“Sure,” Marlow said. “But around you, they drop like flies… with restraining orders.”
Clemons took a breath and shrugged one shoulder. “So I have bad taste in unlucky men,” he said. “Like you said, they all died during the full moon—”
The agent clucked his tongue. “You mean,” he said, “they were found dead after the full moon.”
It was Marlow’s turn to pull something from the folder, a grid of clothes laid out on a table with tags next to them. Chinos, socks, corporate-themed blue T-shirt, and well-worn sneakers.
“Why did you have Barney Lyons’s clothes in your suitcase?” he said.
“They’re my clothes.”
“Wrong size.”
Clemons's smile had started to show the strain around the edges. “They’re my clothesnow,” he corrected himself. “I borrowed them from Barney at some point, and, well, we weren’t exactly on good terms. I didn’t even think.”
“You took them off Barney's dead body,” the agent said. “Admit it.”
It had been Franklin who made Marlow realize the truth. He didn’t intend to ever thank the other man.
No one asked too many questions when someone died during the full moon. They assumed the obvious, but sometimes they shouldn’t have.
“The pathologist checked time of death,” Marlow said. “They do that, once suspicions have been raised. Barney died before you checked into the hotel. You shot him, stripped him, and left him for us to find, didn’t you?”
Clemons leaned forward and finally unfolded his arms. “I want a lawyer,” he said, clearly for the tape.
That ended the interview, but it didn’t matter. He was already tied up with a bow.
Marlow was a city boy at heart. He’d trained in all terrains—all the Night Shift did—but cities made sense. They had landmarks. Street names. Buildings to hide in. He knew some guys in Search and Rescue who’d say the same about the wilderness, but if push came to shove, he’d bet they’d all take shelter behind a reinforced door over a hollow tree stump.
Still.
He lay naked on his back, sweaty and lazy with that boneless, satiated feeling of well-being, and watched the clouds drift in front of the stars.
The view out here was as good as advertised.
Marlow took a break from stargazing to steal a glance at Cade, sprawled out on the blanket next to him. Moonlight stole the gold from his skin and darkened the shadows, the spread of his broad shoulders and chest picked out in exaggerated contours.
Actually, the view might be even better than he’d been promised… now he came to think about it.
“And Clemons?” Cade asked. There was a bruise on his throat, worried into the tendons that stood out in taut lines against his skin. It would last this time, at least until it faded on its own. “Did you find out who he really was?”
It wasn’t as pleasant a subject as how much Marlow enjoyed looking at Cade, but he supposed it was relevant.
“Harry Gowdy, originally,” he said. “From Mount Hood in Oregon. When he was a teenager, his mother was murdered by her abusive boyfriend. She’d broken up with him, but the wolf couldn’t read the writing on the wall, and Night Shift had palmed off her complaints with platitudes. None of which turned out to be helpful when a wolf ripped you apart.”
He heard the anger in his voice. Cade did too, from the way he turned his head to look at Marlow. He left it for now as he stayed on Clemons.
“So she was the one who ended up dead, not the wolf?”
Marlow shrugged and sat up. He hitched one leg up and hooked his arm around his bare knee. His fingers grazed the old, neat surgical scars, and he idly poked at the joint. Even with being on the run from his fellow officers and climbing onto a roof, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it usually did.
“The forensic psychologist the feds sent in said that he was ‘relitigating the event’ so it happened how he thinks it should have. He moved to a new city, found a lover with the same profile as his mom’s boyfriend, and proved that what happened to her wouldn’t happen to him.”
“So, crazy?”
Marlow shrugged. “He knew it was wrong,” he said. “He tried not to get caught or blamed other people. That will go against him.”
“Maybe he’ll end up in prison with Franklin,” Cade said.
