Grave Rites: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Grant Wolves Book 6)

by Lori Drake

Harding hummed. “Left or right?”

  “I’m not sure, sorry.”

  “Did you observe any body language that might suggest the relationship between the two?” Harding asked.

  “Not that I can remember. I tried to tease it out of her, but she wouldn’t bite. Just told me he was a friend of a friend.”

  Nodding, Harding flipped his notebook closed and tucked it away, then produced a business card to hold out across the counter. “In case you think of anything else. I haven’t given up on Rachel. She’s still out there, somewhere.”

  “Neither of us has,” Joey added, then followed Harding to the door and out into the misty late afternoon.

  “That description sound like anyone you know?” he asked once the door closed behind them.

  “Half the men in Seattle?” Joey shrugged. “I’ve met Naomi’s boyfriend. Isaac Connelly. He’s got brown hair, but he’s not particularly short and no piercings that I noticed.” Though, she couldn’t help but think of a certain coven leader. Dark hair, goatee, nose piercing, short… he ticked all those boxes. But it could still be a coincidence, and they were already in enough potential hot water for telling Harding about witches. If they started pointing fingers at the coven’s High Priest and were wrong… that wouldn’t help their relations with the group at all.

  “Well, that insurance policy gives him motive, that’s for sure,” Harding said.

  Joey chewed her lip and shook her head. “I don’t know. Honestly, I’d be surprised if he even knew about it. Who was the secondary? I didn’t catch that.”

  “Catherine Boyd.”

  “Yeah, definitely scratch her off your suspect list. I’ll vouch for her.”

  He snorted softly. “It doesn’t work like that, kid.”

  “I’m not a kid.”

  Flapping a hand dismissively, he turned to amble back to his nondescript sedan. Joey followed with a sigh. Her phone buzzed while she waited for him to unlock the doors.

  Chris: Caught up with everyone, but there’s a wolf at Animal Control. Heading there now.

  “Chris is heading to Animal Control,” she said as she settled in and put her seat belt on. “They caught a wolf.”

  “How did this become my problem?” Harding sighed but flipped on his dash-mounted light bar and pulled out of the parking lot at a fast clip.

  Joey grabbed the handle over the window and swallowed a wave of nausea. She was really starting to hate riding in cars.

  12

  Chris sat in the lobby of the downtown Animal Control office and leaned his head back against the wall. His headache had yet to subside, but at least the room was relatively quiet but for the muffled sound of barking dogs being held in the kennels somewhere in the building. Fatigue held him in place like a weighted blanket, and he was on the edge of dozing off when the shift in the room’s air pressure and the sound of traffic signaled an opening door.

  Peeling his eyes open, he stood upon catching sight of Joey and Harding entering the building. Joey took one look at him and frowned, forehead wrinkling.

  “You look even worse,” she said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Chris rubbed his face. “Just tired.”

  “When we’re done here, you can go home and get a nap if you want. I can follow up with… the coven.”

  Chris flicked a glance at Harding, but he seemed absorbed with something on his phone. “We can talk about it when we’re done here. Only one car, after all.” He wasn’t about to ask Harding for a ride home. He had no idea what was on the cop’s agenda for the rest of the day, but Granite Falls was undoubtedly out of his way.

  “Okay, what do you have for us?” Joey asked.

  “Not much. They wouldn’t tell me anything, only confirmed that they do have a wolf in custody. They wouldn’t let me back to see it. Think you can work your magic, detective?”

  Harding looked up from his phone. “If by magic you mean wave a badge around and look official… yeah, I think I can handle that.”

  Chris tucked his hands in his pockets and followed the detective over to the counter, hanging back with Joey while Harding exchanged words with the receptionist. A few minutes later, an Animal Control officer came out of the back to escort them to the kennels, where a surprisingly wide variety of critters were locked up for everyone’s safety. Dogs, rabbits, there was even some kind of large lizard in an aquarium tucked inside one of the wire cages. The air was heavy with the mingled scents of wild and domesticated animals, and threaded through them was the unmistakable scent of wolf.

  The scent grew stronger as they walked down the row of cages, passing several empty ones before the Animal Control officer stopped and motioned at an occupied one. While the dogs they’d passed had crowded the doors, barking and jumping, the creature in this cage huddled in the back, and upon seeing them it got to its feet and backed even closer to the wall. Its coat was gray dappled with brown, and it stood on spindly legs that looked a little too long for its body. Its ears flattened, and it bared its wickedly sharp teeth in warning as a low growl rumbled from its throat.

  Yup. Definitely a wolf. Chris crouched to get on its level, and Joey followed suit while Harding queried the Animal Control officer about where it was found, when, and by whom.

  Looking into the animal’s yellow eyes, Chris saw no spark of the intelligence he’d expect from a lycanthrope. Wrinkling his nose, he inhaled deeply, zeroing in on the creature’s scent. It was musty, yet strangely spicy.

  “Definitely wild, but I can’t tell if she was ever like us,” Joey whispered.

  Chris frowned, doing his best to focus around the dull throb of his headache, but he couldn’t process the scent the way he normally could. It was muted. And, come to think of it, his own wolf was strangely quiet. Usually he’d react a little more in the presence of an unfamiliar wolf. Lycanthrope or not.

  Stupid headache.

  Chris studied the wolf a few moments more, then shook his head and stood once again, putting a hand on the cage to catch himself when the world suddenly tilted.

  Joey put a hand on his arm. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just stood up too fast.”

  Harding turned toward them as the Animal Control officer broke off to answer a radio call. “Officer Riggings says the wolf’s chipped. It belongs to an animal sanctuary about twenty miles southeast.”

  “How the hell did it get all the way to downtown Seattle?” Joey asked.

  Harding spread his hands and shrugged. “No idea. And they didn’t report it missing, either.”

  “Well, at least now she can go home,” Chris said.

  “Not that simple, I’m afraid.” Harding tucked his notebook into his pocket. “Animal Control has to verify with the sanctuary that it’s up on its shots. Otherwise…”

  Joey’s mouth screwed up in a distasteful frown. “They’ll have to put her down to test for rabies.”

  Chris’s gaze wandered back to the wolf, who paced in an agitated fashion along the back wall. She growled again when she caught him looking, so he quickly averted his gaze. “I hope, for her sake, she is. She’s a beautiful creature.”

  “Yeah, me too. I guess we’re done here, then?” Joey said.

  Chris nodded and turned to walk back down the aisle, sneakers quiet on the concrete floor. They didn’t stop again until they were on the sidewalk outside. Something nagged at Chris all the way there, until he finally blurted it out.

  “Missing wolves and missing women.”

  Joey blinked slowly. “What?”

  “Maybe… hell, I dunno.” Chris rubbed his temples.

  “Tell us what’s on your mind, son,” Harding said.

  “Well, that wolf didn’t get to Seattle on its own. Someone brought it here. It was wolf-napped.”

  “You think it’s related to what happened to Naomi and Rachel?” Joey asked. “That’s… a bit of a stretch.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe not. Probably not. It’s just… a weird coincidence.”

  Harding scratched his stubbly
jaw, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Sounds like a hunch. If there’s one thing a good detective doesn’t ignore, it’s a hunch.”

  Joey glanced between them like they were both crazy. “You can’t be serious.”

  “You want to take a drive out to that sanctuary with me, Chris?” Harding asked.

  “Yes,” Chris said.

  “No,” Joey said at the same time, then sighed. “I’ll go. You look like you’re dead on your feet. I wouldn’t want you to get eaten by a wild mongoose or something.”

  A mongoose? Really? “I’m not going to get—”

  “End of discussion.” Joey made a slashing gesture with one hand.

  Chris felt like he should’ve been annoyed, but he was too headachy and tired to get riled up. “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Well, daylight’s burning. Let’s get this show on the road.” Harding turned and walked toward his car.

  Chris caught Joey’s hand, holding her back for a moment. “Hey, did you find anything interesting at the ping site or Rachel’s office?”

  “No trace of Naomi or the phone in a several block radius, though I didn’t walk it on all fours. Still might be worthwhile to go back and sniff around. As for the other… yeah, actually. A mystery man picked Rachel up from work a few times, recently enough that a co-worker mentioned it. Short, dark hair, goatee, nose ring…” She leaned in and lowered her voice, though Harding was well out of earshot by then. “Sound like anyone you know?”

  Chris nodded. “Ethan. But they knew each other, so it’s not completely suspicious that he might’ve given her a ride.”

  “Yeah. But there’s something else. Naomi recently bought a significant life insurance policy through the insurance office Rachel worked for.”

  “How significant?”

  “Two hundred thousand dollars.”

  Chris whistled. “Who’s the beneficiary? No, wait, let me guess…” Fortunately, his throbbing brain didn’t have to think very hard about that one. “Isaac.”

  “Bingo.”

  “You still think he’s innocent?” Chris asked.

  “Well, he has motive now… but I’m not quite ready to point fingers. We’ve still got leads to follow up on.”

  Joey wrapped her arms around him, lingering a few seconds more. He closed his around her reflexively, but it felt right on a spiritual level. No one was perfect, and they might fight, but she was still the one for him.

  “I’ll pick you up at Cathy’s after we’re done, okay?” she said. “And then we need to finish that talk.”

  Chris looked down at her for a moment, then bent to press a soft kiss to her lips. “Okay.”

  He stood on the sidewalk and watched her get into Harding’s car, watched them until they pulled out of the parking lot and headed off down the busy street, getting lost amongst the late afternoon traffic. He felt a little bad about sending them off on a not insignificant trek on a hunch, but there was nothing he could do about it now. It was done.

  Now he had to go break the bad news to the most powerful witch in Seattle that her former apprentice and friend had been disfigured magically—and obviously painfully—before she died. Somehow, he suspected his nap might be further off than Joey wanted, regardless.

  Call it a hunch, if you will.

  The Tall Pines Animal Sanctuary turned out to be a little farther than they’d thought, a solid thirty-minute drive from Animal Control, but part of that was due to early onset of rush hour. There was only so much Harding’s flashing blue and red lights could do when it came to getting them there quickly, and every second he’d spent zipping down the shoulder past bumper-to-bumper traffic had been one second closer to Joey accidentally ripping the “oh shit bar” off the ceiling of his police-issued sedan. Destroying public property wasn’t something Joey wanted on her rap sheet. It wasn’t so much that Harding was driving recklessly, but he was an aggressive driver. Plus, he was in a hurry, and Joey always had a hard time relaxing in a car when she wasn’t behind the wheel. She’d always had difficulty riding in cars, but ever since she’d ended up swept off the side of a mountain and buried under a pile of rock and dirt in one, her claustrophobia in cars had only gotten worse. It didn’t help that her wolf paced within her fleshy cage, equal parts scared and agitated.

  They made it in one piece, with Joey scrambling out of the car at the first opportunity and leaning back against the side of it, staring up at the gray sky and taking deep breaths in an effort to slow her racing heart.

  “You coming?” Harding asked, gravel crunching beneath the soles of his shoes as he walked in the direction of the ranger’s station.

  “Go ahead, I’ll catch up. I want to have a look around out here.”

  Harding grunted and his footsteps retreated. Joey drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking around once she and her wolf had calmed sufficiently to do so. Tall pine trees ringed the clearing they’d pulled into. The ranger’s station lay down a narrow access road through said trees, several miles off the main road. The sun hung low on the western horizon behind a thick blanket of cloud cover, and the daylight was beginning to wane.

  Harding’s car was parked beside a couple of white sport utility vehicles emblazoned with the sanctuary’s name and logo and sporting tax-exempt plates. Both could’ve used a wash, but Joey wasn’t there for a white glove inspection. She circled the first one, coming up on the driver’s side to try the door. It was unlocked. She opened it and stuck her head inside. Despite the heavy film of dirt on the outside, the interior was meticulously clean. She sniffed the air and paused, tilting her head.

  She smelled wolf. No, not just wolf… lycanthrope.

  Leaning over, she put her nose closer to the driver’s seat and sniffed harder. Yup. A lycanthrope had driven this vehicle, and recently. One of the rangers must’ve been a wolf. Joey wasn’t aware of any of the lone wolves in the area being a ranger out here, but then again… it could be argued that this was somewhat outside their territory. Filing that away for later, she unlocked the rest of the doors and walked around to the back to pop the trunk.

  The back of the SUV had been custom fitted with a large kennel, a cage for safe transport of animals. She sniffed around a bit, catching faint whiffs of scents but mostly smelling the disinfectant cleaner that’d been used to scrub it clean. Recently, by the strength of the scent.

  Closing the lift gate, Joey wandered over to the other SUV. This time, the door was locked, so she couldn’t sniff around inside. But she peered through the windows. Unlike the other SUV, this one was littered with trash, everything from crumpled fast food bags to candy wrappers and empty plastic soda bottles.

  Footsteps on the gravel alerted her to someone’s approach from the rear of the vehicle. She straightened as a man in a ranger’s uniform came around the corner, sandy blond hair hanging in his eyes and keys in hand.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, absently shaking his hair out of his uneasy eyes without taking them off of her.

  Joey put on a smile. “Mind popping the trunk?” Hey, it never hurt to ask.

  “Why?” His eyes narrowed, suspicion obvious. Okay, maybe it did sometimes hurt to ask.

  Hooking her thumbs in her belt loops, Joey did her best to appear non-threatening as she looked him in the eye and let her wolf rise to the surface. He didn’t look away, and there was no answering swell of dominance. She wasn’t close enough to smell him and was unfortunately upwind, but she didn’t think he was the lycanthrope she’d scented in the other car.

  “We have reason to believe this vehicle was used to transport a wolf off the sanctuary’s grounds.”

  “What?” His eyes went wide, and he glanced from Joey to the SUV and back again. “No way.”

  Joey bit the inside of her cheek and schooled her features to give nothing away. The guy’s reaction was far too exaggerated to be real. “Afraid so. So… about that trunk?”

  “Yeah, sure, no problem. Sorry, I didn’t catch your name…”

  “Detective Grant,” she said. Oka
y, so maybe impersonating a police officer was a more serious crime than damaging public property. It was a snap decision. She moved aside while he climbed in, leaving the door open as he started the SUV and opened the back. The lift gate opened with a quiet hum of machinery. Fancy.

  Joey walked around to the back, looking inside. The radio blared a contemporary pop song, loud enough that she had to tamp down her hearing a bit to avoid being deafened. She leaned over and sniffed. This car definitely hadn’t been cleaned anytime recently. The air reeked of old grease, permeated with the lingering odor of French fries, but under it… animal musk. And there it was, hidden amongst the others in plain scent-sight, the unmistakable scent of the female wolf that was locked up at Animal Control. But smell alone wasn’t going to be enough for Harding. He needed hard evidence. She set her sharp eyes to searching the cage in the back, and something caught her eye. She put a knee on the bumper and reached into the cage, plucking a small tuft of fur free.

  The SUV lurched backwards suddenly, and if Joey hadn’t been half inside it, she would’ve ended up underneath it instead of falling into the back. She didn’t even have time to grab onto anything before the ranger up front slammed on the brakes, sending her tumbling back out again.

  “Hey!” she cried out.

  He punched the gas. Tires spun on the gravel before catching, and Joey landed roughly on the hard-packed dirt in a cloud of dust as the SUV sped down the access road.

  Joey’s hip, which she’d landed on, screamed in pain, and she coughed as dust filled her lungs, opening her mouth to gasp for breath and getting it on her tongue as well. When the dust cleared, she picked herself up off the ground and looked down at the tuft of gray fur still pinched between her fingers.

  Checkmate, motherfucker.

  13

  Chris dragged ass up the path to Cathy’s back door. It was locked, which was unusual, but perhaps to be expected given the heightened state of alert. He knocked, but his smile froze halfway onto his face when a woman who was not Cathy answered the door. Her honey brown hair was pulled back from her face by combs, highlighting the sharpness of her cheekbones. Frank blue eyes assessed him as she held the door partway open, blocking his view inside with her slender form.