AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That little pause told me a lot. “Yeah, well, as it turns out, he is, and so are his associates. So, it’s really better to leave them to us. If you could hand me anything that was reported on him, it would sure help.” I gave her my best wholesome-guy smile.
“Give me a minute for that one. I’ve got to ask the Sheriff about it.” She looked relieved that all of it was being offloaded onto us. I wondered what had been behind their lack of action. Apathy? Laziness? Or were they just short-staffed? The lady behind the counter looked like she’d been pushed well past her limits, and not just because of her kid.
She disappeared again, and I started going through the paperwork. It was pretty standard, which was lucky because we’d had to do something like this only a handful of times. I read, initialed, dated, and signed dutifully as I went, acknowledging that we would be responsible for all law enforcement activities related to Matthias and his family. That included calls for help if he went after anyone in town.
How can an entire breed of shifters be evil? I wondered. Were they all born with brains wired for it? Were they just bad seeds? Or was it the influences of their families, of Tiger culture?
Wolves rarely went full evil like this. They sometimes went crazy, they sometimes became Maneaters, and some had turned to crime. But even then, only rarely did so much as an entire Pack go bad. We had standards.
Why didn’t the Tigers?
Pointless to think about that, anyway. Let’s be real. Whether it’s nature, nurture, or choice, every last one there’s any record or word of has been rotten to the fucking bone.
I was three-quarters through the pile when I heard the printer by the Deputy’s desk whirr to life, and I looked up to see it printing out page after page. A second later, the Deputy returned, trailed by a big, red-faced, soft-bellied guy with a gold badge on his hat. “Sheriff Bob Meyers,” he said as he walked up to the desk, offering a meaty hand. “So, you and your boys are going to handle this guy?”
He had a good handshake–firm, brief, dry. “Yes sir.”
“Thank God.” He sighed and leaned on the desk, pausing to take off his hat and drag a handkerchief over his bald head. “We haven’t had many shifters in these parts, but this guy… he’s been nonstop trouble. Folks were glad when he vanished, but they’re scared he’ll come back. I keep getting calls to see if he’s caught yet, but my boys aren’t equipped to deal with someone who can do what he did to those security guys.”
“Welp, that’s why I’m here,” I replied cheerfully. “And the more detail you can give us on him and his activities, the faster we can get him out of your hair for good.”
He shot me a slightly uncomfortable look. This was a peaceful town, probably as sleepy as they came normally. No way did a guy like this have any experience with actually putting down a dangerous perp. “We’re printing case notes for you. We have to redact some of the reporter’s information, then we’ll hand it all over.”
“Well, I’m much obliged. So, this Matthias guy, did you ever meet him personally?”
“Not while in uniform. The guy seems to disappear like smoke whenever any of us is around and on duty. But he must not have recognized me when I went to the diner in street clothes a couple Sundays ago.”
“Yeah? What happened?”
“He, his mom, and his bodyguard had a table. Almost nothing but meat on that table. Never seen Indian folks eating steak and eggs, but the mom and bodyguard were going to town on it. The whole time the three of them were speaking some foreign language. Seemed mad as Hell about something, especially Matthias.
“So, I sit down nearby, sort of keeping an eye and an ear on them, and the waitress walks up to refill their coffee and ask if they need anything else. And boom, it’s like a switch got flipped. They’re suddenly relaxed, all smiles, chatting in English over their meals. Matthias gives the woman this big, fake Hollywood grin and thanks her, asks for more eggs. It wasn’t like he’d hidden his anger to be polite, either. Everything changed at once, like he’d put a mask on.”
“I see. So, this guy was doing the con artist thing before he went all homicidal?”
“Yes, sir. That and a break-in. Made a mess of the locals’ trust in people, let me tell you. Those artists up on the hill aren’t even open to the public anymore.”
“Damn.” That was going to make interviewing them a lot harder. I’ll need Madelyne to make some introductions so I can get in and get them talking. “They give any kind of statements about them?”
“It’s all in the reports. That’s why they’re taking so damn long to print out.” He glanced behind him. The stack had grown past twenty pages. “You think you can really get this guy before he hurts anyone else?”
“We’ve done jobs like this before,” I said in my most confident voice. Rarely, but we have. “Just take my word for it on one thing, okay?”
He quirked an eyebrow. “And what’s that?”
“If anyone in town starts noticeably acting like they’re not themselves, don’t trust them. Give us a call instead. These guys are masters of disguise, and I do mean masters.”
He shuddered. “Good to know,” he muttered.
It didn’t take long to finish filling out the paperwork, get copies of it all, and then wait for the reports to finish printing. What I had when I walked out filled a three-ring binder to capacity. Matthias, Matthias, I thought in a mix of amusement and disgust. You have been quite a naughty boy, haven’t you?
I cased the town after that, wanting to do pretty much anything on my to-do list than read through that much paper. At least it gave me a chance to think before I went back and dove into the chaos of installation that was going to take up the rest of our day.
It was a pretty place, if kind of small. I was able to drive from one end of town to the other in ten minutes. The artists’ colony was up the hill behind a heavy iron fence and gate; gorgeous custom work, with the iron bent into 2D images of trees and forest animals. Maybe it was Madelyne’s work, maybe not. I knew she worked in metal, but I didn’t know if she’d done such a big job for her neighbors.
Beyond the fence, I could see a cluster of tile-roofed buildings shaded by stunted trees. In their center was a giant trellis covered with trumpet vines. It looked green and inviting in there, and also like there was a lot of money being thrown around to keep it nice. No wonder Matthias targeted it. Whole walls of those buildings were covered by murals. Suncatchers and polished rain chains dangled from the eaves. I caught a whiff of weed–no surprise at all, really.
So, a bunch of hippie artist types with a pile of money come here to make art and bake in the sun. Matthias sniffs them out and shows up. He uses one–Madelyne–as a fuck toy, then gets pissed as hell when she backs off of him and starts taking a real look at what he’s doing. She throws him out, warns the others, ruins his plans, and now he’s terrorizing her.
