Jaguar Hunt

by Terry Spear

  “Hmm, really, really nice. I think sharing churros with you has become my favorite thing to do,” he said, and she felt his arousal against her, proving he really did like the idea.

  “We’d better leave before we make too much of a scene,” she said.

  When they headed for the parking lot, she finally said, “Okay, as to my father, I found love letters he had stored in an old chest in the attic. I was looking for a diary I had written when I was thirteen and came across them. They were written to him, signed EL. I don’t know anyone with those initials.”

  “What was the date? And why would he have kept the evidence?”

  “They weren’t dated. As to why he’d have them, my dad is a pack rat. Not only does he buy everything in jumbo quantities, but he never throws anything out.”

  “What if they were written to him when he was in high school? Maybe they were sent to him before he met your mom.”

  “She mentioned Mom a couple of times. Like she knew her and they were friends. How could this woman have done that? If she was a friend of Mom’s, too?”

  He pulled Tammy close. “We don’t really know all the circumstances. We could be jumping to conclusions about this. Have you spoken with your dad about it?”

  “No. I’m afraid of what he’ll say. What if he’s still seeing her? Instead of writing letters, maybe they’re texting each other now. It would be easy for them to do.” She let out her breath. “I’ve tried to hint at it to my dad, attempting to learn the truth. He’s not taking the bait.”

  “And your mom?”

  “She doesn’t seem to know anything about it. Or she’s pretending he didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Seems to me that it isn’t something you have to concern yourself with. If it’s over and done with, that’s that. As long as your father isn’t still seeking another woman’s arms and he’s learned his lesson…”

  “Yeah, but…what if the woman was Maya and Connor’s mother?”

  David frowned at her. “Do you have any proof she was seeing your father?”

  “One of the letters said she was pregnant with a boy and a girl. She shared the date of their births—the same as my cousins’. What if they aren’t my cousins? What if they are my half sister and half brother?”

  “Did the woman say your dad was the father of the twins?”

  “No. She was married to my dad’s brother. He left before the babies were born. Why? Because he learned the babies weren’t his? When I mentioned to Mom and Dad about meeting with their niece and nephew, Maya and Connor, Dad made excuses why he didn’t have time to see them. That wasn’t like him. This was before I was searching in the attic and came across the letters.”

  “It might have taken place, but they’ve come to terms with it and it’s over and done with. If you’re feeling that your dad’s and Joe’s situations have anything to do with us, they don’t.”

  They got into the car and she let out her breath. “I can’t let this go. I have to know if Maya and Connor are my half brother and sister.” One way or another.

  Chapter 28

  Before they headed back to Tammy’s place, David drove to his bank, not wanting to bring up something that might be a sore spot with Tammy. “I didn’t remember anything about the keys on my key ring until you mentioned it. I hadn’t thought anything about them. But you’re right. I don’t need some of them. They were”—he glanced at her—“keys to old girlfriends’ places.”

  Tammy cast him a hint of a smile. He hadn’t expected that. He thought she’d be annoyed. She shook her head. “You and my dad. First the jumbo stuff. Now, the pack-rat stuff, too?”

  He was glad she wasn’t peeved again with him. “I’ll get rid of them. But it reminded me that I have one that goes to a safety-deposit box. It’s free because of my savings and checking accounts there. Olivia had a signature card, too, though she wasn’t listed on my bank accounts. We were planning to get married until I saw Joe at her house dressed in only his boxers. I just never thought about the safety-deposit box. I never used it. But maybe she did.”

  “And you’re hoping to find what?”

  “Why did Weaver say Olivia was important to the case?”

  “She was seeing Joe. Joe’s involved in the case,” Tammy said, sitting taller in the car seat. “What if she knew of his involvement in the crooked dealings? What…what if she didn’t commit suicide?”

  “Quinn knew her best. He was convinced she had.”

  “Okay, well, maybe we’ll find something there. Also, another thing keeps puzzling me. Both Quinn and Weaver told me I shouldn’t trust the teens because they’ve been in trouble. I get the impression they know something. Is it a way for them to discredit the kids so we don’t believe them? Or are the kids really untrustworthy?”

  “With regard to the cat?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You suspect something. What?”

  “They know the cat.”

  David pulled into the bank lot and parked. “What do you mean?”

  “You know, like she’s almost a pet. Like it’s personal. I really don’t believe they just happened to see the news that the cat was missing from the zoo and they went into superspy mode to discover that the circus was in town at the same time. They were choked up about her being stolen again when they visited my house last night. Like she really means something to them.”

  David had to admit he agreed with her reasoning. “So you’re thinking…”

  “What if they had witnessed the cat at the circus last year and knew she had been abused. So they stole her and gave her to the zoo. When they saw that the Oregon Zoo cat had been stolen and found out that the circus had been in town, and that it was headed to Dallas, the boys’ neck of the woods, they hatched a plan to steal her again.”

  “Makes sense. After we check my deposit box, I’ll give the kids a call.”

  “Maybe I should.”

  He chuckled and walked with her into the bank. “Sure. That’ll work. Do you have any more cookies to give them?”

  When he got into his safety-deposit box, he was surprised to see it filled with stuff.

  “A phone? Why would she have a cell phone in here?” Tammy asked, trying to turn it on to check the address book. “Dead.”

  “My charger will work on it. It’s in the car. Bills of sale for tons of merchandise—laptops, video gaming equipment, televisions, sound systems—some really high-dollar items,” David said, rifling through the papers.

  “In her name?”

  “Quinn’s.”

  “Her brother’s?”

  David nodded.

  “Why would her brother’s stuff be in your box?”

  “Why would Quinn have all these receipts? And why would she have them?” David asked.

  “What if Quinn is the crooked agent? And he was working with Joe when he was in the branch until they had a falling-out over Quinn’s sister’s death, Quinn got Joe fired, and now Joe wants Quinn dead?” she asked. “Maybe Quinn gave it to Olivia to safeguard. She knew you never used the box, so she felt safe hiding them there.”

  “Okay, you explained on the way over here about how Quinn said Joe was trying to kill him and not you. That Quinn was trying to convince Joe to give up the agents, but if he is the agent and had been working with Joe, it makes sense that the two of them are on the outs and trying to kill each other,” David said.

  “What if the sister knew about her brother and Joe being crooked and started hiding some of the evidence in your box? Was she the kind of person who would turn her own brother in if she knew he was conducting illegal business?”

  “She was really close to him. Like I am with Wade and you are with your brothers. Would you turn one of your brothers in if you learned he was doing something wrong?”

  “No, I’d try to convince him to turn himself in before it was too late. Do you remembe
r ever hearing Quinn and Olivia arguing about anything?”

  “A few times. Once about her driving his car without his permission.”

  “Where had he been?” Tammy asked.

  “With Joe at the club.”

  “So if Joe was seeing Quinn about business dealings, and she started dating Joe, somehow she could have learned that both he and her brother were dirty. She threatened her brother, told him to give it up. If Joe learned of it, he might have killed her,” Tammy said.

  “Yeah. We’ll turn this stuff over to Martin and he can check into it further.”

  ***

  Tammy and David arrived at the red brick and glass headquarters for the JAG branch—a small building with a sign that featured a cat paw, golden claws extended, and simply said: Golden Claws, Inc.

  As soon as they entered the building, four JAG agents glanced at David and Tammy, and then smiled.

  “Last time I got to work with an Enforcer, the agent didn’t look anything like that,” the redheaded MacAvoy ribbed his friends.

  “Yeah, she looks even better in person than she did when she was risking her neck on the zip line,” Ogilvie said, winking at her.

  Tammy flushed a nice shade of red and glanced at David, frowning a little.

  “Hey, guys, you were supposed to be following Peter and Hans. What happened?” David asked.

  “Hell, they gave us the slip. We searched for them in Colombia, never could find them. When we returned here, we heard they might have been in Belize,” Ogilvie said.

  “The boys are all a bit slippery.” David nudged Tammy toward Martin’s office before anyone else could comment and embarrass her further. “Sorry about that. The guys have ribbed me every chance they get since they learned what you looked like on the zip line.”

  “So you shared the video with your boss?”

  David just smiled.

  Martin ushered them into his plush office, the walls lined with photos of catfish, red snappers, and bass he’d caught, and even a stuffed swordfish that he’d had mounted above them. He motioned to a couple of leather chairs. “What have you got?”

  “Bills of sale in Quinn’s name. Not sure why he would have documentation for selling this stuff. Maybe it was a way of trying to legitimize it, even if he didn’t own the personal property in the first place.” Now would Martin believe Quinn was doing something he shouldn’t be? “What do you think?” David asked.

  Martin snorted as he started looking over the papers. “I think we’ve got our mole.”

  “How so?”

  “Five of these bills of sale could be for personal property that belonged to some of our agents who reported it stolen. We considered that one of our own people might have been involved. That an agent working for us had cased the places when visiting as a friend. But everyone who had visited their homes had airtight alibis for the time of the robberies. The times of the burglaries were spread out so that it wouldn’t make them look so suspicious.”

  “The actual thieves had been human, right?” David asked.

  “Yes,” Tammy said. “At least the ones who had stolen my TV had been. But I’d had a party three days before I met you, David. They were mostly Enforcers—but a couple of JAG agents turned up.”

  “Was Joe there?” David asked, his voice sounding a little too growly.

  “No, of course not.”

  “Quinn?”

  “Yeah,” Tammy said darkly. “He wasn’t invited, but he came as the date of an Enforcer who was. That was first time he spoke to me, saying he had clues about the missing zoo cat.”

  “Your house got broken into and your TV was gone.”

  “Yeah,” Tammy said.

  “So our agents, if they were Quinn and Joe, must have been casing places and hiring people to steal the merchandise. How did you come by these?” Martin asked.

  David explained about the safety-deposit box he never used. “Mind if we take Olivia’s phone with us to see if we can get any clues? After that, I’ll turn it over to you.”

  “Good deal.”

  Tammy was glad they were not with a regular human police force where all evidence had to be turned in. Any evidence in a case like this couldn’t be used to convict a criminal in a court of law. Not if the perp was a shifter. No going to prison for them. Evidence was strictly for ensuring they got the bad guy.

  “I’ll have someone check into the rest of these bills of sale. See if they have to do with recent thefts. Hell, if that’s the case, Quinn shouldn’t have been having any financial difficulties,” Martin said.

  “Maybe it was all a ruse. The money is in offshore accounts. No one would suspect him because he’s in debt up to his eyeballs, paying off a new car, and whatever else he owes on,” David said.

  “Yeah. Good point,” Martin said.

  After that, Tammy and David returned to his car, and while David drove, Tammy turned on Olivia’s phone, charging it in his vehicle. She knew they needed to learn what they could, but that didn’t lessen the eeriness that was slip-sliding through her—with the notion the woman was dead and most likely had safeguarded secrets on her phone.

  “Got anything yet?” David asked, glancing at her as Tammy was going through the address book first.

  “Your phone number, Joe’s, Quinn’s, and a whole bunch of others.”

  “Weaver’s? Krustan’s?”

  She looked through the numbers. “Hmm, no, I don’t see either of theirs.”

  “That’s good—for their sake.”

  “Well, looks like we got a fence in here,” she said.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. I remember seeing this guy’s name in the papers a while back. He got busted for reselling stolen merchandise.” She punched in a number in the address book and turned on the speaker.

  David frowned. “Who are you calling?”

  “Joe. Martin can’t find him. Quinn said he can’t. What if he’s dead?”

  “But now he’s got a dead woman calling him—if he’s alive.”

  “Yeah, if he answers—”

  “Quinn?” Joe said, startling Tammy. The sound of his angry voice sent shivers up her spine. “You son of a bitch. You said you got rid of all her stuff. Quinn?”

  Tammy ended the call pronto. She was breathing hard, her heart pumping fast.

  “Proves Joe’s alive and still talking to Quinn. And we figured Quinn was involved,” David said.

  “I think it’s more than that. I think…I think they killed Olivia.”

  “Yeah, I was thinking along the same lines.” David pulled into Tammy’s driveway, and as they left his car, they waved at Gertie peering out her picture window and headed inside the house.

  “What else did you find on Olivia’s phone?” David asked as they sat down on her couch together.

  “Pictures.” She cuddled close to David. “Looks like close to four hundred.”

  “Of…” He stared at the pictures as she brought each of them up.

  “Merchandise. Stolen?”

  “Serial numbers on some of it.” David pulled out his phone and called it in to Martin. “Here are some serial numbers you can have someone check into from Olivia’s phone. Looks like she knew all about the business and was documenting it either to turn it over to someone, or hoping it would keep her from being murdered. Tammy placed a call from Olivia’s phone to Joe, and he answered. So we know he’s still alive.”

  David smiled. “Yeah, I’m sure Joe was either thinking Olivia had come back from the dead, or Quinn was playing a nasty game on him. He indicated that Quinn was supposed to get rid of all the evidence. So they’ve been working together.”

  “Oh…my…God,” Tammy said. She couldn’t believe it.

  “Hold on,” David said to his boss as he looked at the picture.

  “Quinn and Joe killed three men in the woods. She
was taking the pictures. She had to be in on it with them. Otherwise, I don’t think she could have sneaked up and caught them at it without them noticing. That’s why she could take the pictures of the merchandise and serial numbers. She had access to all of it. She was in on it. But something must have gone wrong. Something that caused her to distrust them.” Tammy handed the phone to David. “Here, share all that you can with Martin. I’m going to get hold of Weaver. He said Olivia was important to this case. I’m calling him back.”

  David began sharing the pictures with his boss, as Tammy called Weaver. He picked up right away and she thought he must have expected her to call, or maybe he worried she was in trouble.

  “You knew Joe Storm and Quinn Singleterry were dirty.”

  Weaver snorted. “We have no proof. We can’t just go accusing anyone of committing a crime. You know that.”

  “But you didn’t tell Sylvan you were working on this, either, did you?”

  “We couldn’t tell the boss we were working the bad agent angle on our own. He would have insisted we help you with your jobs. Hell, you might have been the bad agent.”

  Tammy scoffed at that. “Why not trust Sylvan enough to let him in on your plan?”

  “If he had known we thought the agent was JAG, he would have turned it over to Martin Sullivan. We wanted to be the ones to solve it.”

  “You should have stayed with me, and I could have helped you after we found the missing kids. So what made you suspect they were committing criminal acts?”

  “The missing zoo cat. I saw Joe and Quinn at the shifter club with two women. Joe had too much to drink. He was mouthing off about the jaguar—furious that it had been stolen from the circus after he’d gotten it. He was working as the manager at the circus at the time, not the club’s bouncer yet. I didn’t think anything about it. What bothered me was that Joe was with another woman when Olivia had thrown David over for Joe, and he had plans to marry her. I didn’t know he had another fiancée or that you were seeing him.

  “I liked Quinn’s sister and I hinted to her that Joe and her brother were coming to the club with other women. I thought she should know. Later, I heard Joe talking about getting the jaguar back, and about that time you were tasked with look for the missing zoo cat. Even though I didn’t think the two were connected, it seemed like an odd coincidence.