Page 24 of Patrick’s Seduction

“I’ve got it under control. Thanks, Sebastian,” Patrick said and looked at the assembled. “So, what’s the latest on the Presidio murder?”

Thomas motioned to a monitor on the wall. It showed a map of the Bay Area with several red dots on it.

“Eddie and I went through reports of suspected animal attacks, and found quite a few.” With the mouse he indicated the area. “Almost all of them occurred in Marin County. Since that’s not within Chief Donnelly’s jurisdiction, we weren’t made aware of them. But from the information in the Marin County police reports we were able to piece things together, and we determined that there were similarities with our murder case.”

“Thomas is correct,” Buffy confirmed. “I went through the autopsies, and in two of the three cases of supposed mountain lion attacks, the heart was missing in the victims.”

“Fuck,” Patrick cursed.

“I looked at the photos,” Buffy continued. “And the bite marks look very similar to those our victim has. The coroner and the detectives on those cases in Marin County determined that these were mountain lion attacks and closed the cases.”

Patrick rubbed his neck. “Did the coroner in the Marin County cases note that they found animal hair on the vics?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah, that’s why they determined that those were animal attacks. Though they didn’t specify that the hair found was that of a mountain lion. Just that it was animal hair.”

“And were other organs missing too? Or just the heart?”

“Just the heart.”

Patrick exhaled, digesting the information, when he remembered something. He looked at Buffy again. “How about the hair you found under our vic’s fingernails? Were you able to determine—”

Buffy’s nod cut off his question. “It was from a wolf.”

His heartbeat spiked. “A wolf? In the middle of San Francisco? That can’t be.”

“Has to,” Buffy insisted. “I double-checked. At first, I didn’t think I got it right, but I compared the hair I found with several different strands of wolf hair—or rather fur—and the result was always the same: it was a wolf. A black one. And a pretty big one. Standing on its hind legs, it’s probably as tall as you.”

“How did you determine that?” Patrick asked, surprised.

“By the size of the bitemarks, and—” She gestured to Nicholas. “Nicky?”

It looked like Nicholas wanted to protest at Buffy using his childhood nickname but seemed to think of it otherwise. “The pawprints I took around the crime scene. When Buffy told me that it was a wolf, I called a contact in Yellowstone who’s working with the park service protecting the wolves there. She helped me calculate the size of the wolf using the pawprints and the bite marks.”

“You trust her assessment?”

Nicholas nodded. “She was confident in the data, though she was surprised that a wolf had shown up in the city. They avoid people, and her best guess was that it wasn’t a wild wolf, but one bred in captivity.”

“Like in a zoo?” Patrick asked.

“That’s possible,” Nicholas said, then added, “but not necessarily in a public zoo. Some rich people like to keep their own little zoos, you know.”

“Then we’d better check them all to see if anyone is missing a wolf,” Patrick suggested. “Benjamin, Nicholas, the two of you can do that.”

“How far out do you want us to check the zoos?” Benjamin asked.

Patrick turned to Thomas. “How long ago were the attacks in Marin County?”

“They both happened between eight to ten weeks ago. Nothing since then. So, we can assume that the wolf migrated from the north down into San Francisco.”

Patrick furrowed his forehead. “Yes, and no. I don’t see a wolf crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on foot, do you?” He looked at his four colleagues.

“You mean he hitched a ride?” Benjamin asked.

“Or was brought over,” Patrick mused. “Because even if it was a wolf attacking those people in Marin County and our victim in the Presidio, I still think that somebody else was involved. Maybe an animal trainer who’s using a trained wolf to kill people.”

He addressed Nicholas, “Can you talk to your contact in Yellowstone again?”

“Sure.”