Desert Bound

  “He was drugged?” Jena asked.

  “He would have been able to function, but he would have been much more vulnerable.”

  Ollie asked, “Does that mean we’re looking for someone smaller than he was? Needed to even things out?”

  Caleb said, “It’s possible.”

  “Or is it someone who knew he wouldn’t be able to shift if he took drugs?” Sean said.

  Allie turned to him. “You can’t shift if you take drugs?”

  Sean grinned. “It’s fucking adorable that you didn’t know that. But yeah, it’s almost impossible.”

  “Huh.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “Wait, how do you know, Sean Quinn?”

  “Don’t worry, honey, I’m past my wild youth.”

  “I hope so.”

  “You’re such a mom.”

  Ollie rumbled from the back, “Can we get back to Marcus getting killed?”

  “Yes,” Ted said. “The only other thing I’ll add is that my initial estimate was right. The official report is that he died near one in the morning, but I’m still going to say it could have happened between midnight and two, because reptile shifters have quirks in their body temperatures.”

  “Bigger window of opportunity,” Willow said. “And you said he wasn’t killed at the job site, so we have no idea where it actually happened. Was there anything at the scene…?”

  Ted sat down and Caleb stood. “The thing of it is, it’s a construction site. There’s all sorts of miscellaneous stuff that might be related, but probably isn’t. There was nothing on or near the body that would tie it to a location. I’ve asked for soil samples that were on his body to be tested, but that could take weeks.”

  Ted said, “More like months. Those things are slow.”

  “So,” Alex finally spoke up, “the best chance of finding his murderer is not going to be forensics. We need to find out why someone would have wanted Marcus dead.”

  Sean shook his head. “He was a good guy. A genuinely good guy.”

  “He wasn’t lily-white, Sean.” Caleb crossed his arms.

  “Did he have any outstanding warrants?”

  “No.”

  “Then he’s a choirboy in my family.”

  Ted tried to cover her smile, but she heard Alex chuckle.

  Then he cleared his throat and said, “Marcus had ties with the Di Stefano family in Las Vegas. They’re criminals, but it looks like their deal with Marcus was a straight—well, mostly straight—loan. He was paid in full, even had an ongoing legitimate business relationship with Cameron Di Stefano. As far as Ted and I could tell, any threat to Marcus was not coming from his background with Di Stefano. However, Frank did mention some concerns about the brother-in-law.”

  “Chris Avery.” Caleb tapped on the picture. “Ollie?”

  “He’s quiet.” Ollie shrugged a bit. “Doesn’t come in much. When he does, he’s with his sister or the kids.”

  “Wait.” Ted held up a hand. “We almost came to blows about Alex and I looking into this case, and you’d already asked Ollie for help?”

  “Ollie sees everything. So do the rest of the Campbells. Plus, they keep their mouth shut unless you pry it out of them. Alex and I almost came to blows because you’re my wife’s best friend—a woman I care about—and he took you to a criminal’s house for brunch.”

  Put like that, it didn’t seem quite so irritating. It was almost sweet. Still…

  Alex said, “Past is past. Ollie, what have you got on Avery? I know it’s not just that.”

  “He doesn’t like his sister moving here. At all. Really doesn’t like the kids moving here. He’s… weird around them.”

  Every body in the room tensed.

  “Weird how?” Sean asked.

  “Not like you’re thinking. He’s protective. Doesn’t like them making friends here. Hear him talking about Las Vegas a lot. Almost like he’s trying to get the kids on his side against their mom about moving back.”

  Willow asked, “Where’s Josie on that?”

  “Josie and the oldest girl are settled here or close to it. Boys are little. They’re happy anywhere mom is happy.”

  Allie said, “I think Kasey’s already had a sleepover with my oldest niece.”

  “And I heard Bear mention her the other day,” Jena added. “Says she’s really nice. He’s a grade behind her, but he noticed.”

  Ollie continued, “The girl knows the score, and she and her mom have obviously had the fur and feathers talk since she’s getting to that age. I’m not sure the younger boys even know about the shifting, to be honest.”

  “Does Avery?” Alex asked.

  Ollie paused. “I can’t say for sure.”

  Alex said, “Let’s try to create a timeline. Who was the last person we know of to see Marcus Quinn?”

  “You, as far as I can tell. And the other guys at work,” Caleb said. “He left the site that day and no one claims to have seen him until his body turned up.”

  “He was staying at his mom’s?”

  “Yeah, but his mom and his sister went to Indio that day to shop. Came home late, Marcus wasn’t there. They’re who they are, so it’s not like they were concerned. His truck’s in the drive. Wherever he went, he didn’t drive himself.”

  “Anyone see him getting picked up?” Jena asked.

  “Not that I’ve been able to find.”

  “I’ll talk to dad. See if anyone was flying that day and didn’t think to mention it.”

  “So,” Alex said, “Sometime between six o’clock and midnight, Marcus Quinn left his mom’s house with… someone. And that someone likely drugged him, shot him in the back somewhere, then left him at the job site where he worked. Didn’t try to hide the body—”

  “And there’s plenty of places to do that out here,” Sean said. “There’s a million places to hide a body that no one would ever find.”

  Alex continued, “But he didn’t. So whoever killed him wanted him found.”

  “A message?” Ollie asked.

  “For who, though?” Ted tapped a finger on her chin. There was something she wasn’t connecting that was bugging her. “He wasn’t one of Di Stefano’s guys, even though there was a past relationship. This wouldn’t hurt Frank, just piss him off. This must have had something to do with Marcus.”

  “He had life insurance,” Willow said. “I talked to Josie, she mentioned it. Nothing big, but enough to pay off their house in Vegas. Give Josie a little money to start up again here.”

  Allie gasped. “No one thinks Josie—”

  “No, honey.” Sean grabbed her hand. “Josie adored Marcus. I think what Willow’s implying is that if Marcus just disappeared, life insurance would take awhile. Might be motive to dump his body if someone didn’t want his family to wonder.”

  “Like a brother-in-law?” Ted asked, looking at Alex.

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” Willow said. “He kills his brother-in-law and hides the body, it could be years before his sister can collect on that insurance. Or maybe he feels guilty and doesn’t want her to wonder.”

  Ted saw Alex’s mouth get tight.

  “I don’t like Avery,” he said.

  “Neither do the cops in Vegas.” Caleb walked back to the board and pointed at Chris Avery’s picture. “Avery does not know this—so this really, really can’t leave the room—but they’re investigating him for suspected payouts to code inspectors. It’s been going on over a year, and according to my contact in Vegas, Marcus knew nothing about them.”

  “So why would he have been targeted?” Willow asked.

  “He didn’t know about the payouts when they were happening, but it’s possible he knew about the investigation. Or suspected something was going on. The police hadn’t contacted him, but he’s not an idiot. And it’s his brother-in-law. One of the detectives said it looked Marcus might have been trying to take care of things before it became a problem with the police. Bring the projects up to—”

  “He knew.” Alex had shot up and was pacing
, tugging a hand in his hair. “Shit! He knew about the payouts, Caleb.”

  “How do you know?” Caleb asked.

  “We were delayed. Pissed me off, but Marcus said there were some environmental problems at another job he’d been working on. Something he had to go back and fix. Couldn’t wait. Safety issue. Promised he’d be back on my job as soon as possible, but he was dead set on fixing this other thing, even though I was really, really mad about it.”

  Allie whispered, “He found out they weren’t up to code.”

  “If it was a safety issue, he’d be the one to go fix it. Make sure things were okay, even if that meant pissing off a big customer like me.”

  Caleb asked, “When was this?”

  “Couple months ago. Why didn’t I think of it?”

  Ted put her hand out and tugged on his arm until he was sitting again. “Because it could have been anything. It might not even be related.”

  “It’s related.”

  “But there was no way of knowing anything like this was an issue, Alex. Give yourself a break.”

  Caleb said, “Is there any way you can find out what job that was?”

  He nodded. “I’ll ask his guys. They’d know.”

  “And so would Avery,” Ollie said. “If Marcus was going back to fix the jobs that Avery had payed off, then Avery would know Marcus was on to him.”

  Sean nodded. “So why were they still working together?”

  “Family?” Willow asked.

  Jena shook her head. “I’ve gotten to know Josie a little. I don’t think she’d back her brother against Marcus. She was Marcus’s wife. If her husband wanted him out, I don’t think Josie would have said a word.”

  “Agreed,” Allie said. “So Marcus was keeping Avery in. Trying to avoid exposure?”

  “It’d kill his reputation, something like that came out,” Alex said. “And cost him a mint. Every permit he ever pulled would have been scrutinized. He might have lost his business.”

  “So he was trying to fix it without raising any alarms,” Caleb said. “I still haven’t figured out why he wouldn’t have kicked Avery out. Or at least taken him off jobs. He was a fifty-fifty partner, but he could have just stuck him in the office.”

  There was silence in the room until Alex spoke.

  “Avery had something on Marcus.”

  Sean asked, “But what? No skeletons that I’ve found except the ones his brother-in-law stacked up.”

  “Then we need to find out,” Alex said.

  Sean nodded. “I’m on it, cuz.”

  Allie’s voice was soft, but Ted could hear her from across the room. “What about Joe?”

  Alex’s face got soft when he looked at her. “I don’t think he’s involved, Allie.”

  “But are you not looking at him because he’s my husband?” Her mouth got tight. “Don’t do that. You’re not going to hurt my feelings, guys. I know he owed Marcus money. I knew he wasn’t a nice person. If I’m really honest, he could be involved in something like this.”

  “Allie,” Caleb said softly. “I really don’t think Joe’s involved directly, but I didn’t ask you about drugs before. At the time, we didn’t know Marcus had been drugged.”

  “So ask.” Her chin came up.

  “Did Joe take drugs?”

  She was silent for a moment. “Define ‘drugs.’”

  Jena leaned toward her. “Allie—”

  “I know he smoked pot. A lot of it sometimes. But there were other times… He didn’t seem right. Especially toward the end.”

  “Could he have had roofies?” Caleb continued the soft questions. “They’re blue now, but they used to be little white pills. Might not look like anything weird. You wouldn’t think—”

  “He had a baggie of… something. In the back of his sock drawer. I found it putting laundry away. He… he said they were antihistamines, but he didn’t have allergies.” She took a deep breath. “He never had allergies. I… I didn’t know. Didn’t ask.”

  Ted felt a chill settle over her. Felt Alex’s arm go around her shoulders. What had Allie been living with for so many years? She glanced at Ollie in the corner and chanced a look in his eyes. She’d caught a glimpse of it before, but nothing like what he was holding in now.

  Deep. Quiet. Rage.

  Caleb knelt down in front of her. “You want to go in the other room for this? We don’t need to do this with everyone—”

  “No.” Allie’s hand was gripped in Sean’s. “You have a question, ask it. I’m fine.”

  “You guys fought.”

  “Yeah.”

  “A lot?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Because you thought he was cheating on you?”

  “Maybe. I… I didn’t… Toward the end, we didn’t fight about that anymore.”

  She didn’t have to say why. Ted knew Allie and Joe hadn’t had sex in months. It was more than possible Joe was getting it somewhere else. Was he using a date rape drug to get it, though? Could Joe have drugged Marcus or been involved? Or was it all just a horrible coincidence?

  “Was that bag with the pills still there after he left?”

  “No,” she whispered. “It was gone when I cleaned out his drawers.”

  Caleb took a deep breath. Sat back on his heels. “You knew him best. Do you think he could have drugged someone else? It’s one thing to take something yourself, but it’s another to use it on someone else.”

  “I don’t know, Caleb.”

  “Did he… ever ask you to try some of that stuff with him?”

  She looked close to tears, but she kept her chin up and kept talking. “I said no. The kids need… I never wanted to do that shit. Not even pot. He would make fun of me. Say I was stuck up. Thought I was too good for him. Shit like that. He could get mean.”

  Ted was disgusted. It was one thing to smoke a little pot, but to pressure your wife to do it when she obviously didn’t want to, then try to make her feel like crap about not using drugs was more than messed up.

  Then Caleb went somewhere Ted never would have expected.

  “Sweetheart, you ever… Do you think Joe might have given you… anything? Ever?”

  Allie paled and Willow sucked in an audible breath.

  “Caleb?” Jena whispered.

  He ignored Jena and kept looking at Allie. “Let’s go in the other room with Jena, okay? We don’t have to—”

  “No.” She sat up straighter and looked Caleb in the eye, but Ted could tell she was struggling for words. “There are some questions…” She took a deep breath. “There are some questions you don’t let yourself ask when you’re married to someone like Joe.” She wasn’t whispering, and Ted couldn’t stop the surge of pride she felt for Allie’s quiet strength. “Because asking them might make a lot of things a lie.” Then she lost it and her voice fell to a whisper. “Might make your whole life a lie.”

  Ted heard the slam in the corner. Her eyes flew there just in time to see Ollie disappearing out the back door, a massive hole in the wall where he must have driven a fist in. Alex flew out the door a few minutes later, following his friend into the night.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alex tore off his clothes the minute he got out the door. The shift took him and he fell to all fours, nose lifted until he could track the bear’s scent. Thick muscle rippled under the heavy fur of his wolf as he tore into the darkness. Dry scrub crushed under his paws. The night air called him as he lifted up his head and howled.

  Ollie would know he was giving chase.

  People underestimated bears because they tended to keep to themselves. But Ollie’s bear could run as fast as Alex in wolf form. And he was a hell of a lot bigger and stronger. Shifters tended to be a little bigger than their full animal counterparts, and Alex guessed that Ollie’s bear weighed nearly six hundred pounds.

  And he was enraged.

  Part of him was tempted to let Ollie run it out of his system. But if his friend lost focus and hurt something, he’d never forgive himself. Alex could
hear him, running past the springs and into the canyon. The large shadow looming on the canyon walls as the waning moon lit the night. He moved silently, listening for the deep huffs of grizzly breath.

  He caught a glimpse of Ollie moving in the darkness.

  The bear had slowed his pace, probably exhausting himself with the hard run from Jena’s house. He could run fast, but not for long. Alex would always be able to catch him. He halted when he saw Ollie’s hulking form pacing back and forth at the canyon wall. The grizzly huffed out his breath, and a low groan echoed through the canyon. The wolf pushed down the urge to howl and watched.

  Then he bit back a growl when Ollie stopped pacing and ran straight into an outcropping of rock, crashing his shoulder into the sandstone, causing a minor landslide as chunks of rock showered down on his fur.

  The bear was so angry, he was hurting himself.

  The wolf circled on silent pads until he was behind him. A low growl simmered in his throat a moment before he ran to the grizzly, leapt on its back, and sank his teeth into the thick hide.

  The bear roared and reared up, throwing the wolf into the rocks. Alex scrambled to his feet and faced his friend, but there was no recognition in the animal’s eyes.

  Ollie turned and lumbered straight for him, his lip curling and a rumble growing in his chest.

  Alex turned toward the dark canyon and ran.

  He darted through the rocks with Ollie at his heels. Back and forth, leading him away from any areas where a human or shifter might wander when they ran at night. Hard at the chase, the grizzly followed, totally focused on the wolf who attacked him. A frustrated roar echoed in the night, and Alex knew he was getting tired.

  Not tired enough.

  Alex came to a clearing surrounded by cottonwoods and hid in the trees, then watched as the bear entered the clearing, huffing out puffs of breath in the cold night. He circled, scenting the air a moment before Alex burst out, leaping straight at Ollie’s flank and jumping on his back again. When he bit, he tasted blood. Ollie reared up and threw him off. Alex quickly dodged the paw that could break his back with one swipe. The grizzly’s anguished roar was deafening.

  They fought until the moon was high. Alex darting in to bite at Ollie’s legs, the bear trying to grab the wolf in it’s deadly arms and landing excruciating blows to his legs. Ollie was stronger without question, but Alex was fast and focused. He could outlast Ollie, and he wasn’t blinded by anger. But Ollie needed a fight, so Alex gave him one until both animals were bleeding.