Cry Wolf (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery Series Book 4)

by Leighann Dobbs

  “Please don’t tell anyone,” Caine said, taking the key from her and securing the door to his secret room once more. “It’s not exactly a manly hobby, especially for a werewolf.”

  “But your work is beautiful,” she said, shocked to find her voice breathy and shaken. “And I don’t think it’s unmanly. It’s cool. It shows you have a gentler side too.”

  A side her father certainly never had. Most likely a side her future MacPherson husband wouldn’t have either. Knowing this secret about Caine Hunter made DeeDee like him even more.

  “Wait a minute. You couldn’t have killed Tucker Rookwood.” She pulled her phone out and scrolled quickly through her screens.

  “I’ve told you that.”

  “No, look. Here’s proof.” She showed him the screen with their forum conversation the night Tucker was killed. It was time-stamped, their conversation taking place between three and four thirty a.m. Tuesday morning. “I’m your alibi. We were in the chat room together when the victim was killed. I still don’t understand why you’re so intent on finding Rockwood’s murderer, though.”

  “Because I feel responsible. His body was found on my movie set, and he was working for me at the time. Why wouldn’t I—”

  “Want to find the person responsible?” DeeDee said, finishing his sentence.

  They stared at each other across the span of a few inches. Completing each other’s thoughts was something only soul mates did. But she couldn’t be Caine’s soul mate. She was destined to marry another. Even if her identifying with his feelings of responsibility seemed to draw the cord connecting them ever tighter.

  While she stared at him, dazed, Caine leaned in and brushed his mouth softly over hers, once, twice, before capturing her lips with his. Emotions—want, need, fear, elation—stormed through DeeDee like a hurricane. So many feelings that she wanted to hold Caine tight and never let him go.

  Then, as fast as the kiss had started, he pulled away. “Listen, DeeDee. I—”

  The clearing of a throat had them stepping apart fast.

  Carletta stood in the doorway, glaring at them.

  Mortified, DeeDee couldn’t meet the other woman’s gaze. She was in uniform, on duty, here on a case. She had no business kissing anyone, especially Caine Hunter. Flustered, she backed out of the kitchen and into the great room. “I need to go.”

  CAINE STARTED after DeeDee but was stopped by his sister’s hand on his arm.

  “Let her go, brother,” she said. “She needs some distance.”

  “But…” He blinked, unable to believe what had happened.

  “She completed your sentence. Yes, I heard.” Carletta leaned against the side of the island. “Do you sense her emotions too?”

  He shook his head, still fuzzy with thoughts of their kiss. The way she’d felt in his arms, the way she’d smelled—like pine and perfection—the way she’d tasted like his every dream come true. “I don’t know. Maybe… It’s hard to tell.”

  “That’s good. It means you may be perfect for each other,” his sister said, the concern in her tone in direct opposition to her encouraging words.

  “What’s wrong with being well-suited?” Caine asked, frowning.

  “I just don’t want you to get hurt again, Caine. The fact you haven’t told your future wife who you are yet troubles me. I don’t want to see you get your heart broken again. You must proceed with caution here, or DeeDee could turn against you forever. And that would not make for a good marriage.”

  “You’re right.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I need to tell her the truth before things get even more screwed up.”

  “Well, just don’t blurt it out. That’s what it looked like you were going to do when I interrupted,” Carletta said. “Try using a bit of finesse.”

  “Finesse?”

  “Yes. Make it meaningful to her.” She moved around the island to lean in beside him. “DeeDee doesn’t strike me as the type to forgive a liar easily. Perhaps you should focus more on how you plan to tell her the truth than on finding Tucker Rockwood’s killer. The cops are already searching for the culprit, anyway. Leave it to them.”

  “I’m not investigating,” Caine said, shaking his head. “Not like she thinks, anyway. I’m more focused on making sure DeeDee stays safe when she goes to some of these interviews. There’s a dangerous killer on the loose, and she’s lead deputy on the case. It’s her job to put herself in harm’s way. But as her future mate, it’s my job to protect her. And I intend to do so, even if it means I have to track down this murderer myself.”

  CHAPTER 18

  T roubled and flustered, DeeDee rushed back to headquarters. She called Dex on the way to see if he was ready to be picked up, but he said he was still talking to some of the other cast and crew on set, so she said she’d call him again in another hour. She switched off the Bluetooth in the cruiser then leaned back in her seat. I kissed Caine Hunter. Great balls of fire, that was bad. So, so bad. And yet, it had felt easy and natural and so, so good.

  Caught up in her thoughts, she drove back to the station on autopilot. She parked the cruiser and headed inside without paying much attention and nearly barreled over Stan along the way. The poor guy looked as distracted as ever, aimlessly wandering down the hall.

  Despite her whirling emotions, she couldn’t let the poor man make even more of a fool of himself in front of Owen. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside, shaking his shoulders slightly until he focused on her. “Hey. Stan, buddy. Where you going?”

  “To the morgue,” he said, his words slurred and his grin dopey. “Want to see if there’s anything new on the case.”

  “Yeah, right.” She poked her head into a nearby storage room, saw it was empty, then shoved Stan inside. “Okay, buddy. Before you go back to the morgue, I need you to rearrange and straighten all the supplies in here. Got it?”

  Stan frowned slightly then nodded. “Yep.”

  “Great. I’ll come back and check on you in a bit.” She closed the door and locked it from the outside then headed into the office. Owen looked unusually perturbed for such a normally laid-back guy. DeeDee took off her coat then walked over to his desk. “Everything okay, boss?”

  “Have you seen Agent Judge anywhere? I swear that guy’s never at his desk.”

  She glanced in the direction of the storage room then swallowed hard. Owen was still totally oblivious to all the paranormal activity happening under his nose, and she wasn’t about to tell him otherwise. “Actually, I saw him in the hall. He said he was on his way back to the morgue to check on developments in the Rockwood case.”

  “Yeah?” Owen scoffed. “He seems to be spending an inordinate amount of time there these days. I’ve got to say, I’m disappointed in Stan. From what I’d heard from the FBI, I expected him to be a good, hardworking investigator, but so far, all he’s been is a slacker.”

  As much as DeeDee preferred the new and improved—and less nosy—Stan, she didn’t want to see the guy’s reputation go down in flames because of his infatuation with a vampire either. Besides, if she and Dex continued to keep up their fine work at deceiving him, Stan’s hubris would do that all on its own. She shrugged. “I don’t know. I kind of like a mellower Stan.”

  “Seriously?” Owen shook his head. “Right now, that guy’s about as useful as a pig at a barn dance.” He sat forward and waved her closer and handed her the Rockwood file. “But I guess we really don’t need him anyway. Between you, me, and Dex, we’ll get this murder solved easy-peasy. What’d you find out at the movie lot, Deputy?”

  She told him about her interview with Gina Presti and how Dex was still there talking to some other members of the crew. Finally, she came out with her bombshell. “Caine Hunter isn’t the killer.”

  Owen raised a brow at her abrupt announcement. “How do you know?”

  “I went to his place after I talked with Gina. I had a few more questions about the increase in exposure for the movie since Tucker’s death. Turns out Caine has an airtight ali
bi for Tuesday night, so we can cross him off our list.” DeeDee took a deep breath, knowing her words were rushed and she was babbling, but she couldn’t seem to help it. Things between her and Caine were still too new, too confusing, too tender. She just prayed Owen wouldn’t notice her agitation or ask for further clarification.

  No such luck.

  “What exactly is this alibi of his, Deputy?”

  “Well, uh, he was, um…” Crap, crap, crap. It wasn’t as if she could come out and say the guy was online with her in an embroidery chat room. No way would Owen buy that. But she didn’t want to outright lie either—that went against her moral fiber. So she compromised. “He was participating in a remote-link conference, which I’ve verified.”

  Owen scrunched his nose. “What the heck is that?”

  DeeDee opened her mouth to answer but was saved at the last minute by Dex walking in.

  He shook the snow from his dark hair then pounded his boots on the rug by the door. She swiveled to face him. “How’d you get back here, Dex?”

  Dex shrugged off his coat and hung it up. “Rode with some of the sound crew. They were making a coffee run and offered to drop me off. Thought I’d save you the trip since the roads are getting kind of dicey.”

  “Aw, thanks.” DeeDee smiled as he pulled up a chair beside hers in front of Owen’s desk. “We were discussing my interview with Gina Presti,” she said, hoping to steer the conversation away from Caine and his alibi. “Laura Rockwood had told me Tucker was fooling around on her with Gina, and Gina confirmed it. But then Levi Harding mentioned yet another blonde he’d seen with Tucker, which means he could’ve been a serial womanizer. Anyway, both Gina Presti and Laura Rockwood have verified alibis for the night of the murder, and Levi said he saw Gina at a different location at the time Tucker was with this second, mystery blonde, which takes her even farther out of the realm of contention. I have taken that information with a grain of salt, though, because Harding and Rockwood were adversaries, so it’s possible Levi’s using this second blond girlfriend to throw us off his scent as a possible suspect for the murder.”

  “Sorry, Deputy, but I beg to differ.” Dex stretched out his long legs in front of him. “I talked to the actress Harding’s dating on the film set, and she verified what Levi told us. Tucker was with another blonde, not Gina.”

  “You believe her?” Owen asked.

  “I do.” Dex thumped his notepad on his leg. “She didn’t show any signs of deception. I say we focus on Caine Hunter. From what several members of the crew told me, his production company stands to make a sizable profit from Rockwood’s death, what with all the extra publicity and the boost of the movie on social media.”

  “No. It’s not Caine,” DeeDee said, staring down at her own notes. “When I went back over to talk to him this afternoon, he brought up another good point. He won’t benefit from Tucker’s death in the long run because now he’s got no star for his sequel. Plus, he’s got an alibi I’ve verified.”

  Owen sighed and sat back, placing his sneakered feet onto his desk. At least he’d changed out of those hideous neon-striped board shorts from earlier and now sported his usual beige khakis. “What about that sister of his?” he asked. “Carletta? She’s blond and quite attractive. Maybe she’s Tucker’s new diversion on the side?”

  “Could be.” Dex shrugged. “That might explain why Caine Hunter keeps turning up at all our crime scenes too, claiming to be investigating. Perhaps he’s trying to cover for his sister.”

  As much as DeeDee wanted to deny that, she couldn’t. In fact, her thoughts had run in the same direction earlier. Caine would be upset if it turned out to be Carletta, but honestly, she was just glad it wasn’t him. Still, could she consider a relationship with a guy who’d lie and cheat to keep his murdering sibling out of jail? Such acts would mean Caine was still breaking the law, which was unacceptable in her book—no way around it. In the end, she supposed, it didn’t matter, anyway, since there could never be anything more than friendship between her and Caine Hunter.

  Owen exhaled and clasped his hands atop his belly. “Levi Harding says he saw them together. Do you think he’d recognize Carletta from a photo? There must be some online from the society pages or something we could use to show him, right?”

  “I’ll look, boss.” She and Dex returned to their desks, and DeeDee switched on her computer. Within five minutes, she had more pictures of Carletta Hunter than she could ever have wished for. She selected a headshot and printed it out then checked her watch. It was near four thirty now.

  With luck, Levi Harding would still be on duty at the protest line. She unlocked the storage room, leaving the door closed. Had Stan been in there quietly straightening supplies the whole time? She didn’t have time to deal with him right now. He could find his own way out. She continued down the hall and popped into Owen’s office again to show him the picture she’d found.

  “Good,” he said. “Go back to Levi Harding and see if this jogs his memory. While you’re gone, I’ll have Dex call in some favors from his FBI resources to dig into her background a bit more.”

  CHAPTER 19

  By the time DeeDee made it back to the Crenshaw mansion, Levi was indeed still there. She parked her car near the gates then rushed over to where he stood, huddled behind his large protest sign proclaiming Vamps Are Tramps.

  “Mr. Harding,” DeeDee said, bracing inside her thick brown coat against the bitter cold. “I have a photo here of a woman we think might have been the woman you saw with Tucker that night in the carriage house. Would you mind looking at it, please?”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said from behind the thick wool scarf wrapped around the bottom of his face. “Let me see.”

  DeeDee held out the photo of Carletta Hunter she’d printed off the Internet. “Is this her?”

  Harding squinted at the picture then cocked his head. “Nah. That’s not her. In fact, I just saw the other blonde go onto the movie set not too long ago. I recognized her hat. Should’ve known it was her that morning.”

  “Why is that?” She frowned as she shoved the photo back into her pocket.

  “The blonde Tucker was with that night was the same woman who screamed and carried on when they found his body.”

  Eyes wide, DeeDee pulled out her notebook once more and flipped back through the copious notes she’d taken that first day on the crime scene. Luckily, she’d written down all the names of the crowd that day. “Is it Alissa Snow?”

  “Yep.” Levi Harding nodded. “That’s her name.”

  “And you said she just arrived on set? Any idea where she might be now?”

  “She’s one of the main leads today, and I think they’re filming inside the house due to the cold. I’d try in there.”

  “Thanks.” DeeDee flashed her badge to the guards again, though by now they all had to know who she was. Still, protocol was protocol. Now wasn’t the time to slip up, not with them finally getting closer to who might’ve killed Tucker Rockwood. She walked up the rickety front steps of the mansion to the old wraparound porch then wedged her way inside the crowded front parlor of the house. Cameras and crew and equipment were everywhere, and bright lights shone from all four corners of the space, helping to heat the otherwise chilly air. In the middle of it all stood the blonde, Alissa Snow, along with another actor DeeDee didn’t recognize. And dang if she wasn’t wearing the same coral lipstick they’d found on the napkin in Tucker Rockwood’s pocket.

  DeeDee sighed and crossed her arms. It was entirely possible Ms. Snow’s hysterical antics around Tucker’s body had been just a show to cover up the fact she was the real killer. Being an actress certainly meant Ms. Snow had the skills to create quite a distraction.

  “Cut!” Johnny Johnson yelled at last, and DeeDee made a beeline for Alissa.

  “Ms. Snow? I’m Deputy Clawson of the Silver Hollow Sheriff’s Department, and I wondered if I might ask you a few questions.”

  “Oh.” Alissa frowned as several dressers and makeup people prim
ped her hair and fussed with her clothes. “I guess.”

  “Great. How well did you know Tucker Rockwood?”

  “Um, we worked together on the movie, of course, and…”

  “I know you were intimately involved with him, Ms. Snow. I have witnesses.”

  Several of the dressers looked up at the statement, and Alissa’s cheeks flushed bright red. She excused herself and pulled DeeDee off to a more private corner of the set. “Okay, fine. Yes, Tucker and I were fooling around a bit, but we were in love.”

  “And you were aware he was a married man?”

  “Yes, but it was a loveless marriage. In fact, Tucker told me he was going to leave his wife and marry me someday.”

  She snorted. That would make Alissa at least third on the list of women Rockwood had promised that to. “I’m sorry to say you weren’t the only other mistress he had, Ms. Snow. Is it possible you found out about his other liaisons and became so angry you lashed out at him, maybe even killed him?”

  “No!” Alissa gasped, her hand fluttering around her mouth in true outraged starlet fashion. “I loved Tucker. I did. And he loved me. There’s no way I would ever hurt him, let alone kill him. Never.”

  Given the overacting taking place on the part of Alissa Snow, either the woman was dumb enough to believe Tucker had cared about her, or she was delusional. Or both. DeeDee tried out a different theory instead. “Okay. Maybe Rockwood was going to leave his wife, but perhaps he wasn’t doing it fast enough for your liking and you killed him in a fit of passion.”

  Even as she said it, though, the words didn’t ring true. The forensic reports showed Tucker had been poisoned, which would indicate the murder had been premeditated, not a rash act. Of course, Alissa here could have been one of those Fatal Attraction-type women. With all the Hollywood types in this case, it was hard to apply normal logic to them.