“Commander Morris,” Jessie said, holding out his hand as the handsome, uniformed chief stepped toward them. The commander shook Jessie’s hand and his eyes turned to Dana, scrutinizing her face.
“I don’t believe we’ve ever met,” Commander Morris said. “I’m Commander Rollo Morris. And you are?”
“I’m Dana Myers. I’m a fox shifter who’s been staying with the Updikes for the last two years,” she said meekly.
“Staying isn’t exactly the right word for it,” Jessie corrected.
“What is?” Rollo asked.
“She was a captive. Sold to the hyena pack to pay off a debt.”
“Like they tried to do with Cyrus’s mate Daisy,” Rollo said, pulling a notepad out of his breast pocket.
“Exactly.”
“Well, not really,” Dana corrected. “One of them was going to marry Daisy. They just wanted to use me as a servant.”
“All right. Now where is this dead body?” Rollo said, pushing his aviator sunglasses up the bridge of his nose.
The officer who’d come with him was pulling equipment out of the back seat of the SUV.
“This is our technician, Damien Fellows. He’ll gather the forensic evidence and snap some photos of the crime scene.”
“I found the body in the trunk of this car,” Jessie said, popping the trunk.
Damien clicked a photo as the trunk swung open. Dana buried her head in Jessie’s chest, squeezing her eyes shut at the sight of the dead body. The smell was overpowering, just like raw meat kept in a hot car.
“What time was that?” Rollo asked.
“Right before I called you.”
“Whose car is this?” Rollo asked.
“I borrowed it from the mansion. There are a lot of cars there. When I decided to leave. I just took one.”
“I see,” Rollo said, looking her up and down.
Dana gulped. She’d been scrutinized many times at the Updike mansion, but never by someone with legal authority. She felt sweaty and her heart thumped in her chest. Dana’s inner fox was about done for; the beast scratched and clawed for escape.
“Why did you leave last night?”
“Everyone was drunk.”
“So, you left without them knowing?” Rollo said.
“Yes. “
“What time was that?”
“About four in the morning.”
“We’ll have to examine the body,” Rollo said as the ambulance approached.
It pulled up to the machine shop and the back doors opened. Two EMTs hopped out of the back with a stretcher in tow. They pulled the stretcher to the car where Damien was taking samples of the crime scene. He placed a hair in a vial with tweezers.
“We have all we need here,” Damien said to the waiting EMTs before they began to remove the body from the back of the car.
“I’d like to have a few more words with you down at the station,” Commander Morris said, squinting at Dana as he removed his sunglasses.
“Really?” she squeaked.
“I have a lot of questions for you, Ms. Myers. We should conduct our interview in private.”
“She’s not going anywhere without me,” Jessie interjected.
“I’m getting the impression that you two are mates,” Rollo said.
“Just found out this morning,” Jessie affirmed.
“We met on the side of the road,” Dana added. “It was very romantic. He saved me.”
“Is that right?” Rollo said, writing in his notepad. “What time was that?”
“About five am. I got her text on Mate.com. I thought maybe she was making a joke about being broken down on the side of the road. But I went out with the tow truck anyway.”
Jessie laughed, his smile broad. It seemed to glint in the late morning sunlight that streamed through the open shop doors. The EMTs wheeled the body into the ambulance and drove away as Damien continued to snap pictures and take samples. Dana eyed the technician as he went about his job. She knew that with her luck this murder would somehow be pinned on her. Jessie kept saying everything would be fine, but she didn’t believe it.
“Why don’t you both come down to the station with me,” Rollo said. “You can help us get a clear impression of what happened here.”
“The biggest question is, who would want to kill Chuck Updike?” Jessie asked, scratching his chin.
After two years with the Updikes, Dana knew the answer to that question: A lot of people.
Chapter 5
Dana and Jessie climbed into the backseat of Rollo’s police SUV. Damien rode in the front passenger seat and Rollo drove them back to town. When he parked in front of the police station, Dana felt her heart up in her throat so tight, she doubted she’d be able to answer any of Rollo’s questions.
Dana climbed out of the car and followed Jessie into the police station, gripping his hand until her knuckles turned white. He shook her hand a little and looked down at her with a warm smile on his face, his eyebrows narrowing above his eyes. She could tell he was as nervous as she was. But she appreciated his attempt at comforting her.
Jessie was right about one thing, they had just met. Even though they were both shifters and mates, that fact remained. He had no real reason to trust her or help her, just as she had no reason to trust or help him. Dana had waited for years for someone to love. It was the big gaping hole inside her heart. And now, as she had the chance to have everything she wanted, it was in danger of being taken away from her.
Rollo separated her from Jessie and took her to be fingerprinted.
“Am I a suspect?” she asked as he pressed her finger into the ink.
“We need to differentiate the prints on the car. We’re taking Jessie’s too.”
After he took her prints and handed her an alcohol cloth to clean them off, he took her into a private interrogation room equipped with only a table with a chair on either side. The room was plain with a video camera set up in the corner, staring down at her. She gulped and wrung her hands as she rested her elbows on the table. Rollo dropped a file filled with papers on the table and slid into his chair across from her. She’d hoped someone other than the chief would do her interview. Looking up into his authoritative, stern face, made her heart race and sweat trickle down her brow.
"Can I get you some water or coffee?" Rollo asked.
"Water would be nice," Dana said, gulping.
Rollo looked up at the video camera and said, "Bring in a bottle of water."
A moment later an officer in a blue uniform entered the room with a bottle of water and set it on the table. Rollo handed it to Dana and she slowly opened the bottle, taking a long draw.
“I want to get a little more background from you, Dana,” Rollo said. “You came to live with the Updikes two years ago, correct?”
“That’s right. It was the month after I graduated from high school. I still lived with my great uncle and his second wife. Because my great uncle ran the fox pack, I think he believed he had a right to use me as a bargaining chip. It didn’t help that his new wife never liked me, or my parents for that matter.”
“How old were you when you came to live with the Updikes?” Rollo asked.
“I would’ve been nineteen. I’m twenty-one now.”
“And during the time that you stayed with the Updikes you never felt tempted to alert the authorities to your situation?”
“I didn’t feel I had that choice. None of the Updikes’ dealings are legal. Exchanging a girl for a debt didn’t seem like something that the law would care much about if they’d never done anything about the rest of it. No one batted an eyelash when I was given to the Updikes, so why would I think that anyone would care?”
“We could have helped you.”
“How would I know that? They told me I had to stay or they’d kill my uncle. That threat worked on me for a long time. Even though my uncle sold me to the hyenas, I still cared for him. He was my grandfather’s brother and even looked like him. I retained a sense of family loyalty ev
en after what he did. Before he got involved with the hyenas he had been a good foster parent. I tried to hold onto that while I lived with the hyenas.”
“You know you deserved better than that, don’t you?” he asked, his voice turning fatherly.
“I don’t see what that has to do with the murder investigation. I can tell you that I had nothing to do with Chuck Updike’s death. I didn’t know he was in the car.”
“Was there anything else out of the ordinary when you left the mansion?”
“Well the drunkenness wasn’t out of the ordinary. They had just finished brewing a batch of very strong moonshine. They drank heavily that night, even for them.”
“Do you know who would have a reason to want Chuck Updike dead?”
“Half of Fate Mountain. If you’re wondering if I wanted Chuck dead, then the answer is no. I hated the bastard as much as I hated his brother Brandon. But I would never kill anyone. I was just waiting to leave when the time was right. My uncle died so they had nothing else to hold over me. I had money I’d saved. I was ready to go and start my life over. That’s it. The car broke down on the side of the road. And Jessie came to pick me up right after I found out he was my fated mate. It was a miracle that he showed up to help me with my car. But it’s just my luck that on the day I finally decided to leave the Updikes, I find my fated mate, and a dead body shows up in the trunk of the car. Seriously, it’s just typical of my life.”
Rollo began to rifle through the papers in the folder on the table in front of him. He pulled out a sheet of paper and began to examine the contents.
“Can you explain why your hair was found on the body of Chuck Updike?”
“I helped him with his hair. He came to my room to have me do it, and I used my brush.”
“I see,” Rollo said looking through the rest of his papers.
“Do you know of anyone at the Updike estate who had access to a firearm?”
“Most of them. There are all kinds of guns at the mansion. I don’t know if they’re legal or illegal or what. It really wasn’t any of my business. As a fox shifter and servant, I wasn’t part of their gang. They didn’t include me in such things. All I know is what I overheard. The Updikes run a criminal enterprise. If you’re looking for Chuck’s killer, I would investigate the hyenas staying at the mansion.”
“It’s unlikely that one hyena would kill another in today’s climate. They’d take evidence to their grave. They’d even serve jail time to protect their own nowadays.”
“I know they have some kind of weird honor code. But I also know there was a lot of competition at the mansion.”
“How so?”
“Chuck and Brandon were always competing with each other. From bike racing to duck hunting. It didn’t really matter, they were always trying to one up each other. That attitude infected the rest of the pack. They were all always competing with one another. It’s hard for me to say who would have been more interested in offing him than any of the others. As they all always seemed to want to off each other.”
“I have all that I need from you at this time, Dana. You’re free to go. I may have additional questions for you, so I would prefer you stay in the area.”
“Not a problem. Now that I’ve found Jessie, I’m not going anywhere.”
Rollo looked down at his smartphone and then back Dana. “It looks like Jessie is done with his questioning too.”
He grabbed his things off the table and stood in the doorway with the door open, waiting for Dana to stand and exit. She hurried out the door and down the hallway the direction Rollo indicated and found Jessie waiting for her in the waiting room. He stood and gathered her in his arms, kissing the top of her head.
Feeling his arms around her and the sweet softness of his lips on her scalp made her forget where she’d just been. It was so good to feel loved. Years of loneliness and desperation seemed to melt away as if they never existed. She let out a deep sigh and relaxed in his arms.
“How did it go?” Jessie asked, stepping back to look into her eyes. “Did they clear you?”
“I don’t know. Rollo said I was free to go, but he asked me not to leave the area. I think I’m still a suspect. How did it go for you?”
“It was fine. They asked me a lot of questions about you. And about how I found the body.”
Jessie pushed the front door of the police station open and guided her out into the parking lot.
“Buck is on his way,” Jessie said.
“Did they suspect you?” she asked.
“I doubt it. But I wouldn’t worry if they did. I know I didn’t do it, that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?” he said with a laugh.
“I suppose you’re right. But I think that they think I did it.”
Buck’s pickup truck pulled into the parking lot and Jessie and Dana climbed inside. It was a classic Ford pickup that Jessie had restored for his brother a few years ago. After Jessie introduced her to his brother, Dana climbed into the middle of the bench seat and Jessie sat near the window.
“So how long are you going to jail for?” Buck asked Jessie.
“They let me off this time,” Jessie said.
“I was sure they’d lock you up and throw away the key,” Buck teased.
“Not enough evidence.”
“The Updikes have a lot of enemies in this town,” Buck contemplated. “More than just the Kincaids.”
Dana knew that was an understatement.
Chapter 6
Buck dropped Jessie and Dana off in front of Jessie’s cabin. Jessie put his arm around Dana’s shoulders as they walked inside, feeling the new but familiar draw to his fated mate. After all these years of telling everyone he knew that he didn’t want a mate, he felt like a fool. If he had known it would feel like this, he would’ve signed up for Mate.com a long time ago.
The murder investigation stood between them. There were niggling questions in the back of his mind, but Jessie instinctively knew the Dana could never hurt anyone.
“I want to take you on a date tonight.”
“I don’t have anything to wear on a date,” Dana said.
A blush rose in her cheeks and he realized he’d embarrassed her. After spending two years as a domestic servant without pay, he could understand why she wouldn’t have anything to wear on dinner date.
“I am sure I could borrow something from my sister-in-law, Daisy. She has a lot of nice things and I know she would want to share them.”
“If we wear the same size I wouldn’t mind,” Dana said.
“I’ll call her and ask her to bring some things over for you,” Jessie said. “Why don’t you take a nap and I’ll wait for Daisy.”
“A nap sounds wonderful.”
Jessie guided Dana into the guest room and showed her where she could put her things that she had in the backseat of the car. Dana collapsed on the bed with a sigh and curled her feet up under her.
“This is the most comfortable bed ever,” she mumbled.
“You rest now, babe,” Jessie said. “Tonight, I’ll take you to Fate Mountain Lodge for a delicious dinner.”
“Where have you been all my life?” she said with a giggle as he stood in the doorway gripping the door handle.
“Avoiding finding my mate because I’m an idiot,” he said.
“You aren’t an idiot.”
“Not anymore,” he said with a smile, closing the door.
“Now that I have you,” he said to himself.
He’d been avoiding Mate.com and had been chasing human women for years. All along, Dana had been right there. If he had signed up for the dating site two years ago, when his family first started pestering him about it, he could have saved Dana from all the pain and suffering she’d experienced at the hands of the Updikes.
He couldn’t think about the past now, he had to think about the future. Jessie was not the kind of guy that got stuck on problems and he was determined not to start now. The best solution had always been to have a good time. He went into the living
room and gave his sister-in-law Daisy a call.
“Hi Jessie,” Daisy said. “I heard you found your mate today.”
“Word travels fast,” Jessie said.
“What can I do for you?”
“I want to take her out to dinner, but she doesn’t have anything to wear. She was indentured to the Updike hyena pack for two years without any pay and she needs something for dinner at the Fate Mountain Lodge.”
“Your mate was a prisoner of the Updikes’ for two years?” Daisy asked, a shocked expression in her voice.
“I could have saved her a long time ago if only I had signed up for Mate.com back then. I know I made a mistake but I want to make it up to her.”
“The Updikes tried to do the same thing to me. Except they were going to try to marry me.”
“I know. The Updikes need to be stopped. But first, I need to take my mate out to dinner and show her a good time. She needs that, and so do I. We were both down at the police station today answering questions about the murder.”
“Murder? Whose murder?”
“I found the body of Chuck Updike in the trunk of Dana’s stolen car.”
Daisy gasped and the phone was silent for a long moment.
“You don’t think she had anything to do with it, do you?”
“Of course not. Dana would never do something like that. She’s a sweet, good, and loyal woman.”
“Being held prisoner can do strange things to anyone, even the sweetest woman in the world. Sometimes people snap.”
“Dana didn’t snap. She just took the wrong car. Someone else is responsible for the murder, and I intend to find out who, even if the Bear Patrol can’t do it.”
“I’m sorry, Jessie. I shouldn’t have said that. I watch too much cable. I have some great dresses that would be perfect for dinner. I’ll bring them over and your mate can choose what she’d like to wear.”
“That would be great, Daisy,” he said with a sigh, feeling slightly depressed and exhausted from the morning’s events. “Thank you for your help.”
An hour later, Daisy arrived at his doorstep, holding a bundle of clothes in her arms.