Page 32

The contact sighed heavily. “I did some digging on that end as well. Using the general age, body shape, race, and other things I could glean from the picture, I ran it through the missing persons database.”

“And?” I probed.

“ And there were dozens of matches from jobs like laborers, food service, and lower-skill blue-collar workers. Of those, most of the men had substance abuse issues or had run-ins with the police so would have been in the system somewhere, which our suspect is not.”

Ollie hadn’t been able to find any proof that high-ranking or significant pack members from local packs had gone missing. If the guy belonged to one of those packs, he would be of low standing and possibly unknown to the higher levels.

A nobody. Like me.

The fact that I had anything in common with the psycho I was chasing made my skin crawl.

“Anything else?” I asked, trying to get my mind off that train of thought.

“Not as of yet. I will update you should anything come from my research.”

My phone beeped in my ear, signaling I had another incoming call. “Call me as soon as you have anything,” I said. “I’ve gotta go.”

As usual, they hung up without a goodbye. I switched to the other line.

“Nate.”

“Where are you?” Ollie asked, sounding stressed.

“My rental. Why? What’s wrong?”

“We’ve got another body, Nate. I’ll text you the address. Get your ass here. Now .”

My stomach sank. Another dead? Even though I’d done all I could, part of me was overcome with guilt that I hadn’t caught the guy yet. Could this innocent person be dead because I was too slow tracking this guy?

“I’ll be right there,” I said.

“Move along,” the uniformed officer said, putting a hand on my chest as I tried to step over the police tape.

“Leave him!” Ollie called. “He’s with me.”

Glancing over, I saw Ollie jogging over from a small apartment building.

“Yeah.” I grinned at the cop. “I’m with him.”

The officer gave me a hard glare but moved aside. Ollie stepped forward, his eyes hooded and nervous, taking my arm and leading me back toward the building.

“I got here as soon as I could,” I said.

“It’s fine,” Ollie said. “Come on.”

“How bad? You look freaked.”

Ollie gave a slight shake of his head. “I am. You’ll see why in a second.”

The apartment was in one of the poor to lower-middle-class areas of town that backed up to a small, wooded park. A bad sign. It gave our feral perfect access. A knot of police, forensics, and coroners were grouped around a secondary line of police tape.

Ollie nudged some guys aside, leading me through to the body. The lump under the tarp looked small. Obviously a woman.

“Lift it,” Ollie said to one of the forensic techs.

“Who’s he?” the guy asked, giving me the stink eye.

“Outside expert. Here at my request. Lift the fucking tarp, Dan.”

“Your call, Vickers,” the guy said, and pulled up a corner of the tarp.

For an instant, it was like the world had turned sideways. My vision went sharp and crisp as adrenaline burst through me. My inner wolf howled and cried in shocked horror, the sound of it echoing through my mind.

I’d seen this woman yesterday. Had been about to sleep on her couch. Dark, curly hair fell across the woman’s face. The silver necklace she always wore at her neck hung down, almost touching the pavement. Her face was a mask of blood.

“Cameron?” I whispered, feeling like someone had kicked me in the stomach.

Ollie leaned in close and hissed in my ear. “I thought it was her, too, but look closer. As soon as I saw the body, I double-checked with the guys watching her. Cameron’s safe.”

Relief spread through me, and as the initial shock wore off, the analytical side of my brain took over from the emotional side.

The woman on the ground did look remarkably similar to her.

Almost uncannily so, but as I inspected her more closely, I realized her cheekbones were a bit sharper than Cameron’s, the swell of her breasts smaller.

She had longer hair, and the wide, staring eyes were more hazel than Cameron’s dark brown.

The necklace Cameron wore was a silver Virgin Mary; this was a simple silver crucifix.

Sniffing the air, I was able to work past the mineral smell of blood as well as the dozens of cops and EMS workers to catch this poor woman’s smell.

It wasn’t familiar. As I studied her, I noticed this woman was at least five years older than Cameron.

I let out a sigh and steadied myself. The anxiety my inner wolf felt faded as well as I straightened.

Turning to whisper in Ollie’s ear, I said, “This is fucking crazy.”

Ollie nodded to the tech to cover the body again, and we backed away as the coroner guys unfurled a body bag.

As we walked out of earshot, I tried to get answers. “Who found her?”

Ollie pointed at the apartment. “A neighbor. They came out to toss some trash in the dumpster and found her there, torn apart.”

“He’s sticking to these types of areas for his attacks,” I said. “Poorer places.”

Ollie frowned and shook his head. “The body we found on the jogging trail wasn’t from a poor area. The victim was an accountant.”

“You aren’t listening, Ollie,” I said, pulling him into the shadows and lowering my voice.

“She wasn’t poor, but the jogging trail circled a rundown part of town.

I was gonna call you later, but I did an analysis of the attacks and the areas I’ve canvassed as well as the areas where people have seen a guy who matches the description of our feral. ”

Ollie’s eyes narrowed as he digested what I was saying. He nodded for me to go on. “What did you find?”

“It looks like he’s spending his leisure time, for want of a better word, in the better portions of the city—business areas, nice neighborhoods. But his killings and attacks are happening in the poor spots. Or areas that border poor places, like the parking garage where Cameron was attacked.”

“What about the newspaper office?” Ollie said. “That’s right downtown.”

“I thought about that,” I said. “What if that was a fluke? Maybe this guy was biding his time downtown, caught sight of Cameron, and decided to go for it? Might not have actually been going for her specifically. Maybe she matched the look he’s going for, and it was a coincidence he attacked the same girl twice? ”

“Flimsy,” Ollie commented. “Possible, though. It is obvious he’s targeting women who look like her.

Whether it’s actually her he’s going after or just a type isn’t clear yet.

Did you notice how much worse this was, though?

” he asked, nodding back down the alley where the coroner team was loading the bagged body onto a gurney.

“It makes me think he is going after Cameron.”

“The others were cleaner kills,” I said. “From the crime scene photos you gave me, anyway. Why would this time be different? This guy doesn’t seem like he’s all there. Maybe he got carried away this time.”

“The difference is, I put a police detail on Cameron. They’ve been watching her every move since you asked me to put them on her tail.

If he’s tried to get to her, he’d scent out the cops watching.

I think this”—he pointed at the gurney as the men rolled it away—“was more a crime of frustration. He can’t get to his actual target, and he’s taken his frustration out on this poor woman. ”

It made sense. The first kills had been women who looked like Cameron. Maybe he’d been trying to find her, had some false starts with the wrong women, then finally laid hands on his actual quarry only to be run off. Now he was having trouble sealing the deal. It sent a cold chill up my spine.

“But why Cameron?” I asked.

Ollie shrugged and jammed his fists into his jacket pockets. “That’s what you’ll need to find out.” He eyed me speculatively. “Does it usually take this long to hunt down a lone wolf?

“No,” I admitted. “The problem is twofold, though. For one, he’s spending time in a city, which in itself is strange as hell.

This guy is almost using the sheer amount of humanity in Toronto as camouflage.

I’ve only caught his scent once, and that petered out fast. Too many smells to really track him that way.

Second, most of the time, the identity of a feral is known.

I can search for debit or credit card usage, but that’s not happening.

“He’s got to be feeding himself somehow, but other than where I got the picture, there hasn’t been a string of robberies,” I went on. “You told me yesterday that none of the typical thefts reported had anyone of his description involved. It’s like…” I trailed off, an idea occurring to me.

“What are you thinking?” Ollie said eagerly. “I can see the wheels turning in that head of yours.”

Frowning, I leaned against the building and crossed my arms. “Well, I thought about him maybe eating everything in his wolf form as a possibility.”

“Ugh.” Ollie grimaced. “That’s rough. My wolf loves it, but my stomach is always a little upset when I shift back.”

“Right,” I said. “He’s not buying or stealing food. He’s most likely not eating solely through hunting. Where the hell’s he getting food? He’s also spending tons of time in one part of the city, but hunting in another. What if”—I looked at Ollie—“the rumor is true?”

“What rumor?”

“The serial killer story. The one you said the cops were talking about. A killer who’s using an attack dog as a weapon?”

Ollie’s eyes went wide. “Wait.” He shook his head. “Are you saying?—”

“I think someone is handling this feral. They’re somehow controlling or commanding him, using him as a hunting dog.”

“That’s…” Ollie put a hand to his forehead. “That’s fucking crazy, Nate. Do you have any idea how hard it would be to control a fully feral shifter?”

“I know,” I allowed. “It’s risky as shit, but it’s all that makes any sense.”

Ollie leaned in even closer, lowering his voice to a whisper.

“If this is true, then whoever is using him is desperate or dumb. It would be like trying to keep a great white shark on a leash. Even if they have a way of keeping him under control, it won’t last long.

Eventually, this guy’s feral nature will take over.

He will finally snap and bite the hand feeding him, or go on a rampage through the city.

Maybe he’ll stop being wary of the police escort and go for Cameron, consequences be damned.

Whoever is doing this is walking on a razor’s edge. ”

As he spoke, the mental image of the feral ran through my mind.

A slobbering and raging man cutting through the police escort, rushing toward Cameron, her screams echoing in my head.

Unconsciously, I clenched my fists, my hands nearly vibrating at my side, a muscle in my jaw twitching as I ground my teeth together.

Ollie gave me a look. “Are you okay? You’re looking a little tense.”

Not wanting him to know I was thinking of Cameron, I forced myself to loosen up, shaking my hands out.

“I’m not used to being in my human form this long. I need a good run. I miss the forests and shit. No big deal. I’ll be fine.”

Something about the way Ollie looked at me told me he didn’t fully believe that, but instead of pressing, he changed the subject.

“There’s other news, too.”

Raising my head, I looked into his eyes, already sure of what it was. “The test results?”

He nodded with a grim smile. “Got the email about an hour ago.”

Moving close to him, hungry for information, I put a hand on my old friend’s shoulder.

“What did it say?” I asked.