Caroline muttered something but didn’t balk. Instead, she hastily fumbled with her keychain in order to slide the office key off her car key ring. In the process, her hands were so shaky that she broke two nails. She cursed. She didn’t say anything else though. Within a few more minutes she was out the door and away. Ash watched through the window as she got into her little sports car and left the parking lot in plume of dust and gravel.
“I believe that is done,” Mindy told Titus. She started to hand him the key.
Titus waved and gestured to Mindy. “You keep that. God knows you’ve earned it. I’m sorry your workspace is such a mess. God only knows what her computer is like.”
“That’s okay.” Mindy was already starting to sift through the items in the discarded box. “I have a feeling we can learn a lot about what she was actually up to by looking at the rubble she left behind.”
Younger whistled. “Damn, Ash! You know how to pick a woman! Glad I’m not the one getting pegged for dismissal.”
“Ugh!” Laurie Talcott shook her head and made a sour face. “That woman was absolutely unbearable. I cannot believe she lasted this long in any job, let alone one that should have required a bit of tact and intelligence!”
There was plenty of chatter and exclamations tossed back and forth. Ash wasn’t sure he’d ever been in the office when everyone plus their significant others were present. Titus was the only notable single in the room. The rest of them were all happily smiling and nodding and exchanging their thoughts. It was rather a collaborative effort.
“Holy crap!” Mindy’s exclamation rose above the rest of their voices. Ash swung around to look at her, suddenly concerned. But she was already waving her hands. “Sorry. I was just contemplating how brazen someone must be to have a file on her desktop computer—her work computer mind you—that is labeled NOTES FOR HILARY.”
“Seriously?” Titus was already hustling it over to Mindy’s side to take a look.
“You’re a lucky man,” Ellie told Ash, distracting him from watching Titus and Mindy. “I have to say that when the guys first told me her situation and what was going on, I was pretty sure you were making a huge mistake.”
Adam chuckled from behind her. “Then I reminded her that I’m not exactly her age and how well we fit together.”
“Age has nothing to do with it,” Laurie said decidedly. “It’s what you have going on inside. Your life experiences and your personality and pretty much everything that makes you the person you are.”
Younger slung his arm around her and Ash was glad to see that Laurie softened at his touch. “That’s right, baby. And of course, you’re the best thing about me anyway.”
There were some not so subtle comments on that score and Ash was laughing along when he noticed that Mindy and Titus were both staring at something on the computer screen with varying expressions of confusion and perhaps even horror. What was going on? But when Ash would have headed over to check it out and to make sure that Mindy was all right, she smiled and winked at him to let him know she was okay.
Damn, he loved this woman. Sometimes he was a bit surprised at how much, but that was one of the best things about the whole thing. He had the rest of his life to learn everything about her and to learn to love her even more fully than he knew that she loved him.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Titus Holbrook had liked Mindy Hall from the first time that he’d met her. The girl might have only been in her twenties, but she was smart, world savvy, and about as practical as you could want. Right now, that was probably the only thing keeping her from overreacting to what Mindy and Titus were both reading on the computer screen at this moment.
“It’s very detailed, don’t you think?” Mindy murmured. She was the one in control of the mouse and she was scrolling down the document that she had opened in a file labeled NOTES FROM HILARY. “It would seem that Hilary has been going to great lengths to get information about you Titus.”
“It would seem so.” Titus was having a bit of trouble remaining amused. “All the way to Montana, I guess.”
“Is that actually your family information?” Mindy seemed only mildly curious. And it wasn’t like Titus could blame her for that. Not considering what they were looking at right now. “Because you might have a case against her for stalking or harassment.”
“No. It’s public records information,” Titus murmured.
Mindy snorted. “With quite a lot of wild speculation thrown in.” Mindy used the tip of her index finger to point out a paragraph. “She’s literally talking about werewolf syndrome. Hypertrichosis. That’s sort of personal. She had to have gone into someone’s medical records for that information. It’s illegal to do that, Titus. And then there are the conclusions she drew because of that.”
Titus struggled with what was becoming very obvious to him. He was a wolf shifter. A real werewolf. And right now, there was no doubt in his mind he had been exposed. Not just exposed, but very exposed. As in, Hilary Allenwood knew who he was and what he was and she was obviously working her way towards the idea of either exposing him outright, or asking him for something in return.
“What’s this?” Mindy had closed the Hypertrichosis speculation file and had opened something else. “This is totally unrelated. It’s not even about you!” Titus frowned. “It takes place in Montana though.”
“Yes. It does.” Titus saw the date on the article. “Near Bozeman.”
“A murder, no less!” Mindy seemed fascinated. She was perusing the article, reading almost faster than Titus could and he was the werewolf with all of the extrasensory gifts. “Look at that, the woman goes hiking with her boyfriend and gets attacked by something. Oh. They think it was a bear.”
Titus pursed his lips. “A bear. I think it was probably a wolf.”
Mindy turned her head and she looked at him square in the face. The sheer directness of her gaze was almost unnerving. “You think that it was a wolf? Or you believe it was a man with Hypertrichosis?”
“Is there a way to be sure?” Titus muttered.
Titus could not believe it, but his hand was shaking when he lifted it to smooth back his hair. His very thick hair. But he didn’t have hair like that all over his face. Not like his father. It was the inbreeding. That’s what had happened. His family had been line bred. Bred back. Whatever you want to call it. Too much and too often and with disastrous results. Like that hiker.
“Titus, there is absolutely no connection between this article and her speculations about you except this Hypertrichosis thing. I think she honestly believes you’re a werewolf or something.” Mindy was actually looking to him to say yes or no about this. “Titus?”
He couldn’t breathe. His chest was tight. He could only remember the flames. The sight of the torches bobbing in the air as they came for his father. But it hadn’t been his father. Not really. At least, Dad hadn’t been the criminal in this case. But nobody had listened. They hadn’t cared about the truth of it. They just wanted blood and retribution.
“Titus?” Mindy’s voice was soft and small. “You don’t have to answer that.”
She knew! Titus swung his gaze back to Mindy and saw in the calm clarity of her pale blue eyes that she knew what he was hiding, and probably why, and that she was basically telling him she wasn’t going to tell anyone.
“This is all just nonsense,” Mindy said very carefully. “I’m going to go through this computer and I’m going to compile a report. I guess you would call it that. Whatever information or documents that are here. I’m going to label them and I’m going to give them to you so you can have them for your personal files.”
“Caroline has seen them,” Titus suddenly found himself saying quietly. “Caroline has read all of this. She has probably discussed it multiple times with Hilary Allenwood. That’s the danger. That’s the real danger. That asinine woman is going to print this story in her newspaper. Then what?” Titus whispered the words and felt himself getting closer to the point where he knew he must go. Le
ave this place and just go. Start over somewhere new.
“So what if she does?” Mindy said casually. “She can show this stuff or tell this stuff to whomever she wants. It doesn’t mean she will make anyone believe it. This is a case that needs a smoking gun, Titus.”
He gave a bitter chuckle. “You think so? When people will believe that they have pictures of Bigfoot?”
“No. When people say they have pictures of Bigfoot and the rest of us say the photos are faked. This is the age of Photoshop, Titus. People can make anything look real with a camera or a video camera. There is no way anymore of knowing if something is real. Computers can make anything look real enough. So, I don’t think Caroline or Hilary are going to do anything with this bullshit information. I believe they already would have if they could have.”
It was an interesting and tempting theory to believe. Titus wished he could be as confident as she seemed about it. But he couldn’t. And that was why he was going to have to leave. Leave Branson. Leave Missouri. Leave this office behind. The whole thing. Everything. Dammit. He was getting sick and freaking tired of starting over.
“What are you two whispering about over here?” Ash asked as he leaned over the desk.
Mindy carefully minimized the files from the desktop and grinned up at her new husband. “Oh, you know, it’s just hundreds of pics of naked men. Caroline’s porn stash. The usual.”
“Ugh!” Ash fell back a few steps and his expression looked as though he’d tasted something sour. “That’s gross, Mindy.”
“You asked,” she said archly. “And of course, you might not like pictures of naked dudes, but I bet I could get Olivia, Ellie, and Laurie over here…”
“Don’t you dare!” For just a moment, Titus wasn’t entirely sure that Ash didn’t believe Mindy was serious. Then Ash’s expression folded into a bright smile and he laughed. “And I know you’re not into that fake, nasty stuff anyway.”
“Not when I have the real thing at home,” Mindy told him saucily.
Titus held up his hands. “Okay. Both of you. Stop. I can’t take anymore.”
But as he was looking for an excuse to leave the office, a big roar and shout of excitement went up from everyone else inside the place. Titus’s sensitive ears were ringing with the sounds of congratulations swirling around him. What had he missed?
“When?” Ellie demanded, looking at Olivia. “This is amazing! And to think that I never thought our Duke would tie the knot!”
Tie the knot? Titus felt as though he was falling down a deep hole. He had been so careful. He had filled this office with employees who were good, hard workers, but not necessarily the friendly type. They were quiet and independent and some of them with enough baggage to make it very unlikely that they were going to get into long-lasting personal relationships that would then suck Titus deeper into the web of involvement.
And yet here Titus was, with Ash already married. Ash. The guy who was polite and yet so distant and cold in most cases that Titus had actually heard someone ask if Ash was a robot that Titus had bought online to handle the heavy lifting around the office. Ash was married to this incredible woman—Mindy—who now made Titus feel this horrible urge to sink even deeper into the morass of emotional involvement that had become his office. There was the whole Caroline thing. To say nothing of Titus joining the neighborhood watch and stooping to even have dinner with his neighbor Kylie Overton a few weeks ago.
“Titus, we have to have a bachelor party for Duke!” Younger crowed with excitement. “I can see it now!”
“I guess I should have saved those nude male pictures,” Ash teased.
But Ellie was already shaking her head. “If Younger plans the bachelor party, you’re talking an early morning, not a late night, and it will most certainly involve dead fish.”
“Hey, that’s a great idea,” Duke said eagerly.
Olivia was now laughing. “Then I suppose the girls and I will have to go Silver Dollar City and get our hair done in the little girl princess shop.”
“Ooh! That’s a great idea!” Ellie actually covered her mouth with her hands as though she were embarrassed to admit she wanted ribbons and a princess coronet braided into her hair.
“Sign me up,” Mindy called out. “I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never been there.”
“Silver Dollar City?” Ellie gasped sarcastically. “Oh, the deprivation! We have to take her, ladies. This would be a fantastic way to celebrate Olivia’s last few days as a single gal. Old-fashioned homemade candy and craft shopping.”
More laughter. More cheering. And now Titus felt as though he was being bound tightly to what was happening here in this office. His office. And Mindy was staring at him. She looked almost as though she wasn’t entirely sure if he was all right or not and wanted to make ensure he was.
“It’s going to be all right,” Mindy murmured. “Nobody needs to know anything, Titus. There’s just no reason.”
Then all at once, the front door of the office swung open and Titus found himself staring at Kylie. She didn’t look like she usually did. Her face was pale and she looked upset as she stared around the room at the scene of obvious excitement.
Finally, Kylie’s gaze settled on Titus. “You! You’re not answering your damned phone!”
The room went silent. They were all staring at Titus as though he had been keeping something from them. Which he was, but not that. Not what they were obviously speculating about. Most of them had at least seen Kylie before. But Titus didn’t recall if there had been introductions.
“Kylie Overton is my neighbor and fellow neighborhood watch member,” Titus said loudly. Then he gestured to the door. “It’s loud. That’s probably why I didn’t answer my phone. We had—” Then he remembered Kylie knew about Caroline’s double agent status. “We got rid of the double agent in our office.”
“Oh.” Kylie looked mollified. At least a little. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” Titus was almost grateful to get out of the office. It was loud and the excitement was nearly too much for him to stand. He followed Kylie out the door and then closed it behind him. “What can I do for you? I’m surprised you’re not at work.”
“I was. I mean, I’m supposed to be.” She was having trouble. Her face was flushed and she looked about ready to fall over. “It’s Mrs. Wankenfurter.”
“What?” Titus had a really bad feeling about what was going to come next. “What about Mrs. Wankenfurter?”
“Apparently, she made me her emergency contact. Not that she told me that,” Kylie muttered. She bit her lip and flung up her arms. “She collapsed at her house today.”
Titus didn’t know what to say. The nosy old neighbor lady with the pug dog was one of Titus’s adversaries in this urban life. “Did they take her to the hospital? Did anyone say why?”
“Yes. Well, no.” Kylie was fumbling now. “She was talking a million miles a minute, you get it. She’s just like that. But she told them someone came in her house. They were in her house and she freaked out and she attacked this intruder. Then she fell, hit her head, and blacked out.”
Titus was floored. He didn’t know what to say. “Could anyone verify that there had been a break in? Because we all know that woman keeps her house locked up like Fort Knox.”
“The responding officer said there was evidence that someone had been going through her file cabinet. But that was it.”
“What’s in the file cabinet?” Titus wondered out loud.
Kylie bit her lip. “When I looked, it seemed like a bunch of notes from our neighborhood watch rounds. The woman apparently takes copious notes after her rounds and keeps track of every single time she hears anything outside. She’s crazy organized, Titus. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m in retail management keeping inventories of alcoholic beverages all day long.”
Titus thought about this for a moment. It wasn’t good. Not for Mrs. Wankenfurter of course, but not for Titus either. He had a feeling the prowlers they’d been having in
their neighborhoods were related somehow to all of this prying and spying connected to Hilary Allenwood. But what did it mean?
Kylie was peering through the windows into his office. “Is that champagne? What kind of investigative service do you guys run?”
“I’m not sure where the champagne came from,” Titus mused with a chuckle. “But they’re celebrating the announcement of someone’s engagement.”
“Oh. That makes sense.” For just a moment, Kylie actually looked wistful. “It’s hard to remember sometimes that other people have lives.”
“You have a life,” Titus said absently. “You have those friends who come over once a month and hang out in your backyard.”
“Right.” She didn’t seem convinced. “They come over and they sit there and bitch and whine and moan about how this boyfriend or that boyfriend isn’t treating them right. They talk about how they can’t stand having to work more than twenty-five hours a week in their posh spas or wherever it is that they work. They cannot understand why I have a real job and why my parents didn’t leave me boatloads of cash when they died. It’s all just…” She looked glum. “Depressing, really.”
It was odd, but right then Titus felt a real kinship with Kylie. He exhaled a big sigh and then said the stupidest thing that he could ever recall saying. “Well, since my life sounds a lot like yours, I would be grateful if you would be my plus one at the wedding ceremony.”
“Sure.” She actually looked pleased. “I think that sounds like fun.”
Oh, God. She had agreed? What was he thinking?
PART V
Chapter One
Titus Holbrook snuffled around the fallen trees tangled in deposits of last year’s leaves. The scents were as tangled as the brush. Humans, various rabbits, squirrels, and even a few stray dogs and cats. The scent of fishy water from the nearby lake lay over everything like a blanket. As Titus pushed on down the path toward the lake, there were other things too. Gear oil and gasoline and other things that people used in their tools and implements down at the lake.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 95
