Call of the Cougar

  "Okay. Just so you know, my dad and sister aren't the only two people in the family who know how to shoot. I don't only use a camera."

  He smiled. "Don't think you have to worry about that. Tell Tracey I'll be there in a minute."

  "All right." Jessie gave him a look like she meant what she said.

  He liked that her sister was protective of her and not trying to make a play for him. It had happened before to him with another couple of sisters, and what a mess that had been.

  When the front door closed, he glanced at the middle-aged man sitting in the sedan, who was watching him. Hal waved to him in greeting, and then said to his friend, "Yeah, Mick?"

  "Four of my men were down in the tunnel where Tracey found the ivory fragment. I sent word to the man in charge topside. I have four men up there guarding the place. Anyway, he went down to tell the others the news. So we might have some word in a couple of hours about the cave-in."

  "You think the men who shot at Tracey were trying to protect their ivory?"

  "Could be. Not that she could have gotten it out if it was buried. But if they knew she'd gone in there and suspected that the ivory was there, they might have concluded that she would be reporting back to us about her find."

  "So they thought to kill her and Ricky and dispose of their bodies. She's on administrative leave and was working the case without your approval. So she wasn't giving you any hint of what she was up to."

  "Right. She hadn't told anyone. So she was the perfect target. No one would have ever known what happened to her if she hadn't contacted your dispatcher."

  Hal heard a window to a room at the end of the house slide up. It had to be the room where Stan was playing the computer games because the game music was suddenly louder. And he wondered then, since the family had said he always came when the food was ready, why he hadn't left the game to eat sandwiches with them. But then again, if he was in the middle of a battle, some games wouldn't allow the gamer to save or pause the game.

  Still, Hal listened to what was going on at the end of the house as Mick continued to talk to him concerning what he wanted Hal to do about Tracey and her family. But Hal didn't hear a word he was actually saying. Stan was no doubt just letting some cool, fresh air into the room. Then something that sounded like a screen being removed from that very same window caught his attention, and his curiosity. He moved toward the south side of the house, pulling his magnum from its holster.

  "Talk to you in a moment." He hung up on Mick and pocketed his phone. As soon as he headed for the open window still out of his view, the retired agent's car door opened. Damn, Albert was going to screw this up.

  Hal turned and waved to the man to stay back. But he had a Glock out and he started across the grass. Damn it.

  Hal ignored him and continued toward the window, then heard footfalls headed in the direction of the wooded acreage. Hal moved out quicker to catch sight of Stan and see what he was up to. There wasn't any reason for him to sneak out a window, unless he wanted to talk to a girlfriend or something else was going on. Hal didn't even want to consider that it could have anything to do with Tracey.

  He heard talking in the woods and stopped to listen. Luckily, Albert had taken his cue and stayed nearer the front door, more in protective mode for the family, which was good.

  "Can't stay now. She's here. Yeah. Wait." Footfalls moved toward Hal, Stan's, he thought, and then gunshots were fired.

  Hal dove next to the house for cover, hoping to hell Albert was taking his lead. Then he heard the front door of the Whittington's house open. Damn. He knew Tracey or her father, or both would head outside to help.

  Then the man ran off. Hal chased after him.

  "No, stay here," Tracey shouted, and Hal knew she couldn't mean him. She had to be talking to Albert. Or her father. Or both.

  Then footfalls from behind headed in his direction. The next thing he saw lying on the ground was a gun and clothes dropped all over the place. Stan was in on this business and he was a damn cougar?

  "He's shifted," Hal turned to tell whoever was following him and saw Tracey.

  "Who?"

  "Stan, if that's his name. He came out of that window." He waved his gun in the direction.

  Tracey glanced back at the window. "Jessie's bedroom. What are we going to do? We can't let him get away."

  "I'm going after him but I want you to stay and watch over everyone." He handed her his gun. "Safeguard it."

  "But…"

  "You’ve got to stay and watch the others. And I don't want to leave my gun lying about, or yours either. And while you're at it, grab his revolver."

  Hal stripped out of his clothes, pulled Tracey into his arms and hugged her soundly, then kissed her mouth. "Take care of them. If I don't find him, I'll be right back."

  He wasn't so much in a hurry to rush off as he was interested in ensuring that Tracey and her family and friends stayed safe.

  "Okay, but damn it, don't get yourself killed."

  "When you put it that way, how can I do otherwise?"

  He kissed her forehead, then turned and called on the shift, his muscles instantly warming, protecting him from the chill of the night air, fur covering his skin, his teeth ready for the confrontation, his body fully cougar and ready to rip into another male cougar. He glanced back at Tracey. She looked so worried for him, he wished he could tell her he'd be fine. Then he took off, ready to take down the bastard, hating that this had been so close to home.

  They needed one of these men alive to answer some questions though.

  Chapter 13

  Hal took off after Stan and chased him out into the wilderness. He couldn't believe the guy working for a trafficker was a shifter. Then again, some didn't care anything more about wildlife than some humans. If it meant money, that's all that mattered.

  Cougars couldn't run marathons. They were more for leaping and short sprints. He couldn’t imagine where the guy thought he was going. He couldn't drive off in a vehicle all that well without keys, clothes, and he'd left behind his cell and I.D. Then Hal suspected the guy wouldn't have any I.D. on him.

  He was glad he had come with Tracey to help protect her and her family. He imagined everyone was shook up about having had the man in their house.

  Hal was still trying to locate Stan by scent, but then he heard a car race off in the distance. Damn it to hell. The bastard couldn't have just driven off!

  Hal continued to track the cougar's scent and finally reached the place where a car had burned rubber on the dirt road near the woods. And then Stan's scent disappeared.

  His cat tail whipping about in agitation as he ensured the man wasn't still here, Hal continued to smell the scents the cat left behind. The cat had been terrified that Hal might catch him. When Hal was certain Stan had left with the vehicle, and it hadn't just been parked in the area for any other reason, Hal loped back in the direction of the Whittington's home. He was furious that he hadn't caught the bastard.

  When he arrived at his pile of clothes, he saw no sign of anyone—the family at least. Albert was again sitting in his car watching over things. Hal quickly shifted, dressed, and headed out of the woods to cross the front lawn.

  Albert nodded at him. Hal was glad everything had remained quiet here. At least he hoped so. He knocked on the front door and said, "Just me." He opened the door to see every member of the family with a gun pointed in his direction—including Tracey's mother.

  "Really, Just me." He smiled a little.

  "You didn't get him." Tracey holstered her gun and sat on the loveseat in the living room to look at a different laptop as her mother returned to the kitchen. Tracey's dad sat down again on the couch. Jessie brought in some fresh drinks as Hal locked the door.

  "He drove off," Hal said, before anyone could ask.

  Tracey glanced at him and arched a brow.

  Hal shrugged. "Either he had someone waiting for him or he had keys in the car and a keyless lock entry. There was no I.D. in his clothes, I take it. But
it means he had planned his escape." He joined Tracey on the loveseat.

  Jessie said, "Nope. No wallet with his clothes. I checked."

  Hal pulled his gaze from the monitor where Tracey was looking through emails and asked Jessie, "How did you meet him and if he didn't have a car parked out front, how did he get here?"

  "I gave him a ride from the camera store where I buy a lot of my equipment. His car was in the shop and a friend had dropped him off. He's big into cameras too, and photography, so we were talking away about it. I started mentioning my books about ghost towns and abandoned gold and silver mines. He was dying to see the pictures. I'm a chump when it comes to people giving me a snow job, and I don't even realize it."

  Tracey shook her head. "It happens to all of us from time to time." She looked again at the monitor. "I don't see that he did anything on here other than play games, like he said he was doing. He probably was busy listening in on our conversations while he pretended to play games. Or he did that as a cover, but his main focus must have been to listen in on us. I suspect he would have stayed longer if he hadn't realized I was bringing a deputy sheriff with me. And that he didn't know Dad and his friends were all retired Special Agents and would be hanging around."

  "Yeah, Albert was the first one to come, but he didn’t arrive until this afternoon. I hadn't mentioned who Albert was, or anything about Dad's former occupation. Why would I? Though, I guess Stan might have figured Albert was a retired cop, or something." Jessie sat down on the couch beside her father. "But just the fact that Albert was sitting in the car watching things had to clue Stan in that he was quickly being outnumbered."

  "Okay, so he was looking to see if you and Tracey were one and the same person?" Hal asked.

  "I guess. He didn't ask me if there were two of us, so I suspect he thought I was Tracey and that the photography was my hobby. Or maybe he believed it was my cover. Anyway, he spent all morning looking at my photos and commenting on them like he really loved them. Now I wonder if he was looking to see if I had any pictures that might have shown anything that revealed any evidence of trafficking. He had breakfast with us, then lunch, and he was really, incredibly nice. I asked him if he'd like to stay for dinner until his car was ready to be picked up. I was going to take him into town and drop him off at the repair shop. He said sure. Then he saw one of my video game boxes and asked if he could check out the game. I said that was fine. I had to help mom bake some cakes."

  Hal asked, "Do you know the name of the auto repair shop?"

  "Are you kidding? He had to have lied." Jessie gave him a look as though she couldn't believe Hal would think any of what Stan said was true now.

  "Criminals have been known to do dumber things."

  "No, he didn't tell me the name of the repair shop. I didn't ask and he didn't say. I figured he'd tell me when I took him to the shop once his vehicle was finished."

  "What happened when he learned I was coming?" Tracey asked.

  "He said that was really cool. But now that I think back on it, he had a funny look on his face. Then again, he might have thought I just had a sister, and that I was still the one with this other persona."

  "But he was still surprised to learn that there were two of us."

  "Right. Though if he hadn't taken off like he did, I wouldn't have suspected anything." Jessie lowered her voice. "If Mom catches sight of him, she'll kill him."

  Appearing surprised, Tracey's mouth dropped a little.

  Jessie motioned to the corner of the house. "The bullets he shot off? They hit the siding on the house, and she's totally fried about it."

  Tracey sighed. "Oh. Probably more so when she learns I had to dig the rounds out of the siding so I can send them to ballistics. Mick's sending someone to pick up the gun, Stan's clothes, and the rounds. Did you ever get a picture of him?"

  "No. We weren't dating, though with our mutual interest in photography and the fact that he was a cute cougar, you could never tell. He was leaving later tonight, and I really had forgotten all about him when you all dropped in."

  "What about his cell phone?" Hal asked.

  "Nothing on it. One of those throw away phones. But Mick will have some of our agents on it." Tracey closed down the computer and sat back against the loveseat, looking annoyed.

  Jessie frowned. "I don't understand. I thought that if someone had one of those disposable burner cellphones, the government couldn't conduct surveillance on you. That's why the drug dealers are using them."

  "Nah. Most of the burner phones buy wireless network space from mobile virtual network operators. So if the burner operates on some of the networks, then they could very well be turning over the data to the government," Tracey said.

  "Hell, yeah," Tracey's dad said. "There have been cases of drug dealers or other criminals caught using prepaid cellphones just by triangulating their signals too."

  "In the case of a murder conviction, the man was using a prepaid phone, but had his cellphone with him. Even though it was turned off, the police were able to locate him based on his personal cellphone signals," Hal added.

  Jessie smiled. "Good one on him."

  "Yeah, he was a real cocky SOB too. They were glad to catch and convict him," Hal said. "So if Stan didn't have a car here, someone had to have met him at a certain location and—"

  "He was a cougar," Tracey reminded him. "So if he was supposed to be picked up by someone, he would have to be a cougar also or wouldn't the driver be surprised to see a naked man, or a cougar shifting into a naked man?"

  "Hell, Mooney's not a cougar, is he?" Hal asked.

  "I don't think so. Then again, he takes hunters on hunts, so for those, he would wear hunter's spray to hide his human scent. Still, unless he knew a shifter was tracking him down…"

  Everyone stared at her for a moment.

  Hal shook his head. "Damn it, that's it! The connection. He's a cougar shifter. That's why he wanted to get rid of you so badly. You can track him when others can't. He probably knew you were coming for them up in the cliffs. Between the dense, mixed conifer forests with steep, rocky hillsides that climb up to 8,000 feet, it's a cougar's haven. Perfect for a shifter outlaw. But also perfect for a Special Agent working to bring him down. And there aren't that many of you. So the likelihood that a cougar agent would be on his tail would be slim to none. Not since your dad retired. Right?"

  "True. Albert and only one other were Special Agents with a decided advantage. Once we retired, that was it. Mick was glad to get Tracey on board," her father said.

  "I met with him at a café. He was sure to have worn the hunter's spray then too. That would throw me off his cougar scent."

  The doorbell rang and everyone pulled out their guns before Hal went to answer the door. He gave them all a sharp look to stay back. Not that anyone was headed for the door. Tracey was standing in family protection mode, and he was glad for that.

  "Yeah?" Hal called through the door, seeing a man dressed in a suit standing on the stoop.

  "Mick Sorenson sent me to pick up some evidence. My name is Michael Talbot."

  "Either of you know a Michael Talbot?"

  Tracey's father smiled. "Yeah. He trained under me when he was wet behind the ears still." He approached the door, looked out the security peephole, and nodded. "That’s him. Still looks like a young-un."

  "I thought you only said that about me," Tracey said.

  "Not just you. About everyone younger than me."

  Hal opened the door and asked to see a badge—just in case, and he called Mick also to verify they weren't turning the evidence over to an imposter.

  Once they determined everything was on the up and up, Michael said good night and left with the evidence.

  Tracey got a call and Hal watched her expression. She glanced up at him. "Okay, boss. Sounds good to me. I'll let them know. Ahh, okay, I'll talk to Hal about it and get back with you." She ended the call and looked at all the expectant faces. "Mick wants Mom, Dad, and Jessie to go to a safe house for the next f
ew days."

  Hal realized that due to the severity of the case and that one of the bad guys had been in the house with the family, at least the mother and Jessie didn't object. Thankfully. But Jack immediately said, "I'm not going to—"

  "Mick wants you and your agent friends to help with protecting Mom and Jessie. He's really short-handed and he's sending a couple of men. But if you can take turns watching the place along with your friends, that will really help."

  Her father frowned, grunted, and said, "All right."

  Tracey smiled a little as he got on the phone to his friends.

  "Are your cakes all done, Mom?" Tracey asked. "If not, we'll help you finish them. And then you're out of here."

  "Three more to go," her mother said.

  "Got some extra aprons?" Tracey glanced at Hal, who just smiled right back at her.

  He would love to bake cakes or whatever they needed him to help with.

  Her father looked a bit skeptically at him as he asked one of his friends to get in touch with the others. Then he finished his call. "Hell, there goes our barbecue. I'll pack some stuff."

  "Does Hal cook?" Jessie looked intrigued.

  "He sure does. He makes some mean omelets and a great barbecue." Tracey sighed. "Hal, Mick wants you and me to stay here in case the bad guys come back. Are you game?"

  "Let me call in some backup." Hal pulled out his cellphone.

  "Albert is supposed to stay on guard," Tracey said.

  "I'm going to call Dan and see if he can free up Stryker for the night."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Yeah, I'm sure." Hal didn't want to tell her that he wasn't real sure about their outside backup because he didn't know Albert at all. He knew with Stryker watching out for things, they'd be better off. "Hey, Dan, need to ask a favor if you can spare Stryker, and he's all right with it."

  "Sure, what do you need?"

  Hal explained what had happened at the house. "Let me know for sure."

  "I'll have Stryker call you."

  Within minutes, Stryker said, "I'm on my way. So does this mean we get to draw straws for who's guarding her body inside the house and who has outside duty?"