To Skin a Wolf

by A. L. Kessler

  “I can already tell you that there’s odd scoring on the bones. Jagged, like something ricocheted off.” Jason motioned to the room. “I can’t tell you if it was a tool wielded by a human or something a supernatural creature possesses.”

  That wasn’t a lot to go on, but at least I knew the victims weren’t torn apart by magic. “So that probably rules out witch.”

  “Are you sure? Can’t some witches use magic to shift into an animal?” Mason offered and I cursed. It hadn’t been my first thought, but it was an oversight.

  “You’re right, it’s rare, but they aren’t as strong as lycanthropes.” I looked at Mason. “So we’re looking at something that can take on three werewolves. Either one on one or all together. With enough intelligence to drop the bodies somewhere with meaning and where they’d be found.”

  “You’ve thought of something?” Mason asked. “I know that look in your eyes.”

  I nodded. “Jason, make sure you run the blood and confirm that they still carry the lycanthropy gene.”

  “Is there a reason that they wouldn’t?”

  “Possibly, but I’m not ready to share that theory yet.” I didn’t think anyone in the pack would have been stupid enough to tangle with someone like Mina again. She was a witch who promised some of the pack members that she could cure their lycanthropy, but it involved blood magic and sacrifices. As black magic as one could get, and the wolves ended up dead. I went back to the room and grabbed gloves and booties from a small station now set up outside the room.

  I avoided the blood splatters on the floor this time and went straight for the bodies. Forensics had laid one of the torsos out, and now that it wasn’t in a pile with other body parts, I could tell it was one of the males. I squatted down and moved some of the flesh and muscles away with my finger to get a look at the spine. One of the vertebrae had been cracked and broken at an odd angle. I looked closer and saw what Jason had been talking about. Scrape marks, deep in the bone that could have been made by a number of different things.

  Tools, teeth, or claws? That was the question. I knew it’d take Jason a while to find the answer for me if he even could. I stepped away and turned to the heads; forensics was just pulling them down off the ceiling. Why had the murderer gone through the trouble of hanging them? A message? Why those three? What was the connection between them, other than being pack members? The men had been to the protests, but there was no mention of the woman being there. She originated from a different pack, but the other two hadn’t. Ages were similar, judging by the appearances, but that wasn’t much to go off of.

  “Abigail?” Mason’s voice called into the room. “I need you for a moment.”

  I stepped away from the bodies and out the door. Stripping off the gloves and shoe covers, I tossed them in a biohazard trash can set up outside the room. “What’s up?”

  “Travis has fled the scene. I told him you’d want to speak to him as well, I turned around and he ran.”

  Interesting. “I don’t really want to go werewolf hunting today.” I groaned. “I’ll be back. I’ll see if he’s still on the property or not. Where’s Simon?”

  “Calling first of kins and other pack members. I let him know it was okay to do so before the media got ahold of this.”

  Media always made a mess of supernatural crimes. Especially if they ended up in the tabloids. “Okay. I got the information I need from Simon, but I did want to talk to Travis. He doesn’t like me much though, that might have been why he left.”

  “You’ve met him before, then?” Mason shook his head. “There’s a lot you do on your time off, huh?”

  I wasn’t going to answer that because there was no legal answer. “I’ll be back.” I walked out the front of the club. I didn’t have anything to create a tracking spell to hunt him down with magic, but I could do that later if I needed to.

  A shadow moved to my left, dodging around the corner of the building. I drew my gun and rounded the corner. A huge white wolf stood there, baring its teeth at me. I had no way of knowing if it was Travis or not. I could assume it was since I didn’t know if there were any other wolves around.

  “You know only the guilty run,” I called out.

  The wolf snarled at me and sat back on its haunches. His muzzle pulled back from his sharp teeth as drool dripped over them. For a moment, I debated on just shooting him. “Your pack master won’t be thrilled if you attack a PIB agent. Besides, kill me and the circle on your land disappears, no more protection, no more safe place for your pack, your pups.” That wasn’t really true. I had taken over an ancient circle and used blood to do it. The magic was there to stay, but he didn’t know that.

  His snarl died down a little. The sound of snapping muscles and creaking bones came from him as his body started to change shape. His back arched until he straightened up on his hind legs, in smooth motions, his haunches became human legs and his paws feet. His body took on human form, and skin swallowed the fur in liquid grace. The amount of control Travis had amazed me. It’d been a while since I’d seen a wolf shift so easily. He stood in front of me in all his naked glory, but I kept my eyes trained on his.

  “Why were you running?” I lowered my gun. “In wolf form nonetheless. Do you want to get shot running around downtown?”

  He titled his head to the side, his eyes gazing past me. I didn’t look behind me, I knew better than to turn my head away from a threat. Shuffling sounded behind me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Travis launched himself past me and into the street, tearing after something. Or someone. Now I had a naked werewolf running through the streets of downtown. Just another day in the life of Abigail Collins.

  I sighed and walked back around the building. Bystanders were chuckling about what they’d seen run by; media people were scribbling in their notebooks or typing on their phones. I could only imagine the headlines that were going to come out of this. Simon stepped up to my side.

  “Was that who I think it was?”

  “Your second is streaking downtown. He tore off after something. I didn’t see what though.” I stuck my hands in my pockets and glanced around the growing crowd. “Might want to get him under control.”

  Simon sighed and walked away. I shook my head and went back to my car. My spell on the car told me no one had tampered with it and it was safe to drive. I got in and took myself back to the office.

  There wasn’t much that I could do without knowing more details about the bodies. I had names and phone numbers to contact, but I hated talking to people blindly, so research was in order. Simon had given me some information about the female victim, and that seemed like the best place to start. I looked at the name on the paper. Madeline Gray. I opened the search program on the computer and typed in the name.

  The typical things showed up: driver’s license, last known address, the wolf pack registration…which hadn’t been changed to Simon’s pack. I leaned forward and clicked on it. The document loaded and I glanced at the date on it. She’d registered only a couple years ago. Her current age was thirty, and as a pack master’s daughter I had assumed she’d been a lycan longer than a couple years since most biological children of lycanthropes were born, not made. The government started requiring registration almost ten years ago. I leaned back in my chair and contemplated calling Simon, but I needed to let him grieve before I tried to bombard him with more questions. At least for a couple hours. Not to mention he had his streaking second to deal with.

  My lip quirked up in a smirk at the thought of the naked wolf running around downtown. The media would have a heyday with it, but at least nothing had exploded at the crime scene. I pulled my phone out of my bag and called the number listed for the other pack master, Joshua Gray.

  The phone rang a few times before someone finally picked up. “Gray speaking.”

  “Mr. Gray, my name is Abigail Collins, and I’m with the Paranormal Investigation Bureau.”

  “Why are you calling, Agent Collins?” His voice put him older than I imagined, bu
t no matter his age, the sound of exhaustion was there.

  I took a deep breath. “Mr. Gray, I’m sorry to inform you that your daughter Madeline Gray was murdered and her body found today.”

  “Impossible.”

  It was always a word of disbelief uttered at first, denial, the first stage of grief. “Mr. Gray, I have someone who was able to identify the body.”

  “Madeline is standing right next to me.” There was an outrage to his voice. “Is this some type of sick joke?”

  I frowned and turned back to the computer. “The pack master here was the one who identified her.” I clicked on the driver’s license file in the computer, and the picture that pulled up wasn’t the woman that we found today. What the hell?

  “Sir, I apologize for the mix-up.” I wasn’t sure what else to say as I stared at the picture. “Can we meet so I can ask some questions about the woman who might have been posing as your daughter?”

  There was a grunt and some other words muttered before I could understand him again. “Yes. I’ll meet you on our pack land.”

  “I’d rather meet in a neutral place.” I offered, “A coffee shop, a park?”

  He chuckled. “Scared of wolves, Agent Collins?”

  “Every time I step foot on pack land I almost get eaten, I’d rather not meet there.” I tried to keep my voice light. I didn’t mention that if I met at their land, then I had to play by their rules and also disclose that I had connections to Levi. Some wolves got antsy around me when I mentioned that I had vampire connections.

  “You must live an exciting life. Meet me at the Golden Goose in an hour. That should give you plenty of time to get there.”

  I typed in the restaurant’s name, and the marker on the map told me it was the mid-point between counties. “Perfect, thank you. I’ll see you in an hour.”

  The call disconnected and I texted Jason that I needed a photo sent to my phone for investigation purposes. If it wasn’t Mr. Gray’s daughter, then maybe he could identify her, or at the very least, explain to me why someone would want to masquerade as his daughter.

  I called Simon and took a deep breath.

  “What’s up, Abby?”

  So we were back to Abby now, were we? “Dropping formalities?”

  “Don’t be angry at me. I have a lot on my plate; half the pack is angry at me for bringing you in.” He sighed. “I’m tired, Abby.”

  “It’s about to get worse. Were you aware that Madeline Gray might have been lying about where she came from?”

  “What are you talking about? Maddy wouldn’t have lied about something like that.” There was that first step of denial again.

  “I called the pack master, Joshua Gray, correct pack master?” I offered it as a question. Maybe I had made a mistake, but I had called the contact on his list, not the one in the computer.

  “Yes.”

  “He said his daughter was standing right next to him. I’m meeting him in an hour to see if I can’t figure out what is going on, but I have to consider the possibility that she was lying.”

  “I saw her registration.”

  “Forged? What was the date on it? Do you have a copy of it? Do pack masters keep copies of those?”

  He hesitated for a moment. “Let me find the copy, and I’ll let you know what the date on it is.” There was the sound of shuffling papers in the background. “Okay, it was dated for eight years ago, for her father’s pack.”

  “The official one in the system has a different date.” I pressed my lips together. “Can you bring me that copy later?”

  “Once I get Travis calmed down, yes.”

  “Did he find what he was after? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a naked man go after something so quickly.” I tried to keep the humor out of my voice. “Except maybe a lover.”

  “Speaking from experience?” He asked and the regular teasing of his voice came through for a moment.

  “Alas, I wish. You know me. Nothing but work.” I closed the program. “I can send you a text when I’m on my way back from the meeting. Maybe you can drop it by the office after.”

  “Or the house?”

  I had promised Levi that no one else would enter the house. Of course, Levi was on vacation, and he had sent Clarissa to check on me, so maybe he was over that requirement. Not to mention I was a big witch and it was my house. “I’m at my parents’ house now. Since mine was destroyed.”

  “I heard about that. I’ll see you there tonight. I’ll bring pizza and beer.”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. I shouldn’t be considering entertaining him when he was part of the case. I hesitated in saying such though. I missed having him around, even in a platonic way. We’d never been lovers, hell we had barely dated, but he provided something I needed. Non-judging companionship. Part of me felt like I was betraying what Levi wanted, but Simon had already been in the house before. Nothing had changed except I had updated the furniture and electronics from the 1970’s crap that was there before.

  “Okay.” I agreed, trying to push off the nagging anxiety. “I’ll see you then.” I disconnected the call before I could change my mind. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the office. I turned the corner, my eyes on my phone as Jason’s message came through.

  I jerked as my shoulder ran into something. I looked up to see Agent Melody Grace holding her own shoulder. Her red business suit struck me as odd as I usually saw her dressed in PIB attire, black everything with boots. Her blonde hair was loose around her face, giving her a younger appearance.

  “Agent Grace.” My voice sounded tight. “Where are you off to?”

  “I have a meeting with Boss Man about a possible transfer.” She flashed a brilliant smile that sent a chill of warning through me. “There’s no need for me to be here now.”

  “Because Tomes was let out on bail and disappeared? When were you planning on telling me about it? Who’s taking over the case?”

  Her smile faded around the edges. “How did you learn about that?”

  “Little bird told me, and seeing as Tomes was after my life, I think I should have been one of the first people to know.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, putting my phone away. “And the blood-starved vampire case?”

  “It was closed, remember?” She shook her head. “Just let it stay that way, Abby. The executioners are after Ira. They’ll get him.” She stepped around me. “Now if you’ll excuse me? I don’t want to be late for my meeting.”

  Except Boss Man wasn’t on this floor. He was on the top floor. I didn’t have time to follow her to see what she was up to so I had to squash the paranoia and focus on my case.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Golden Goose was everything I didn’t expect. The doors had been painted a black matte with gold handles, but no windows. My first thought was vampires, but I didn’t recall a vampire owned establishment with the name. Of course, maybe it was a recent business. A small rectangular sign hung crooked on the left door by a single nail. The name had been printed in goose footprints with little gold eggs as the ‘o’s. Hm.

  I pulled open the door and walked into the well-lit lobby. Red carpet with swirling gold designs covered the floor through the lobby to the dining area. Booths rimmed the walls with a few small square tables dotting the rest of the area. No one came to greet me; there was no sign of if I needed to wait for a hostess or seat myself. No other customers were around to give me a clue. The whoosh sound of the air conditioning settled over the lobby as I stood there awkwardly.

  “Never been here before?” The voice I had heard on the phone asked from behind me.

  I turned around and met brown eyes set deep in a middle-aged face. Stubble dotted his chin and cheeks in a five o’clock shadow. “Joshua Gray?”

  He nodded. “Agent Collins.” The door behind him opened and a woman walked through. Her brown hair was wound in a tight bun on the top of her head, leaving her narrow face without a lock around it. Her hazel eyes met mine, and she smiled. “I’m Madeline Gray.”

  I
knew that from the driver’s license file. I held my hand out. “It’s nice to meet you both; I’m sorry that it’s under such strange circumstances.”

  Mr. Gray shook my hand, but Madeline just walked to the dining area and sat in one of the booths. Mr. Gray motioned for me to follow. I sat across from Madeline and resisted the urge to crack a joke about being back from the dead. “Do either of you know Simon Vikas?”

  “He runs the pack a county over. Why?” Mr. Gray folded his hands on the table, and his voice stayed even.

  “That’s who identified the body for me. He and our Jane Doe had been dating; apparently he was under the impression that the packs could combine if it worked out between them. When it didn’t, she opted to stay.”

  “You said she was murdered? Are we sure it wasn’t one of his pack members?”

  “No, I’m not sure yet. I’m working on rounding up leads. One of that leads is her now being a Jane Doe.” I pulled out my phone and opened the photo from Jason. Luckily, he cropped it so you couldn’t tell it was just a head. “Do you know this woman?” I flipped the phone around for both of them to see.

  Mr. Gray shook his head, but Madeline paled a little. She didn’t say anything for a moment, but then straightened herself up. “No.”

  Why was everyone’s first instinct to lie? “No?” I raised a brow. “Are you sure?”

  “Don’t question her, agent; she wouldn’t lie to you.”

  Except I was certain that she just did. I pulled my phone back. “Do you have any idea why someone would take on your identity and manipulate my local pack?”

  “None.” Except the tightness in her voice told me she was lying again. I tried to find a subtle way of calling her out on it, but there was none. They’d be able to tell if I lied. I scrolled through the photos and showed them the two men that had also been killed.

  “Do you know either of these men?”

  “I saw them on the television, a protest on the western slope.” She said easily and met my gaze. “That’s all I know though. I don’t know much about the protests.”