Page 30 of What a Wolf Wants

“Yeah, that’s what I’m supposed to do.” He sounded glad and not as concerned now that she was going with him.

They drove around the area to the house where Grainger thought Oakley might be doing business. There was no sign of any of the men at the house, but there was a car parked out front. Charlene quickly took a picture of the license plate before Ethan drove past it. She called up Tori. “Hi, Tori? Can you run a license plate for us?”

“Does this have something to do with the flower delivery at your house? Or”—Tori paused—“this doesn’t have anything to do with Ethan, does it?”

“Yes. The black Mercedes is parked at one of the perps’ houses in Shelby Bay,” Charlene said.

“He told you.” Tori sounded shocked.

“I’m his partner in this so he can retire for good.”

“Oh wow,” Tori said, her tone of voice one of concern.

“I’m a former homicide detective out of Destin. So I’m fine with this kind of work.”

“Oh my, you didn’t tell any of us that. A fellow homicide detective, woo-hoo! If I need any help with a case, I’m running what Adam and I are working on by you.”

Smiling, Charlene figured Tori would tell the rest of the wolf pack, which was fine with her.

“Okay. Well, that makes a difference, and I’m so glad that you’re there to help watch Ethan’s back in this. You don’t know how worried all of us have been that he was doing thison his own and we’re so far from there to reach him. I’ll look into this, and I’ll get back to you,” Tori said.

“Thanks, Tori!” Then they ended the call.

Ethan was smiling at Charlene. “I won’t hear the end of this from Tori and Adam now.”

“What?”

“That you’re working with me on this.”

“I have to figure out a way to keep you here. It’s the best way I can think of.”

He laughed. “Thanks. I figured it was kind of a working vacation, until I realized you would be here and then things quickly changed for me.”

“Good. That works for me. So what do we want to do now?”

“By the time we get back to Oyster Bay, we can have an early lunch. And if you would like, we can go whale watching after that,” he said.

“Oh, absolutely. That’s something I really wanted to do when I got settled in Oyster Bay.”

“Okay, then. We’ll go this afternoon after lunch.” When they arrived at the Starfish Deli, he called the whale-watching tour that had the best ratings. “Okay, we’re on for one o’clock. No storms this afternoon, so that’s good. Do you get seasick?” Ethan asked Charlene.

“No, never. What about you?”

“No, hopefully I’ll be good.”

“That’s great.”

Then Charlene got a call from Tori and put it on speaker. “Hey, the license plate belongs to a Clara Snyder. She’s sixty-twoand lives in Portland. I did a check into her background, and she had bought the car and another at the same time. It doesn’t make any sense. She’s a retired high school teacher and she doesn’t have that much income from her retirement.”

“But she paid for the cars in full?” Charlene asked.

“Yeah. So that’s kind of suspect, especially since the car was at Oakley’s house. But otherwise, I don’t see anything that shows she has a connection to him or anyone else that you’re looking for.”

“Why have two cars when there’s just one of her? And where did she get the money from to pay for the two cars?” Charlene asked.

“What if one of the guys you’re after paid for the cars. He doesn’t have any real connection to her, as in he’s family, but he has somehow hooked up with her to purchase the cars in her name,” Tori said. “Then there’s no tie to him that we would easily see. If he’s one of your guys, he might even have gone through another party to make the arrangement to approach Clara.”

“Does she have any family? Wouldn’t they be worried if someone Clara didn’t know just gave her money to buy a couple of cars?” Charlene asked.