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“The Tangwaci Cin-au’-ao killed Ashleigh. She, uh…” Gina glanced at Matt for help.

“Rose?” he suggested.

“She rose and ran off. Which clears up the single set of footprints leading away from the horse.”

“By then Mel was dead,” Matt added.

“So she joined him and together they…” She made the gesture of running with two fingers.

“Which also clarifies the two sets of footprints leading away from the…” Matt paused, glancing at Gina for help.

“Splotch?”

Matt let his head fall to the side and gave her a look that said: Is that the best you could do? Gina shrugged and spread her hands.

“What it doesn’t clarify,” McCord emphasized the word with a sarcastic twist of his lips, “is how he killed them.”

“I’d … uh … hazard to guess that the torn throats were a pretty certain COD.”

“Oh, you’d hazard, would you?” McCord mocked. “And what the hell does Cash On Delivery have to do with anything?”

“Cause Of Death,” Gina translated, and when McCord turned his scowl on her she rolled her eyes. “Try watching some CSI instead of all-night TV poker.”

“Still doesn’t explain how a whoosh and howl could rip out someone’s throat,” McCord pointed out.

Everyone went silent, which caused McCord’s frown to turn upside down.

“Just because Amberleigh and Melda didn’t see them taken by someone,” Gina swallowed thickly, “or

something, doesn’t mean they weren’t.”

“No tracks but the victim’s,” McCord said. “Human or wolf.”

Matt had to give the guy credit. He was smarter than he appeared.

“There was nothing there,” Gina said. “When we got to the open door, there was nothing behind it.” She turned to Isaac. “What did they bury?”

The old man’s mouth pulled down, causing the myriad creases in his face to deepen. “He was a man, at least part of the time.”

“Could the sorcerer be killed?” This from McCord, who was eyeing the silver-filled rifle Isaac had placed next to himself on the couch.

“If he could be,” the old man said reasonably, “there’d have been no need to confine him.”

“A man, even one that was wolf, would have been dust by now,” Matt said. Or at least a pile of bones.

“He was invincible,” Isaac intoned. “Immortal. I’m sure he was more than dust.”

“Black smoke swirled from the opening.” Gina lifted one shoulder. “It could have been dust.”

“That cavern was locked up for centuries,” Matt said. “Maybe it was just dust.”

Gina’s gaze flicked to the window, then back again. She seemed to be hesitating, struggling, but at last she blurted, “Whatever it was swirled around me, whispered my name, then shot up and out of the hole.”

Matt stared at her. “You didn’t tell me this?”

“Would you have believed me before…?” She waved at the wolves, then Isaac, then flipped her hands up in disgust.

“Pretty talented dust,” McCord muttered.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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