by Jeff D Ellis
David, can you hear me? You’re safe now and we’re going to get you home.
Abby shook her head. “Nothing, Chief.”
“Let’s get him back to the office and let Ash have a look at him. We can decide then what our next steps are.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
New Day
ABBY WATCHED AS Ash poked, prodded and examined a freshly sedated coyote.
“I need to run tests on the blood sample I took. I’ll be back soon.”
“Thanks, Ash.”
Abby placed her arms over the coyote and sent healing energy through her touch.
“David, come back to me. We need you. Remember what it’s like to be human and come back to me.”
Healing energy kept flowing into his body wherever it needed to go. Abby lost all sense of time as she kept focused on her work.
“I have the results of the blood work. As we expected, this is David and I think he is over the worst of the Windigo virus. We need to protect him and keep him resting until he shifts back to Human.”
“Is there anything else we should be doing?”
“I don’t want to give him any more sedatives. They might prevent him from shifting. At this point, it’s all up to him. I would leave the muzzle on and keep him locked in here until you know he has control of the coyote. At his current rate of healing, the sedative should be wearing off soon.”
“Thanks, Ash.”
“I will leave you to alone. Let me know if you need anything.”
***
The fog lifted from David’s mind and he looked around the room. He was up on a table and Abby had an arm over his fur. Fur? When did he shift to coyote? Where was he?
Abby petted his head. “David, you’re safe now. Just relax.”
He rolled over onto his belly.
“It is you?”
He nodded his head.
“You’re not going to bite me, are you?”
David shook his head.
“Let me take the muzzle off.”
Muzzle? What did he do to make her so scared of him? With the muzzle off, he yawned and stretched. It felt good to move around, but it would feel so much better to be Human again. After focusing a few moments, David found he was unable to change back and whined.
“It’s okay, David. Give it a little time. Ash did some tests and said you have beat the virus. You just need a little rest now.”
David jumped down from the exam table and scratched at the door.
“Let’s get you home, but this time, stay in the house.”
Why didn’t he remember any of this?
On entering the squad room, Gwen hobbled up and gave him a hug. “We are so happy you are getting better. You really had us scared for a while.”
A playful squeal erupted as David rewarded Gwen with a lick on the cheek.
Abby laughed. “I’m taking him home now and will be back in the office in the morning.”
***
Sunlight streaming through the window woke David up. His first impulse was to roll over and go back to sleep, but he was starving.
He yelled out, “Abby, I’m starving. Do we have anything for breakfast?”
She came running into the bedroom with tears running down her face.
“I had the strangest dream. I was trapped in a coyote some place dark and cold unable to shift back.”
Abby kissed him and whispered, “Welcome home.”
“Did I go somewhere?”
“What is the last thing you remember?”
“I stayed home to rest while you went into the office to work the case with Hammer.”
“You don’t remember shifting to coyote and heading up the hill?”
“I don’t remember any of that. What I do know is that I’m starving, and we should go eat.”
Abby laughed and hugged him. “Sorry for the twenty questions. Let’s get you some breakfast.”
***
The quickest and easiest place for Abby to take David for breakfast was an IHOP a couple miles away. They were quickly seated. Luckily for David, they were offering their all-you-can-eat pancakes special.
Abby waited until David had a chance to eat his first round of pancakes before trying to gauge his condition.
“Feeling any better with some food in you?”
David nodded. “Other than needing more to eat, I’m feeling good.”
“You think your abilities are back to normal?”
“I don’t know. After the dream I had, I’m a little freaked about shifting right now.”
Abby decided to test their connection.
David, can you hear me?
He smiled.
That’s working again! Was my dream of being trapped as coyote real?
Yes, it was. It took the team to find and pull you out of the sinkhole you fell into. We were very worried about you.
I’m sorry to have put you into that position. In the dream, I was powerless to do anything including change back. The coyote was running the show and no matter what I said, it didn’t listen or let me do anything.
She reached across and touched his hand.
Oh David, I would have been terrified in your situation.
“Do you think you’re ready to go back to work?”
“I think so, not sure if I’m combat ready yet, but want to get back on the job.”
“I think Ash wants to give you a checkup before you’re cleared for field work.”
“To be honest, I would value someone confirming I’m better. I don’t think I can trust my feelings right now.”
Abby smiled and hugged him. “It’s okay, we’ll just take things one step at a time.”
It took one more pancake refill before David was ready to face the office. When they arrived, people treated him like he had risen from the dead. After everybody got a chance to have a moment, the Chief pulled them into his office.
“Have a seat. David, you look good. How are you feeling?”
“Chief, I’m feeling much better and my connection to Abby is working again. It won’t take long before I’m fully back to normal.”
“We could use some help finding that Windigo. Are you feeling up to some desk duty?”
“I think it would be good for me to help out.”
“Good to hear! Go see Ash for more tests.”
David and Abby headed to the door.
“Abby, do you have a minute?”
“David, I’ll catch up with you soon.”
“Close the door and have a seat.”
Abby sat back down. “What can I do for you?”
“It’s only been one night. Is he ready to be here?”
“He does seem better, but I think it’s too early to tell.”
“What is the status on the Windigo hunt?”
“We suspect Otis Thorn is involved, but we have no proof yet. Hammer is keeping an eye on him.”
“Any news from Hammer?”
“I was surprised he wasn’t already here today.”
Chief nodded. “That’s all. Let me know what Hammer has to report.”
It was strange she hadn’t heard from the Detective. It had slipped her mind, with everything that went on yesterday. Abby had a bad feeling when Hammer didn’t answer his phone. When she checked with SPD, they hadn’t heard from him either.
“Perry, can you get me a location on Hammer’s phone?”
“Did the Chief authorize this?”
“I tried his cell and his office. No one seems to know where he is, and I have a bad feeling about this. Chief asked me to get Hammer’s status on the case.”
“Fine, I will give it a ping.”
Perry did some work on his computer and looked up. “His phone isn’t active, and I can’t turn it back on. I checked the locator in his SPD-issued car and it’s parked at his house.”
“Thanks, Perry. It looks like I’ll be paying a visit to his place.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
House Call
DAVID TRIED NOT to look wor
ried when Ash came back with his latest test results.
“How am I?”
“Your vital signs are good, but not yet shifter-good. Your lab work came back clean of the virus. How do you feel?”
“I feel good. Not my best, but good.”
“What about your abilities?”
“My link to Abby is back. I haven’t tried anything else yet.”
“What about my aura?”
David squinted. “Yes! I just needed to focus. Normally it comes naturally, but when I first learned to do it, I had to focus to notice it.”
“What was the last ability you learned?”
“I don’t think my ability to quickly learn new skills will be easily testable. Before that it was being able to shift to a Were-jaguar and travel into the astral plane using the Eye of the Jaguar.”
“Would you like to test that out now?”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet. I lost control as a coyote and don’t want to risk it yet.”
“Don’t worry about it right now. You will need to test each of your abilities at some point, but it can wait. I will tell the Chief you are cleared for limited duty.”
“Thanks Doc, I will let you know if anything changes.”
When he got back to his desk, Abby looked concerned.
“Ash cleared me for limited duty. Everything is going to be all right now.”
“Great!” She planted a kiss on his nose.
“I’m worried about Hammer. He should have checked in by now and no one can reach him. I want to check out his house. That’s where his car is parked at the moment.”
“I bet it’s nothing to worry about, Abby.”
“You up for taking a drive?”
***
They arrived at Hammer’s house, a small single-story home on a small lot. They knocked on the door. There was no answer. His car was still in the driveway.
“Abby, I’ll check around back. Why don’t you stay here in case he comes to the door?”
David didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary looking through the side windows. There was a sliding door at the back of the house. The curtains were closed, and he couldn’t see in. Everything was properly locked up and showed no sign of forced entry.
Abby was still at the front door when he made it back to the front.
David pulled out some lock picks. “If he hasn’t answered by now, it’s time to let ourselves in.”
Abby nodded and drew her gun. “I have a bad feeling about this. Be ready for anything.”
They silently went room by room, clearing the house. Things changed in the bedroom. The bed had huge pools of dried blood on the comforter.
“I’ll call this in while you look for clues.”
It was unsettling, but David focused and searched the room for magic and scents. The blood soaked into the bed smelled of death. There was also an old scent, but any magic auras there may have been had dissipated away. It must have been at least a day old. The house was tidy and didn’t show any sign of struggle.
“I think someone died here and since it’s Hammer’s house, I guess it was him.”
“Clean-up crew is coming and will gather forensic evidence. He must have been close to finding our killer. Maybe he left a clue.”
“We better hurry in case he’s still alive. The room reeks of death, but without a body, we don’t know it was him.”
“I only hope he’s not a Windigo now.”
“Dang, I hadn’t thought of that. We better work fast.”
They started a search while waiting for help.
Abby yelled, “I found his badge, gun and notepad.”
“He wouldn’t have gone anywhere without them.”
Abby looked through his notepad. “The last couple of couple of pages are torn out.”
“He must have been onto something. Any idea what he was working on?”
“He was following Otis Thorn. SPD says he is off-limits unless we have proof he is involved.”
“We don’t report to the SPD. What does the Chief say?”
“We are cleared to investigate but can’t tip Thorn off we are looking at him.”
“If he is the Windigo and caught Hammer watching, he might have had reason to kill him. I say he is our prime suspect in both cases. Is there anything in the notebook that could help?”
Abby checked it closer. “It does talk about the Marshals and our suspects in general terms. He uses a lot of abbreviations like SC for Second Circle and USM for Marshals. We can hope the killer didn’t pick up on the meaning.”
“I can’t believe there is all this blood but no sign of a struggle or forced entry into the house. Hammer wouldn’t have let the killer into the house without having his gun on him.”
“If this was a dump site, where is the body? If it’s the crime scene, where is the evidence of the attack?”
“Why go through the trouble of cleaning up if you’re going to leave the blood evidence? Maybe it’s not Hammer’s blood. What if the blood was planted to make him look guilty? Take a sample so we can get it going without waiting for the team to finish processing the house.”
Abby pulled an evidence bag from her supplies and cut a small sample of the fabric.
“Got it. We should get back to the office.”
***
After the sample was left with Ash to process, Abby met the team in the conference room.
“Guys, do we have a picture of Otis Thorn? I would like to get Ember and some crows watching him.”
Gwen shook her head. “We checked the DMV, company website, college yearbooks, and social media and were unable to find any pictures of Otis Thorn.”
“How does someone run a major biotech company and not have a picture?”
“Many Veiled try to hide their image from the Human world. For example, Greta Burke has no known pictures in the system. We don’t even have a picture of her in our files.”
“That does seem to indicate that Thorn is Veiled, but doesn’t prove anything.”
“And it doesn’t prove he had anything to do with the killings. I wish I could get a look at him and see if he has the same magic aura as the Windigo we killed.”
“I wonder if we can get a social introduction. We don’t want him to know we are investigating him.”
David, don’t even think about telling them about Kat or getting her involved.
I understand. I don’t want to put her in danger. We’ll look for other ways like some charity event or something.
“Gwen, can you check to see if there are any events that Thorn might be attending?”
“Will do and we’ll keep trying to dig into his past.”
Abby stood. “Seems like we’re done here. I think I’ll see if Ash has any preliminary results on the blood sample.”
Abby and David took the elevator to Ash’s lab. It was strange they never knew it existed before now. How many other secrets were there to uncover?
“Before you even ask, I don’t have the DNA results yet. I will need a couple more hours on that. What I can tell you is the blood is not a match to Detective Hammer.”
“How do you know it’s not his?”
Ash smiled. “I checked the blood type of the sample and it’s not a match for him. That test is very fast, and I knew you were worried about the Detective.”
Abby smiled. “That really helps direct our next steps.”
David tapped the desk. “I have one more question for you. Your main job is research on Veiled biology, right?”
“That’s true. Veiled can get sick and need healing like Humans do.”
“Have you ever worked with Thorn Technologies?”
“I’ve heard of them but never worked with them.”
“Then you have never met Otis Thorn.”
“Abby, I haven’t. What is this all about?”
Something feels off about her answers, but it’s not like when people lie to me.
“We think he may be a person of interest in a case we’re working.”
“While we’re here, anything new on my test results?”
“David, as far as I can tell from the medical side, you are good. I might want to take some more blood to see if you’ve built up antibodies that could be used to make a vaccine. It would be best if we could do that now. It might save a team member’s life.”
“Abby, I will be fine. Why don’t you go tell the team the news?”
Everyone was hard at work in the bullpen and the Chief was in his office.
“Chief, Ash had some preliminary results on the blood sample I brought in. It wasn’t a match for Detective Hammer’s blood type. Ash should have more information in a couple of hours.”
“Thanks for letting me know. Don’t take it as a sign the Detective is alive.”
“I thought if someone wanted to frame him, he would make a better scapegoat if he was alive.”
“If he was found dead, he couldn’t defend himself against any charges. It doesn’t mean he isn’t still alive right now. We need to make finding him a priority as well. Finding the Detective may also give us our Windigo.”
“Good news! The blood we found wasn’t Detective Hammer’s. Ash is still working out who the blood does belong to, but in the meantime, we need to add trying to find Hammer to our list. See if he has used his credit cards or if his phone has come back online. We need to find him.”
Needing some privacy to talk with Kat, Abby checked the break room and found it empty.
“Hey, Kat. Is this a good time to talk?”
“Sure, I can talk. I just left a client site. What’s up?”