by Renee George
Cal pulled my hand to his lips and kissed my palm. "That makes me a happy man."
As nice as this was, I couldn't stop thinking about Ludlow and Luke, and the drugs, and my sister, and Ronnie. Cripes. I needed to find Ronnie. She should be seen by the doctor at the very minimum.
"Do you think Eldin will tell us anything?" Cal said as we pulled into the driveway.
"I do. Even if he doesn't, I'm going to tell him about what Lisa saw."
"Ludlow needs to be brought in for questioning," Cal agreed.
"Do you think he killed Luke?"
"Don't you?" Cal put the truck in park and turned off the engine. "It makes sense. If Luke was willing to go at your sister, he might have been willing to go after Bobby as well. So, Ludlow takes out Luke before he can get to his brother."
"It's a strong motive. But why try to frame us?"
"I'd humiliated Luke earlier. We could have just been easy targets of convenience."
"And he hunted us for the pleasure of putting as at the scene." The thought chilled me to my core. He'd had to follow Cal's scent that night. It would have been on Luke and all over me. Lycan's were more pungent than therians. "He watched us going into the woods. He would have had a start point to get our scent, and we would have been easy to track."
Cal nodded. The porch light came on and Taylor opened the door. "You guys going to sit in the drive all night, or are you coming inside?"
"Sakes, he's the spitting image of your angry brother."
"Only his polar opposite," I said. "Taylor is super chill." I waved at my brother. "We better go on in."
Both Taylor and Eldin were in relaxed-fit jeans. Taylor wore a pale green button-down shirt, and Eldin had a black t-shirt that said, "I'm foxy."
I laughed at the pun. "I should start calling before just showing up, huh?" I said. "Are you two going out tonight?"
"There's a new gay bar just outside of Camdenton we want to check out. They are having a Law Enforcement Appreciation night, and police officers get to drink for free," Taylor said.
"I'm going to get lit!" Eldin sang. He nodded to Cal. "Hi. Fancy seeing you here."
"I think someone got an early start," I said to Eldin.
"Oh, just a beer or three. Besides, it's Friday night, I have tomorrow off, and Tay's driving."
"My guy needs to unwind," Taylor said. "From what I hear about this morning, you all do." My brother gave me a hug. "You okay, Kota?"
"I am."
"Mishy called me a few minutes ago. I hear you gave quite the speech at dinner tonight. You're moving out on your own, huh?"
Cal tucked his chin in surprise. "You're doing what?"
I gave Taylor a light punch for spilling the beans. "Okay, so maybe the dead silence at dinner might have been about me declaring my emancipation from my family."
"I think you're very courageous," Taylor said. "It's not easy striking out on your own."
"Was it difficult for you?"
"No, not for me." He jumped away as I tried to punch him again. "Hi," he said to Cal. "I'm Taylor, the good twin."
Cal chuckled. "I met your other half this morning, so I can't say I disagree with you."
"I'm his other half," Eldin pouted.
"You're my better half," Taylor corrected. "Cal's right. Biologically, Tyler is my other half." He stared off as if reliving a fond memory. "He's not a bad guy. He's just...a little stuck. He's never been good at rolling with the flow but he usually gets there." Taylor put his hands in his pockets and went up on his toes. "So, what brings the two of you by?"
For a moment, I let them be happy, because I was about to blow up their night out, and not in a good way.
Chapter Eighteen
Sheriff Taylor had insisted Cal and I come down to the station. I thought we would have gotten a little more quid pro quo from Eldin, but he'd called the sheriff the second he'd heard drugs, date rape, and murder come out of my mouth.
I sat at Tyler's desk, my broody brother glowering at me, while the sheriff had taken Cal into his office and closed the door behind them.
"What do you think they're talking about in there?" I asked.
Tyler ignored me.
The white board wasn't covered now, so I got to see what had been concealed earlier in the day. The columns were in order of type of complaint, address, complainant initials, and the date. So, SD, 900 SW 23, LD, and today's date had to be suspicious death, the Hackenstraw property address, Luke Dwyer. Above it there was another complaint, SA, ??, VT, and it was dated last night. Sexual Assault, maybe, location unknown, and Veronica Talbert. Did this mean she'd reported Luke? But if that had been the case, why wasn't Ludlow already in jail?
"When did Ronnie Talbert come in to file a complaint?" I asked Tyler, who was working the evening shift.
He snarled at me in response. "That's police business."
I snarled back. "Considering our little sister is an eye witness, I'd say it was Thompson family business as well, wouldn't you?"
Tyler grimaced. "Sometimes you are so much like Mom, it's scary."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
He shook his head. "Why didn't you come to me first? Why go to Eldin?"
"I love you, brother, but you can be difficult on a good day. Just look at the way you acted this morning. You went off on Cal without any evidence of wrong doing just because he's different. You judged him in a way that you never would have Luke or even Ludlow, and they are the bad guys here, not Cal."
Tyler groaned. "Fine. I'm an asshole."
"The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have one." I gave him a fond smile. "Now, tell me when Ronnie came in."
"I took her report. She walked into the station at three this morning and claimed she'd been assaulted, but she couldn't remember by who or where it even took place. She was pretty out of it. I called Willy, because she's trained with the sexual assault kit, something she'd volunteered to learn last year. We had one report a couple months ago, well, I can't talk about the case, but it was similar to Ronnie's. The girl didn't remember much of the night, and when it came down to it, she refused to name her attacker."
I wondered if it had been Karina Wells. Had she mustered enough resolve to report the attack? Only to lose courage at the last minute. Had she blamed herself? If she had gone through with her complaint, would it have stopped Luke? Would she have been believed? It didn't matter. She was a victim, and I wouldn't make her complicit for being afraid to come forward.
"And Ronnie?"
"She left after the preliminary questions. The fact that she couldn't remember what had happened to her upset her. Willy tried to get her to go see the doctor, but Ronnie refused. We can't force victims to consent."
"Of course," I said. Now that Tyler was talking to me, I nodded toward the sheriff's office again. "What do you think the sheriff wants with Cal?"
"To offer him a job."
"You're kidding."
Tyler curled his lip at me. "Do I look like I'm kidding?"
"Almost never," I said.
"Ha ha." He rolled his eyes. "With the lycanthropes in town, and Cal's background in law enforcement, the sheriff thinks he could help diffuse some of the current tension in town. Since the Corman's have been sponsoring Cal and his Brother, Willy vouched for him with the Tri-State Council, and they have agreed it's worth giving Cal a shot."
"And you?" I asked. "Are you willing to give him a shot?"
"I don't have anything against the lycans," he said. "I was worried about you, and I reacted badly."
"You sure did." I cracked a small smile at him. "I forgive you."
"I'm so glad," he said with dramatic sarcasm. But I could tell he was relieved.
Cal and the sheriff finally came out of the office. "Cal is officially a sheriff's deputy," he said. "But you're not, Dakota. So, I'll ask you to go home and stay there until we can find Davis and bring him in."
I wanted to argue, but how in the world could I make a case that didn't make me sound like I
just didn't want to be left out of the chase. If Ludlow was responsible for our predicament and Luke's death, I wanted to see him brought to justice.
I huffed, feeling peevish. "Fine." I gestured to them. "Go get him. I'll get myself home."
My phone rang. Mom came up on the screen. I picked up. "Hey, Mom. What's up?"
"Do you know where your sister is?"
Great, Michele just couldn't stay out of trouble. Not even one night. "Have you called her?"
"And called her and called her." There was an edge of fear and panic in her voice.
"I'll try her. Michele has a boyfriend. Brad Connors. She's probably out with him."
"Michele is here with me," Mom said. "Lisa is the one missing. I've called Bobby Davis's mom, and he's missing, too. Where would she go? Why would she just take off with everything going on? She's acting so out of character. I'm about to lose my flippin' mind!"
Tyler had been standing close enough to me to hear the entire conversation. "I'll start calling everyone to start forming search parties."
"What's happening," Sheriff Taylor asked.
"Mom says, Lisa's missing. So is Bobby Davis." I leaned against a nearby desk, suddenly light-headed. "What if Ludlow has them?"
Tyler took my phone. Calmly, he instructed my mother to put the rest of our younger siblings on lockdown, and for her and dad to come to the station.
"This is my fault," I said. I felt the blood rush from my limbs. "I should have told Mom and Dad the minute Lisa confessed to me about what had happened. I could have kept her safe."
Cal put his arm around me as my knees buckled. He held me up. "This isn't your fault, Dakota," he said. "This isn't your fault."
Mom's best friends, Willy, Chavvah, and Sunny surrounded her, keeping her occupied as Babel Trimmel, Doc Smith, Brady Corman, and Roger Messer worked with Sheriff Taylor to call all the able-bodied men and women in town who were willing to volunteer to find the missing teens. Jo Jo had come in with Dale and Brady, and Etta had come in with her dad and Chav to help out. The last big search had taken place when Jo Jo and my sister Michele had gone missing during the Tri-State Council Jubilee. They had been tied up and left in the woods by two serial killing brothers, who had used our search for them as a distraction, so they could claim their real target, which had been Chavvah.
I prayed we would find Lisa and Bobby safe, the same way we'd found Jo Jo and Michele safe.
"I'm joining the search party," I told Cal. "And heaven help any of you if you try to stop me."
"You can ride with me," he said with no hesitation. "I was going to suggest it anyhow."
"Does anyone know where Ludlow is? Do you really think he'd hurt his brother? Especially if he went through all the trouble to kill Luke to protect him."
"We don't know that for certain, so until we do, we have to assume he's capable of anything. The sooner we find Lisa and the boy, the better."
"Does this mean you don't know where Ludlow is?"
"The sheriff says Mrs. Davis hasn't seen him, and he isn't at any of his usual haunts."
I nodded. It had only been forty minutes since Mom had called me, but it had felt like forty hours. Every minute not searching for Lisa felt like wasted time.
"We should be out there now," I said.
"A grid search is the most effective. That way we aren't looking in the same spots over and over. Your mom brought over some of Lisa's clothing, and Roberta Davis is bringing in some of Bobby's. Since lycanthropes have a keener sense of smell, there will be a few of us in each group."
"Good. We need all the advantage we can get."
"Okay, team leaders," Sheriff Taylor announced. "We have some three-hundred volunteers out on the courthouse lawn already divided up into twenty groups by Deputy Farraday and Deputy Connelly."
I teared up at the sheer number of people ready to help. Small towns had their problems, especially when it came to distrust of outsiders, but moments like this, the way the community pulled together to support each other, that's what made places like Peculiar great.
The sheriff continued his instructions. "As soon as Mrs. Davis comes in with some of Bobby's clothing, we will make sure that each group has a big enough sample to recognize Lisa or Bobby's scent. Deputy Boden will coordinate things here at the station as our home base. Any information you find or receive should be disseminated directly through her and no one else. Got it?"
There was a murmur of agreement in the room.
Roberta Davis showed up a few minutes later, and the hunt was on.
Chapter Nineteen
Dad was in our group, along with Taylor, Etta, Jo Jo, Mark Smart, and twelve others. We'd been given the Dwyer farm and Robyn Smith's property to search, as a possible location. The overcast sky threatening rain, darkened the pastures, as intermittent zaps of lightning would temporarily blind us. Since Missouri weather changed minute by minute, I prayed the rain would hold off a little longer. A heavy downpour would make tracking Lisa's scent impossible.
Each team was given a two-way radio on a lanyard to wear around their necks when shifted. Therianthropes began to disrobe, everyone shifting into their animal forms, then one by one sniffing Lisa and Barry's clothing. Some of us had better olfactory senses than others, but I knew Cal had the best chance of catching their trail before anyone else. I put the radio around my neck, before shifting. My deer appeared next to Cal's wolf, and I flitted my ears back and forth when he nuzzled me, a reassuring gesture, with his head.
Cal had carefully laid out the plan where each team of two would search on the property. The Dwyer property had a lot of pasture, but some dense woods, while Robyn Smith's place was just the opposite. She had a lot of woods, and a small three-acre area of pasture. I had wanted to go there, because I was holding out hope that Lisa had simply ran away to see the goats again. But since Cal was my partner, we needed to be where the best cross-breeze could point us in the right direction, not just the direction I hoped we'd find them in. So, we did a slow walk along the fence line between the properties. Cal's nose was to the ground, mine was to the air.
The dampness in the air clung to my nostrils as I inhaled deeply, keeping my ears attuned to our surroundings. Cal's nose might be better, but I had super hearing, thanks to my big doe ears. However, after nearly three hours of searching, all I could smell and hear were the other searchers and those damn fainting goats. I was worried we were nowhere near the right area. I began to snort and paw at the ground in frustration. My deer let out a loud snort that ended in a wheeze. Cal's wolf crouched as he transformed back into human. I followed suit.
"This is stupid. They're not here. Where would he take them?"
Cal rubbed my arms as fear made me shiver.
"I thought for sure Lisa would be here. I hoped--"
"We won't give up, Dakota," Cal promised. "We'll find your sister and Bobby, and we will bring them home. Heck, they might already be home if one of the other teams have found them already."
"Willy would have called," I said. I knew I sounded defeated, but I couldn't stop blaming myself. "Lisa has to be okay. She has to be safe."
"Let's keep looking. We have about a mile of fence line left. Let's get it done, then we will pick a side and head in that direction. Grid searches are slow and tedious, but they work. You have to trust the process."
I nodded. "Okay." I touched the radio, willing it to come to life. When it didn't, I went back to four legs and a tail.
Then I froze at a distant sound. I curled my ear in the direction of the foreign noise. It was a tin-tin tin-tin, dull and patterned. Not a nature made sound. Too deliberate.
Cal hadn't shifted back into a wolf, yet. "What do you hear?" I twitched my tail and glanced in the direction of the Smith homestead. Robyn was in one of the search parties somewhere near Mark Smart's property. No one had been allowed to search their own place, because it could muddy the scent pool. Tin-tin tin-tin. There it was again. Definitely not the goats. My heart began to beat wildly in my chest. I pointed with my
head in the direction of Robyn's farmhouse and barn. The noise was coming from that direction.
"Switch back," Cal said, "and tell me what you're hearing."
I couldn't waste any more time. Lisa was in danger. Danger I could have prevented. I leaped away from Cal, then I ran, kicking off hard with my back legs until I picked up full speed. I had the faintest thought that I should wait for Cal, but an overriding sense of panic for my sister kept me running headlong toward her rescue. Cal would catch up, I rationalized. He knew my scent. He could follow me anywhere.
I jumped fallen trees, small brooks, one good-sized ditch, and a large rock as I made my way through the densely-wooded property. When I could see the barn, I slowed to a complete stop and listened for the noise. When I didn't hear anything, I walked closer to the exposed pasture surrounding the farm. A baleful howl of a wolf cut through the trees, and I heard the thud of several goats as they collapsed from fear.
Tin-tin. There it was again! I ran toward the barn. Inside, the goats had been put up in stalls with wooden doors that lined one side of the barn. The ones that hadn't fainted, shuffled nervously. Tin-tin. Hope surged through me as I scanned the room. The noise was coming from the end stall.
I bleated triumphantly as I rushed to the door, shifted into my human form, and threw it open. "Lisa!" Inside, Ludlow Davis, covered in goat blood, and holding a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other, tapped the blade and the barrel. Tin-tin.
He smiled at me as he turned the gun in my direction. "I've been waiting for someone to party with. I'm so glad it's you."
"Where's my sister?" I asked. "What have you done with her?"
"Come in here and close the door." He waved the gun at me to emphasize his demand. "You are a rotten bitch, you know that." He threw bailing twine at me. "Tie your ankles. That way if you shift on me, you can't run away." Ludlow's red hair was matted with straw as if he'd been living in the barn for weeks. His pupils were constricted to tiny dots, which meant his normal night vision was crap right now.
He was high on his own junk.
