Dean: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (Marshall's Shadow Book 2)

by Kathi S. Barton

  In the thirty minutes they said it would take to get to him, Hunter managed a nice shower and getting a washcloth full of ice for his face. There were bruises on bruises there, and he was not happy about it. How was he supposed to show his face anywhere looking like he’d lost the fight?

  The delivery person, a beautiful young thing, told him the price and that she could run his card. While waiting for it to go through, or whatever the little device was doing on her phone, he chatted her up.

  “What time do you get off?” No answer. “If you come by after work, I will show you what a great tipper I can be. We could have an all nighter, and we’ll both get off on it.”

  “Me and you? Hook up?” She looked him up and down after having him sign off on the credit card receipt. “I’d rather have all my teeth drilled out with a screwdriver than to allow anything like you to touch me. Gross.”

  “That’s not very nice. What if I were to call up your boss and let him know that you’re trying to get bigger tips by blowing your customers?” She told him that it wouldn’t work and that her boss was a woman. “Another woman? Christ, what is this world coming to? No matter. What if I called her up and told her what you were doing?”

  “See this right here? This is a camera. Not only does it record what you look like, but it also records every word that you said to me. Not to mention….” She shoved the pizza box at him hard enough to have him stagger back from it. “I don’t sleep with skinny little men like you that make up for their lack of dick by being ill mannered. You have a nice evening.”

  “What is it with people and their nice evening? Like that’s going to happen.” Bringing his pizza inside, he sat down on the side of the bed and pulled out the first slice to eat. “Yeah, good food can sometimes be better than good sex.”

  It didn’t take him long to devour the pizza. Wishing that he’d ordered two, he knew that they’d spit on it if he did it now. People, especially women, were so sensitive. Like they were the only ones that had had it rough in life.

  Taking the paperwork to the little table that was in his room, he started reading it. There were a lot of words that he didn’t understand, but he finally got to the part where it said that he wasn’t to enter the house.

  “What the fuck?” He read it three times before it sank in what his sister or her attorney was saying. “Who the hell died and made her king of shit? Nobody did, that’s who. Where the hell does she get off saying that I’m a bad influence over my own dad? Huh? And this shit here. How does she think that by me living in my own home, the one I spent more time in than she did, I’m taking advantage of Dad’s money and treasured items? Mother fuck.”

  Hunter didn’t usually talk to himself, but there were times when talking out loud seemed to make things better. Like saying it at the top of his lungs made it seem more real to him. Like he needed this any more real. Then he noticed where it mentioned that the card he’d been given was a one-time thing, and that it only had four hundred dollars on it.

  “Oh, no. Oh, hell, no.” He looked for how much the room was costing him for the night. “Fuck.”

  With the pizza that he’d eaten and the shit that he needed to change into after getting cleaned up, Hunter only had about fourteen dollars left. He could not believe that his dad was okay with this. Not only that, but that he’d allow Bella and that so called husband of hers to make decisions that he’d not been a part of. The next thing they’d be telling him was that he was cut out of the will. This shit had to stop now. Before his dumbass sister got out of control.

  The phone ringing in the room startled him. He was just pissed off enough to answer it and tell the person on the other end that they had the wrong fucking number. Hunter needed to be able to vent some of his anger, or he’d explode. Picking up the phone, he didn’t even get to say a word before a woman’s laughter, very sexy laughter, greeted him.

  ~*~

  It made Harris laugh all the harder when she surprised Hunter. When he asked her who the fuck she was, Harris told him, right along with her title as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She waited while the message sank in to tell him that he was being recorded and that by continuing the call, he was consenting to it. Just to be sure, she repeated it when he didn’t hang up.

  “You need to be aware that this call is being recorded, and that everything that is said could be used in a court of law. I’m calling to inform you, moron, that—” Hunter cut her off to tell her what his name was. “All right. I’m calling to inform you, Hunter Johnathan Booth, moron extraordinaire, that we’ve evidence that a woodchipper that you owned was used to cover up a crime. Well, ten of them, but we’re still searching through missing persons. Also, and this really pisses me off, you’re going to be tried for the murder of Officer Louis Woodward, an officer for the state of Ohio and—”

  “I didn’t kill him. I did shoot him, yeah, but I didn’t kill him. I shot him in the opposite side of his heart. There is no way that you’re pinning that on me.” She asked him how he’d come up with the thought that a heart was on the right side of a body. “I had to put my hand over my heart when I was in school. They always said to put your hand over your heart.”

  “You’re dumber than I thought. You put your right hand over your heart, moron. Not your left. Your heart is on the left side of your body.” He tested her statement. It seemed to him that it was beating on both sides. “Trust me, I know. What a fucking ridiculous person. How the hell did you make it through life being as dumb as you are? Christ. A man is dead because you didn’t pay attention in your anatomy class.”

  Harris shook her head. The man really was about the dumbest person she’d dealt with. And she’d dealt with a great many of them over the years. When he started talking again, she broke in to tell him again that their conversation was being recorded. It had been from the beginning. She did not want someone to say that they couldn’t use this information in a courtroom because she’d not warned him as to being recorded.

  “What do I care? You can’t use it against me anyway. I didn’t give you permission. I could, you know, tell you the name of every person that I’ve ever murdered. There is shit that you can do about it.” She asked Hunter if he was sure. “Sure, I’m sure. I don’t know all the laws, but I know enough that you can’t do that sort of thing to me without me giving you my consent. And I don’t. Not ever.”

  “So you have murdered people? Would that include Dana Morrison and her unborn child?” Hunter said that it would. Then he laughed. Shep joined her then, and she put the call on speaker so that he could hear how dumb this animal was. “Who else have you murdered?”

  “There was three people...no wait, four people that worked for me. They sort of caught me killing Dana. They were sick, too, when it happened. I guess they heard little Dana screaming as I was putting her into the chipper.” Harris looked at Shep, to confirm that the words from Hunter were real. “She was trying to get me to pay her for child support. How did I even know that it was my brat anyway? I didn’t. Those men, I’ll have to find their names for you. I have them someplace.”

  “So, she was alive when you put her into the chipper?” It wasn’t a question that she wanted an answer for, but he seemed to take joy in telling her that she’d been alive. “The other men—were they alive as well?”

  “One of them was. I think. I had to shoot them to make sure they didn’t run off. You might be happy to know that one of them took some pictures of me doing it. But you’re never going to find them. That sucker was ground up in the chipper right along with the man who tried to bargain with me about not killing him.” Harris, for the first time in a very long time, was sick at the depravity of another human being. “Names, you asked for names. There was Paul Riddle. Nice man, but he wanted me to pay my electric bill, or he was going to cut me off. Also, there was a guy—sorry, I don’t have his name. I never thought to get it when I was chopping him up. He was bothering me about
something in my mom’s will.”

  “Did you kill your mom too, Hunter?” No answer. “Hunter, did you kill your own mother? We’ve been trying to find her, and all we’ve been able to figure out was that she left the area about eighteen years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Is that the reason?”

  “Of course, I did. I didn’t have a nice chipper back then, Director Marshall. So I had to—Hey. That’s the same last name that my sister is going by. Are you related to her by any chance? She is telling the world that she’s gone and got herself a husband. She shouldn’t have done that. I have plans for the insurance that I took out on her. With a spouse, he’ll get the goods.”

  He told her two more people that he’d killed. Harris asked him where his mother’s body was. Hunter laughed again like it was a big joke that she’d not understand. Harris was ready to hang up, her stomach unable or her mind unwilling to take in any more of what he was saying.

  “She’s gone too, I’m afraid. The last time I saw her was when I put her into a kiln at the high school where they gave art classes for younger kids on the weekends. Funny thing about that. I thought for sure that the butchering tools I used would have gone up in smoke too, but they’re still there, lying at the bottom of the kiln. Do you suppose they use that to make mugs and dishes with? Wouldn’t it be about the funniest thing if they knew they were eating a part of my mother with every taste they had?”

  Disconnecting the call, Harris sat there for several minutes while her mind tried to equate the words that he’d told her into reality. Christ, he wasn’t dumb or stupid, he was a deranged creature. Not even someone that she’d call human.

  “What do you want to do first?” Harris just looked at Shep when he spoke. “Honey, what do you want to do first? Arrest him, or go and find out about the kiln? Tell me, and I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “I have to think. I have to— Shep, he killed that woman and her child while they were both still alive. And if that wasn’t enough, he fucking murdered his own mother. I don’t even want to know if she was alive when he did that. I’m just going to assume that she wasn’t and leave it at that.” She put her head on her desk as her mind settled. “I have a man on him now. They’re just waiting for enough evidence gathered up so that he can be brought in.”

  “What about the chipper and the evidence there?” She told him that he could have been anywhere when they were killed. “So now that he’s confessed to you, you can have him arrested. Right?”

  “Yes. We have more than enough. I do want you to go and check with the high school. He didn’t graduate from the one here locally. So far as I can tell, he never got a high school diploma from anywhere. Go there and find out if they have the kilns. If they do?” Harris shivered at the thought. “Tell them not to use it, and I’ll send someone after it. I doubt we’ll be able to use anything from it, but I don’t want anyone else using it either. They’ve more than likely fired that sucker up several million times since then. And a body in a kiln would have fired to dust. Tell them that we’ll replace it with a newer one. Hell, tell them that we’ll replace them all with new ones. That should get us in good with the school when this comes out.”

  “Do we tell Bella and Dean?” Looking at Shep, she thought about that. “They’ll need to know eventually. Telling them before it hits the paper will give them some time to form answers to any kind of questions that they might be hit with.”

  “I’ll go and see them while you’re hunting down the kiln. Take Ricky with you. He’s still here. Also, tell Grandda to go too if he can. Maybe he can charm them into full cooperation without having to tell them what we’ve found out.” Shep asked her when she was leaving. “I have to have this recording sent to the office. Shep, he thinks that this can’t be used against him. He has it in his head that by saying all this on tape, without his permission to record him, it will not come back to bite him in the ass.”

  “You’re going to take a big chunk out of him, aren’t you?” She nodded, feeling better about this more and more. “Will he plead insanity? Christ, that’s all they need. Him locked up with a bunch of people that can’t get away from him. If you ask me, I think he’s completely off his rocker.”

  “If he does, then he’ll never see the inside of an insane asylum. I will personally make sure that he doesn’t get off on that sort of bargain.” Shep nodded, then told her that he loved her. “I love you, as well. He’s a monster. I don’t think anyone, including me, realized what sort of monster he really is.”

  “It’s doubtful that anyone did, like you said. I’m thinking that this rape that Fletcher has in his mind might have something more to do with Hunter than we thought.” Harris said she’d not thought of that. “Maybe his dad saw him raping young Dana, and that was how she’d gotten pregnant. Perhaps the next time you talk to him, you can ask.”

  “Sorry, but I don’t think I want to know.” Shep laughed, a soft kind of laughter that made her think it was forced. “We’ll get this figured out. And when we do, that man will regret ever being born. Worse yet, ever tangling with me.”

  When Shep left her, she knew that she had to talk to Bella. This conversation was going to be harder than she had ever had with someone. Before making sure that the recording was safe in the hands of one of her men to have it transcribed, Harris made a copy of it to take with her. Perhaps Bella would believe it more if it came straight from the monster’s mouth.

  Going by the kitchen, she asked Taylor if he had any sweets that she could take to Bella and Dean. Not only did he wrap up several scones that he’d just baked, but he also sent with her a few dozen cookies. She wasn’t thinking this would sweeten anyone up, but it might make things go down better if they had this to munch on.

  Harris was out the door when she heard someone pull into the drive. It was Grandda. Asking him if he’d go with Shep to the school and that she’d explain on the way, she handed him a scone, only to have him turn it down. Harris smiled.

  “Trust me, you’re going to need it. The shit and everything that goes with it is going to hit the fan in a few minutes, and this will make you feel less dirty. I hope so anyway.” He asked her where they were headed. “I’m dropping you off at the school, where you’re going to negotiate for a kiln for me that someone might have been murdered in. Then I’d like for you to be there with Shep and Ricky West when we arrest Hunter. He’s going in for the long haul. Thank God. Shep will tell you the rest when you get there.”

  “All right. But I hear they’ve had no luck finding Mrs. Booth.” Harris told him what she knew. “He killed his mother? My goodness, Harris, does this man know no boundaries?”

  “Apparently not. None at all.”

  After dropping him off, she headed to Dean’s house. Pulling into the driveway, she had to sit there for a few minutes to just take in what she was seeing. Dean came running to her when she got out of the car.

  “I’ve been trying to contact you. By phone. There are just too many...this is a shit storm, Harris.” She nodded toward the house and asked what they’d found. “Everything. Anything you will need to take care of Hunter.”

  Chapter 7

  Dean tried to stay out of the way as best he could. But there were so many people on the third floor that he felt like he was being caged in. Bella came up to him, her tears still fresh on her cheeks, and he held her. This had been hardest on her, he knew. Christ, he could not believe the mess that they’d walked into when they’d broken the lock on the door to Hunter’s room.

  “I just had a long talk with Harris. She said that we were right in not calling her until the police arrived. Stepping on the locals’ toes is hard enough without having her as a relative taking over.” Dean asked if she was upset. “Yes. Not at us, but at this in the room. Dean, he actually killed my mom.”

  “I know, honey. I’m so sorry.” There were pictures of all the deaths that he’d done. Big colorful ones that Dean had to wonder where he�
�d gotten them printed. Someone had to have helped him with this. “Harris said that she came here to tell you about what she’d found out. I’m not sure that this way was any better, but at least it’s going to make his case stick more.”

  “I don’t want him to go to prison, Dean.” He was sure that he’d not heard her right, but when she continued, his heart hurt more for her. “I want him dead. I don’t want him to go to court so that he might be thought to be insane.”

  “There’s more to it than that.” They both turned to Harris when she spoke softly behind them. “I’m worried, and I think rightly so, that if people find out what sort of person your brother is, the charities that your father turned over to you will fail. No one will believe that you had nothing to do with, nor any knowledge of, what was going on here.”

  “But, I didn’t.” Harris said that it wouldn’t matter. Not to the public. “Are you saying that rather than help people in need, they’d rather not give anything towards this fund because of something that I had nothing to do with? Not to mention, I called the cops for them to have a look at this crap in there.”

  “Yes.” Dean held tighter onto Bella when she started toward Harris. “Bella, people would rather believe an outlandish lie than the boring truth about everyone. Not everyone, I guess, but most will. And no matter what you say to the contrary, people will do and believe what they want. It’s the way of the world now.”

  “What are you suggesting that we do?” Harris just stared at him. “That’s what Bella just said she wanted to happen to him.”

  “I don’t want him getting off on some technicality. Something like insanity. Though I doubt anyone in their right mind would think that he was anything but fucking nuts.” Harris hugged Bella and whispered in her ear. When she pulled back, Bella pulled Harris to her. “No. I would never, not ever, hold his death against you. You are, by far, the best friend I’ve ever had, Harris.”