by Terry Spear
She followed Devlyn into the living room. “No television, no stereo. And I bet upstairs you won’t find any jewelry,” he said and sniffed the air.
Bella’s gaze shifted to the Disney prints on the living room walls, all knocked askew. The brightly colored pictures complemented her floral seating arrangement, bright and cheerful—at one time. A collection of family photos hung on another wall, featuring the red-haired girl herself surrounded by what looked like her mother Heart of the Wolf305
and father and a younger brother and sister, all with gleeful blue eyes and wide smiles. The Cinderella Castle spires rose in a lighted backdrop behind them.
Bella clenched her hands into fists. The reds who had murdered these girls were no more than savage killers. Now, she had no regrets if any of them should die at Devlyn’s hand. But her concern that he’d be overwhelmed by the three of them worried her more than anything.
When they reached the stairs, Devlyn motioned to the carpet. “Blood trails all of the way up. Scratches on the handrail indicate that she was still struggling to get away from him.”
“Was he enjoying the torture?” Bella asked, sickened at the way Ross’s twisted mind worked.
“More like a rabid wolf, no control.”
“But the police must have been baffled. She was killed in the same manner as the others. The police reports said canine saliva was found in her bite wounds. Why would Ross have tried to cover his tracks with a faked burglary?”
“Maybe he didn’t fake it. Maybe he really did burglarize the place.”
Bella considered the possibility and agreed. “That could be. I wonder if he was looking for something that connected him with her, too. Did he date her first, like Nicol had Linn? Or had he just stalked her and then attempted the change?”
“Not sure. Either could be a viable possibility.” Devlyn shut the bedroom window and then led Bella back downstairs.
“Where to now, Bella? The last murdered girl’s place, or do we check out Ross’s house again?”
“What about his meat packing plant? It should be closed for the night.” She climbed out the kitchen window; Devlyn followed and then shut it.
A clap of thunder let loose another bout of rain, but thankfully the carport kept them from getting wet.
“Let’s find the other woman’s apartment first and check it out.”
“Boy, I really thought that, since this one lived so close to Alfred, he targeted her, not Ross,” Bella said.
“He probably saw her outside of her duplex sometime when he was visiting Alfred.”
“Do you think Alfred killed the other girl then?” Bella climbed into the SUV.
“If so, the red pack’s doomed unless we can take care of the bad seeds.”
They drove around the front of the townhouse and pulled to a stop at the street. A police cruiser drove on by slowly, the officer glancing in their direction. Bella’s heart nearly gave out.
“We could be the resident next door,” Devlyn said, trying to reassure her.
“Right.” But she didn’t feel at all reassured. That’s all they needed right now—some cop asking them why they were in the parking area of the unoccupied duplex when they didn’t live there. “The last girl on our list is Lisa Campbell, the first girl reported murdered. Her place is located on the other side of town.”
Devlyn drove them past Alfred’s place, but it was even more crowded with cars now. The time was nearly eight when they reached the victim’s house. But already they could see a dilemma. Lights were on in several of the rooms, and three vehicles were parked out front.
“Looks like it’s a little busy for a visit, Bella.” She ground her teeth. “We have to know if Alfred killed her. Since he appears to be preoccupied in town, let’s take a country drive and check out his cows.” But she couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that someone was watching them.
Chapter Seventeen
DEVLYN NOTICED BELLA CHECKING OUT THE SIDEVIEW mirror again and saw the tension in her stiffened spine. “See anything?”
“I thought I saw a black Humvee. Twice now. But when I look back, it’s gone, vanished in the rain.”
“I’ve seen it before.”
Bella looked at Devlyn. “When?”
“When we were at the dance club. I saw it parked there and then again when I took a look in the Cascades for any evidence of the murdering red’s complicity; it followed me for a while and then disappeared.”
“A red? Or Volan?”
“Volan would have confronted me. The windows were too dark; I couldn’t see the driver, but I gathered he was a red—wary, questioning, but something more. I can’t pinpoint the gut feeling I have about it, except that, even though he’s hostile—a red not liking a gray in the red’s territory and has his sights set on the only female red wolf who’s young enough to be pursued—he doesn’t seem to have any evil purpose.”
“Like reporting our actions to Alfred.”
“Right.” Devlyn was more curious than worried about the red’s business.
The downpour worsened along the highway, and Devlyn hoped that the rain would help hide their clandestine activities when they reached Alfred’s ranch.
Bella tapped her fingers on her door’s armrest. “This means he might be one of the older males who wants you to eradicate the killers from the pack.”
“Possibly.”
“You don’t think so?” she asked, her voice elevated in surprise.
“When I was alone, he followed much closer, more aggressively, letting me know he was there and watching. But when you’re with me, he hangs back, almost as though he knows he has no chance with you when I’m around.”
“The mystery murdering red?”
“Maybe. But I don’t really think so. The one who followed us into the woods, the one we recognized as the murderer, behaves differently. Skulks more in the background. I wished I’d paid more attention to who else was at the club that night. The Humvee was there, which meant this red was watching you ... us. But I sure didn’t get a whiff of either the murderer or this guy.”
“Hmph,” Bella said, folding her arms. “As hot and sweaty as the humans were getting, covered in their cloying perfumes and colognes, I had enough of a time trying to smell the reds we met up with.”
“I was concentrating on a female red in the midst of a bunch of lusty red males. I should have known there would have been more of them there.” Devlyn peered into the fog, trying to locate the turnoff for Alfred’s ranch.
“I hacked into the files at the county courthouse; he owns the deed on a seven-hundred acre spread. Tax records show he has seven hundred sixty steers on the ranch and gets paid on the gain at a rate of thirty cents per pound per day with a gain of three hundred pounds. Not too shabby. He pays a tax assessment on the irrigation water from a canal, but, according to this, he doesn’t need the irrigation water and has fought with city hall about reducing or doing away with the tax.”
Devlyn snorted. “Why would anyone need irrigation water in a place as wet as this?”
Bella chuckled. “Ready to go home to Colorado and dry out?”
“You bet.”
“Okay, there’s a river on his property and his main house sits on a hill high above the ranch.”
“Main house?”
“Yeah, he has a second home, mobile home, and a bunk house, machine shop, three large granaries, two loafing shed barns with feeders, an additional barn, and two sets of corrals with portable scales.”
“Holy crap, Bella honey! Can you imagine how many reds work for him and probably live on the property?”
Bella frowned at him. “But Alfred’s not there.” Devlyn shook his head. “No, but most of the rest of his pack might be.”
He turned off onto the ranch road along the river in a pretty valley surrounded by timbered mountains. They spotted several elk, cows, yearlings, and horses on higher ground; some of the lower-lying pasture lands were under water.
All of the buildings rested on the hilltop above
the valley, and Devlyn shut off his headlights and crawled along the road, trying to get as close to the main house as he could without garnering anyone’s attention.
“The Humvee’s behind us again,” Bella whispered, as if the guy could hear them. “But he turned off his headlights, too.”
“Maybe he hopes to box us in, if he backs Alfred. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have expected him to turn off his headlights. He’s got to know we realize he’s following us.”
Devlyn parked some distance from the house in the dark, and then he and Bella headed through the pelting rain for the backside of the place, where windows enjoyed a view of the valley. He glanced up at the eaves and roofline. “No security cameras.”
Bella motioned to the bunkhouse a couple of football fields away, where several pickup trucks were parked. “No need,” she whispered, “when he’s got such a huge security force nearby.”
Devlyn grabbed the doorknob on the back patio doors and smiled when the door opened without resistance. “He must feel really secure out here with all his hired muscle.”
Inside, the place was super elegant—leather couches, Persian rugs, crystal chandeliers, oil paintings of the Oregon coastline. And brass wolf sculptures. Devlyn didn’t bother turning on the lights, not needing them anyway, and made his way through the three spacious living areas, searched the kitchen, which was big enough to serve large parties, and then headed to the bedrooms, both he and Bella dripping water everywhere.
Every one of the bedrooms was outfitted for guests, with bathrooms for each, dressers and sitting rooms, and balconies. In the last one, the room was larger than the rest and even more highly appointed, with a brown velvet comforter on a raised bed, massive oak furniture that filled the room, and oil paintings of men and women hanging on the walls, maybe his family over several generations.
Bella grabbed an old leather-bound book off a shelf in a sitting area.
“His journal?”
“Werewolf legend.”
Devlyn made a face as she stuffed it into her jacket. “Humans don’t have a clue about the real lupus garou legend. And lupus garous aren’t permitted to set down the oral history in writing, which is why some clans became confused as to what the real story is,” Devlyn said while Bella sat down at Alfred’s computer.
Her fingers flying at the keyboard, she retorted, “Right, gray clans got it mixed up, you mean.” She let out her breath in exasperation. “Nothing on his computer, email, files, correspondence.” Bella scanned the rest of his computer. “Not a darned thing.” She looked up at Devlyn as he paused while searching through dresser drawers. “I smell lots of reds who have been here, which would be typical. Pack probably meets here regularly. And the murdering red? I smell him here, too.”
“I got a whiff of him in one of the guest bedrooms. But no humans. Alfred probably figures it’s too dangerous to bring them to his lair.”
Then he thought he heard a faint sound of something, but before he could listen further, a woman suddenly called out from the foyer, “Hello?”
“Damn,” Devlyn said under his breath, wondering why he hadn’t heard the front door opening.
He locked the bedroom door and hurried to open a back door onto the patio. Bella turned off the computer and joined him. But as soon as they sneaked around the side of the property, trying to reach their car, the heavy rain instantly dousing them, a woman ran outside, yelling into a phone, “Someone’s broken into the master’s house! Yes, yes ... I don’t know. It smelled like a gray. And a female red. What? What do you mean keep them here? They’re not here! Oh, oh, I think I see a vehicle down the road in the dark. Yes, it’s a black SUV.”
The woman was shrieking so loud Devlyn was sure whoever was listening had to hold the phone away from his ear or lose his hearing. Devlyn rushed Bella down to the SUV, and both jumped in just as a couple of truck engines rumbled to life.
“Oh, hell, Devlyn. The cavalry’s coming.” Bella wrung out her hair and wiped the rain water off her face. “We’ll make it, honey.” But he wasn’t sure they would. With nowhere to turn easily and the shoulders along the gravel road pure mud because of the hammering, constant rain, he headed straight for the pickup trucks in a dare-to-hit-me mode, chasing one off the hill. The pickup got stuck in the water-drenched mud. But the other truck was still game.
Bella gripped the seat and looked out the side view mirror. “The Humvee’s behind us.”
Again, Devlyn wondered if the Humvee driver intended to box him in. But instead, the vehicle slipped on past him and headed straight for the pickup.
“Jeez, Devlyn, he appears to be on our side. Or plain nuts.”
At the last second, the pickup veered, clipping the Humvee’s front fender, causing the pickup to spin out of control and plow into the side of one of the barns. The Humvee flipped around, too, and ended up facing Devlyn’s vehicle.
Devlyn paused, making sure the Humvee driver’s vehicle wasn’t incapacitated.
For a second, the two vehicles faced each other in a gunfight standoff, and then Devlyn turned his SUV around in the gravel and drove slowly, watching to see if the Humvee followed them. When it did, he nodded, assured the guy’s vehicle was fine.
“Wonder who the guy is. Could use him for backup when the going gets rough,” he said.
“I’d sure like to know his story.” She sighed deeply. “We didn’t find one lick of evidence on Alfred yet.”
“I think he’s too wily to keep anything around that could incriminate him. The only other thing would be if we could get in the house of the last girl who was murdered. If we smelled him there, that would cinch it.”
When they reached the main road, Devlyn turned his headlights back on for the benefit of other vehicles.
“The Humvee went in the opposite direction.”
“Too bad. I was beginning to like the guy.”
“He could be bad news.”
“That he could.” But Devlyn’s gut instinct told him the mystery red wasn’t.
For several miles, Bella watched her sideview mirror. Because of the bad road conditions—the water puddled up in ponds in places on the highway and the rain ran down the windshield like a continuous rampant waterfall—Devlyn concentrated on what was in front of them.
“Maybe we can check out the girl’s place now.” Bella stared at the headlight shining on her side view mirror and studied the forest-green SUV skulking behind them. “I think someone else is following us.”
Devlyn looked up at his rearview mirror. “Saw one like it parked at the mobile home on Alfred’s property.”
Bella made a face. “Great, then they know we’re on to them. Well, not that they wouldn’t know already. I imagine the woman who ratted on us probably called Alfred at his home in Portland and warned him that we were snooping around his country estate.”
“Well, tit for tat. He broke into your place. Payback can be hell.”
“Yeah, we dripped water all over his expensive carpets.”
“And you stole his favorite bedtime book. So what did you learn from the human-concocted ‘werewolf legend’?”
She flipped through the book, scanning several pages, and then gave a ladylike snort. “A human wrote it.”
Devlyn raised a brow. “What did it say?”
“Why should you care? You already said humans don’t have a clue.”
“You’re right. So what did it say?”
She cast him an annoyed look. “A Scandinavian white wolf was the first lupus garou.”
Devlyn laughed out loud.
Bella threw the book into the backseat. “I told you it was a bunch of nonsense.” She glanced back at the vehicle following them. “Can you lose the SUV?”
“I could do better than that.” He jerked the rental SUV over to the shoulder of the road, and the green one jammed on its brakes and stopped several feet behind them.
Her heart skipping beats, Bella grabbed Devlyn’s arm. “What if the SUV’s packed with reds? You can’t fight them all.”
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The other vehicle idled behind them. Devlyn’s neck muscle tightened and his knuckles turned white from the grip he had on the steering wheel.
“Devlyn, we might as well return home if they know what we’re up to. Even if we managed to lose them, the word’s probably out that we’re investigating the murders.”
“I imagine by now the whole pack knows and every one of them will be watching for us, either at Ross’s place, his packing plant, or the murdered girls’ houses, if they don’t know we’ve been at any of them. Unless they’ve checked them out and found our scent there.” He gave a satisfied smile.
“Right.” Bella let out her breath. “Hell, that means Alfred’s involved. Otherwise, he’d terminate Ross and Nicol himself for creating all of this mess. And the other red, too.”
Devlyn glanced in the rearview mirror. “Unless he’s a loner—not part of the pack.” He pulled back onto the road and headed for Bella’s house.
The rain would let up intermittently and then pour hard again in places, but she could still see the green SUV following them. Twice, the rental SUV Devlyn was driving slid like a skater out of control on the waterlogged road.
“Nearly worse than the ice in Colorado,” he groused under his breath.
When they finally neared Bella’s house, the green SUV suddenly headed down a side road and took off. But Bella and Devlyn had a new surprise waiting for them.
Two police cars and a fire engine, their lights flashing, were parked in front of Bella’s place; her stomach took an instant dive. Smoke was billowing into the night sky in the backyard behind her house. Her greenhouse and shed were on fire!
Devlyn pulled into the garage, barely parking before Bella jerked open the door and leapt from the car and dashed out the garage door to the backyard.
“Bella!”
She heard Devlyn’s heavy footfall behind her as a policeman tried to block her path to the greenhouse. Despite the intermittent heavy rainfall, the roof protected the fire blazing inside and the firemen had to use hoses to bring the blaze under control.
