Page 29 of Ascendant King

“You found them?” Coral asked.

“Yeah. What did you find downstairs?” I asked.

“The fridge was emptied. Completely—no mustard, no leftovers, no mostly used ketchup bottle, no nothing.” Joel frowned. “The mail was all piled on the counter.”

“What was the most recent date it was opened?” I asked.

They looked at each other, and Coral said, “I’ll go check.”

Joel stayed, but I could see his nose twitching, the expression on his face calm even as his hands opened and closed.

“Go down one level, check out the home office, see if we can find anything out about the people who lived here.” I looked back over my shoulder toward the bathroom. “I think they were wolves.”

“Yeah.” Gabe nodded. “They had some junk mail from a few wolf charities.”

He ushered Lily down in front of him, and Cade turned to the closest bedroom, his magic spreading out from his hands like threads of spider silk, searching for something to stick to.

I went back to the bathroom and snapped a few pictures of the bodies. I got as close as I could, and something in me twisted. This was the sort of thing I should be stopping, especially if I was emperor.

Our mystery drug dealer had killed these wolves. He’d done it on purpose, then left them like this. He’d emptied the fridge and collected the mail, done all the things someone should do if they didn’t want dead bodies to be discovered right away.

Why? Had he been studying them? And how had he dried the bodies out so efficiently when I could still smell whatever had rotted them through?

I took the room across from Cade’s. It was a master bedroom; the wall had clearly been taken out to combine the room with its neighbor, making it larger. I started on one side, checking in the bedside drawers before lifting the mattress and checking underneath. A small safe was tucked under the bed, and I grabbed it, putting it out in the hall to take with us.

The rest of the room was standard: clothes, a packing list for a vacation, makeup on top of the dresser. Dust had collected thick under the bed, but I wasn’t sure if that had been from the time that the owners had been dead or if they weren’t big house cleaners in the first place.

“Anything?” I asked Cade out in the hall.

He shook his head. “No. It looks like it’s been cleaned after they died.”

“He must have been cleaning up evidence,” I said. “But evidence ofwhat?”

“The earliest unread mail was last month,” Coral said from the top of the stairs.

“A month and no one noticed these people missing?” I asked.

Coral shrugged.

“If they worked from home,” Cade said, “or if they were independently wealthy, they could have gone a while without anyone realizing.”

“Yeah.” I reached down for the safe, the only significant thing I’d found. Hefting it, I headed down the stairs, feeling Cadebehind me. The heat of his body made me hyperaware of where he was. He was hotter than he had any right to be.

In the home office, Joel sat at the desk, frowning at the monitor. “Can’t break in, boss.” He looked down at the computer tower he’d pulled out from under the desk. “We can take it with us, though, see if anyone else has better luck.”

“Okay, do that,” I said. Lily had opened the file cabinet, the keys hanging in the lock. She looked up. “Anything?”

“The names on most of these statements match the mail. Monica and Tracey Clematis. Their son, Amos, graduated last year and was working for the family business. I found all his hiring paperwork.” She gestured at a file she’d pulled out.

“Anything on the renter downstairs?” I asked.

“Still looking.” She went back, flipping through the folders.

I approached the desk, finding the folder on the kid. It looked like the family business was managing the family’s wealth. Nice work if you could get it.

“We should get moving soon,” I said. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have to. We’re lucky no one’s called the police yet. Wipe anything you touch.”

“I disguised us,” Cade said, staring out the window. He didn’t even look over.