Page 42 of Silver Claw

Hill was a stocky man an inch or so shorter than me, his hair in a buzz cut and his eyes quick and friendly. Paul Dexter was maybe six feet tall, a little grim, and I could already tell that he was the more assertive of the two.

“Detective,” Paul said, his glance flicking over me and then away. He would rather I wasn’t there, but he wasn’t going to fight it.

“A body in the main bedroom,” Rick told them, pointing in the direction of the room. Then, “Main floor is quiet, but I haven’t cleared the upstairs or the basement.”

That tightened both officers up. Hill brushed his holstered weapon. “You want us to sweep?”

“Yeah,” Rick said, but Paul Dexter was already moving through the living room. “Stay out of the main bedroom. I need the scene clean.”

What he meant was he didn’t want them muddying up any scents or feelings I might get in there.

“Yes, sir,” Hill said.

Dexter said nothing as he walked on. Seconds later I heard them taking the stairs to the upper floor. Rick and I headed for the bedroom to check out the body.

The homicide detectives would arrive soon, and though they knew I had clearance to be there, they were still going to be pissy about it. They always were.

The closer I got to the bedroom, the thicker the scent of blood and death became. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t walked into dozens of times before, and I wasn’t shocked by the smells, the sights, or the violence.

“What’s wrong?” Rick asked when I paused just inside the room.

“Wait,” I murmured. I was trying to get hold of something, something that was teasingly just out of reach. I closed my eyes and when I swayed, a little dizzy, Rick was behind me. He grasped my upper arms and held me steady but didn’t speak.

I opened my eyes abruptly and turned toward him. “The women, Rick. The two murdered women you’re investigating.”

His lips tightened and his eyes darkened, but he didn’t say what I knew he wanted to say. That he believed Sam had killed them.

I smiled, and he frowned harder. “What about them?” he asked.

“The same person who killed those two women murdered this man, and it wasn’t Sam. You’ll find a connection if you look hard enough. I feel the same energy.” I lifted my nose to the air. “My wolfsmellsthe bastard.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“It wasn’t Sam, Rick. We have another serial killer on our hands, but it’s not Sam.”

He stepped away from me, immediately angry. “Are you going to protect this one, too?”

I couldn’t help but flinch.

“Kait.” He held out his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

I shook my head and gave him a smile that I knew didn’t get anywhere near my eyes. “No, it’s fine.” I didn’t say anything else. There wasn’t anything to say, really. I got as close as I dared to the body, and for a few minutes, I stared down at him, unmoving. Rick just watched me and waited quietly.

The victim was on his back in the middle of the bed, his face turned toward the door as though he’d heard something in the last second and turned to look. His mouth was slack, his swollen eyes half closed. There was blood…everywhere. The sheets, messy and half hanging onto the floor, were red with it. He’d been slashed, the cuts sweeping across every part of his body that I could see.

“You can see the rage,” I said finally.

“Yes,” he agreed. “And because we’ve discovered three victims in a week…”

“He’s escalating,” I finished. “He’s getting sloppy.” I took a deep breath, then regretted it immediately. My wolf was sensitive to smells, and I could feel her pacing, uncomfortable. She wanted out. “But why are we just now finding his victims?”

“He could be new to Jakeston,” Rick told me. “Or there could be other murders we simply haven’t connected to him yet. People are murdered every day.”

“Why would someone murder two women, then come here and kill a man? That’s not the usual serial killer MO, is it?”

“The world is full of equal opportunity killers. Do you see or feel anything else?”

“I’m beginning to think this is the work of a human. Not just because I can’t get a scent of magic, or wolf, or even demon, really, but because if he were supernatural, I doubt he’d be using a blade to kill his victims.”