You Had Me at Cougar

by Terry Spear

  “Sounds good to me,” Chet said.

  “But Benny had pictures of the women at his place,” Kate said.

  “What if he doesn’t live alone?” Ava said. “Maybe whoever lived with him took the photos of the women.”

  “That could work,” Bridget said. “I imagine he would think of the murderer when we questioned him about that.”

  “The woman at the home where we apprehended Langston said he took the photo of her at the bar where he works,” Travis said. “We saw that all of them were taken at that bar.”

  “Maybe his identical twin brother did it,” Ava said.

  “Twin brother?” Chet asked. “We hadn’t found anyone like that.”

  “They would smell the same unless they use different soaps and deodorants, etcetera. As to how I knew about it, I thought you had mentioned it to me. His name is Marty and he’s furious that we have Benny incarcerated in Yuma Town.” Ava pointed her barbecued rib at Chet. “He’s going to be coming for his brother.”

  “You saw this in a vision?” Chet asked.

  “I guess. I just thought you had mentioned him to me. I must have dreamed it—well, had a vision when I was half asleep this morning. I’d…forgotten about it…until now.”

  “When is he coming?” Leyton asked. “We need to be prepared for it.”

  “I would think right away. Though he’ll have to get a scope of the situation before he can break his brother out,” Ava said.

  “Is he coming alone?” Jack asked.

  “Now that I don’t know.” Ava buttered her corn.

  “But Benny is a womanizer,” Bridget said. “Which was why we thought he could fit the murderer’s profile—easily puts the women under his spell. If he’s not the one, what’s the real murderer’s issue?”

  “He doesn’t like women,” Wendy said.

  Everyone agreed that could be the case.

  “If Benny isn’t the killer, but Marty is, then the murderer is still out there on the loose, and women are still at risk. We need to get him now,” Jack said.

  “Well, you don’t have to return to Cody. Marty’s on his way here,” Ava said. “I’m sure of it. And if he’s the murderer, you’ll have him in custody soon.”

  “You saw that in the vision?” Chet asked, hopeful.

  Ava shook her head. “I just know you can do it.”

  “You ought to hire her,” Wendy said.

  Ava smiled. “My visions come and go. Sometimes I think they’re just dreams. They’re not all that reliable.”

  “You’ve given us so much to go on already, I would say they’re pretty reliable,” Chet said.

  “One other thing, Chet,” Bridget said, “we were at the jailhouse talking about that case you were on where you took those three cougars down because of the murders they had committed, and Benny knew who they were. Benny was glad he hadn’t been with them when you took them down. He hadn’t known what had happened to them though. To his way of thinking, they had just vanished into thin air.”

  “Courtesy of our cleanup crews.” Chet dished up some more ribs. “But it sounds to me that he was involved in those murders.”

  “Well, he did have the thought that if he’d been there, you wouldn’t have gotten the upper hand with the men. Of course, he never spoke a word about it. He was just thinking about it—the whole situation running through his thoughts. And yeah, he thought of killing one of the men they had murdered. That’s why he needs to remain in jail too. But it’s also why I didn’t think he’d murdered the women. He doesn’t have a clear picture of the women’s murders. He had witnessed the murders in the earlier case you had but he hadn’t taken part in them until they made him, or they would have killed him. They needed him to be just as guilty as they were, or he might have told on them. But he hadn’t done any of the other murders and so it really made me question whether he was our real suspect in the women’s case.”

  Ava squeezed Chet’s hand and he suspected she was telling him she wanted to be with him tonight and she didn’t want him to go to the jailhouse and interrogate Langston, but it was his job. He wanted to be with Ava more, but he had to learn something further about Benny’s involvement in the murders in the other case he’d dealt with earlier. And he had to know more about Benny’s twin brother. He did consider that Benny wasn’t going anywhere, but with the issue of his twin coming to rescue him, he felt he had to talk to him tonight.

  Chet felt disquieted though. Here he thought he’d wrapped up the earlier case in one neat little bow when instead one of the men involved—Benny—had gotten clean away. Chet just hoped Ava would continue to see visions of Marty to assist them. Benny was probably protecting his brother, if Marty had killed the women.

  Ava leaned over and kissed Chet’s cheek. “You have to go and question Benny. No problem. I’ll see you at the condo later. I would do anything for you because I love you.”

  “Are you sure? I mean, I feel the same way about you.”

  Ava smiled. “Yeah, it’s your job and I know you have to learn about his involvement in the other case too. I’ll be working at the bakery early in the morning, but I get off at three and we can have brunch at ten. You and your mom and me.”

  “That sounds good. I promise this won’t take too long.”

  Ava shook her head. “You take as long as necessary. You have to find closure and you need to learn what you can about Marty before he gets here.”

  “Thanks, honey.” Chet had to know that she would be a partner in this because he never knew how long it would take to finish a mission or where one might send him.

  They continued to eat and enjoy their visit with one another, though Leyton called Dan with an update about the trouble they might have with Marty coming for his brother.

  “Okay, Dan’s putting extra guards on the prisoner,” Leyton said when they ended the call. “If we need to, the CSF agents can help with guard duty. In the meantime, the whole force will be on the lookout for Benny’s twin brother.”

  That’s what Chet loved about their team. They were always ready to help the regular law enforcement with criminal cases affecting the townspeople and do their own missions too.

  By the time they finished eating and visiting, Jack took Wendy to the safehouse to stay. Ava and Chet kissed each other, and she gave him a spare key to the condo. Then he rode with Bridget and Travis to the jailhouse.

  Ava wanted to go with Chet, but she knew this was his job and he had to do it without her and not have her always be there with him. If it hadn’t been ten at night already, she would have had Wendy come over to the condo and visit, but she figured she would be off to bed. Ava didn’t want to go to bed when she wanted to make love to Chet.

  But this was past her bedtime because she had to go into the bakery so early. She dropped her purse on the kitchen island, pulled out her phone, and plugged it into her charger. She headed upstairs to the bedroom, stripped off her clothes, and walked into the bathroom to take a shower. While she was washing up, she was trying to think of any more details concerning Marty and his brother that would help her learn when Marty would arrive and where they might catch him so they could interrogate him next.

  She finished washing up and grabbed a bath towel. She was just drying off when she heard the front door open downstairs. Chet?

  She couldn’t believe he would get here this quickly. She was certain he would still be questioning Benny. Unless he got the information out of him that he needed right away, or he was just too eager to see her, or everyone goaded him into leaving and joining his mate.

  She didn’t have a gun and her cell phone was downstairs where she’d left it on the kitchen counter charging, so there was no way to get ahold of anyone if someone had broken into her house. She could think of only one way to get out of the bind she was in. She shifted into her cougar and took off down the stairs. She hoped she was wrong, but when she saw a man walking into her kitchen, the light on in there still and smelled his cougar scent, she tore off through the cougar door. It
didn’t take long for him to follow her as a cougar. And she recognized him from the vision she’d had during the Independence Day celebration.

  She ran toward Rainbow Falls, but she knew he would be able to follow her scent wherever she went, and she suspected the cougar was Marty and he was coming after her to take her hostage as a bargaining chip to force Dan to release his brother.

  No way was he going to use her to release Benny, when he had murdered someone himself. Benny might have had to be convinced to do it, but he had still been one of the gang. Coercion or no, he killed for them, to be accepted by them.

  But Marty, he was a different brand of murderer.

  She ran her heart out and hoped she would reach the river ahead of Marty so he would lose her scent once she was swimming in the water. If she’d been a wolf, she would have howled to the pack, to gather them together, to get assistance so she could help them capture the bastard.

  But on her own as a female cougar against a male, she didn’t stand a chance.

  Chapter 20

  Chet, Bridget, and Travis arrived at the jail to find Nina and Stryker serving on guard duty and they greeted each other.

  “Dan told us about the brother,” Stryker said. “And about Benny’s involvement in the last case you were on. Oh, and congratulations for moving here and joining the rest of us in Yuma Town.”

  “Thanks, I’m glad to be here. And so is Mom.” Chet was afraid she would have had major heartburn over leaving Cheyenne for as long as she had lived there, but she was excited about having a daughter-in-law and nothing beat that.

  “And we hear other congratulations are in order,” Nina said, smiling at Chet.

  “Yeah. I couldn’t be happier.”

  “They would be at it right now if it wasn’t for this,” Bridget said.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Then you better get to the business of interrogation.” Nina gave him a heartfelt hug. She would be his sister-in-law and he was glad for it.

  Chet went in with Travis and Bridget to speak with Benny. Nina and Stryker remained in the office holding down the fort.

  “Okay, tell us about your twin brother, Marty,” Chet said, ready to grill him all night, though he wanted to go home as soon as he could to be with Ava.

  “I don’t have a twin brother.”

  “So you want to go down for the murders he committed? Because we have you and we’re not releasing you,” Chet said. “You know what we do with cougars who commit murder. You can’t go to jail. Not when you’re a shifter.”

  Bridget was quiet and Chet knew she was just reading Benny’s thoughts. Chet realized if he spoke to Benny about the other case he was involved in, Benny would know his goose was cooked. There would be no reason for him to implicate his brother in the other murders, if he wanted to save his life.

  “He’s not going to squeal on his twin, no matter what we say to him,” Bridget said.

  “All right. Benny goes down for the murders. It was his place, the photos were there, he’s the bartender who went home with the women, and they ended up dead. His scent is in every one of the murder victims’ homes. He has answered enough of the questions that tells me he was there and knew only details that the murderer would know,” Chet said.

  “But his twin told him about the murders and that’s how Benny learned the details,” Bridget said.

  “Benny said he doesn’t have a twin. That means Benny did them.” Chet was sure Marty had killed the women based on what Bridget had said. Chet had played this game with her on interrogations before. He hoped the twin, when they caught him, would confess and not let his brother take the rap for it. Though they were both dead men for the other murder Benny had committed.

  Nina rushed in to join them, and Chet was afraid they had trouble out front.

  “You have to come with me,” Nina said, and rushed back out of the confinement area.

  “What’s wrong?” Chet asked.

  “It’s my sister. I had a vision of a cougar chasing Ava. He’s not a cougar I recognize.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Headed for Rainbow Falls. Knowing Ava, she’s trying to hide her scent in the river if she can reach it in time.”

  Chet rushed out of the sheriff’s office, but Travis hurried after him. “I’m coming with you. Bridget will be going home to the kids and is leaving Benny to stew further about the situation he’s in.”

  “Let’s go then.”

  “I called Dan and they’re meeting you over there,” Stryker said. “I wanted to go too, but Dan wants two of us to be here at all times, just in case Marty slips back this way.”

  “Marty, hell.” If he hurt Ava, Chet would kill him. No bothering to question him about the murders. Did Marty think he could use her as a hostage to release his brother?

  They couldn’t let either of the men go. Not if they were both murderers.

  Travis drove them over to Ava’s condo, parked in her driveway, and then they jumped out of his car and raced to the front door. It was unlocked. Chet smelled that the shower had been running. She must have been in the shower when the guy broke in. Had he used lockpicks? Had to have been because there was nothing that indicated he’d broken the lock and Chet was certain Ava wouldn’t have just opened the door to a stranger. Not when she knew Marty was coming for his brother and could be dangerous.

  Chet stripped off his clothes and Travis was doing the same. They found men’s clothes in the kitchen, and they smelled just like Benny’s scent.

  “I don’t know how you feel about this, but I’m ready to kill him,” Chet said.

  “Yeah, I’m with you there. He’s not going to hurt another woman if I can help it,” Travis said, and then they both shifted.

  Chet bolted out through the cougar door and Travis followed.

  They ran off, neck to neck, following Ava’s scent and the male cougar’s. He was aggressive and angry, and they had to get to him before he could reach Ava. They knew he was still trying to catch her because they were still running.

  They finally reached the riverbank near the falls, but there was no one there. They sniffed at the bank and smelled both cougars’ scents. But the male’s scent continued along the bank of the river. They lost Ava’s scent and Chet was sure she was swimming, or maybe she had crossed the river and ran into the woods.

  Chet began to swim across the water. He wanted to see if Ava had gone to the other side, meet up with her, and protect her. Instinctively, Travis stayed on the side where they had still smelled Marty and ran along the riverbank to track him. Chet continued along the opposite bank, trying to smell any sign of Ava, but it appeared she had swum downriver with the current for some time.

  Wouldn’t Marty have joined her in the water? Maybe not if he could run along the bank faster to catch up with her and just wait for her to get out on the other side, swim across, and chase after her again.

  Then Chet finally found her scent way downriver and snarled at Travis. Travis was sniffing around, but he shook his head. He’d lost Marty’s scent. He had to have crossed there.

  Chet tore off into the woods after the two cougars. He couldn’t wait for Travis to reach him. Then he heard shouts off in the distance. Chase, Dan, Ricky, and Hal were on their way.

  Out of his peripheral vision, Chet saw Blue headed toward him as if he knew what was going on. But Chet couldn’t stop to talk to the bear about it. Chet had to reach the cougar before he could hurt Ava.

  Suddenly, he heard Ava snarling and Chet’s heart about gave out. He had to reach her now.

  He swore both he and Blue ran even faster to rescue her. And then they saw her leap into a tree and Marty was about to jump up there and fight her. But then he saw Chet and Blue coming for him. At first, Marty just stared at the bear as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Then he must have figured he’d better get the hell out of there and he tore off away from the tree and deeper into the woods.

  Chet wanted to take care of Ava, but he had to catch this bastard, or h
e might come after her again. Or any other woman too. And Chet knew the other law enforcement officers would follow and at least one would stay with her.

  But the next thing he knew, Ava was running after them. He wished she would wait for the others to show up, but then again, she didn’t know anyone else was coming to aid them.

  He was damn glad Blue was still hanging around the area.

  Then he heard another cougar approaching. He glanced over his shoulder. Thankfully, his friend Travis was right behind him.

  The sheriff and his deputies wouldn’t be able to catch up to them as humans, though he suspected one or two of them would shift to help out.

  Then they were out of the woods and Marty was running full out to reach the cliffs. Chet would track him down to the very end. When he had a mission to do, he did it, though Benny was a surprise as far as being involved in that earlier case Chet had so he hadn’t completely finished that job.

  Marty finally reached the cliffs and bounded up them.

  Chet was right behind him and to his surprise, Blue was climbing the cliff after him. Though the bear wasn’t as fast as the cougars and Travis quickly passed him by. Blue grunted.

  But when Ava jumped up onto the boulders and was instantly past him, Blue growled.

  His heart thundering, Chet was on top of the cliffs and leaping from rock to rock after Marty.

  He heard snarling below the cliffs and glanced down to see six more cougars on their way. The cavalry was here and if Marty thought he had a prayer of a chance to escape them, he was wrong.

  Chet was nearly within leaping distance of the cat. He hadn’t expected the cougar to whip around and pounce on him instead, as if Marty thought taking out Chet would be the end of his troubles. Now Chet knew, as angry as the big cat was, that he couldn’t control his temper, and both tore at each other with claws and teeth.

  Ava was trying to get around them on the narrow ledge, but she couldn’t easily, and he was afraid she would fall while trying, but she was pacing like crazy, wanting to help him. Then Travis leaped over them and landed on the back side of Marty. The two male cougars were no match for him.