To Skin a Wolf

by A. L. Kessler

  Of course, we had no way of telling what Tomes’ intentions were. My paranoia told me he would come after me once more. Which meant that I had to be on the lookout for zombies. Again. “You sent the execution team after Ira, according to the documents.” He caught up with me quickly. “They should be able to track him down.”

  The only clue I had to where Ira was came from a spell that told me what state he was in. “With any luck, yes.”

  “You don’t sound too sure.”

  “Ira is…he’s powerful. And with Tomes out, there’s no telling if he’s managed to warn Ira.” I stopped in front of the coffee shop. “There’s no telling who else is working for the vampire, for all we know, he could have left the country.”

  My mind went to Levi’s vacation, and I shook the thought off. Levi was pretty adamant Ira couldn’t be tracked down and that Levi had no power to hunt Ira down. I walked into the coffee shop and held the door open for Mason.

  He looked around and motioned to the counter. “Let’s order and take it to go.”

  The main room was empty of customers, and the baristas were quietly working on cleaning tasks behind the counter, but in the off shoot room, there was a big group of officers enjoying an afternoon coffee. It wasn’t like Mason to want to hide things, but something about this must have sat wrong with him. I nodded and stepped up to the counter to order.

  We waited in silence for our order and stepped back outside. Mason spoke up when the door closed behind us. “Do you think Levi had something to do with it?”

  “I can’t really answer that.” I hated lying to Mason. Levi, of course, had something to do with it. He might not have released Tomes or hid Ira, but he was deep in this case as well. I just didn’t know what I could believe when it came to Levi.

  Mason nodded. “He keeps you in the dark, but I thought I’d ask.” He started back towards the office. “You can follow me to the club for the wolf case.”

  That meant facing Simon again and possibly his second today. “Any hints on what I’m walking into?”

  “No more than I already told you. I don’t want to influence your opinion.”

  As usual. I tried not to expect the worst, which was hard because I’d seen some nasty stuff the last couple years. Mason and I continued our walk back to the PIB office in silence. Not an uncomfortable, forced one, but one that gently settled over us like we were old friends. Which in a way, we were.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “What the fuck is she doing here?” Were the first words that greeted me when I walked in the door. Simon’s second-in-command stood right in the doorway, blocking our way.

  I looked up at the football-player-shaped man. He was taller than me by a few inches, which didn’t happen very often. He put all that muscle to use trying to intimidate me, and I just put my hands on my hips, tapping the badge hooked on my belt. “I’m a PIB agent, and I’ve been assigned to your case.”

  “You’d do better if you gave her a bit of respect.” Mason’s voice was even as he stared down the werewolf. “She’s here to help figure out who killed your pack members.”

  “Fine, what the fuck is Agent Collins doing here?” He snapped again. “I don’t want her in my bar.”

  I put on my best professional smile. “Your pack leader requested that I be the one to take the case.”

  His anger softened a little. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

  Sure, it worked this time, but at our last encounter, he didn’t think that his alpha needed to be there to make the call. Of course, that was magic; this was death.

  “I want to do what is best for the pack.” Simon’s voice marched goosebumps up my skin. It had more authority to it than normal. “Agent Collins knows her way around pack law and the supernatural world. I trust her to take this on.” He walked out from behind the bar.

  I hadn’t spoken to him since we’d met for coffee when I had to tell him that five wolves in his pack had turned themselves over to be experimented on. We had managed to make some amends about my last meeting with his second-in-command. Travis turned to face Simon. “I wasn’t aware that you had asked for a specific PIB agent.”

  I was almost certain it was a conflict of interest for Simon to ask for me and for me to take the case, but we weren’t dating by any definition now. We could both keep this professional.

  “Can we get to the bodies now? I’d like to do my job.” I dropped my hands to my side. “Mason said there were three?”

  “That we can count.” Simon met my gaze. His pupils were dilated slightly in pools of hazel irises. His caramel colored hair stuck up a bit more than usual like he’d continuously ran his hands over it. Which, knowing him, he had as a nervous habit.

  “That you can count?” My voice dropped and my mind flashed back to the mass body dump we’d found at the haunted house. I took a deep breath to control myself. “Alright, show me the way.”

  Travis stepped aside and I walked over to Simon. I noticed his hand twitched as if he was going to reach out to comfort me. “Thank you for coming.”

  “It’s my job.” I reminded him. “And I wouldn’t leave your pack hanging.”

  He nodded and led me further into the club. The main area was clear of everything except the black and lime green tiles that formed the shape of a wolf. In the regular light, it didn’t look like much. I glanced up and noted the black lights on the ceiling and knew that the green tiles would glow under them. In the very back was a long wooden bar with tap beer lining the front and liquor bottles sitting against the back wall. He pushed a door to the left with a huge black and orange sign that said ‘employees only.’

  “I didn’t know you guys had a second bar,” I muttered as I stepped in behind him.

  “It’s a decoy to try and keep humans away from the other one.” He stepped to the side so I could see the white breakroom. The walls were almost blinding compared to the bar area, but there was no mistaking the red splatters all over the far wall. Blood. All over. Limbs tangled with torsos sat against the wall, dismembered and bloody. Bones stuck out at odd angles through torn flesh and muscles. Red pooled below the pile creeping outwards, like they had been arranged against the wall. From here it was hard to tell what gender the torsos were because of the angles they sat at. Despite the splatters on the wall, there wasn’t enough blood for the victims to have been killed her. The sprays also looked like they had been staged, similar patterns, too much consistency.

  “Well…you’re right, I can see three torsos. We’re missing a vital body part.”

  Simon gave a snort and turned me to the left where three heads dangled from the ceiling. Blood dripped down each one into a small puddle below.

  “What the fuck is going on with your pack?” I pressed my lips together after the words slipped out. “Sorry, that wasn’t very professional, but it’s not every day I see three werewolf heads dangling from a bar ceiling.”

  “Technically, it’s the breakroom, and I’m not sure if it’s related to the squabble in the pack.” He sighed and I glanced back at him. I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the concerned wrinkles that lined his forehead.

  Two males, judging by the bone structures, lack of makeup, and style of short hair. One female with light makeup and long blond locks. “If it is, then I think it’s escalated from a squabble. You know that’s the first thing as a PIB agent I’m going to look at, right? I have to because it’s the first lead.” Kind of like most homicides, paranormal ones tended to be done by someone close. If they were human, I’d look at the family first. But as werewolves, pack was their family.

  “I need to get Jason in here to get the bodies to the morgue. I assume you can identify them for me.” I took a few steps forward, trying not to step in the blood. The forensic team either hadn’t been called yet or hadn’t gotten here yet, so I didn’t have little booties for my shoes. I squatted at the edge of the blood pool and leaned closer to the bodies. The flesh hung off the closest torso in shreds. My gaze went up to the jagged edge of the bone and t
he diagonal angle of the vertebrae. I couldn’t get a better look until I got booties and could get right up to the bodies.

  “This wasn’t done with a sharp tool.” I had originally thought maybe an ax or something had been used to sever the bodies. “I won’t be able to tell what it was done with until I can get a closer look.”

  Simon crossed his arms and leaned against the door. “So what, are you going to question all my pack members?”

  “Don’t get defensive, please. It’s nothing personal, and trust me; I don’t really want to question a hundred werewolves who are already on edge. No, I’ll start with those who were closest to these three.” I stood and walked over to him. “I’m hoping it’s not one of your pack members, but if it’s not, then it looks like you have another enemy on your hands.” I put a hand on his arm. “Why don’t you step out and write down their names and their next of kin and closest friends.”

  He shrugged off my touch. “Sure.” He left the room and I closed my eyes. I didn’t feel any magic or magical residue in the room, which meant that whoever had done this didn’t do it under magical cover. I was grateful I wasn’t dealing with another witch or a warlock, but I didn’t know what I was dealing with that could cause this damage. I went to the heads, and my foot slipped a tiny bit, almost taking me down. A red smear peeked out from under my shoe. I let out a frustrated growl. It’d been a careless move; I should have been more aware of where I was stepping and where the blood was. I pulled a tissue out of my bag and wiped the bottom of my shoe off before I turned around to see if there were any other blood spots near me. A trail led across the floor, stopping under the heads. Three trails, three heads. Dots and lines of blood stood stark against the ground; The little dots had dried to a brown instead of the bright red of fresh blood.

  How fresh was this murder? The heads were held to the ceiling with rope wrapped under the jaw, tightened around the top of the head. The rolled back eyes gave me the creeps, and I turned away. The pool of blood below the heads still had a tacky gleam in the middle. If the scene was that fresh, then the murderer could be close by, or even still in the bar.

  I walked out of the room and found Simon leaning against the bar, a piece of paper and pen in front of him and a bottle of whiskey next to that.

  “Simon, who discovered the bodies?”

  He looked up at me and motioned to Travis. “He did.”

  Of course he did. I nodded. “Thanks.” I marched over to the werewolf in question. “Who had access to the club before you found the bodies?”

  He blinked at me a few times. “There’s a handful of us who have keys.”

  “I need a list. Do you have security cameras that would cover the breakroom?”

  He shook his head. “No, we depend on our staff for security. There are certain clientele who don’t like to be on video.”

  Well didn’t that sound like something illegal went on here? “That crime scene is still fresh enough that the blood hasn’t completely dried.”

  Simon’s head popped up. “Meaning what?”

  “Are you accusing me or the other wolves?” Travis snarled.

  “If I were, I would have been straight forward about it. My meaning was that the person could still be around.” Though in the back of my mind I thought it could have been him, but his clothes and skin were too pristine. “Can I see your shoes?”

  He gave me a look that told me he wanted me to fuck off. I glanced back at Simon, and he motioned for the other wolf to listen to me. I bowed my head in thanks. “I just need to see the bottom.”

  Travis lifted one shoe up at a time, and I didn’t see any blood. There weren’t any footprints in the room, but it didn’t mean the culprit didn’t wipe up a spot. There was a lot of blood in there, and it was hard to believe that someone else hadn’t accidentally stepped in some.

  “Thank you.”

  He slammed his foot down with a grunt and shoved past me to the bar. Forensics started flooding through the front door. I grabbed the man in charge and explained that I had accidentally stepped in a spot. He gave me a short lecture on contaminating the crime scene and being careless. It was a lesson I already knew, but I waited patiently through it.

  I started to walked back to Mason when Simon called out to me. I walked back to the bar and sat in front of him on a stool. He turned the list towards me, and I looked at it. His name was on the bottom of the list for the third name.

  “Are you on here because you are their pack master?” I raised my eyes up and met his.

  “No, it’s because she and I dated a couple months back.” He kept his face blank.

  I felt my heart fall. It wouldn’t be fair for me to say anything because we weren’t dating. We had both decided the timing hadn’t been right, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he had been dating her when he came to see me at the PIB office or met me for coffee. “Then yeah, your name needs to be on there. Did she have any enemies?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to do this right now.”

  “When would you like to do it, because you have three dismembered bodies in your club.” I tried to keep my voice even.

  “Don’t you think I know that?” He snarled at me, his eyes flashing amber, a sign of the wolf he carried inside.

  I held my hands up. “I know you’re grieving, but the sooner my questions get answered, the sooner I can move forward.”

  “No, she didn’t, the other two…they had people who they had pissed off, but I don’t think they’d do this or are capable of this.” He ran a hand through his hair and took a shot of whiskey from the bottle. If he’d been human, I’d worry he would be drunk before we finished the questions, but being a werewolf meant he had a harder time getting drunk. Lucky for my investigation.

  “Part of the pack squabble?” I assumed.

  “No.” Travis came up behind me. “They’d been over to Mesa for the protests there. They were, of course, protesting to keep supernatural rights. They pissed off some people up there, but they were human. Not capable of this.”

  I’d been to Mesa once; they weren’t too friendly towards supernatural creatures. The protest against supernatural rights had just recently started up there. Most of the time they were peaceful and organized. “So they stepped on some toes up there. You’re wrong about humans though, with the right tools and motivation they are equally as capable of dismembering a body as a supernatural creature.”

  “You’ve seen it first-hand have you?” He took a step closer to me.

  I refused to step away. “I don’t handle those cases.”

  “Then you’ve committed such a crime?” He tried again and I knew he was pushing buttons.

  My lip lifted in a smirk. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m a witch, not exactly human. I have other means.”

  “Like what?”

  I resisted the urge to give him a demonst

  ration. My temper and patience had disappeared some time ago, but I needed to make sure to keep it reigned in. “Magic,” I whispered and I swore he paled a little.

  Simon snorted behind me. “If you two are done with your pissing contest, I need to get Agent Collins the information she needs to start tracking down leads for this.”

  Travis huffed and walked off towards Detective Mason.

  I looked at Simon. “It’s been a while since you’ve used “agent” as part of my name.”

  “You’re working and I’m involved in the case. My pack is already on edge, reminding them that I’m your friend won’t win me any points right now.”

  “Seems like reminding anyone that they have an association with me is a bad thing lately.” I shook my head. “All professional here, promise. How long did you two date?” I went right back to my question. “Did she seem worried about anything?” I tried to keep my emotions out of the equation, but part of me wondered why he had time to date pack but didn’t have time for me. I pushed the thought off. The break-up had been mutual. I was married to my work, and that was the way I liked it.

  He
looked at the bottle of whiskey, and I motioned to it to let him know he could take another drink. He lifted the bottle up and caught my eye before putting it down. “We dated for a month and a half. In an attempt to work something out with a nearby pack, she transferred here to our pack to see if we were…compatible. Think of it like an arranged marriage between packs, but a little less formal and forced.”

  I blinked a few times. “Really? She the pack master’s daughter or something?”

  “Exactly.” He took a swig. “We decided that it wasn’t going to work out and there were no hard feelings. She wanted to stay with our pack, and I allowed it.” He shrugged.

  “Why did she want that?”

  “She was happy here, there wasn’t much for her at the old pack, according to her.”

  “I’m going to need to talk to her dad.”

  He nodded. “His name is on there, along with a phone number. He’s only a few counties over, so a quick trip for you if need be.”

  Werewolf politics were weird. I tried to imagine Levi sending me to another territory to date a vampire to make a truce. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. “Thank you. I’ll be in touch.” I turned to go back to speak with Mason.

  “Abby…”

  I looked at him over my shoulder. “Professional, remember?”

  He nodded and leaned against the bar. I wanted to comfort him, I wanted to take the exhaustion from his face, but it wasn’t my place. My place was back at the crime scene.

  Mason stood next to Jason, his nephew and the medical examiner. Mason looked to me and raised his brow expectantly. “What say you, Agent A.?”

  I had no humor in me to smile at the on-going joke with the name. “I can’t tell you if it was supernatural until I get the results from Jason or I get a closer look at the bodies. I’m going to grab some gloves and shoe covers from forensic and go take a look.”