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I straighten and look around. “Fuck. Look at this.”
We’re outside the perimeter wall of Steel Lakes, staring into the distance.
“It happened near here. The murder,” says Edirn.
“She didn’t do it!” I snap.
“I’m not saying that she did. But she did do something out here, Barrett. Something that involved blood.”
I can’t deny it. But there isn’t a single part of me that accepts she could have attacked unprovoked. “Something happened out here.”
“Over there.” Edirn jerks his chin. “Jagger says it went down about a mile that way.”
I scan the area where Edirn is pointing. There’s not much to see right now, but as we cover the distance there, my gut clenches at the sight of the police tape cordoning off a wide area. “That’s where the body was found.”
“We can’t get close with all those cops around,” Edirn says. “They’ll be all over us.”
He’s right. Drawing attention to ourselves is the last thing we need right now. I rack my brain for another way to get a look at the crime scene but come up empty. My instincts are screaming at me to investigate, but my rational side knows we’d be asking for trouble.
“We could come back under cover of darkness,” I suggest, though the thought of waiting makes me antsy. “Get a look around when they’re not swarming the place.”
Edirn considers it, his sharp eyes taking in our surroundings with that intense focus of his. “Might work. But we should make a wider sweep first, see if we can pick up any other traces before it gets disturbed.”
I nod tightly. He’s thinking clearly, as always. We split up, fanning out in opposite directions to scour the area around the taped-off zone, staying out of sight. I move carefully, alert for any sign that Cedara might have been here – a trace of her scent on the grass, more paw prints, anything. The minutes tick by with nothing jumping out, and I’m about to give up hope when something catches my eye.
A dark patch of soil.
I move closer, careful not to step on anything. Bushes in the area have been trampled, dirt scuffed up. I reach the patch, stoop, and pinch some sand between my fingertips. I sniff it.
Blood.
Something bled here…a lot.
“Whatever this was, they got away.” Edirn’s voice has me spinning around.
“Fuck, Alpen, give a guy some warning, won’t you?”
He gives a wry shrug. “I heard you thinking when you found it. Figured I’d come check it out.”
“Dammit. You’d better not be spending too much time in my head.” I scowl at him. “It’s bad enough in there right now.”
“I read just enough. I don’t delve like that, Barrett,” he reassures me.
“I’ll worry about that later.” I set my jaw. “What do you think went down here?”
“Some kind of fight,” he confirms my suspicions. “Cedara ran into someone here.”
“The Leadmills wolf?”
His lip curls in distaste. “It’s our guy. And he left here in a world of pain.” His smile is smug. “Your girl did good.”
I feel a swirl of pride.
I follow the trail of blood, Edirn beside me. It’s clear as day, leading us in the direction of Leadmills. We don’t need to go all the way to confirm this – it’s obvious where it’s pointing.
“It’s him, alright.” Edirn’s jaw clenches. “He crawled part the way, but he got up around here. Staggered from here. Badly injured, but not fatally.”
From his expression, I’m guessing he wishes he was.
