Page 23 of Wolf Revealed

Unfortunately, Mike did know them.

“This is Randall Salinas,” Mike said as he stared down at the man’s face on the closest table. Middle-aged, Salinas’s dark, curly hair was liberally sprinkled with gray. “He used to be one of the DEA’s best deep cover operatives. We crossed paths frequently when we both worked for Roman.”

Mike turned his attention to the next table. “The guy with the beard is James Fritz. “He was DEA, too, and served as my handler when I was undercover in Roman’s organization. The last I heard, he’d retired and moved out of town.”

Wayne nodded. “Fritz’s body was found about eight weeks ago in his home in Amarillo. Salinas was found a few days after that in a cabin on the shores of Lake Fork, where he’d gone fishing.”

“What about the woman?” Xander asked, motioning to the body on the third table. “I’m almost certain I’ve seen her somewhere, but I’m not sure where.”

Mike frowned down at the woman. “That’s Camila Ortega. She was a prosecutor with the organized crime division of the district attorney’s office. She got her start on the Roman case, wrangling all the evidence we collected.”

“Ortega was found in her Highland Park home a couple days after Salinas,” Wayne added. “No one had any idea they’d all worked the Roman case until yesterday.”

“If Roman hadn’t already confronted Mike about the flash drive, I’d think he came back to Dallas for no other reason than to get his revenge against the people who helped destroy his organization ten years ago,” Xander said.

“I’m as confused as you are,” Wayne admitted. “This mysterious missing flash drive doesn’t make sense to me. When we were undercover, it was my job to link up with Mike whenever Roman gave him a package of flash drives, so I could make a copy before he had to deliver them. It was dangerous as hell, and we almost got caught a dozen times, but it gave me a chance to get a look at the stuff before turning them in for analysis. Like Mike has probably already told you, there was never anything that interesting beyond the criminal crap. Certainly nothing to justify Roman coming back to Dallas and doing all this.”

“Well, clearly, one of those drives contained something different,” Trey said. “Something you either didn’t see, or didn’t recognize. The question is, why does Roman think you still have it, Mike? Any chance you ended up with one of them without realizing it?”

Mike shook his head. “No way. If this flash drive exists, it had to be buried in the evidence archives somewhere.”

“I was afraid you’d say that.” Wayne sighed. “If it’s in the archives, we’re screwed. It’s like a needle in a haystack in there. I’ve split my analysis team into two groups, one doing background checks on Roman’s known associates—focusing on Rogelio Roy first, as you asked—while the other half digs through boxes of evidence. It’s going to take days to come up with anything.”

“Which is why I’m hoping forensics has found something that’ll help.” Mike looked at Samantha. “Please tell me you’ve got something.”

“Possibly,” Samantha said. “While Stewart’s body was the most recent one found, he was actually the second one killed, around the same time as Fritz. The body must have been kept somewhere cold, since it’s so well-preserved.”

“It was unseasonably cold a few weeks ago,” Trey pointed out. “Would that be enough to do it?”

“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “But only if the body was stored in a windowless room below ground level with thick walls that would keep the space cold all the time, regardless of what the temperature was outside.”

“That’s definitely not the way I’d describe the warehouse where we found the body,” Connor said. “Which means Stewart was kept somewhere else for weeks and then dumped there.”

“What was the cause of death?” Mike asked as he looked at the bodies laid out before them. “I’m no expert, but the bruises make it look like all of them were beaten to death.”

“They were,” Samantha admitted. “All the damage you see was done by someone’s fists, and whoever it was, the killer was extremely strong.”

“Some things never change,” Wayne said with a disgusted snort. “Roman always surrounded himself with people who didn’t mind using violence to get what they wanted.”

Xander muttered a curse. “And he was going after everyone on his list he thought might have the flash drive until he finally came to Mike.”

Which made Mike wonder why Roman didn’t grab him like he’d gone after the previous victims instead of kidnapping Kal. Had Roman already known he was a werewolf and been reluctant to go up against him and his pack?

“Do you have anything else for us from the autopsies?” Mike asked.

He really hoped so. The sooner they got Roman off the streets the safer everyone would be.

“Possibly,” Samantha said. “Since Fritz, Salinas, and Ortega were all killed in the same places they were found, but Stewart wasn’t, we focused on checking his body for trace and fiber, and we think we might have gotten lucky.”

“How so?” Trey asked his fiancée.

“There were some foreign substances found on Stewart’s boots and clothing. It didn’t match anything at the warehouse where you found him, so we’re thinking it might be able to tell us where he was murdered and help find Roman.”

“When do you expect the trace results to come back?” Mike asked.

It sounded like a long shot, but he hoped Samantha was right and it’d lead somewhere.

“I should have something for you in twenty-four hours, forty-eight at the most,” Samantha promised. “This case has department priority, so we have everyone working this one.”