by Anne Bishop
“Hamstring them?” When Jana looked at him, he shrugged. “If his legs still worked, wouldn’t he have tried to escape, even if he was weak?”
“I guess one of our town doctors is also going to be our medical examiner, so he’ll have to give us the full list of injuries, but . . .” Jana pulled back the man’s shirt, revealing one shoulder. “I think more than his legs were cut. I don’t think he could move his arms to fight off his attacker. Once he was helpless, whoever did this cut the arteries. But the throat wasn’t cut. That would have been a swift death compared to bleeding out.”
“Two-legged predator. Maybe brain sick.”
“Why do you say that? Don’t Wolves go for the legs?”
Virgil nodded. “But we don’t do it to make the prey suffer. And we don’t stand back and watch it bleed unless the prey is too strong and we have to wait until it weakens before we can move in. This human doesn’t look strong.” He walked to the door. “I’m going to sniff around.”
Returning to their vehicle, he stripped off his clothes, tossed them on the passenger seat, and shifted to Wolf.
“Yes,” Jana said to whoever was on the phone, “we need the ambulance to pick up a body at this address. No sirens. No need to alarm everyone.” She tucked the mobile phone back in her duty belt.
He caught a scent. Caught another. Not Zeke, not Fagen. But one of those scents . . .
Virgil leaped in front of Jana and snarled.
“What?” Jana snapped. “I’m just going to check out the rest of the house.”
Me first.
He roamed through the house, keeping ahead of her. Old scents in these bedrooms. One fresher scent in this room. Not on the bed but under it.
He tried to squeeze under the bed to reach what he could smell, but he was too big.
Jana nudged his hip. “Get out of there before you get stuck. I’m smaller. Let me try.”
He worked his way out from under the bed, yelping when he ripped out a bit of fur that got caught in the bedsprings.
Jana took the flashlight out of her belt and went down on her belly. “That backpack? That’s what you want?”
“Roo.”
She squirmed and wiggled her way under the bed. “Got it.”
When the squirming and wiggling didn’t seem to work to get her back out, Virgil closed his teeth over her boot and pulled.
She let out a startled yip. As soon as he saw all of her, he let go of her boot and grabbed for one of the straps on the backpack, pulling it into the center of the room.
Yes. It had been covered by death smells and the scents of Elders marking territory by the time he’d returned with John Wolfgard to take pictures of what little meat was left, but he recognized the scent of the male who had hurt Barbara Ellen’s hand.
So easy to shift paws into hands and open the zippers, but he scratched at the backpack and waited for Jana to finish brushing herself off.
“Darn dusty under there,” she muttered. Then she looked at the backpack. “But that’s not dusty.”
She opened each compartment. One held very stinky clothes. Another held money. Since Jana whistled when she saw it, Virgil assumed that meant it was a lot of money. Finally . . .
“This would be easier if you didn’t keep sticking your head inside the pack.”
It would be easier if she just pulled everything out so they could look at it instead of doing this dainty kind of pawing. The human was dead. And not just dead. He was already part of somebody’s poop. He wasn’t going to howl about her touching his stinky clothes.
“Identity card,” Jana said as she pulled several items out of an inside pocket. “Several of them. And . . . a driver’s license. I don’t recognize the name of the town listed as his address, but I bet it’s not in the Midwest. Sweeney Cooke.” She sat back on her heels. “You think he was trying to get back here after the incident in the Bird Cage Saloon?”
Wounded animal going to ground. Made sense.
“Do you think he killed that other man?”
No. There was that other scent in the meat’s room. He returned to that room, sniffing under the bed and in the closet. He sniffed around the rest of the house, following the scent out the door to a big stink that stung his nose and made him sneeze.
Gone. Lost.
He shifted back to human form and got dressed. A minute later the ambulance pulled up. Letting Jana deal with packing up the meat, he walked over to the next house and found Zeke and Fagen.
He stared at the Intuits. “The human who killed that man is still out there. He could be hiding in any of these houses. Or he could have moved on to another territory.”
Zeke and Fagen exchanged a look. “When we saw that body, we had a feeling that the killing was personal, that the killer had followed that man here,” Zeke said.
“Not a lot of places to go, so this would have been a good choice,” Fagen added. “We’ve seen signs of squatters in other houses. Some places were searched and valuables were taken. Money, jewelry. And food.”
“No one should be living out here,” Virgil said. “Anyone who is might be dangerous. Might even be the two-legged predator who kills his own kind. If you see any sign of humans out here who aren’t part of your pack, you run away and call us.”
“Will do.”
He returned to the sheriff’s vehicle. Jana was still inside the house doing . . . something. He didn’t need to see anything more.
He looked up and watched the Eagles riding the thermals while searching for prey.
No, he didn’t need to see anything more. From now on, all the terra indigene around Bennett would be watching for signs of unwanted humans.
* * *
* * *
“Thanks for helping out today,” Barb said.
“It’s a change from mopping floors.” Abigail worked up a smile she didn’t feel. She rinsed out Rusty’s water bowl and filled it with fresh water from the kitchen faucet.
She didn’t want a dog. She didn’t want something that would depend on her so much. But sweet Abigail might adopt one of the kittens in order to have a little fuzzy company now that Kelley had moved out.
Barb looked uncomfortable. “I saw Kelley this morning.”
“A lot of people saw Kelley this morning.” Saw him walking out of the hotel with that bitch Dina. Saw them talking and holding hands.
“I’m sorry, Abby.”
“Me too.” She put on a brave face but made sure her lip trembled. Had Kelley taken a room there, or had he and Dina met at the hotel for a meal? It didn’t matter now that she had a plan.
While Barb and Jana had been busy feeding the cats that morning, Abigail had followed the susurrus to a closed room that held a desk and a wall of books. A study or office? Didn’t matter what it was. Didn’t matter who had lived there. What mattered was the small wide bowl that held the stones.
Obsidian. Onyx. Hematite. Jet. Black stones. Protection stones.
Abigail had held one hand over the bowl.
They hadn’t protected the person who had used this room from anything. And they wouldn’t protect anyone else. Even properly cleansed, these black stones had absorbed too much anger. They would remain dissonant and draw the dark things instead of repelling them.
She’d read her cards that morning, and she knew the black stones were coming. Her father, her uncle, her brother, Judd McCall. She’d run from them, but there was no place to run anymore. There was, however, a way to sour things for them once they arrived.
Obsidian. Onyx. Hematite. Jet.
She would offer to help the girls who cleaned the hotel rooms, and she would hide these stones in the rooms that were reserved for guests who were passing through.
Let her father and the rest of the Blackstone Clan experience a run of ill fortune and see how they liked it.
* * *
* * *
“I don’t know if she’ll recognize our victim,” Jana replied. “But we didn’t find anything in the house or the other backpack we found that would identify him. Everyone carries an identity card, even if it’s a fake. Everyone carries a ration card, even when they’re traveling.”
“There is still plenty of food in Bennett.”
“Supplies are more restricted in the Northeast and, I imagine, the other regions too. We’re lucky that we have pantries and freezers of food available.” Of course, eggs were becoming scarce and whatever milk Fagen’s team found in the houses now had spoiled. She’d never thought she would look at a glass of milk as a luxury.
“My point is that I doubt anyone who came from Lakeside would recognize this man, which means we need to ask everyone who lives in Bennett who didn’t come from Lakeside.”
“Didn’t you howl to other police?”
“I sent a picture of the man to every police department I could reach. I even sent it to the communications cabin to send on to the police in Lakeside, Great Island, and Talulah Falls just in case I’m wrong about him coming from that area of the Northeast.”
“Sweetwater too?” Virgil asked. “There is a human town near there.”
She’d thought Sweetwater was too far out of the way and too far west, but in frontier stories, outlaws often chose places that were out of the way and overlooked. So Virgil had a point. The human town near Sweetwater was called Endurance. If that wasn’t a name for a hole-in-the-wall place, she didn’t know what was.
“I’ll send the picture to Jackson Wolfgard.” Jana looked over as Candice walked into the office.
“Sheriff,” Candice said warily.
Virgil stared at Candice, then pointed at Jana. “Talk to her.” He walked into his office and closed the door.
“Am I in trouble?” Candice asked. “I didn’t mean for that man to get killed. It’s just, he”—she waved a hand in the direction of Virgil’s office—“scared me.”
“He tends to do that.”
Candice gave her a wobbly smile. “I bet his bark is worse than his bite.”
“You’d lose that bet,” Jana said quietly. “Look, we found another body. We think it was one of the men who were at the Dixon ranch. Some things you said about your ex got me thinking, so . . .” She pulled out the crime scene photo she had cropped to just a head shot.
“That’s Charlie,” Candice said after a moment. “Charlie Webb. I guess he came hunting for me after all.”
“I don’t think he knew you were in Bennett. He was with three other men when he hit the ranch. Was he strong enough to be the leader of a gang?”
“No. After I’d known him for a while, I had the impression that he talked big but he was afraid of whoever was giving the orders. I think that’s why he was rough with me; he needed to prove he was a scary son of a bitch because he was afraid.”
He had reason to be afraid, Jana thought. Whoever caught up to him isn’t just a scary son of a bitch; whoever is out there enjoys inflicting pain as much as he enjoys killing.
“Did Charlie mention any names?” Jana asked.
Candice shook her head. “He was always careful about that, even when he was bragging.” She frowned. “A couple of times early on he said things about the people he was working with. Called one the Gambler and called another one the Knife. Then one night he came over and he was really scared. That was the first time he hit me. But he never used even those code names after that night.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Candice had barely closed the outer door when Virgil walked out of his office.
“This Charlie Webb ran with a pack,” Virgil said.
“Sounds like it.”
“You think he ran from the pack enforcer called the Knife?”
According to Abby, the Blackstone Clan was a family of gamblers and swindlers. Dalton Blackstone, Abby’s brother, had been at the Dixon ranch when another man attacked Melanie Dixon. Charlie Webb had been recovering from a gunshot wound before someone had found him and killed him. Odds were good he had been shot while driving away from the ranch, and that connected him with Dalton Blackstone.
She’d have to ask Abby if her father was known as the Gambler. If he was, then someone else in that group was called the Knife—and was nearby.
“Before you came to Bennett, you were the dominant enforcer for your pack, right?” Jana asked.
She looked into his eyes and wondered if Wolves suffered from survivor guilt.
“Yes,” Virgil replied, a warning growl beneath the word.
“If the actions of a member of the pack had put the rest of the pack in danger, what would you have done? I don’t mean making a mistake, but a deliberate act.”
“The enforcers would drive that Wolf out of the pack. But if that Wolf continued to be a threat, I would hunt it down and tear out its throat.”
Not so different from the Knife, then. Once you were accepted, you didn’t betray the pack. And since most packs were usually made up of family members . . .
Gods! What if they realized Abby was here and had been the one who identified Dalton Blackstone?
“We need to tell Tolya about this.”
Virgil nodded. “He’s expecting us.”
Of course he was. She kept thinking that Virgil was as new to police work as she was, but that wasn’t true. The human elements of the job were new to him, but he’d had plenty of experience protecting a pack.
She looked at him, stunned she hadn’t seen it until now.
He was experienced. And that’s why he’d realized this morning that a human enforcer for the outlaw clan was now encroaching on his territory.
CHAPTER 29
Moonsday, Messis 27
Tolya listened to the four businessmen spew nonsense about saloons being places where men could “cut loose” after a hard day’s work, and how they were the ones who would be able to bring such entertainment to Bennett and do it up right. Whatever that meant.
He wasn’t a stranger to business deals that involved humans—he’d handled agreements between the terra indigene and humans when he had lived in the Toland Courtyard. But Bennett was a different kind of place with particular needs and very strict rules, and if these strangers really had been “savvy” businessmen, they would have known that. Which meant there was something off about these men and their talk of business opportunities in the Midwest. The only opportunities these men could provide in most of the Midwest towns were easy meals for the terra indigene who were occupying those places.
Still, he listened because it gave him time to study the other predator in the room: Parlan Blackstone. The man had said nothing after the introductions were made, and gave the appearance of being an associate, an employee, of the other four men. He wasn’t. Tolya wasn’t sure yet how or why he was connected to the businessmen, but he was sure Blackstone wasn’t the one taking orders. Not from those men.
Tolya waited until the men finally stopped talking, having said the same things a couple of times, proving they had no understanding of how Bennett worked or whom they would be dealing with.
The four men looked at each other, then at him.
“What do you think, Mr. Sanguinati?” Jowly Man asked. “We could sweeten the pot a bit. Help fund your next mayoral campaign and make sure you get reelected, if you get my meaning.”
“There is no need for whatever you mean since there are no elections,” Tolya replied. “I am the leader of this town.”
“What if someone doesn’t agree with your policies and wants a chance to run things?” Skinny Man asked.
“Then there would be a fight for dominance.” He smiled, showing a hint of fang to remind them that they weren’t dealing with another huma
n. “But it is unlikely that there would be such a fight. The Sanguinati are here at my invitation and are in charge of the businesses that are of most interest to each of them.”
“So the Sanguinati are in charge of . . . ?” Parlan Blackstone asked.
“The bank, the train station, the post office, the hotel, and”—Tolya raised a hand to indicate the conference room and the rest of the building—“the government.”
“And the sheriff?”
“Wolfgard. He prefers biting humans to talking to them, which makes him excellent at enforcing the town’s laws.” Tolya leaned back in his chair. “Gentlemen, it’s clear you’re under some misunderstanding about how permission is granted to reopen a business or start up a new endeavor. Simply, in order to run a business here, you must live here. You must work in the business you have chosen. Everyone here has a purpose. No one is idle. If you have mates and older offspring, they will be expected to work in their trained professions, or, if those professions are already fully staffed, we will find another kind of work for them that matches their skills in some way. As part of the resettlement package, you are given the business property and its current assets as well as a house. You can choose from any that are within the town’s new boundaries and are not presently occupied. You will sign a contract and agree to reside in Bennett for five years—assuming you do not break any serious laws and end up being killed or eaten. If you must leave to attend to other businesses in other cities, you will inform my office of your destination and when you expect to return. Your family does not go with you unless you are leaving Bennett for good. If you do not return by the expected date, your claim to the business and residence are forfeit and you will not be allowed to return.”
Tolya watched the men turn pale or sweat. Only Parlan Blackstone looked calm and mildly interested.
“This isn’t a human-controlled town,” he said with a softness that made them all flinch—even Blackstone. “This is a mixed community ruled by the terra indigene. The predators you can see are the most genial of the ones who will keep watch over what you do. But even we will kill you without hesitation if we consider you a threat to the town or its other residents.” He waited a beat. “Would you like to talk it over and give me your answer tomorrow? Visitors can stay for up to five days. If your business here requires more time, you can apply for an extension.”
