Cheetahs Never Win

by RJ Blain

  “Sassy? You’ll be able to keep him in line?”

  “How long is the education process before we’re in the field?”

  “We have an intensive six-month course we’re going to run you both through, and you’ll be working with a few FBI instructors. I called in some favors. With your experience in the private investigation field, we’ll see how it goes. It might be as long as eighteen months depending on how fast you pick up the important skills. We’re going to also test if we’ve got any dogs you might be able to work with. We’ve found partnering investigators with a dog is useful, and there’s a lot of quality animals this year. Fewer washouts than we expected, so we might be able to find one that’ll work with you two. If you get a dog, it’ll add a few months to your training, but you’ll be better off in the field.”

  “Two cats and a dog?” I asked. “Really?”

  “While that has occurred to me, it’s worth a shot. It’ll let us test dogs with investigators, although we are still working out the kinks on how to bring a dog to a crime scene without disturbing evidence until needed. We’ve got a lot of kinks to work out. We’ll be doing a lot of tests of new procedures with you two. Frankly, your early onset diagnosis will really help with getting lycanthropes into the field without the hybrid form. If you, with the most volatile virus conditions possible, can handle the work, it’s a pretty safe bet that other lycanthropes can as well. I’m open to the idea, as it’ll drastically lower causalities in the field. There’s a heightened risk of the virus being spread, but the CDC’s determined that the virus is going to continue spreading no matter what precautions we take.”

  I believed that; while it seemed simple enough to prevent the spread of the virus, it only took one fist fight to cause an infection. Or, in my case, an overprotective idiot of a father wanting the best for his daughter.

  Sassy’s mother rose and headed to the kitchen, and to my surprise, my mother followed her.

  Sassy perked up, twisting on the bench. “They’re about to feed us.”

  “There’s also the matter of feeding lycanthropes in the field. Lycanthropes eat a lot. Have you put thought into how to handle the voracious appetites of post-shift lycanthropes?” I asked.

  “Yes. The CDC sent over everything they recommend for their hybrid field agents, and they’ve informed me the same rules generally apply to lycanthropes without the hybrid form. She’ll have some challenges, but as long as you’re stabilized by the time your education is completed, I see no actual issues with your condition.” Chief Braneni set his briefcase on the table, opened it, and handed me a stack of papers. “One set is for you, one set is for your partner. The offers are the same. This will give you a chance to discuss it, review the required waivers, and contact the CDC should you have questions I can’t answer. We don’t typically handle recruitment in this fashion, but some opportunities shouldn’t be missed, and the CDC is riding my ass about getting non-hybrid lycanthropes onto the force to better police the lycanthrope population.”

  “Why us?” I asked, separating the papers to give Sassy her copy. The way she snatched them, her smile widening until I worried she’d overload from anticipation, promised no matter what the documents said, I’d be signing up for a new career by the end of the week.

  All of my misgivings crumbled under the force of her hopes, and I found while bitter, the pill went down easier than expected.

  Some cases I’d lose. Some I’d win. Some, like the murders leading to an attempt on my life, would inevitably leave scars only time could heal. I respected Maxwell for attempting to undo the harm he’d done before joining the police force. His path, something I’d shied away from, was littered with challenges I feared.

  Every choice in life came at a price, and I wondered if Sassy and I would emerge changed people.

  Even without the lycanthropy virus, seeing the cooling bodies of a mother and child ate away at me, breaking apart my hesitancies until the only place I could bring about the change I wanted was in the very place I’d never believed I’d go. The papers would set my course, but beyond too little pay for the risks involved, I couldn’t see myself saying no.

  I’d already paid too much to lose the opportunity to make a real difference.

  Chief Braneni stared at me, his expression a carefully constructed mask of neutrality. “For all you’ve been a thorn in our sides for years, you’re both respected. We’re all aware of what you’ve done at a personal cost to yourself. It’s hard to find fault with your ethics, and that’s what our force needs: men and women with ethics. You have that. Lycanthropes will be joining the force, but if I can have you two as the spearhead of the recruitment drive, I believe those who come behind you will have less to prove and an easier time of it. Not everyone will love you or the virus you carry, but you two are the only names I hear time and time again who meet the standards we need. If you two work well, you’re paving the way for others. And make no mistake. Dallas is a hotbed of lycanthropy, and it won’t be much longer until the minority becomes the majority. There are ten wolf packs, I’ve lost count of the damned felines, and more move in every day. We need lycanthropes on the force, and while Dallas is a hot bed, there ain’t a single damned hybrid in the city, and nobody knows why. They like the east coast, or are northern bred. A few stragglers who like surfing in California. Elsewhere? The CDC’s not telling me. I guess they don’t want to lose their aces up their sleeves. I could use a few hybrids for major incidents.”

  I chuckled at the displeasure in the chief’s tone. “Too bad you can’t figure out what makes a hybrid. Then you could coax the virus into doing what you want.”

  “We’re not science experiments, Aaron,” Sassy growled.

  “But Sassy, haven’t you wanted to be a hybrid?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t ruin my clothes when I shift unless I’m in a hurry and claw them to shreds. If I had the hybrid form, my clothing budget would be ridiculous. Right now, as long as I’m careful, I don’t wreck my outfits when I shift in a hurry.”

  Heaven forbid Sassy ruin her clothes shifting. Unable to help it, I smiled. “That’s fair enough.”

  “Clothing is serious business, Mr. Clinton.”

  Well aware of her shoe bill, I wouldn’t argue with her over it. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “See, Chief Braneni? He can be taught. Be glad you don’t have hybrids. Keeping them clothed in uniforms would cost you a fortune.”

  “That is not something I’d considered,” the chief admitted.

  “Why would you? To understand what it’s like to be a lycanthrope, you’d have to walk in our shoes a while—or at least keep us company for more than a few minutes at a time. If you really want to see what it’s like to be a lycanthrope, go to a weekend barbecue. By the time you’re done, you’ll have a much better idea of everything involved, the precautions lycanthropes take around the uninfected, and a much broader worldview than you currently have. Talk to Dad. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind planning one for you.”

  “Yes, I would,” Sassy’s father muttered from the other table.

  “Penance, asshole!” Sassy howled. “Pay it.”

  I rolled my eyes at Sassy’s antics. “It’s probably a good idea for the force to know exactly what they’re getting into with the lycanthrope population. But you can be assured of one thing: it’ll be the most well-behaved party of lycanthropes on Earth with that many cops loitering around.”

  “Ain’t that the truth,” Chief Braneni said. “If you’ll plan it, Mr. Chetty, I’ll recruit as many officers as I can for it. Pot luck?”

  “That’s how we roll on the weekend parties, yes. Aaron, your contribution is hauling duty in your truck.”

  “I’m in,” I announced.

  “Of course you are.” Sassy jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow. “Behave. You can’t even drive your truck until Joe clears you.”

  “If I tell your brother I love him, will he let me drive sooner?”

  “No.”
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  “That’s entirely unfair.”

  “Deal with it,” Sassy replied. “In the meantime, I’ll enjoy driving your big, manly truck around.”

  “You’re cruel, evil woman.”

  Sassy smirked.

  Chapter Eleven

  The next time someone warned me about the volatile nature of a cheetah female preparing to stake her claim, I’d listen. I’d also remember Sassy’s brothers adored her and would do anything to make her happy, include scheme on a way to ensure she got exactly what she wanted. When I thought it through, I realized someone in Sassy’s family would’ve gone out of their way to ensure I picked up the virus from somewhere.

  Her father lacked her brothers’ patience.

  Joe topped my list of general accomplices. I’d stopped paying attention to the pills he gave me to make my life a little easier until the virus finished having its way with me, and I fully healed from the crash. As promised, he fixed my fingers. He’d even warned me I’d be down and out for the count.

  Waking up in my new truck hadn’t been part of any plan.

  “What happened to staying at your dad’s place?” I groaned, fighting off the clinging influence of Joe’s damned drugs so I could sit up straight.

  “We did until two in the morning, and after Mom and Dad were out for the night, Joe and Charlie dragged you to the truck. I bribed a few friends to tail us until we reach our destination, after which they’ll be prowling around to make sure we’re not disturbed.”

  Tricky cat. “What time is it?”

  “Three in the morning.”

  “What friends?”

  “Two wolf packs. They’re invested; if we join the force, they get a chance, too. I got two other packs working on the serial killer case, too. We’re hoping if we can team everyone up and get some good investigative work done, we can present a stronger case for getting a larger crew of lycanthropes in the initial test batch.”

  “Just how many wolves are we talking about here?”

  “Thirty in the two packs prowling the woods tonight, another forty-seven in the investigative crew. Maxwell’s been the primary contact for the wolves. They want to pitch the wolves being trained like police dogs to fit that role with lycanthrope crews; it’d solve the problems Chief Braneni mentioned, and if all lycanthropes can learn the ropes, we can supplement the mundane dogs. It won’t eliminate the need for the regular dogs, but it’ll help—and give lycanthropes extra places to work on the force. With our numbers, every pair could have a lycanthrope added to their team.”

  I rolled my shoulders and winced as my back notified me it hadn’t enjoyed sleeping in my new truck. “This is going to put a damper on investigating.”

  “I brought the work with us. I’m sure we’ll have some time. I also distributed all the information to the wolves. They’re invading the libraries tomorrow to get photos of all the newspapers from the entire range. They’re also getting photographs of every newspaper between your parents’ anniversary and your birthday, as well as the month after to ensure we don’t miss anything.”

  “Thorough.”

  “I figured you’d get pissy if your work was screwed. They’re motivated. I expect we’ll have every page of every newspaper released for at least seven years by the end of the day. That’s a lot of wolves with a lot of cameras, and they’re going to upload the pictures to our server.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere nice and remote. If the killer even sniffs at you, they’ll be picking him out of wolf teeth for weeks.”

  Gross. While I thought the bastard deserved a brutal end, it wouldn’t end well for the hopeful lycanthropes. “You did impress upon them the fucker needs to live to see trial, right?”

  “They’ve been informed of the only cases where lethal force is permitted. They’re wolves. They’ll toe the line just right. I gave them the speech, Maxwell gave them the speech, and since Rob doesn’t really trust any of us, he gave them the speech, too. Once they were done giving them the speech, Mark blasted in with a fuck it, leave him scattered throughout the state of Texas speech, as he’s really miffed he almost lost you. If Mark gets a hold of this guy, he won’t last long. He’s carrying that damned rifle around with him and is itching to use it.”

  “Why did anyone think it was a good idea to give my brother a carry permit for that gun?”

  “Rob asked the same question.”

  “Any progress while I was sleeping?”

  “Rob and Maxwell jumped on the newspaper lead like flies on shit. Rob and Chief Braneni are hunting for a judge to sign the warrant for the paternity tests on the kids as part of the investigation, and Rob thinks he can wrangle just cause using his ragtag band of attorneys. I give it a fifty-fifty.”

  “Why is Rob involved so early? We don’t even have a suspect.”

  “It’s personal.”

  Shit, shit, shit. “The DA has a direct connection to this case?”

  “Yeah. I found the link the other day, but I decided I’d keep my mouth shut about it.”

  “Open your mouth.”

  Sassy sighed. “One of the victims is a childhood friend, and they were rather… close.”

  “Any chance the kid was his?”

  “Yeah. The one that wasn’t matched with a newspaper scrap and didn’t fit with the others is his as far as I can tell. Rob’s going to sink if the paternity test goes through. Maybe he’ll try for an exemption.”

  Fuck. I ran my hand through my hair and wondered what to do. “No birth certificate?”

  “Last I checked, Rob was in process of having the birth certificate altered so his name was added. He might wait a while, but I saw the papers when I was snooping around in his office. He’s already put in for a paternity test.”

  Poor, poor Rob. “Was he paying child support?”

  “Are you asking me if I, little old me, would snoop in the DA’s financials?”

  “Obviously.”

  “He was making some large payments to the victim on a monthly basis unofficially, and everything I’ve found points at them having a cordial relationship. The sexual part of their relationship ended about a year ago. Rob’s looking to settle down, and I don’t think she wanted to commit. That’s all I could find out under short notice.”

  “He’s going to kill you if he finds out.”

  “It’s his fault for leaving me alone in his office for ten whole minutes without asking me to relinquish my lock picks. It took me less than a minute to bust into his drawers and snoop around. He also needs to not leave his bank statements buried under his work papers. I got all that in less than five minutes, although I had to do some foot work on his kid. He’ll turn the world upside down to find out who killed his kid and why, Aaron.”

  In his shoes, I would, too. “All right. It’s personal for the DA. Anything else I should know?”

  “That’s the worst of it. So, we have an invested DA, and the police are itching to catch this bastard. The DA’s going to be a problem; he’s going to be blinded by his need for justice for his kid, and unless someone reveals he’s directly involved, he’s going to be in the way.”

  “No, he won’t be in the way. Rob’s a lot of things, but if he didn’t want the correct justice, he wouldn’t have approached us, Sassy. He knows I’m going to find the real killer and not just get some false satisfaction. If he wanted just anyone caught, he wouldn’t have worked with Maxwell to hire us. He wants the real killer. And I don’t mean the bastard who pulled the trigger. He wants the one behind it. I mean, he wants the fucker who pulled the trigger, too. But that’s not the one who really killed his kid.”

  “And we tossed our attorneys for justice. He knows that.”

  I hoped Sassy remembered to bring my medications with her before carting me off on her evening adventure. I’d need them by the time we finished the conversation. “Exactly. Does he know you know?”

  “I could see him leaving things out so I could find it and put the pieces together, but I haven’t approached him
about it.”

  “Don’t. We’ll work this quietly. As long as he doesn’t screw with the investigation, he can hunt justice for his kid as much as he wants. We’ll need to look into the legalities.”

  “He can’t try the case according to the rules, but he’s going to get one of his hotshots to do it for him. He’ll be subpoenaed to witness, I’m sure.”

  My chest ached for the man. “That explains his comment about me being an uncle.”

  “His relationship with her wasn’t casual, Aaron. I think he wanted her to be his wife, but she just wasn’t interested in him like that.”

  Everyday tragedies were the worst kind. Some men stooped to violence in their frustration. Others withstood the storm and wondered about what might have been.

  “Are we sure the DA isn’t involved, Sassy?”

  “He’s not,” Sassy whispered.

  “How do you know?”

  “He’s got a picture of his boy on his desk among those killed, and it’s far more worn. Until this week, I didn’t know he could even cry. No, Aaron. I don’t think he did it. I think he wanted the child in his life more than either of us can know. I walked into his office the other day and met a broken, tired man.”

  “No stone unturned,” I whispered.

  “Either way, we won’t like what we find,” she warned.

  “That’s the price we pay for justice.”

  Sassy parked my truck in front of a planation home nestled in a valley skirted with trees. Killing the engine, she stretched and smiled at the building and its immaculate yard, bathed in the golden glow of lamplights lining the driveway. “One of the pack alphas owns this, and he’s letting me borrow it for a few days. He says it’s sturdy enough to withstand romping wolves, so he thinks it should survive a pair of felines. It’s stocked, so if you have your first shift while we’re here, I’ll be able to feed you.”

  After gorging on more barbecue than I imagined possible at dinner, it astonished me she thought I’d be ready to eat again. Ever. “Nice of him.”