The Shifter's Conspiracy (Paranormal BBW Werewolf Romance Novella) (4 page)

“Are there any other questions?” asked Commissioner Davis, looking calmly and purposefully around the room of quiet detectives standing before him at attention.

“Alright, let’s get back to work people.”

I took one last, long look in Agent Chamberlain’s direction before heading out of the conference room and back to my desk. There was something strange about him and I didn’t know what it was. There was a certain aura about him; his total confidence, his high level of achievement for such a young agent.

I knew he would be a tough interviewer, so I wanted to be sure I knew the different files I’d prepared both backwards and forwards. I would make sure to go over my research several times before presenting it. Fortunately, I had all morning to do so. Since my name was toward the end of the alphabet, I’d hopefully have most of the afternoon, too.

When I got back to my desk, I found a foot high stack of files to be scanned. I sighed, annoyed and disappointed. This was absolutely the last thing I needed right now.

I stood in the copy room lazily running documents through the scanner. On the outside, I looked like any other bored, absent-minded junior employee, but inside I was absolute chaos. My mind was working in all different directions as I thought anxiously about my research and the interviews that afternoon. This was my chance at really pushing forward my career in a big way and I absolutely needed to nail it. But what would I say?

I tried to concentrate on my research, going over each file individually in my mind since I couldn’t be back at my desk at the moment. I pictured each girl, trying to remember the particulars of her history, but it was no use. There were so many dates and locations and status updates that I couldn’t possibly figure anything out without having the data directly in front of me.

When I finally finished I headed back to my desk and started scrolling through everything I had, trying to make sure I knew the most important aspects of each file so that I could answer questions quickly in the interview.

I noticed that a lot of the girls had been to a particular bar in Midtown called 41X. A lot, but not all of them. In general, it tended to be the younger girls in the group who I had confirmed check-ins there on Yelp and Facebook. Was it just coincidence? I wasn’t sure, but at the very least it could be a lead. For some reason I was feeling reluctant to mention the one universal feature I’d noticed: the curvy, full-figured frame of each and every girl that had disappeared. For some reason it didn’t seem like such a convincing lead now. Why would someone go after these girls strictly because of how they were proportioned?

Even though body type had initially seemed like a relevant consideration, I decided to keep looking. I wanted something more concrete, easier to present without having to extrapolate the mindset of the kidnapper. So I kept searching, trying to see if I could turn up anything else over the next several hours before the interview.

I practically jumped out of my seat when I noticed Eric’s body standing in front of my desk, looking down at me. With my headphones in, I hadn’t heard him walk up.

“What?” I asked impatiently, pulling my headphones out of my ears.

“What are you working on?” asked Eric, giving me that same weird, slightly evil smile.

“Research for the interview later. Do you have a question or something? Because if not I want to get back to work.”

“Ha, you really think you’ll get put on the team?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to give it a shot.”

“Well, I wouldn’t bother. You weren’t on the original team and you don’t have any real experience. Besides, Agent Chamberlain is a fucking asshole. There’s no way you’ll survive the interview.”

“Why? What was it like?”

“I don’t know,” said Eric, tensing up slightly. “It doesn’t matter. You won’t get on the team.”

“I might,” I said with a slight smile, exuding a confidence that I knew would annoy him.

“No, you won’t. If I didn’t get on the task force, there’s no way you’re gonna get on.”

“Really? Because you sound kind of nervous about that prospect. Imagine how that’d look, losing out to me when I don’t have any experience. After all, you’ve actually been working on this case. You’ve effectively been taken
off
the case. Kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, whatever. You’re such a bitch. Hope you crash and burn,” he said, pushing a file of papers off my desk and onto the floor as he left.

What an idiot, I thought. Did he think he was impressing me? Or intimidating me? The fact that it bothered him made me want to be put on the case even more. I’d use his taunts as motivation.

I printed off three separate copies of the files so I could give one to each of the FBI agents. Now that I had everything assembled before me, it actually looked pretty impressive. I doubted anyone else had put together anything this systematic or cohesive.

After all, the people who were
actually
assigned to the case had mainly spent their time chasing dead ends. They were over three weeks in and still didn’t have a clue what was going on. And now the kidnappings were happening on an almost daily basis. At the very least, I would be able to give the FBI agents some information that could eventually lead to an arrest. That was, after all, the bottom line.

An hour later I received an e-mail telling me that my interview was scheduled for 7:30 PM. Pretty late. It was only 4:00 PM, so I decided I’d go out and grab a latte to keep me going for the rest of the afternoon.

Predictably, I came back to another stack of manila folders on my desk. Dammit. I’d hoped to run through the files over and over again right up until the interview—kind of like studying for a big exam. Maybe it would be better to spend some time away from my desk to clear my head for a bit.

But I couldn’t get the files out of my head. I had them almost entirely memorized at this point and I simply couldn’t help it. Images of the different girls flashed before my mind. It made me reel back in shock a bit, remembering the human component to all this. These girls had friends and families, people hoping desperately that they would return safely. This wasn’t just an exercise in running data and compiling reports, it was about bringing these girls home and making sure that whoever was behind these heinous acts was put behind bars.

Thinking about this made me question myself and my work. Did these files have any real leads or were they just the biographies of a bunch of girls who’d met a tragic fate? I didn’t know for sure, but I hoped at the very least someone with more experience would be able to put my research to good use. After all, the team sent from the FBI seem top-notch. Even if I didn’t get on the team, I wanted to make an impact somehow. That being said, at the end of the day, I wanted to be out on the streets doing detective work, not inside scanning more old traffic citations.

At 7:20 PM I dropped the unscanned papers on my desk. Gathering up the three sets of files, I marched purposefully toward the elevator. I pushed the round, shiny metal button with the indented ‘18’. It was startlingly cold to the touch, but maybe it was just my imagination. As I waited for the doors to open, I thought about what I would say, how I would phrase things to be more convincing, to make a strong argument to the agents for putting me on this special task force. But maybe Eric was right. Agent Chamberlain was supposed to be tough. Maybe I really didn’t have a chance, but there was no turning back now.

Elias Chamberlain shuffled the papers on the table in front of him. He was happy to be back in New York City. Well, ‘happy’ wasn’t really the best word. But it felt right to be back; he’d missed it. The bright lights and dark alleys, the high arts and the dirty slums, the mélange of peoples and cultures and cuisines. To him, there was no better place on earth; and also no place more sinister.

He’d left several years ago to work in the DC bureau, but he hadn’t stayed in the district for too long. As an expert in his field, Elias’s job took him everywhere from DC, to LA, to Houston, to Chicago… even to smaller cities like Des Moines and Omaha. He followed whatever wave of crime was in motion; in a world full of danger, this meant he was constantly on the move.

Looking down at the sheet of paper he held in his hands, he noted the long list of names crossed off in red ink. It was a wonder this department had gotten
anything
done with all the incompetent people that filled its ranks. Every detective he’d spoken to seemed self-involved and self-promoting; they couldn’t give a damn about solving the actual abductions case. All they cared about was furthering their careers and getting a bigger paycheck. Most of them could care less whether these lost girls were ever found.

Elias laughed to himself cynically. The worst part about these people wasn’t that they were self-serving, it was that they were stupid, too. He thought back through the interviews he’d conducted earlier in the day. Some young kid had walked in and slumped down in the chair on the opposite side of the table. His name was Eric something. Elias couldn’t remember his last name because he’d passed on the kid the second he got a whiff of his bad attitude.

Once Elias had found out Eric had been assigned to the case for three weeks and had turned up nothing, he knew there wouldn’t be a spot open for him on the team. Eric had seemed so self-entitled, so fatuous. He’d accomplished nothing, yet expected everything to just be handed to him. But that wasn’t an option, not when Elias was involved, and certainly not in a case of this magnitude.

His eyes made their way down the list, down to the last interviewee of the day: Tess Wilshere. Elias had never heard of her, but he sure hoped she would be a solid prospect; he really didn’t want to have to bring in any external personnel on this assignment. Bringing in outside people would alienate the department and strain his relationship with Commissioner Davis. These were important considerations.

There was a knock on the door. He calmly put the paper back down on the table in front of him.
It must be her
, he thought.