by Mel Todd
Wefor started to reply, and McKenna slapped a mental hand down.
"No," McKenna burst out. "I don’t. I love you, you’re my best friend, but please don’t give me any details of your sex life."
The same intent went to Wefor who subsided much to her relief as she knew the AI had been about to comment.
The smirk JD sent her had her narrowing her eyes. "Quit being a jerk." Levering herself out of the car, she felt like the day had added weight to her.
"What? And give up my guy card? Then where would I be?"
McKenna ignored him as she walked into the station, then slowed her mind drawing a blank.
"Do you know the name of our boss? I’ve never paid much attention to the Narc squad."
"Owen Waris, been with the force fifteen years, transferred from New York, so he has cred."
"Great, and we get to come in like some show-boaters. Wonderful." She felt like beating her head against the wall. For all the positive things this shifting gave her, the negatives were just as great.
JD caught up to her as they walked through the doors and he dropped to mental communication.
~Tell him. Maybe I can learn this too and then we’ll be the rock-star team.~
~Great, another reason for me to be different and strange.~
JD snorted. "Kenna, you’ve always been strange, now it is just for a valid reason."
She shot him a sideways glare but didn’t respond, not wanting to enter a full-bore bicker war, no matter how much fun it would be. Instead she headed back into a section of the station she rarely went. Offices and rooms for most other groups weren’t an area that traffic officers tended to visit often, but she headed there now.
Winding through the odd building she opened the door with a label ‘Narcotics Enforcement Unit’ and stepped in and almost stumbled to a halt, her eyes wide.
~What’s wrong?~
JD's voice hit against her mind as she stood there frozen, unable to move forward or step back. Heads lifted and looked at her, some eyes narrowing, others widening in appreciation.
~Drugs, so many drugs. There are multiple people in here with drugs on them or in their desks. What the fuck should I do?~
~Keep walking, talk to Owen.~
JD’s hand hit her back softly, and she moved forward, eyes scanning the room even as her nose took it all in and narrowed in on the most damning evidence. From the strength of the smell she knew the third desk in contained over a pound of coke in it. The metric scale had never clicked in her brain, so everything still translated to American. Walking with a smile pasted on, she didn’t let her eyes rest on any one person, even as all of them tracked her movements.
Though later in the afternoon, this squad usually didn’t start until after ten, when most dealers started to get up and moving, so the squad room had plenty of people in it to track her progress.
McKenna kept the smile pasted on her face until she hit the open office door with the placard ‘Lt. Owen Waris’ stuck on it and a man behind the desk typing furiously on the computer. She scanned the scene, taking him in before she spoke. Middle aged, at least a decade older than her, shaggy brown hair that had a few streaks whisking through it and lines of stress between his eyebrows. She had the bad feeling she wasn’t going to help those stress lines at all.
"Lt. Owen?"
His head jerked up, and she saw his eyebrows were peppered with gray hairs and reminded her of caterpillars. The man blinked a few times, to refocus his eyes she assumed.
"Detective Largo?" His voice sounded a bit confused, but she could handle that.
"Yes, sir. JD and I were wondering if we could talk to you?"
He arched a brow and leaned back a bit, looking at them with sharp green eyes. "Sure. Come on in." His office wasn’t that much larger than Holich’s but he managed to fit two chairs into the room. They entered and shut the door, but after a sharp look at the chairs, JD shook his head leaning against the door.
"My chairs thank you, Sergeant Davidson." Waris said his voice dry. "What can I do for you two? You aren’t officially mine until next week."
McKenna snorted and sat down in the chair. "If you aren’t careful, he’ll wear a kilt to work. Anything to get out of pants."
Owen shot a look at look at JD. "Kilt or skirt?"
JD drew himself up, crossing his arms across his chest. "Kilt, why would I dishonor it by wearing anything else underneath it?"
A slow smile started across the man's face warming it. "Willing to wear one, Monday morning?"
JD shrugged. "Sure. Heck of a lot more comfortable and I can shift faster in it."
"Huh, point. Didn’t think about that." Owen shifted his eyes back to McKenna. "You still haven't said what brings you two in here today."
McKenna looked at him her eyes series as her thoughts tumbled around her in mind.
Do I trust him? Does he know he has dirty officers? Can he handle what I tell him? Am I opening myself up for abuse?
Wefor didn’t pipe up, and she hadn’t shared it with JD so that left it all up to her.
Steeling herself mentally even as she straightened in the chair. "I wanted to let you know about a new aspect to my shifting abilities, but it became complicated when I entered this section of the building."
"New aspect? And complicated how?"
McKenna resisted the desire to shoot JD a look and struggled to keep her voice even. "Do you know about that incident that happened earlier?"
"The kidnapping? Yes, I’m aware of it?"
"Are you aware I was required to teach the children I protected to identify various drugs and other substances?"
Owen leaned forward his eyes sharp. "No, I wasn’t aware of that fact." He didn’t say anything else, letting the statement hang there.
Not sure what else to do, McKenna plowed forward. "It turns out as an aspect of that training, I learned to recognize those scents and more." Her nose wrinkled involuntarily, really sex as a scent just over powered everything.
He jerked forward looking at her. "That is excellent. I assume you can replicate it." He turned his head eyes spearing JD. "Can you do the same thing?"
"Now, no. I’ve been assured I can easily learn."
"This is excellent, and from the look on your faces, I’m assuming you can do it as humans and as animals?"
"That would be correct, sir."
"Yes. You realize we’ll need to have this verified by an independent party, but if you can pull that off with witnesses, it could hold up in court as well as dog drug seizures do." He paused looking at them. "No offense."
McKenna snorted, not bothering to try to hide it. "No offense taken, though in animal form your dogs are probably better, more nose sensors from what I’ve learned. But I have the brain to be able to make higher level decisions and understand what I smell not, just that I smell it."
Owen’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look away from her, instead focused. "Which implies what?"
"That while I smell drugs, can identify them, I can also extrapolate information."
"Such as?"
"The quality, the amount, and other scents too…" she trailed off not really wanting to get into sex.
Owen tilted his head looking back and forth between the two of them, and this time his eyes narrowed on JD leaning against the door, blocking it.
"And what aspect of this are you concerned I won’t like?"
~Fuck do I tell him? ~
~You can’t be you and lie about this stuff, Kenna. I’m here, always.~
She darted a look at JD and he met her head on, unwavering support and trust. With a deep breath McKenna turned her head back toward Owen Waris.
"The aspect that when I walked in I was assaulted by over a pound of coke, at least half a pound of weed, and I think you have one person who is dying."
His eyes had widened then snapped down into narrowed slits even as his body stiffened into a ramrod of attention.
"Explain."
She shrugged, how the hell did she explain it.
"I can show you the drugs that are in desks, and you’ll find the amounts match. As to the dying? Third desk up from yours, an older man, Hispanic, has pictures of wife and two kids on his desk. He smells wrong, sick wrong."
Owen sat there for an eternity, but the clock on the wall told her it barely took two minutes before he stood, a violent action that sent the chair ricocheting backwards.
"Follow me."
He strode towards the door, and JD moved out of his way. He stopped three steps outside the door, and McKenna noted there were worn marks on the cheap carpet as if someone stood there often.
"Everyone, this an exercise. Please stand up and leave your desks and get out of this office. I’ll meet you in the parking lot in ten minutes."
It either proved his respect as an officer or that the men knew he wouldn’t take any bullshit. But either way the entire room cleared though with a lot of backwards glances and curious looks. When it was empty, Owen turn and looked at JD. "Go stand against the door. I don’t want anyone bursting back in here."
JD shrugged and moved over to the door leaning against it, his arms crossed, and the perfect image of the immovable object.
Owen glanced at McKenna, his face blank. "Prove the drugs. The sickness we’ll deal with in a few."
Swallowing hard McKenna did, refusing to think. She moved directly to one desk, pulling open the bottom drawer, then a false bottom and pulled out a package of white powder. Her nose screamed at her it was high quality coke, barely cut at all. But she didn’t say anything instead moving to the other side of the room and pulling out a pair of boots from under the desk and reaching in and pulling out three bags of pot. One more desk with five small bags of meth and she stopped.
"Nothing else obvious though the taint is everywhere. And of course, the guy who is sick." Her voice low and she still didn't know if this was the right thing to do. You never ratted out fellow officers, but crooked cops made the world worse. She’d found herself caught between a rock and the fire once again.
Owen nodded, and she couldn’t read him. "Good. Sergeant Davidson, will you go ask for Detective Estella to come in and grab IA on your way back please."
JD looked are him with an arched brow then nodded heading out the door.
Owen turned those green eyes on McKenna and she wanted to shrink back, but she stood looking at him, her face blank.
"And what exactly am I going to do with you now?"
That question she had not expected. "That is up to you. I’m positive this is repeatable and testable, and if I’m right JD will learn fast. If anything, I’d think he’d be better at it than me."
"And why would that be?" His voice had arctic ice in it and McKenna wondered if she’d be able to work with this man.
"He’s a bear. Bears have the best senses of smell in mammals."
"And you would know that how?"
"When you and your partner turn into animals, it only seems intelligent to research those animals and what they can do. It turns out some animal characteristics do carry over to our human forms."
"I see." His eyes narrowed looking at her. Before he could say anything else, JD came in the door with a lean Hispanic man with hair receding from his forehead. As he got closer, she could smell sickness on him, and didn’t know how she knew it, but the urge to bite out the wrongness slashed through her and she shuddered with both revulsion and trying to control the urge.
"Lieutenant Waris, Amanda Bohn will be here in a minute."
Waris winced a bit but turned his attention to the detective.
"Hector, got a question for you, and I apologize now if I’m crossing any boundaries. Are you dying?"
The man blinked, attention locked on his boss. He shrugged. "Not how I had planned on telling you. I finished filing the leave of absence paperwork this morning. I’m assuming it will be approved. I have cancer, prostate. They think they can beat it, but it will require some intensive chemotherapy and I won’t be able to work while I’m on it." He paused his eyes drifting to JD and McKenna. "And why are they here?"
"Complicated," Waris sighed rubbing his temple like a head ache was forming. He looked up at McKenna. "Is this going to be common with you?"
JD coughed covering up a laugh and McKenna resisted the desire to shoot him a look. "As of the last month or so, it seems like it. As to the headache level you might want to check with Sergeant Holich or Captain Kirk."
He gave her another look, and she wanted to throw her hands up in the air.
~I swear no matter what I do, it is the wrong thing according to someone.~
She groused to JD in her head. He didn’t respond, just fought back a smile, and she restrained a sigh.
"Estrella, of course I’ll approve it. And you let me know if there is anything else you need from me." He paused as a woman walked in and McKenna blinked, her eyebrows raising. While most cops dressed professionally they usually had an air of relaxed comfort to them, this woman looked like she had walked out of a magazine ad for professional cops. Her white button down shirt had crisp iron lines, her slacks the same, and her jacket so sharp it looked like you might cut yourself on it. Her hair a tight cut that lay tight on her skull, making the white blond hair gleam. Ice blue eyes surveyed the situation, and she headed directly to Waris.
"You requested Internal Affairs?"
He took a deep breath, his back tense and McKenna made definite assumptions from his reactions.
"Yes, it looks like I might have an officer on the take and want to discuss it with you." He glanced at Estrella. "If you would ask the men to come back in here please?"
He then looked at McKenna. "Please move everything you found over to the table against the wall."
"Officer Bohn, those items were all found in desks in this room. While the pot and the meth are an acceptable amount for proof when they are undercover the coke is absolutely not. Anything of that level would be in evidence."
Her eyes went to the drugs then snapped back up to Waris. "How were these drugs discovered?"
McKenna had set to moving the drugs over, but she paid close attention to the interaction between the door.
"I had a reason to suspect drugs were here, that reason was supported."
"And were the shifter cops involved?"
"Is that a slur?" He countered, and McKenna decided she might like him after all.
Bohn narrowed her eyes, the two of them locked in a battle of wills. "This is very irregular."
"A kilo of coke is unacceptable and there is no expectation of privacy in your work desk."
"Granted. Very well."
Waris turned and glanced at McKenna and JD who both stood out of the way. "You two are excused. I want to see you early Monday morning, we need to do proof tests and have them recorded so when you start making arrests, we have the evidence that it has been validated."
"Yes, sir." They said at once and beat it out of there, passing the confused police officers as they made their escape.
~One of these days there will be something good about this shifter thing, with no negative consequences. ~
She pinged JD with that thought.
~Weight loss?~
~Food bill through the roof.~ She countered with a sigh.
~Then I got nothing.~
She rolled her eyes as she went to file reports and go home.
Chapter 17 - Kids Hide Things
A total of four extinct animals have been confirmed among shifters. They are all ancient cats that have been gone for at least twenty thousand years. The Homotherium, Panthera Leo Atrox, Smilodon, and Amphyicyon have been found. Calls for those who shift into extinct animals to make themselves available to scientists and teaching hospitals to allow them to study how these animals actually looked and moved. ~TNN Science Adviser
The rest of the week went like normal, except she still knew too much about every person she talked to. Now that it had been turned on, she couldn’t stop analyzing every scent and what it meant.
"Did you know crying has a scent?"<
br />
"Crying? Really?" Toni said on the other end of the phone.
"Yes." She shut the cabinet door. "When are you and the kids going to be here?"
"I am running so behind. The alarm didn’t go off and I’m trying to get back to my normal schedule since I go back to work Monday. Give me at least another hour?"
A wave of vague disappointment hit McKenna, but she pushed it away. "No problem, I’ve got stuff ready to grill and JD is supposed to be bringing more food.
Charley and the twins would go back to school next week, the year around program working well for them right now, though she didn’t know what she’d do when they had their break, but hopefully she and Toni could figure it out.
"Thanks. See you in a bit." Toni hung up and McKenna went to get Charley up and moving. Which registered as odd, normally he’d be up as soon as he heard her moving. Neither of them were much for sleeping in and her nerves and the snatches of dreams she caught from both JD and Charley didn’t help much.
She knocked on the door of his room, pushing it open slowly. "Charley, you okay?"
He lay on the bed fully dressed just looking up at the ceiling. His head jerked a bit at her words.
"Oh, yeah. I’m fine." He rolled out of bed. "Jessi and Jamie here?"
"Not yet, they are running behind."
"Kay," he muttered not looking at her, just grabbed his Kindle, the only thing he’d looked excited about. Toys didn’t interest him, but he loved to read. Well that and play the video games.
"Charley?"
He shrunk his head between his shoulders and headed for the door. She moved so he wouldn’t hit her.
"You need food now? It will still be a few hours before we eat."
"Nah. Fine. Going to go sit on the deck and read."
McKenna stood there watching him leave, confused and worried. Charley always talked to her. He didn’t do this.
You’ve only had him for a week in a normal world. Maybe this is the real him?
That thought didn’t ring true at all.
A knock at the door then the door being pushed open had her heading towards the kitchen where JD entered, hands empty.
"Um, did you forget something?" She asked looking at him.
