Sealed With a Hiss

by E A Price

  He would call her. Just hearing her voice would make him happy and he wanted to tell her he missed her already.

  What a fucking mess the whole situation was. Would Lance really do this? He was hardly a prince among men, but he didn’t really ever care about a woman enough to kill for her.

  And as for the widow of the deceased, something about her didn’t sit right. Her crying was just way over the top. Isis, although somewhat dismissive of any feelings in others, could sense it. There was something false about the woman.

  Hmmm.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Gerry looked over the report. Things weren’t looking good for Lance. The young python had been diagnosed as suffering a mental break and was currently undergoing treatment at a mental facility. Gerry wasn’t sure how accurate that was, but at least, Lance was sedated and not trying to cry or throttle the agents interviewing him.

  Only Lance’s DNA had been found on the body and the murder weapon. They couldn’t find any witnesses to say anyone else had been in the house or anyone who might have seen Lance at the time of the murder. In fact, Jessie found out his phone was definitely at the victim’s house at the time of the murder. Add into that that Lance and Maxwell had been in a fight before, and it really wasn’t looking good for the young python.

  However, the victim’s widow seemed to be on shaky ground. Millie Crescent claimed she was getting back together with her husband. But according to Maxwell’s lawyer, he was going ahead with the divorce on the morning of his death.

  Meanwhile, a young female cougar shifter had come forward with a huge engagement ring and told them that Maxwell had proposed to her, and they were getting married. Maxwell had booked a Caribbean cruise for the two of them in both their names. Whether or not the engagement was real was one thing, but Maxwell was definitely intending on taking a pleasure cruise with the young woman.

  There was a bit of a brawl when the merry widow turned up at her husband’s lawyers and demanded to see his will. He apparently hadn’t changed it since they broke up and everything he owned now belonged to her. But given that they were getting back together – at least according to her – maybe he wasn’t going to bother changing his will.

  The Alpha Team sensed Gerry’s displeasure. They were meeting in the conference room to discuss the case. They were all wary of him – given that their suspect was his brother-in-law after all.

  Jessie wasn’t scared of what he might do, but she was worried about him. He could sense it, and his snake moaned for his mate.

  Gunner drummed his fingers on the table. He was the team leader; he was going to have to bite the bullet. “There’s not much to say.”

  “He did it, end of discussion,” said Cutter – clearly not wary or caring if he annoyed Gerry.

  Gunner ignored him. “We tried to follow the route he said he took when he was out running, but we didn’t get anything.”

  “Tons of people go through that park,” added Cutter. “I couldn’t get his scent.” Well if anyone could have it would have been Cutter. Gerry swore he was practically part bloodhound.

  “We tried to find witnesses, but nothing doing. We couldn’t even get witnesses at Maxwell’s house. The first time they knew Maxwell was home was when they heard Lance screaming.”

  Gerry raised an eyebrow. “Lance screaming? They didn’t hear Maxwell screaming?”

  Gunner nodded. “That’s what the neighbor who called nine-one-one reckons, yeah.”

  “Odd that he wouldn’t scream while being murdered with a silver knife,” murmured Gerry. He picked up the coroner’s report. “There’s no evidence of drugs in his system. Why wouldn’t he scream?”

  He was met with blank faces.

  “Maybe he wasn’t a screamer,” suggested Avery lamely.

  Isis rolled her eyes. “All men are screamers. Maybe it was a spell or something.”

  “Witches went through the house, they couldn’t find anything,” said Wayne.

  “They couldn’t find anything specific,” corrected Isis, “and there are thousands of spells. They can’t possibly detect every single one. Besides, if the spell was on Maxwell, it probably faded after his death. What? Why are you looking at me?”

  “That’s an excellent point,” said Gerry.

  Isis tried to smile modestly, but she was far too smug for that. “Well, I surprise myself now and again.”

  Wayne ignored her. “I did get a witness who saw Lance leaving for his jog – she said he jogged that time every day, she said she always watched him go because…” Wayne paused and grimaced. “she liked to watch his tight, tight buns in action.”

  “The eighty-five-year-old witness then asked if Wayne would mind jogging up and down the street so she would watch his tight, tight buns in action,” declared Isis with relish, “but he declined.” Her beaming smile faltered at Gerry’s glare.

  Wayne cleared his throat. “She said she was surprised he didn’t come home. Usually, he only went out for an hour and a half at the most. The lady just sits at her window watching her neighbors, so she knows when they come and go.”

  Avery nodded. “We’re trying to put a timeline together – bit we’re missing about three hours from when he left his house to when he was found with the body.”

  “What about the victim’s house?”

  Gunner sighed. “Like Isis said, we had witches do a sweep, but they couldn’t pick up anything in particular – there were strands of magic, but apparently the guy’s housekeeper is a witch, and she uses magic to get the work done in half the time. Sir, how much more digging do you want to do?”

  Everyone stilled and watched him closely.

  His snake simmered under the attention. “You all think he’s guilty, and you’re wasting your time, don’t you?”

  “Not exactly,” said Gunner.

  “Yes,” replied Cutter unabashedly.

  Gunner glared at him. “But we’ve closed cases with less evidence.”

  “If he’s charged,” said Gerry. “It will cause problems with the Council – as soon as it happened other Council members were already trying to get Grant out of his seat. Grant and Maxwell were two of the most… forceful members on the Council – I can’t help but wonder at that aspect.”

  “Like another Council member wanted to get rid of both of them.”

  “Maybe. Speaking personally, I have trouble believing Lance did this.”

  “He had a lot of fae dust in his system,” argued Gunner.

  “But he says he didn’t take it,” said Avery.

  “Yeah, no reason he’d lie about taking an illegal drug right,” drawled Cutter.

  “If it were between telling the truth about drugs and getting charged with murder – he would probably tell the truth,” said Gerry. Lance was an idiot, but not one dumb enough to get himself charged with murder when he could get a lighter sentence for drugs.

  Jessie nudged Isis.

  “Actually, we suspect the wife,” piped up Isis.

  “You always say it’s the wife,” complained Cutter.

  “Because I understand women better than you, and I know what we’re capable of.”

  “I understand women fine,” growled the wolf shifter.

  “Would your mate agree with that?”

  Cutter snarled.

  “Is there a point to this?” sighed Gerry.

  Isis all but stuck her tongue out at the wolf. “I talked to the wife again, and she reckons that she and Maxwell got back together the night before the murder.”

  Jessie cut in. “So why did she pay for a further seven nights stay at her motel the next morning if she was expecting to move back home?”

  Gerry smiled at Jessie. “Good point, Jessica.”

  “And why did Maxwell pay off his cruise that same morning too? Not to mention talking to his divorce lawyer.”

  “He could have been intending on taking the wife on the cruise,” suggested Wayne.

  “I spoke to the travel agent,” said Jessie, “the tickets can’t be trans
ferred.”

  She thinks of everything thought Gerry as he snake did the smiling for him. “So the wife is lying.”

  “One hundred percent,” said a smug Isis.

  Jessie winced. “Well, we’re pretty certain she’s lying about getting back together with her husband.”

  “Hey, her husband’s dead, he can’t disagree with her. She can just say they didn’t tell anyone of their reconciliation. But she was expecting to stay longer in that motel. When I asked her, she said she was intending on moving home straight away. But she can’t move in now because it’s covered in blood and a crime scene – it’ll be a few days before she gets in.”

  “And her husband’s will is still all in her favor,” said Jessie. “If he’d died any later, it might not have been.”

  Gerry nodded. “I agree, I think there was something false about her crying on the night her husband died. But it seems unlikely she could have done this alone – look closely at her, but carefully, the last thing we need is to be seen to be harassing a grieving widow.”

  “Sir,” said Gunner as he motioned for the team to leave.

  Gerry reread the medical examiner’s report. Stabbed with a silver knife seventeen times. Given shifters’ reaction to silver, the bull shifter must have been in agony. He had to have screamed about that. He didn’t care how tough the damn bull was; he had to have made some noise. Even if it was just shouting ‘hey stop stabbing me, you demented python shifter’. He looked at the neighbor’s statement again. She clearly stated that she heard a stranger screaming in Maxwell’s house. How could she be sure it wasn’t Maxwell? Maybe he’d get Cutter to re-interview her. Cutter was like a hammer, unsubtle and he had a tendency to view anything in the world as a nail, but he was quite effective at times. At other times, he was a downright liability.

  The team filed out, and Jessie busied herself putting her laptop away. When they were the only two left she came over to him and squeezed his hand, mouthing the words ‘are you okay’. She was a ray of sunshine on the blackest of days.

  He nodded and silently asked her the same thing. She nodded and smiled. She left after she wrenched her hand free from his. His snake didn’t want to let go. They hadn’t been together intimately since the night his brother-in-law was arrested – his birthday. He longed to be with her, but he was just too busy.

  It wouldn’t always be like this he told his snake. Wouldn’t it? hissed the grumpy beast.

  No, he insisted. It wouldn’t.

  *

  Poor Gerry thought Jessie as she wandered back to her office. Her squirrel whined in agreement. She knew the situation was difficult for him, but she couldn’t help but feel pity for herself over the situation. She missed him. They had precious little time together before this mess happened. Now their time was non-existent. And he looked tired and stressed. He must not have been sleeping right. Her beast wanted her to go to him and look after him, but she couldn’t. No, because she was still just his employee and he was still just her boss.

  Ugh. She wished he’d never met that damn Grant Collier and his horrible daughter with her perfect hair, and perfect teeth and perfect everything! For once, the squirrel did the soothing. Edith wasn’t that great. Gerry clearly couldn’t stand her never mind love her.

  Poor Gerry. This really was a difficult situation. She just wished she could do more for him. He was facing pressure from Council members to close the case and charge Lance. Meanwhile, she knew his father-in-law was trying to bully him into letting Lance go. At the same time, the SEA lawyer Hester was trying to persuade him to charge him, too. Added to that even her own teammates were starting to think that Gerry wasn’t thinking clearly. And it wasn’t just them either.

  Other members of the SEA, other agents were starting to look at him askance. They believed he wasn’t charging Lance because of his relationship with him. She’d heard them gossiping about Gerry; she’d heard Cora calling Lance all sorts of indecent names, and saying he deserved to be punished and that Gerry was just as bad as him. Stupid Cora.

  Gerry probably already knew what they were saying. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be angry about it.

  The thing actually pushing him most was the gut feeling that Lance was innocent. Gerry couldn’t get over the feeling that someone was setting up Lance, and Jessie just wanted to help.

  Gerry always worked long hours, and over the past few months, Jessie had also fallen into the habit of working the same hours, usually so they could, at least, ride home together. But Gerry was virtually working around the clock.

  He came by to see her the previous night, and he was so tired he fell asleep while she was giving him a massage. It made her heart and her squirrel ache to see him like this, she needed to do more for him. But she didn’t think she had the skills to help him.

  Wait a cotton picking moment! There was something they hadn’t tried – a psychic. Psychics weren’t exactly reliable and couldn’t force themselves to have a vision, but they did have one who was pretty powerful.

  Jessie bit her lip. There was a slight problem with that idea. Erin was mated to her team leader Gunner, and since she was pregnant, she wasn’t actually supposed to go out in the field anymore. Gunner had been quite vocal on that point. Erin had smiled and let him shout and rant, but she hadn’t actually said much on the matter. Maybe if she asked Erin, she might be willing. Gerry had quite a soft spot for Erin – nothing so much that Jessie would feel jealous and have an urge to gnaw the human woman to death – but he liked Erin. And Erin liked him, too. He’d given her a job as an agent when no other branch of the SEA would. They believed that human agents would cause problems because they weren’t as strong or fast as shifters and vampires.

  Yes, she was sure Erin would want to help. Besides, Erin could still say no – there was no harm in asking.

  *

  “Thanks for doing this Erin,” gushed Jessie.

  Erin smiled, and her cheeks turned pink. She was quite a shy and down to earth woman. It was one of the things that Jessie liked about her.

  “Of course, I’m surprised Gunner didn’t ask.” She paused. “Actually, I’m not. He’s convinced that because I’m human I’m liable to fall apart and die any second of the day.”

  “He’s just a little protective.”

  “He tried to make me wear a crash helmet in the car the other day in case of an accident. Plus he wants to move so that we don’t have any stairs, and there’s no chance of me falling down them. And he never lets me shower alone in case I fall over.” She blushed at that last part.

  Jessie winked. “I’m pretty sure the shower thing is for his benefit, too. It’s kind of sweet how much he loves you.”

  The blush turned a dark red. “I know, but trying to make me go to the emergency room because I have a splinter is overkill.” Erin gave her a searching look. “I hope this case is resolved soon. It’s causing a lot of tension in the SEA.”

  Jessie fought back the angry retort her squirrel wanted to let rip. Erin wasn’t criticizing Gerry’s handling of the case. She was merely stating a fact. She was probably missing her own mate, too. “I hope so, too,” she muttered.

  “I hope the Director appreciates how much work you’re putting into the case.”

  “I’m sure he does.”

  Technically the house wasn’t a crime scene anymore; they no longer had agents guarding it. But it hadn’t been released to Millie Crescent yet. Apparently she wasn’t very happy about that. Both Cora and Hester had told her that Millie had made a complaint both to Juliet and a number of other Council members. She had milked the grieving widow act for all she was worth. The Council members were now putting pressure on Juliet to put pressure on Gerry to charge Lance and give her back her house.

  Jessie gave her inner beast a mental frown and told herself to be reasonable. Maybe Millie was really grieving. She just couldn’t like the woman because of the position she was putting Gerry in. Gerry came first above all others in her mind. And now because of this pressure, they needed t
o find some evidence quick.

  Although her other teammates had doubts about Lance’s innocence, Jessie didn’t. Not because she believed in the young man. Not a bit! But she believed in Gerry.

  “Ugh,” exclaimed Erin as she took in the huge amount of blood splattered across the cream carpet.

  Jessie rubbed her arm. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not likely to be sick?”

  “No, my morning sickness is all gone. When I had it, all I did was eat some pickled herring.”

  “Okay, now I feel sick.”

  Erin chuckled. “Yeah, it’s safe to say I’m having a little polar bear. That’s just a lot of blood.”

  “Yeah.” Black carpets were the answer – all the way.

  Erin walked around and gingerly touched a few items as Jessie tried not to watch her too closely. She picked up a picture of Maxwell and Millie and winced.

  “Erin?”

  “Ugh.” Erin collapsed to her knees and clutched at her head. “Oh god.” Blood trickled out of her nose.

  “Erin!”

  Chapter Twenty

  Gerry was leaving work. Yes, it was only 6 pm, and he was leaving work. No, his watch hadn’t stopped. No, the world wasn’t coming to an end. He was just leaving work because he was bone tired. Plus he was annoyed and wanted to see Jessie. Usually, he found her ensconced in her office and talking to her for a few moments, while fondling her breasts if she let him, usually perked him up. But she was nowhere to be found, and she wasn’t answering her phone. So naturally his jealous snake assumed she was out enjoying herself with someone else because he was neglecting her. Yes, he was neglecting her – he couldn’t deny it. Which was why he was leaving early – or earlier than he usually did – so he could spend some time with her and remind her that she belonged to him, and she wasn’t allowed to have fun without him. Okay, that sounded a little harsh. He’d work on what he was actually going to say.

  He was headed for the lobby to the outside door when a man stormed in, almost knocking over a pregnant rabbit shifter. His python sneered at the man. Humph, otter shifter.