Caged, page 7
“If May and Paul were having financial trouble, then that would explain why she went looking for him when he missed that meeting,” Andy pointed out.
“Oh, my,” a new female voice said. “What happened?”
I turned to see a woman about my height with strawberry blonde shoulder length hair standing in the office doorway. Her brown eyes widened as she looked down at Paul’s body.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” Ruth said, her voice clipped. “We have it handled.”
The woman tilted her head. “His face is red and he’s foaming at the mouth. Was he poisoned?”
She started to step into the room and Andy held out a hand. “Why don’t we all go into the hallway? This is a crime scene, we should contaminate it as little as possible.”
Ruth marched toward the door, her attention still on the newcomer. “Do you really think your human sense of smell will tell you anything I haven’t already detected?”
The woman recoiled at the rebuke, quickly retreating out the door with a faint blush on her cheeks. She tugged on the hem of her Hello Kitty T-shirt. “Sorry.”
Liam was texting someone on his phone, probably Blake or Vincent. Ruth watched him walk out of her office, then she pressed her lips together and faced the woman again. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” She gestured at Paul. “Tensions are a little high.”
The woman looked at me and Andy, then back at Ruth.
“Kristine, this is Agent Andrew Bradford from the FBI, and Ms. Shade Renard,” Ruth added, gesturing from Andy to me. “They’re working with the task force. Andy, Shade, this is Kristine Warren. She’s a therapist here at the center.”
“A human?” Andy asked.
Kristine smiled, but before she could respond, the sound of a kitten meowing emanated from her jeans pocket. The slight blush from earlier blazed into a dark red as she scrambled to get her phone out and shut it off.
“Ha!” Peasblossom crowed. “Her ringtone is a meow! And she’s surrounded by wolves!”
“I had a session with one of my younger patients.” Kristine jabbed frantically at the end call button. “She’s having a hard time and the meow ringtone makes her smile and breaks the tension.”
Ruth stared at her, surprise muting the irritation tightening her features. Liam sighed as he slid his phone back into his pocket. “It’s all right, Kristine.”
“Since you’re here, I need you to help me reschedule my appointments,” Ruth said finally. “I’m going to be working with the task force, so—”
“That’s not necessary.” Liam nodded to Andy and me. “Agent Bradford and Shade are assisting me, and Blake and Sonar are out gathering more evidence as we speak. Kylie and Vincent will be here soon, and Vincent’s already analyzing samples from the first scene. There’s no need for you to interrupt your schedule.”
Ruth pressed her lips together. It was clear she didn’t like being left off the task force. Especially when the key witness had died in her office.
Liam didn’t seem to notice, and Ruth gave him a stiff nod to acknowledge his wishes. She took a step toward the elevator, but Liam held up a hand. “Before you go, I need to ask you a question—both of you,” he said, indicating Kristine as well. “Can you think of any reason Brenna would have to meet with Paul?”
Ruth paused. “I suppose it’s possible that when I turned down their business proposal, Paul might have approached Brenna. He knew she had no power to make a deal, but he knew she was a therapist here and he might have hoped she could help him change my mind.”
“Did she ever mention him?” Liam asked.
“No.” Ruth looked at Kristine.
As if she’d been waiting for the other woman’s permission to speak, Kristine came alive. “No. She never mentioned Paul. And he never approached me.”
“Probably because you don’t look like you work here,” Andy observed, eyeing her Hello Kitty T-shirt.
Ruth narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like the implication, Agent Bradford. Kristine is a good therapist. She dresses casually for a reason. It makes her more approachable and less intimidating for our more hesitant clients. And she does a great deal of work with youth.”
I didn’t miss that Ruth stepped forward when she talked, putting herself between Andy and Kristine. Kristine held still, accepting Ruth’s protection, though she didn’t look as though Andy’s comment had bothered her.
“I mean no offense, it was just an observation,” Andy said evenly.
“Did either of you ever see them together?” I asked. “Paul and Brenna, I mean?”
“No,” Ruth said.
“Has anyone else ever mentioned Paul, or May?” Liam prodded. “Maybe they tried to approach someone directly about providing service animals, and Brenna found out and went to have a word? Could one of her clients have said something?”
“Not that I know of,” Ruth said. “And none of my clients have reported any such thing.”
“None of my patients have said anything about Paul or May either,” Kristine seconded.
“What about Adrian Varca?” Andy spoke up, holding up his phone. He’d opened a photo of the accountant, and Adrian’s face filled the screen. “Has he ever come around here, or has he ever approached anyone?”
“He doesn’t know what we are,” Ruth said doubtfully. “Why would he be here?”
“I assume with this many shifters in one place, a keen observer might notice a wolf in the forest now and then,” Andy pointed out. “Especially given the news reports lately that have mentioned the wolf population in Ohio growing.”
He had a point. Wolves had been extirpated from Ohio decades ago, but recently more and more sightings had been reported. And it wasn’t as if anyone could explain to the wildlife experts that the wolves everyone was getting so excited about weren’t exactly wolves…
“You think Varca saw a wolf and followed it here, then started staking out the property?” Liam asked.
Andy put his phone away. “Knowing Varca, it’s more likely that he noticed a wolf and had someone else actually track it for him. But basically, yes.”
“So you think someone reported someone spying on the property to Brenna, and she went out looking for the intruder and was caught by Paul?” Liam asked.
Andy looked at Ruth. “You knew Paul. Could he have caught Brenna?”
Ruth opened her mouth, then closed it. “Normally, I would say no. We aren’t animals, we retain our human faculties in wolf form and as such we’re not easy to catch. However, Paul is—” She flinched. “Paul was, a very perceptive and patient man. I liked the work he and May did, and I appreciated how good they were at their jobs. If he took the time to get to know the behavior of the wolves he was observing, it’s possible he could have trapped Brenna. Especially since she would have tried not to hurt him, and she wouldn’t have run back to the center to draw unwanted attention.”
Blake came around the corner just then, Sonar padding along beside him.
“What did you find?” Liam asked, straightening.
“Nothing.” Blake shoved a hand through his hair, visibly frustrated. “If Bannon had anything to do with Brenna, it wasn’t at his house. Sonar couldn’t find any trace that he’d ever had a wolf there, let alone Brenna. Not even in the dirty laundry.”
Sonar snorted, and even glamoured to look like a German Shepard she looked annoyed.
“If Brenna has been missing for two weeks, then it’s unlikely that Paul could have had her and not left any trace,” I pointed out. “Even if he kept her someplace else, her scent would be on his clothes. So either he’s exceptionally careful, or he picked up Brenna from someone else today and drove her to Adrian’s.”
“Is it possible that Brenna was with him willingly?” Andy asked.
All eyes turned to him. Liam stepped forward. “You think my sister volunteered to be Varca’s pet?”
Andy met his gaze. “You all make it sound like it would be difficult for someone to take Brenna against her will. She’s been missing for two weeks, and there’s no sign Paul had her before today. We know Adrian was willing to pay a lot of money for a wolf.”
“So?” Ruth said, her voice hard.
“So, is it possible that Brenna allowed herself to be sold to Adrian with the intention of taking his money and then running away?” he asked. “She was upset about her patient’s death, maybe she wanted to get away, start over.” He looked at Ruth. “Did Brenna blame herself in any way for what happened to Kevin?”
“I don’t think so.” Ruth bit her lip. “But working with addicts can be difficult. They can be very charming, especially when they’re looking to get a fix. It’s possible Brenna might have internalized some responsibility for him.”
“You think my sister took off to cook up a plan to sell herself to Varca?” Liam interrupted.
“You tell me. Did she need money for anything?” Andy asked.
“It wouldn’t matter if she needed money.” Ruth took a step forward, almost but not quite putting herself between Andy and Liam. “Brenna didn’t just take a vacation. She vanished. She missed appointments, she abandoned her duties, and she let her brother worry that something horrible happened to her. She wouldn’t do that for the sake of a little money. And she wouldn’t run off to start a new life away from her pack, certainly not without telling someone.”
“Last I heard, Adrian was willing to pay fifty thousand dollars for a trained wolf,” Andy said calmly. “People have done stranger things—worse things—for that kind of money.”
“There would have been no reason to disappear with no notice like she did,” Liam objected. “She could have made an excuse, said she was going on a trip if she truly wanted to hide this from me. Why run the risk that I’d get worried and find her? And how would she explain her disappearance when she got back?”
“If she planned to take Adrian’s money and escape, then it seems like she’d want you to think she was taken against her will,” Andy pointed out. “To avoid getting in trouble. Unless you’re telling me there would have been no punishment for her if you found out she’d done such a thing?”
Liam’s jaw tightened. “Brenna didn’t need the money. She was happy here, doing what she loved.”
Suddenly Ruth tensed. “But we do know someone who needs the money. Someone who might be willing to trade Brenna’s freedom to get it.”
Andy lifted his notebook, pen poised. “Who?”
Ruth ignored him and looked at Liam. “It takes a lot of money to start a new pack.”
Liam clenched his hands into fists, and the muscles in his arms strained against his skin. “He wouldn’t dare.”
Kristine shuffled her feet and crossed her arms in front of her body. She looked like she wanted to leave, but felt compelled to stay. “No, he wouldn’t do that. Brenna was helping him. He’d never hurt her, no matter how much he wanted the money.”
“Who?” Andy asked again, a hint of irritation heating his tone.
A squeaky wheel down the hall made everyone turn. A janitor’s cart appeared, followed by the janitor. A familiar face peered at us over a large trash can, a sneer marring his lips. My heart fell.
“So,” Stephen drawled. “Exactly how much money did you say one would need to start his own pack?”
Chapter 7
I concentrated on trying to breathe. Every shifter in the room blazed like a small sun, baking my brain in the heat. I closed my eyes, but that just made it worse. So I pried them open again and settled for retreating to stand against the wall so at least I wasn’t flanked by the shifter ovens.
Stephen’s beard had gotten thicker since the last time I’d seen him, still not long, but thick enough for the dark brown to appear black. The beard made him look older. Or maybe that was the hardness in his eyes as he stared at Liam.
“So you finally called in your witch to find Brenna.” Stephen grabbed a trash bag from a box on the cart, then sauntered toward the office. “I’m sorry for your pain. I know how hard it is to be separated from a woman you care about. How it feels to know she’s upset, lost, desperate for your help. To be unable to comfort her, or get any answers about her well being.” He paused to look at his alpha. “You must be in Hell right now.”
Every nerve in my body pulled tight, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose as I waited for Liam to roar, to leap at Stephen, to rip his throat out. That’s what the pulsating energy behind me suggested would happen. But he stayed calm.
Sort of.
“If you have something to say about Brenna’s disappearance, then say it,” Liam said.
“I’m afraid I have nothing to add. As I’ve already told you, I was in my room the night she disappeared. And I’m sure you can confirm that.”
He lifted the leg of his pants, drawing my attention to the anklet with the green light. House arrest.
“You can’t go in there,” Ruth said, her voice tight enough to bounce a quarter off of.
Stephen arched an eyebrow, then peered into the office. His gaze landed on the body. “Hope Brenna’s faring better than him.”
Ruth’s eyes blazed from green to gold, a sign her beast wanted to answer Stephen’s insolent tone with a fistful of claws. “You will watch your tone when you speak to your alpha.”
Stephen bowed his head. “Of course. How can I be of help, oh mighty alpha?”
The vein in Liam’s left temple pulsed, and he took a long moment before responding. “What do you know about Adrian Varca?”
“The name doesn’t ring a bell, sorry. And before you ask, no, I haven’t spoken to Brenna. She hasn’t so much as sent a postcard to check on me—which is shameful since she was so eager to be my counselor.” Stephen didn’t take his eyes off Liam. “Thank you for insisting I get counseling, by the way. It’s been very helpful.”
He returned to his cart with the same, lazy stride, exuding confidence without making any quick moves that might give Ruth or Liam an excuse to jump him. He returned the empty trash bag to the cart. “Unfortunately, I must return to my duties. It’s so important that I fulfill my position in the pack, prove myself to be a useful, contributing member. After all, if I want to have my own pack someday, I need to work my way up.”
Ruth twitched as if she’d take a step forward, but Liam moved first. He approached Stephen with strong, powerful strides, standing close enough that a stiff breeze might have pushed them together. Stephen held on to his deliberately casual pose even though I knew Liam’s power had to be pressing against him. Liam stood there, staring at Stephen, the proverbial disapproving father with his errant son.
“May I go?” Stephen asked softly.
Liam nodded once as if reaching the end of his control. “Go.”
I didn’t breathe until Stephen pushed his cart down the hall, the squeaking of the cart’s wheel fading into the distance. Peasblossom squirmed against my neck.
“Do you think he keeps that wheel squeaky on purpose?” she whispered. “I do. It’s annoying. And a little creepy.”
“Insolence,” Ruth ground out. “You should punish him for that tone.”
Kristine cleared her throat. “He expressed sympathy, and he asked permission before he walked away. Technically, he didn’t do anything wrong that would warrant punishment.”
“I am alpha, and it is on me to decide what merits punishment,” Liam said, his voice rumbling in his chest. “And me alone.”
Ruth stiffened. “I meant no disrespect.”
Kristine hesitated, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. “Besides,” she blurted out. “Whatever his attitude, Stephen wouldn’t hurt Brenna. I was his counselor before Brenna, and I’m telling you, she’s always been good to him, and to Emma. Especially Emma. And that means more to Stephen than anything else.”
“What do you mean, especially to Emma?” I asked.
“Brenna is the one who was assigned to Emma when she first…joined the pack,” Kristine said, rubbing her palms on her jeans. “She helped her through the worst of it. That first night is hard.”
“None of that would mean anything to Stephen,” Ruth said bitterly. “He would do anything to hurt Liam. I’m the one who handled his intake after the whole disaster, and I’m telling you, that much hatred is dangerous.”
Suddenly Ruth and Liam jerked their attention to the end of the hall, the direction Stephen had first approached from. Andy and I followed their gaze and a moment later, a familiar white-scarred face appeared.
“Ruth’s right,” Edwin said, his deep voice a calm baritone that seemed somewhat at odds with the mangled state of the skin around his eye.
Liam rolled his head until a series of tendons popped in his neck. “This isn’t a good time, Edwin. Is there something you need?”
Edwin stood like a soldier, relaxed, but with that energy that suggested he could be ready to fight in an instant. He strode forward, and Liam stepped closer, putting his body between Edwin and the office door. Edwin stopped a few feet away, too far down the hall to get a look inside. His nostrils flared.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
Ruth brushed her hair behind her ear. “Everything is under control, Edwin, but now isn’t the best time. We didn’t have an appointment today, did we?”
“No. I came up here when I heard the commotion. I overheard your conversation with Stephen. And I have to say, with all due respect, you’re too lenient with him.” Edwin crossed his arms, his muscular biceps bunching with the movement. “He’ll cause more trouble the longer you wait to put him in his place.”
“You’ve made your position clear. And as I said before, I will deal with Stephen as I see fit.”
Edwin stared at Liam for a long minute. This close, I could see a hint of film over the eye touched by the scar, and I wondered if it impaired his vision at all. That eye flicked to me and I gave myself all the brownie points for not flinching.
“You’re a witch.”
I blinked, momentarily taken aback by the statement. Then I remembered. Of course he knew I was a witch, he’d seen me slinging spells when we’d last met. When he’d almost killed Liam in the service of the wizard. “Yes.”
