What’s a little anarchy between friends?
“You’re right.” I pretended to consider him. “I’d give your share to Aisha so the two of them could live happily ever after.” Moore and Aisha…two birds…one stone. “Or murder each other before the ink dries on the deed.”
“You’re so vicious.” He pinched my cheek the way Meemaw sometimes did. “It’s cute.”
I shoved him away. “Get off me before you damage my rep.”
Before he resorted to tickling my ribs, I scooched out of the cab and climbed into the bed of the truck. I waited until we started moving and the coast was clear before ducking down and maneuvering myself under the tarp. The wolf wasn’t sold on the whole shifting-at-thirty-five-miles-per-hour plan, but I promised her we’d go hunting if she cooperated. There was a nest of chipmunks a few miles down the road we hadn’t pestered in a while. Seeing as how wargs are about ninety-five percent stomach, she agreed with a rush of fur along the underside of my skin and the first celery-crisp snap of bone.
The change swept me away on a tide of pain, as it always did, and I surfed it the way I always did.
Panting for air just out of reach, I barked once to let Zed know I was done. He finished winding around the block then parked, got out and leaned over the side. The rope hung from his fingers, one end tied into a noose, and I gritted my jaw to keep from snapping at his hand while he looped it over my head. Barely giving him the opportunity to lower the tailgate, I leapt onto the sidewalk and shook out my fur.
Despite being tall for a woman, I made an average-sized wolf, and her blond coloring did me favors in low light. It meant I played the Fido card better than most.
Nathalie once teased that I could pass for a golden retriever on steroids. I just grinned and reminded her of the time she got a perm that translated to her wolf. She looked like a rabid poodle for a month. Good times.
Using the truck as a shield, I inspected Panda’s front door and came up empty. After that, there was nothing left to do but squeeze down the narrow alley between buildings and check out the employee parking lot.
“Picking up anything?” Zed asked blandly while sidestepping a puddle of ammonia-scented fluid.
“Shut your face.” Flattening my ears, I turned my head and snapped at him. “You’re enjoying this too much.” Hearing his chuckle did me good. He should laugh more often, and not just around me. “And no, since you asked so nicely, I haven’t caught a single whiff of Eau de Kidnapper.”
I wasn’t sure the victims were being kidnapped exactly, but abduction made better sense than the alternatives. The elderly woman who owned Panda was human. That’s all I knew about her, and I could tell that from her scent on the takeout boxes Haden sometimes brought me when he was feeling generous. Or guilty. Usually the latter. But as for the O’Malleys… A father willing to befriend the local pack armed to the literal teeth in order to protect his family wouldn’t vanish on them.
The alley surrendered no hints as to the identity of the mysterious fae disappearing people, but it did tell me lots of folks repaid the owners’ “bathrooms for customers only” policy by turning the corridors between buildings into makeshift urinals. Classy.
We made a circuit of the paved lot before facing the rear of the restaurant. The brick façade was as bland and nondescript as any other employee entrance I had ever seen, and the lot behind it just as boring. The two parking spots closest to the back door, both marked with spray-painted letter Ps, sat empty. I walked through them, dragging Zed as I went, without experiencing pushback from a spell. Hrm. That meant all we had linking the two missing persons cases were the peculiar signs taped to the window of each eatery.
“Excuse me, sir,” an airy voice called.
Pulled from my thoughts, I flicked a glance toward the street and the chalky-gray sedan turning into the lot. A young woman with soft Asian features but a twang in her voice that was pure Tennessee poked her head out the driver-side window as she guided her ride into one of the spaces reserved for Panda employees.
“I wonder what that’s about.”
“I guess we’re about to find out.” Zed shifted into a less aggressive stance. “Yes?”
“You’re not supposed to be back here.” Her prim voice hinted at a woman who relished rules and the following of them. A brief visual sweep of Zed ended with her gaze zipping down the rope to me. A strangled sound escaped her. “Is that a w-w-wolf?”
“Yes.” Zed was never one for subtlety. Good thing the exotic pet trade was booming. “She won’t bite.”
“Ah. Okay.” She jabbed a button, and the glass whirred higher. “Um, I still don’t think you should be back here with your—” she swallowed hard, “—pet.”
This close the air vents in her car had pushed enough of her scent to me that I picked up traces of familiar undertones. Her age made me think daughter, though I had never seen her before now.
“Ask if her mother owns Panda,” I urged him.
While pretending not to take orders from his pet, he asked, “Does your mother own Panda Crossing?”
“No.” A flicker of uncertainty had her stabbing the lock button. “My aunt, Li Zhuang, does.”
Oh well. I was close.
“I saw the sign out front.” Zed pinned a smile to his mouth. “Any idea when Panda will reopen?”
“You mean it’s not now?” The window lowered a fraction. “That’s strange. Her bike is missing.” The glass whirred again. “I drove up to surprise her. It’s her birthday. I’m in town for the celebration.” She smacked her own forehead. “And why I’m telling you this when you’ve got a wolf between me and the back door, I don’t know.” She shook her head vigorously, a slightly manic giggle breaking free. “Forget what I said. What I meant was my aunt is waiting on me, and you should leave the premises before she calls the cops.”
Zed chuckled, actually laughed at her. And she smiled back, a tiny bit, like he was okay for a wolf-walking, potential dark-alley kidnapper.
“I stopped by to pick up dinner.” Zed urged me to stand behind him, hiding maybe one-third of me from her sight. “I saw the sign about the time Dell decided she had business to handle.”
Embarrassment singed the roots of my fur. “Seriously?”
“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “I hope you brought baggies with you.”
He patted a pocket and lied as smooth as you please. “Don’t leave home without them.” He hesitated, and I didn’t need the bond to guess his next move. “Would you mind if I walked you to the door?”
A flush dumped crimson into her cheeks, and her lips puckered. “Why?”
“Another shop owner, a friend of mine, disappeared two nights ago.” He jerked his chin in the direction of the Cantina. “Tim O’Malley.”
“Poor Tim,” she breathed. “Poor Tina.” Her gaze zipped between us and the door, no doubt gauging her ability to beat Zed to it, and her voice gained a steel edge. “What are you suggesting?”
“I overstepped my bounds.” He lifted his hands. “I apologize. I mean you no harm.” He backed away, clearing a path. “Just be careful, all right?” He gave my lead a gentle tug. “Come on, girl. It’s time for us to get home.”
“That could have gone better.” Out of options that didn’t end with the cops getting called, I trailed him the way we had come. “All we got out of this was a lecture on dog laws.”
“Give it a minute.” He stepped into the gathering shadows, footsteps slow and measured. “You’re too impatient.”
Huffing at him, I shouldered the insult so my wolf didn’t take offense. Given the proper motivation—say stalking chipmunks—she could be patient. All the best hunters knew the value of allowing prey to make the first move.
“Wait.” The single word echoed.
Zed’s lips twitched at the corners before he turned. “Yes?”
“I don’t mind if you walk me to the door.”
From her position, she could reach out and touch the door. What she wanted was someone to have her back onc
e she got inside, someone to tell her it would be okay if it turned out the worst was true.
“Are you sure?” He backed another step toward the truck. “I don’t want to impose.”
“This restaurant hasn’t closed early once in the thirty years it’s been open.” Her fingers curled in the air as if gripping Zed’s shadow might haul him closer. “She rarely gets sick, and when she does, she calls in family to keep the place running. Mom hasn’t heard about this, or I would have known before I got here.” She folded her arms over her chest. “I’d like to put off calling the police until I see if she left a note for the family inside or…” Her bottom lip trembled. “I don’t want to panic Mom for nothing.”
“I’m happy to help.” His long strides ate up the distance between them, and he hesitated on the edge of the asphalt when the woman skittered away from me. “She won’t hurt you, I promise.”
“A lot of folks say that about their dogs.” Her gaze challenged him. “Just because she won’t bite you doesn’t mean she won’t bite me.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded the point.
Zed gave her space to lead us to the back door, also marked with a P. She unlocked it and nudged it inward, holding it open in silent invitation to join her. He accepted without comment, allowing her to keep her pride.
“Can you tie her, um, Dell, up out there?” She gestured toward a black squiggle of metal it took me a second to recognize as the bike rack she must have been eyeballing earlier. “Aunt Li would have a cow if I let a dog into her restaurant.”
“Don’t argue.” I padded toward it and sat. “Tie me up, but leave the door cracked. I’ll nose my way in.”
“Sure thing, boss.” He didn’t tie me off so much as he wrapped the rope around one of the piped loops. Free of his “pet,” the woman welcomed him across the threshold. Acting the part of the gentleman, Zed got between her and the knob, taking control of the door and stopping it from closing flush with the frame. A minute or two passed. “We’re in the kitchen. You better get while the getting’s good.”
Walking away provided enough resistance to free me. Careful of my sensitive nose, I wedged it in the crack Zed had left for me and nudged open the door. I trotted in, gagged as my oxygen vanished, and hit the floor on my butt. The closing door had clamped down on the frayed end of the lead and choked me. Suppressing a growl that would blow my cover, I doubled back, bit the rope and yanked it through the gap. Afraid of getting tangled again, I kept the end clenched between my teeth as I started exploring the dining area, doing my best impression of that self-walking dog meme.
The smells of humans, fae and wargs mingled here, but none gave off the bright-sharp Faerie scent that tingled in my nose and announced a deserter’s presence. With the possibility eliminated, I made the only logical conclusion. Our perpetrator was local. Fae territorial dispute maybe? No. Probably not. Ms. Zhuang was human.
I huffed out a breath, wishing Cam were here. She was the one who had attended marshal academy, not me. I was flying by the seat of my pants and—newsflash—I wasn’t wearing any.
Whoever was behind the disappearances must be luring his or her victims from their places of business. How else were they taking them without signs of a struggle? Butler was a quiet town, but far from dead. Even after dark, it had a faint pulse. Did that mean the person responsible was casting glamour over themselves and their victims to cover up evidence of a crime? Glamour wasn’t a sound barrier, but people trusted their eyes over all other senses.
A disturbing thought occurred to me. With a glamour-happy fae on the loose, who’s to say they hadn’t appeared to Tim as Tina? Or to Ms. Zhuang as her niece? Talk about shooting fish in a barrel. They could lure anyone with the right motivation. Too bad I didn’t know what theirs was.
Pounding beats drummed in my head. This detective stuff was harder than it looked on TV.
Muffled voices set me on alert as the whoosh of a swinging door warned me I was no longer alone in the customer-friendly area of the restaurant. Zed and the woman exited the kitchen, and she cocked her head at the front door. A dreamy expression settled on her face as she reached for the note taped to the glass.
While they were otherwise occupied, I slipped into the kitchen and started exploring the preparation area. Not a single item was out of place, and not a single drop of blood had been spilled here. Not within the last few days at least. But the telltale stink of well-done electronics assaulted my nose near the dual stainless refrigerators. Those would require immediate replacements. So had Ms. Zhuang not opened Panda that morning? Or had she noticed the dead appliances and rushed to purchase new ones? Or had she not gotten the chance?
One thing was for certain, no work had been accomplished here today. The fridges filled with supplies gradually achieving room temperature had made that an impossibility. And the entire place was spotless.
The Cantina had been spick and span, too, but I had assumed that was due to Mrs. O helping her husband clean before she went home for the night. What if there was more to it than that? What if this was some other type of sterilization?
I’d heard of erasure spells. Even sniffed the nose-numbing, scentless vacuum that cleansed the air after a proper casting. But those wiped objects in a confined area clean of magic and its accompanying scents versus it being a spell that magically put away dishes and put away groceries Fantasia-style.
“Joann?” Zed’s voice rumbled from the other room.
I peeked into the dining area and found Ms. Zhuang’s niece standing at the door with the sign in her hands and a glazed look in her eyes. She didn’t blink at the sound of her name being called. I got the distinct feeling the lights were on, but no one was home.
“Put the note back where it came from and lead her outside.” I shouldered through the door into the room with them. For once, the woman—Joann apparently—didn’t recoil. She didn’t react, period. “I have a theory I want to test.” I started toward the exit then pulled up short. “Wipe anything you touched in the areas usually off-limits to customers.”
As far as I knew, Zed didn’t have a criminal record, with fae or human law enforcement agencies, but I didn’t want to take chances. All the crime shows I had ever seen made it seem like fingerprints were as good as photo IDs, and I didn’t want anyone matching them up to us.
“All right.”
He darted into the kitchen, snapped on a clear rubber glove and grabbed a damp cloth from the sink. He made quick work of cleaning the surfaces he had come into contact with then tossed the rag into a bucket labeled “dirty.” He took the sign from her fingers and pressed it to the glass then led her out by the wrist with the glove acting as a barrier between them. Joann didn’t speak, blink or protest her treatment as he leaned her against the car’s door to help her balance.
“This is wrong.” He noted my retreat into the alley with a scowl. “We can’t leave her like this.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to.” Not if I was right about this. “Come on. Get over here.”
He obeyed with reluctance that would have earned him a nip had he been a wolf too. Together we stood watch over Joann. A good ten minutes passed before she gasped for air, sucking in deep breaths through pale lips. Her dark eyes widened at her surroundings, confusion written over her face.
“Let her see you approach.” I nudged him with my head. “Slowly.”
Reenacting our earlier arrival, we made it two steps before Joann leaned through the open window of her car, snagged her purse off the front seat and whipped out an industrial-size can of Mace she aimed at Zed’s face and then at mine. “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
“Zed Ames.” He cast me a dubious look. “I came from just over there.” He indicated the shadows. “I was walking my dog.”
“That is not a dog.” A strange expression tugged at her face. “I…” She lowered the can a fraction. “How did I get here?” She aimed the question at herself. “I was in the car…and then…”
Zed held statue-still so
as not to startle her into hosing us with pepper spray. “Is there anyone I can call for you?”
“No.” She patted her pockets until she located a ring of keys. “Thanks, but I’m good.” She gestured toward Panda. “That’s my aunt’s restaurant.”
Taking the out we had been offered, I leaned against the rope. “We should make our exit while she’s still disoriented.”
He was slow to follow. “I don’t feel right leaving her in this condition.”
He wasn’t the only one. The poor woman had had her bell rung by some kind of magical something, and she was about to get a second, even nastier surprise when she realized her aunt was missing. “Do you actually have a phone, or were you intending to use someone else’s?”
He made a familiar move that usually signified he was going for his wallet, but he came out with a thin phone instead. “Cam gave it to me for emergencies.”
“Good. Call the cops and report a disoriented woman walking around the parking lot behind Panda. Point out how late it is, and tell them you’re afraid she’ll injure herself or wander into traffic.” Such as it was. “Maybe then they’ll dispatch help faster. Hey. Wait a minute.” I flattened my ears against my head. “Why didn’t I get a phone?”
He tapped the sliver of black plastic against his thigh. “What did you do with the last one?”
“I…” I had a vague memory of Cam issuing me a burner phone before the Lorimar pack bond was cemented so we could keep in touch. God only knew where it ended up during the move. “Okay, fine. I see your point.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he teased.
“Ugh.” Boys. Befriending them meant expecting penis jokes to pop up in casual conversation. “Don’t remind me how many times I’ve seen your junk.”
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