LustUndone (7 page)

But Clint Beaudine had smacked into her with all the subtlety
of a freight train. She didn’t know if she’d ever recover from the force of the
collision. What she did know was it was the first time in her life she’d ever
had such wild monkey sex. And after barely five minutes of conversation.

She also knew deep inside her it would take more willpower
than she possessed to walk away from him. There was something at once both
roughly masculine and innately tender about him. Such a contradiction of
facets. Predatory and giving. Feral but controlled. Her reaction to him was
like a visceral punch.

No, there was no backing away from this. That was for damn
sure.

She stood there so long the water began to turn cold and she
pulled herself together, quickly stepping out. By the time Logan rapped on her
door she was dressed and ready. Hair clipped back at the nape to keep it out of
her way. Woolen coat buttoned up. Feet encased in sturdy fleece-lined boots.

“You look damn good after the long day we had yesterday,” he
commented, holding the car door open for her. “Must have gotten a really good
night’s sleep.”

Was that a smile teasing at his mouth?

She deliberately arranged her face in what she hoped was an
expression of innocence. “Why yes, thank you. I slept like a log.”

He turned his head to check for cars before turning out of
the parking lot and said, almost too casually, “We planning to eat at The Crown
again tonight?”

Sophia went instantly still, a flush racing through her. Had
he heard Clint knock the night before? Heard their…nocturnal activities? She
was sure they’d been as quiet as possible. She’d even bitten her lip until it
nearly bled to keep from shouting out each time she climaxed. Were the walls so
thin it hadn’t mattered?

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Tsk. Touchy, touchy.” She could hear the grin in his voice.
“Just remembering how good the food was and I like to stick with what I know.”
The traffic cleared and he turned onto the highway. “Besides, the guy running
the place probably wants to make a good impression on you, if the looks he kept
giving you are any indication. And you can bet we didn’t get the free drinks
because of me or Rebecca. If you recall, she commented at the time it was the
first time she’d gotten a round on the house since Frenchy got hurt.”

“Logan,” she began, her tone of voice edgy.

But he smoothly changed the subject. “So I guess this
morning we’ll finally get to take a look at the crime scene.”

“Yes.” She blew out a breath. “Not that there’ll be much to
see after all the snowfall.”

“At least we’ll get a sense of the scene. Of the environment
around it. Maybe how the beast got away so cleanly.”

“Ha.” Her tone was derisive. “As if. You know we’ve never
been able to do that.”

“One can hope,” he said, his own voice edged with irony.
“You said last night there are still a few gray wolves around here, right?”

“Yes. One of the things on my to-do list is to talk to
someone from Maine Fish and Wildlife about the current state of the population.
See how many have been spotted recently.”

She glanced over at him. “Why? Did you run last night? Catch
sight of any?”

“What about black wolves?”

“Black?” She was startled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen any
around here. I know their color is a variant of gray and that there’s a
significant number in Canada.”

“Think any might have migrated to northern Maine?”

“Are you going to tell me what this is about or not?” she
demanded.

“Just…curious is all.”

“You’re never just curious about anything. Logan, if you ran
last night and saw something that might be pertinent to this case, spit it out.
You know better than to hold back.” Then excitement flashed through her. “Do
you think—”

“No.” His voice was firm. “Not the Chupacabra. I caught a
scent and it didn’t have even a trace of turpentine in it.”

Every
kill scene they’d visited
had been tainted with that particular odor.

“But,” he went on, “I’m pretty sure I saw a black wolf. Not
dark gray. Black. And—this is going to sound very weird—but I sensed some kind
of presence. Not exactly animal but not really human, either. I was deep in the
woods and looked around and thought I caught a glimpse of…whatever it was. But
then it was gone.” He pulled into the lane of a drive-through. “Sophia, you’ve
never said but have you ever heard of any shifters around here?”

Stunned, she stared at his profile. “Shapeshifters? I
suppose it’s possible. And doesn’t that put an interesting spin on things.”

They gave their orders to the mechanical voice and pulled
ahead to take their place at the window.

“I’m going to run again tonight,” he told her, handing over
coffee and a breakfast sandwich. “See if he…she…it turns up again.”

“I’ll make some discreet inquiries today. Let you know what
I find out.” She sipped the hot coffee. “How interesting that there’s a
possibility of shifters around here. And I wonder how that will impact on this
case and the devil beast.”

“We definitely need some answer.”

Bobby and Rebecca were waiting in the conference room when
they got to the barracks.

“The others will be along any minute,” Bobby told them. “The
coffee’s not the best but I promise it won’t poison you.”

“Bobby, you worked on the case when Cary and Timmy Black
were killed, right?”

“Your nephews?” He nodded over the rim of his cup. “Nasty
business, Soph. My heart went out to your whole family.”

“Wouldn’t you have worked on them as well?” Logan asked.

Sophia noticed he had deliberately taken the seat next to
her sister, and Bec hadn’t moved away. She hoped Rebecca wasn’t setting herself
up to be hurt. When this was over Logan would be returning to Desolation Ranch.
It was the commitment he’d made. And Rebecca’s home was here, much more even
than Sophia’s had been.

“I…took a step back.” More than one step, she remembered.
And not all of her choosing.

Logan frowned. “What exactly does that mean?”

“Sophia took the time to be with her family,” Bobby answered
for her. “It was a very traumatic time for all of them.”

Sophia smacked her hand on the table, causing the coffee cup
to jump and the black liquid to splash onto the table. “That’s a load of
horseshit. Doug Sevier was my sergeant at the time and he thought I’d popped my
brain cells. He pushed me into taking what he called compassionate leave. It
was either that or get fired or stuck in some loony bin.”

“You have to admit,” Bobby went on in a calm voice, “your
theory pushed the bounds of believability.”

“Oh, and all of you had a better answer? I didn’t see you
catching anyone.” She pushed away from the table and paced the room. “I want
all the photos and crime scene details from those three cases, Bobby. They
belong in the mix here.”

“Sophia,” he began.

“No. Don’t placate me. I’ll take the heat but we brought you
evidence of kills just like that all over the country.” She threw up her hands.
“The world, even. You want hard evidence I’ll give it to you. But let’s get
everything on the table first.”

“Children, children, children.”

Without fanfare the rest of the team had arrived and was
filing into the room. Scott Mooney, one of the CIDs, looked around at everyone.
“Play nice in the sandbox. What’s the problem?”

No one spoke for a long moment. Sophia stood with her hands
on her hips while Logan and Rebecca waited to see what would happen next.

“I didn’t blame you for finally leaving when you did,” Bobby
said at last. “Hell, I’m surprised the whole family stuck around.”

“Blacks aren’t quitters,” Rebecca said in a harsh voice.
“You know that, Bobby. And Sophia left because she had a great job offer.
Period.”

Bobby held up one hand, palm out. “No offense. Didn’t mean
to pick a scab on a sore.”

“It’s an old sore and that’s not why I asked the question.”
Sophia stared across the table at Bobby.

“Hell. Sorry, sorry. Ask away.”

Sophia took a swallow of the bitter coffee. “And on the
other two that occurred around the same time?”

Bobby slid his chair back and rose from the table. “I’ll get
those files,” he said in his Maine twang. “You’re right, Soph. Let’s lay it all
out on the table. We may not be right but you might not, either. The answer
might lie somewhere in between.”

“Fine,” she shot back at him. “And we’ll all have our say.”

The previous night had been tedious but not more than with
any normal case. Logan thought the staties had been pretty accepting of the
theories and material he and Sophia had brought with them. But as Bobby carried
in a storage box filled with case files, set it on the table and opened it, he
definitely got the message through body language if nothing else that they all
thought he and Soph were nuts. That they were going to humor them until the two
of them gave up and went back to Texas and let them get on with their business.

“You know,” he drawled, “it doesn’t seem to me that any of
you have made any headway in this at all. Even if it’s a serial killer, as you
all seem to think, you haven’t got a clue as to whether it’s a man or woman,
where he or she came from or went to, or why these particular victims are
chosen. So.” He sat forward and leaned his arms on the table. “I say, crazy as
it sounds, let’s all keep an open mind here. We’ll look at your theories, you
look at ours.” He looked directly at Bobby. The signals would come from him.
“What do you say?”

He watched Bobby look at his people one at a time, then at
Rebecca, and finally at him and Sophia.

“Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll listen. How’s that.”

“Fair enough.” Logan looked at Sophia now. “Okay with you,
Soph?”

She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “Fine.
Let’s just get to work.”

As if daring anyone on the team to argue with him, Bobby dug
the folders out of the box and opened each one, spread its contents out for
them all to see. The first set of pictures was of a man in his thirties. He’d
been found lying outside his barn, still in jeans and heavy jacket but with a
gaping hole where his stomach should be. Logan blinked and swallowed hard. It
reminded him instantly of the way his brother Evan had been found. The body of
his sister-in-law Valerie had been discovered on the back porch of their house
in the same condition. Even now he had to tamp down the nausea as the memories
flood him. He had no idea how Sophia managed to handle it being back in the old
environment. Especially when they got to the pictures of her nephews.

When he saw the color leech from her face he quietly got up,
refilled her coffee mug and put the hot liquid into her hands. She looked up at
him with haunted eyes.

“Thank you.”

“No sweat.” He pitched his voice low. “You okay with this?”

She swallowed hard. “I can do it. Don’t worry.”

Bobby and the others were looking at the old photos and
comparing them with those of Darrell Franklin. Scott Mooney leaned back in his
chair and rubbed his jaw.

“I have to agree on a couple of points,” he said almost
reluctantly. “These are all the same work of one creature human or otherwise.
And it’s not like anything we’ve seen before or since.”

“Don’t tell me you’re buying into the idea that this is some
mythical beast on a bloodlust hunt,” one of the other CIDs snorted. “That makes
as much sense as believing that old Indian chief came back from the grave and
keeps killing the white man to avenge the death of his infant.”

“If you wanted to go that route,” Bobby put in, “you could
almost imagine these wounds cause by a very sharp tomahawk. Only…”

“Only what?” Scott demanded.

“Only it’s been a few hundred years since that episode. Even
if we agree that the vendetta was handed down from generation to generation,
why wait until now? And why these particular people? It’s almost as if they
were chosen at random.”

“They were,” Sophia insisted. “Animals don’t choose their
prey with a plan in mind except to kill. Either for food, revenge or
protection. And you can be sure whatever we’re dealing with is part animal.
Whoever or whatever did this drained the blood from the bodies but left the
entrails lying there. Anyway, I thought we went over all this last night? That
you all at least agreed to look at this with an open mind.”

There was a very long moment of silence, which Bobby finally
broke.

“I’ll be real honest with you, Soph. Last night we were all
on our best behavior and everyone was trying to be careful of your feelings.
But you have to admit the story is really out there.”

Logan set his mug down and leaned forward. “I saw what the
creature did to my brother and sister-in-law.” His voice was edged with a
mixture of pain and anger. “And the destruction it left in Alabama. Whatever
this is, it’s left bodies all over the country and no one’s been able to
identify a known breed of animal that kills this way.”

“A couple of people have even trapped what they think is the
creature but it got away. They did, however, get pictures of it. I’m going to
call back to our home base and have them emailed up here to me.” She looked
around the table at each of the faces one at a time. “I know you all thought I
was crazy when the twins were killed but I spent hours on the internet
researching similar killings. I didn’t just pull this out of thin air.”

“Okay, okay, okay.” Bobby held up his hands. “Let’s focus on
what we need to do here. We have a dead body and that’s what we need to get on
top of. Let’s do what we said last night. Be open to what Sophia and Logan have
to say. Hell, I guess anything is possible.”

Rebecca, who had been silent through the exchange, looked at
Logan then cleared her throat. “Why don’t we follow our usual routine,
something we should have done last night. Only this time let Logan or Sophia do
the white board. Then we’ll troop out to Darrell Franklin’s and see what we can
figure out.”