decided to come calling, they drove the truck up close to the two-lane country highway and stashed it in a thick copse of trees. Then they stripped, piling their clothes neatly on the front seat, and in seconds had shifted into wolf form, padding silently back to the cabin.
They circled around it, each going in an opposite direction, widening the circle of the search each time. When Cale was about fifty yards from the cabin, in the trees and standing on the soft forest floor, his nose alerted him to a differentiation in odours and he froze. He sniffed the area, moving away from the place he’d first picked up the scent, then back again. Cautiously he scraped at the bed of deciduous leaves and rotted wood, stopping when he uncovered something. Lifting his head, he gave a short, sharp howl calling Luke, hoping to hell no one was around to hear him.
Luke raced to his side, skidding to a stop and sniffing the area where Cale was standing. He lifted his wolf eyes to Cale , nodded. They both knew as humans the chance of catching this scent would be marginal, but their wolf senses never missed.
Then, as if with one mind, they loped further into the woods, eventually finding exactly what they expected. Cathy Porter’s car, hidden in a thick stand of trees and covered with leaves and branches. They raced back to the truck, shifted back to their human form and dressed quickly, Cale backed out onto the road and they roared away.
“I don’t know if it’s Cathy Porter,” Luke said when they’d driven a couple of miles, “but that’s definitely a body back there in some stage of decomp . And that’s her car back there.”
“No shit.” Cale ground his teeth, anticipating Linnea’s distress. “I wonder if they just expected to leave it there forever. They own all the land around here, so I guess the chance of discovery was pretty slim.”
Luke pulled out his cell. “I’m calling Brian to get everyone who’s around together. We need brainpower on this. We can’t just dig the bodies up without a warrant, and if we take the time to get a warrant they could get wind of what we’re doing.”
Cale nodded. “Tell Brian we’re a little more than an hour out. We have to move on this. Get him to call Rome and tell him to get his ass over to the office.”
Rome Purcell, another Sentinel, was a top criminal attorney who kept the organisation out of trouble when business forced them to skate on the edge of the law.
“Okay.” He snapped his phone shut after a brief conversation. “He’s on it.”
* * * *
Linnea was curled in Cale’s lap in the big chair in the living room. All the tears she’d been holding back all this time had burst forth and she’d cried until Cale worried she’d make herself sick. What they’d found had indeed been Cathy Porter’s body, but there’d also been a bonus—what was left of the woman Gray Fisher’d had an affair with before coming to The Gage Foundation. Apparently beneath his too-smooth exterior, he concealed a raging temper. Afraid the woman would come to San Antonio and make trouble for him, he’d had her meet him at the cabin and strangled her.
No one had been aware that Cathy had come back to the office the night she disappeared to work on reports for the donors, killing time while she waited to meet her sister for dinner. She had apparently discovered some major discrepancies in cash flow that worried her. Normally she would have waited until the next morning to confront her boss, but he was meeting that night with his good friend Brad McIntyre, so she barged into his office. And two men with everything to lose had killed her and buried her near the cabin.
“It’s just not fair,” Linnea said. “She was such a good person. I wish you’d had a chance to know her.”
“I do, too, baby.” He stroked her hair. “But at least the bad guys are in jail and nothing’s going to get them out. And
Texas
has the death penalty.”
“That’s the only thing that
They circled around it, each going in an opposite direction, widening the circle of the search each time. When Cale was about fifty yards from the cabin, in the trees and standing on the soft forest floor, his nose alerted him to a differentiation in odours and he froze. He sniffed the area, moving away from the place he’d first picked up the scent, then back again. Cautiously he scraped at the bed of deciduous leaves and rotted wood, stopping when he uncovered something. Lifting his head, he gave a short, sharp howl calling Luke, hoping to hell no one was around to hear him.
Luke raced to his side, skidding to a stop and sniffing the area where Cale was standing. He lifted his wolf eyes to Cale , nodded. They both knew as humans the chance of catching this scent would be marginal, but their wolf senses never missed.
Then, as if with one mind, they loped further into the woods, eventually finding exactly what they expected. Cathy Porter’s car, hidden in a thick stand of trees and covered with leaves and branches. They raced back to the truck, shifted back to their human form and dressed quickly, Cale backed out onto the road and they roared away.
“I don’t know if it’s Cathy Porter,” Luke said when they’d driven a couple of miles, “but that’s definitely a body back there in some stage of decomp . And that’s her car back there.”
“No shit.” Cale ground his teeth, anticipating Linnea’s distress. “I wonder if they just expected to leave it there forever. They own all the land around here, so I guess the chance of discovery was pretty slim.”
Luke pulled out his cell. “I’m calling Brian to get everyone who’s around together. We need brainpower on this. We can’t just dig the bodies up without a warrant, and if we take the time to get a warrant they could get wind of what we’re doing.”
Cale nodded. “Tell Brian we’re a little more than an hour out. We have to move on this. Get him to call Rome and tell him to get his ass over to the office.”
Rome Purcell, another Sentinel, was a top criminal attorney who kept the organisation out of trouble when business forced them to skate on the edge of the law.
“Okay.” He snapped his phone shut after a brief conversation. “He’s on it.”
* * * *
Linnea was curled in Cale’s lap in the big chair in the living room. All the tears she’d been holding back all this time had burst forth and she’d cried until Cale worried she’d make herself sick. What they’d found had indeed been Cathy Porter’s body, but there’d also been a bonus—what was left of the woman Gray Fisher’d had an affair with before coming to The Gage Foundation. Apparently beneath his too-smooth exterior, he concealed a raging temper. Afraid the woman would come to San Antonio and make trouble for him, he’d had her meet him at the cabin and strangled her.
No one had been aware that Cathy had come back to the office the night she disappeared to work on reports for the donors, killing time while she waited to meet her sister for dinner. She had apparently discovered some major discrepancies in cash flow that worried her. Normally she would have waited until the next morning to confront her boss, but he was meeting that night with his good friend Brad McIntyre, so she barged into his office. And two men with everything to lose had killed her and buried her near the cabin.
“It’s just not fair,” Linnea said. “She was such a good person. I wish you’d had a chance to know her.”
“I do, too, baby.” He stroked her hair. “But at least the bad guys are in jail and nothing’s going to get them out. And
Texas
has the death penalty.”
“That’s the only thing that
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