, if you think they’d appreciate it.”
“No, thanks. We’re good.”
Well, maybe Allan was “good” with it, but Debbie had met both ladies and really liked them. She would have to see what she could do to make them feel better. She’d had all kinds of police psychology training on dealing with issues like this. Paul and Allan probably had some training, but they were too close to the situation. She could imagine how upset they both were.
“Do you have any plans for supper?” Allan asked out of the blue.
Debbie didn’t say anything for a moment because she was so surprised. “Um, no. Do you want to grab some of that pizza?”
He chuckled. “You really had your heart set on having some, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, I did. Would six be too early?”
“That’ll be fine. Can we meet at the pizzeria?”
She hesitated to respond. If he was trying to tell her this wasn’t a date, she wanted him to know she hadn’t viewed it as such, as much as she wouldn’t mind if the dynamics changed between them. Maybe he was worried that his family might need him, and he wanted to be free to run off and take care of them without worrying about taking her along.