Jade dusted off her work gloves. “Let’s get out of here before Mrs. Dean gets home, we don’t want her telling the universe that the Sheriff’s Department fixed it.”
Tim nodded in agreement, and threw their buckets and tools into the back of the Bronco before hopping into the passenger seat. As Jade came around to the driver’s side, a movement in the bush caught her attention. Pausing, she scanned the knotty landscape, and then she saw him—the huge wolf with amber eyes, the wolf that had appeared in the mine to take down Jim Lassiter. He trotted up to a little rise, and turned to look directly at her, sitting down as he did. Jade froze, and the wolf also sat motionless. An eternity seemed to pass as their eyes locked, an eternity that was broken by the sounds of wolves yipping in the distance. The wolf stood up and started to go, but looked over his shoulder at Jade one last time before disappearing behind the little hill.
Jade smiled as she turned the key in the ignition. Somehow she knew that she did indeed have every reason to be pleased.
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK FOUR: Cry Wolf - Volume 4
***
Cry Wolf
***
“Jade! Did you hear anything that I just said?”
Shaking herself, Jade tried to demonstrate that she had been paying attention to Nicolette and the stack of bridal magazines arrayed on the table in front of them. “Empire waistline, ivory lace…” she stumbled a little, “Uhh, full sleeve.” She smiled sheepishly at her best friend, the bride-to-be. “Okay! I’m distracted, but I’ve got a good reason.”
Nicolette gathered up the magazines into a neat stack. “You know what? I’ve been distracted with the wedding plans, and I haven’t been paying enough attention to what’s going on with you. How about a little glass of sherry by the fireplace, and you can tell me about what’s going on with you?”
Jade rolled her eyes. “I might need a big glass of sherry.”
“Then I’ll bring the bottle.” Nicolette smiled impishly. “If you drink it from tiny cordial glasses, it doesn’t really count.”
A few minutes later, Jade and Nicolette were settled onto Nicolette’s cozy, overstuffed sofa. Between the crackling fire and the sherry, the two friends soon had a rosy glow.
“So what’s going on?” Nicolette probed.
“You know that bomb tech, Gil Harkness? The one everyone calls Boomer? He asked me to go out with him, and I’m trying to figure out what to say.” Jade stared into the flames licking upward from the stack of logs in the hearth.
“What do you want to say? He’s a nice guy, right? And nice looking too…tall and strapping, chiseled jaw? Sort of looks like a Chippendale from what I remember.” Nicolette took a sip from the delicate etched glass in her hand.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s just it. I can’t really figure out a reason to say no.”
“But?”
“But I’ve…I’ve got it bad for Conall O’Faolán.”
Nicolette tried to mimic an Irish accent, “Aye, the lovely Irishman.”
Jade started laughing. “You sound like some kind of demented elf.” She demonstrated a much better version of an Irish accent, “He’s a wee bit more sexy than that.”
Switching back to her normal voice, Nicolette continued with a sympathetic smile, “Sexy yes, accessible…not so much.”
Sighing, Jade held out her glass for a refill. “I don’t get it. We have this incredible night together—romantic, passionate, intimate—and then he…completely disappears. He didn’t seem like the type to kiss and run.”
“Intimacy scares a lot of men.” Nicolette splashed some more sherry into Jade’s glass, then refilled her own. “They want it, but real commitment means they might have to change their lifestyle.”
Jade swirled her glass a little. “He did mention that the woman he thought he was going to spend his life with died. He didn’t say how, but I could tell by the look on his face that it was something terrible and tragic.”
“Oh honey, he’s probably still carrying a torch for her. Don’t try to compete with the dead. Besides, you haven’t even seen him since the ‘big night.’ Go out with Boomer. There’s something to be said for a man who asks you out on a proper date.”
Arching an eyebrow, Jade looked at Nicolette. “It’s not like you and Harlan figured out you were in love with each other through normal channels. Let’s see, as I recall, it took you being kidnapped for everyone to get real.” She poked Nicolette in the arm to emphasize her point.
“Touché. Still, what’s the harm with trying normal channels? Lots of people fall in love without it ever involving methamphetamines, explosives, or psychotic ex-bosses.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Jade. “You know what they say about the correlation between a man’s shoe size and his…” she cleared her throat a little, “I mean, Boomer has got be at least a size 13, maybe bigger.”
Jade started giggling. Men could come and go, but nothing could substitute for hanging out with your BFF. “Okay, I’ll call Boomer back tomorrow. You’re absolutely right, there’s no harm in going out on a date.”
Nicolette clinked her glass against Jade’s in a little toast. “Who knows, you might actually have fun!”
Jade thought about Boomer’s warm smile, his gentle concern for others, and the fact that he was a very good-looking man. “You’re absolutely right. I could do with a little fun in my life.”
***
“You’ve been to Mr. Pink’s!”
Tim and the rest of the Broken Wheel Sheriff’s Department—Sheriff Wilson, Deputy Dougie, and their dispatcher, Rosie—circled around the box of hot donuts in Jade’s hands like sharks coming to chum.
“Yes, I have!” Jade opened the lid of the box a little, letting the sugary aroma of the warm donuts waft out, giving her colleagues a tantalizing peek at the array of instant gratification contained inside—glazed, chocolate, iced with sprinkles—before slamming the lid down and holding the box out of reach as Tim did his best to snatch one out. She gave them her best “bad cop” face. “There are conditions.”
Wilson pretended to get stern with her. “I refuse to accept conditions from any of my deputies. Now hand over the damn donuts before we have to put you in cuffs.”
Jade danced away with the box. “I’m not going to surrender the donuts until you agree to my conditions.”
Dougie spread his arms and made the others step back. “We don’t want to spook her—she might do something rash. I’m the one who went to Cheyenne for special hostage negotiation training.” He turned back and with the calmest possible voice said, “Jade, if you don’t hand over the damn donuts, I will take them by force.”
“No, you won’t!” Jade hooted, as she ran behind the copy machine, lifting the lid and threatening to squash the entire box of pastry.
Rosie rolled her eyes as she went to her desk and flipped through her scheduling book. “Why look! Tim just agreed to trade his Thursday night shift for Jade’s on Friday night.” The dispatcher winked knowingly. “You got a lemon crème filled in there?”
“But of course!” Jade extended the box to Rosie and stuck her tongue out at the others, before placing the box next to the coffeemaker. Fifteen minutes later, the artery-clogging orgy was over.
“So what’s so important you had to use Mr. Pink’s Donuts as leverage to get off Friday night?” Dougie asked, licking powdered sugar off of his stubby fingers.
“None of your business,” Jade said sweetly, pecking at her computer. “Don’t you have a report to write or something?”
“Yeah, one-car accident last night on County Road 19. Some teenagers hit Mrs. Dean’s mailbox, but that smart old biddy had someone sink the post in sixty pounds of concrete.”
“No one was hurt, were they?” Jade wondered if she should confess the truth about the mailbox to Dougie.
“Nah, the airbags went off, but Ricky Black is in deep crap with his dad, George, for taking their Lexus SUV without permission.”
Jade nodded to indicate that parental wrath was probably a worse punishment
than a trip to the hospital. “It’s been an exceptionally quiet week in Broken Wheel.”
Dougie looked pointedly at Jade. “Now you’ve jinxed us.”
As if to fulfill Dougie’s prediction, a few minutes later, the phone rang. They both watched Rosie’s face as the dispatcher’s expression slowly morphed from her usual pleasant neutrality to clear distress. Her hand was shaking as she hung up the phone. “That was Duke Jr. at the Bar Double Star,” she said, as if she was on autopilot. “There’s another dead wolf, and—and…” Rosie’s throat caught as a sob tried to force its way up, “Duke Minton’s dead.”
Jade sucked in a breath. Duke’s wife, Evelyn, was Rosie’s best friend, and Rosie had been planning a fortieth wedding anniversary party for the couple.
Wilson shuffled out of his office, his hands in his pockets, as the playful atmosphere in the department deflated like a forgotten balloon. “Douglas, you and Jade get out there straightaway and see what’s going on. Take Rosie so she can be with Evelyn. Tim, you cover dispatch. I’ll deal with anything else that comes up, but call as soon as you have a handle on the situation. Let’s not jump to any conclusions.”
The last murder in Broken Wheel had been in 1992 when a gambling debt had gotten out of hand. Broken Wheel had its share of dumbass crime, but not much in the category of murder and mayhem.
Everyone nodded robotically as the departing trio went for their coats. It was bad enough to have to officially sign off when an elderly person died at home, but this was a healthy, happy, sixty-two year old man, a Sunday school teacher from a well-loved family in the community. This was the kind of call the department truly dreaded.
Dougie, Jade and Rosie said little on the drive out to the Bar Double Star Ranch. Rosie periodically dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a tissue, and Jade stared out the passenger window at the snowy landscape. Off in the distance, she could see a few elk on the move, their shaggy winter coats making them look like ragged stuffed animals on a white quilt dotted with green cones. She thought about the dead wolf at the Minton’s ranch and wondered if animals mourned the departed the way that humans did. Then she thought of Conall, who had transformed from man to animal in front of her eyes and wondered if all animals, or maybe just all wolves, hid such secrets. Then she made the connection between the Irishman and the dead wolf, and for a moment it seemed her heart had stopped beating. If the dead wolf was a huge one with amber eyes, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to hold herself together.
She recognized Harlan Winter’s truck in front of the Minton’s house. As the Minton’s nearest neighbors, it would make sense that Duke Jr. would reach out to Harlan and his dad Carson. And Nicolette’s sensible sedan was there; it also made sense that Harlan would reach out to his fiancée to make sure the news got to the community in a way that respected the family’s wishes. As editor of the Broken Wheel Gazette, Nicolette would keep a lid on any sensationalism and do her best to protect the family from out-of-town tabloid vultures.
Dougie gave Rosie a hand down from the rear seat of his departmental SUV; Jade envied the comfort and reliability of his eighteen-month-old vehicle. Her Bronco was next in line to be replaced as budget allowed, but it wasn’t looking like it was going to be happening any time soon. She mentally kicked herself; it wasn’t exactly the time to be pondering rides.
As they stepped into the warmth of the Minton’s kitchen, Jade quickly understood that Harlan and Carson were trying to sooth an outraged Duke Jr. Nicolette and Duke Jr.’s wife, Lori, were in the living room, trying to console Evelyn.
Rosie sighed and tried to stand a little straighter. “I’ll look in on Evelyn.”
The group of men turned at the sound of voices, and Harlan looked relieved to see Jade and Dougie. Dougie shook Duke Jr.’s hand, and Jade quietly offered condolences by saying the official words, “We’re very sorry for your loss,” but with the emotion of someone who truly meant it. Duke Jr. acknowledged Jade with a little sideways hug, as he wiped at the corner of his eye with the back of his other hand. Then, everyone tried to deal with the situation at hand as professionally and unemotionally as they could.
Dougie got out his notepad. “Just tell us what happened.”
“Dad and I were up on the back forty, getting ready to replace some fencing. Mom and Lori were still at school.”
Dougie nodded encouragingly; Evelyn taught third grade, and Lori taught chemistry at the high school.
Duke Jr. sucked in a breath. “So we got up there, and I realized I’d left the wire cutters and the crimping shears in the barn. Dad told me he’d take some measurements while I went to get them, so after we unloaded stuff, I jumped back in the truck and left him up there.” He paused as an agonizing realization crept over his face. “You know, if I hadn’t left him alone, maybe he’d still be alive.”
Jade rubbed his shoulder reassuringly. “We can’t know the future; you’re not responsible. So what happened when you got back up there?”
“On the way back up, I—I heard a couple of gunshots, but I couldn’t see anything because there was a stand of trees blocking my view. So I started driving as fast as I could, but you know, there’s no road or even tracks up there. Anyway, there was a dead wolf, and my dad—my dad…” he gulped as his voice dropped to a whisper, “my dad was dead.”
“Dead how?” Dougie asked.
Gesturing toward his own neck, the anger started to creep back into Duke Jr.’s voice. “His throat was ripped out. The damn wolf ripped his throat out.” He thought for a moment, before continuing indignantly, “Or wolves, there’s a whole damn pack on the BLM land.”
“So your father fired the shots?” Jade tried to redirect his thinking.
“It must have been Dad. I mean—he was all alone up there.”
“How long were you gone?” Dougie followed up.
“I don’t know, not long, twenty, twenty-five minutes at most.”
Dougie flipped his notebook shut. “Do you think you can go back up there with us?”
Carson nodded affirmatively. “I’ll go.”
Jade put a hand on Carson’s arm. “Not you, Carson, Duke Jr. We have to ask you and Harlan to stay here.”
Carson didn’t enjoy being sidelined, but the older man understood the deputies didn’t need a bunch of amateurs tramping around on the scene. “Oh, yeah, of course. No problem.” He hooked his thumbs on the back pockets of his jeans. “We’ll make some coffee for the ladies in the other room, look after them.”
“Thanks, Carson, I appreciate that.” Duke Jr. patted Carson’s back before turning and nodding to Dougie and Jade to affirm his fitness for the mission at hand, and the three headed out.
Dougie parked a little distance from where both Duke Sr. and the wolf were lying, wanting to approach on foot so that they didn’t contaminate any evidence.
Jade turned to Duke Jr. “You just stay here with the truck for now, keep warm. We’ll call you when we need you.”
Duke Jr. looked toward his father’s still form. “I put that horse blanket on him. It was in the truck, I—I couldn’t just leave him lying there like that.”
“Sure, we understand.” Jade wished he hadn’t contaminated things with extra fibers and hairs, but if a wolf had killed Duke Sr., it wasn’t like they would need to prosecute him in court.
The few inches of snow that covered the ground made the spill of blood leaking from under the horse blanket appear all the more gruesome. Dougie turned to Jade. “Check out the wolf…I’ll get the first look at Duke.”
It was kind of Dougie to spare her the initial shock, she thought. Once he uncovered Duke’s body, she could desensitize from a short distance. She had seen a number of dead bodies in her time in the sheriff’s department, but most were people who died at home from natural causes. She’d been on the scene at a couple of bad car wrecks, and once she had found a drunk frozen to death at the edge of town, but this felt different: more intimate, and more personal. As she walked toward the wolf, though, her earlier fears for Conall start
ed to rise up again.
The wolf had definitely been shot with something big and powerful; part of its skull was blown away. To her relief, it was a much smaller wolf than the one she associated with Conall, but its blank, staring eyes were the same unusual amber color. The wolf wasn’t heavy enough to leave much in the way of footprints on the crusty, frozen snow, but from the direction it was facing, it seemed to Jade that the shot had come from the other side of the fence, the side that backed up to BLM land. She took out her smartphone and began to snap pictures.
“Does Duke have a gun on him?” Jade called over to Dougie.
“Not that I can see.” Dougie pushed back the wide brim of his wool felt campaign hat and scratched at his head thoughtfully.
“Then who shot this wolf?” Jade stood up and made her way over to where Dougie was squatting. She sucked in a breath when she got close enough to get a good look at Duke’s body. “Oh geez.”
“Sure looks to me like something tore his throat out.” Dougie pointed to the gaping wound. “But something about that doesn’t seem canine to me. It looks too neat.”
Jade peered at Duke’s neck; it was hard to tell much with all the blood—which was quickly freezing—but there wasn’t the kind of tearing you’d expect from an animal attack. “Yeah, I see what you mean, the edges of the wound look too clean to have been made by teeth.”
“And there aren’t any other bites on his face or arms. Get plenty of snaps. I’ll call the coroner and get him out here. There needs to be an autopsy at any rate. And then we need Duke Jr. to go through everything one more time.”
“You want me to call Wilson?” Jade asked.
Broken Wheel Wolves: Boxed Set (The Complete Collection, Books 1-6) (Werewolf Romance - Paranormal Romance) Page 9