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“Helki werewolves are not the only ones capable of face-shifting,” he said. “I know for a fact the military has human face-shifters. Did a story on it quite a few years ago.”
“But from what I’ve heard, they’re rare.”
“Rare doesn’t mean impossible. But I rather suspect that the Nadler who was born fifty-six years ago is dead, and that a face-shifter has taken over his face and his life, and that’s who is now running the consortium.”
I frowned. I certainly knew how easy it would be to assume someone else’s appearance, having done it myself. But stepping fully into their life was a whole different matter. “What makes you suspicious? The lack-of-relatives factor?”
“In a way, yes. Nadler was an only child, as was his mother. But his father had two brothers and one sister, and they provided Nadler with a total of five cousins.”
“And they’re all dead?” That did raise my eyebrows. You’d think at least a couple of the cousins would still be alive, considering that some of them had to be younger.
“All dead, and all within a three-year time span.”
My frown deepened. “Something like that would have raised suspicions with the police or at the coroner’s office.”
“Not if each and every one was classified as either an accident or natural causes.”
“And were they?”
“Yep.”
At least that explained why Stane hadn’t picked up on this. He didn’t have Jak’s naturally suspicious nature. “So if your suspicions are right, and a face-shifter was cleaning Nadler’s house in preparation for a takeover, what about business partners and the like? They’re often more familiar with someone than relatives are, simply because they spend more time with them.”
He grinned and raised a hand, signaling to the waiter for two more beers. I finished the remnants of my first and slid the glass toward the waiter as he appeared with the second one.
“Ah, now this is where it gets really interesting.” Jak’s excitement ramped up another notch. I took several gulps of beer, but it didn’t do a whole lot to quench the rising flame of desire. Damn it, I would not go there. He continued. “Nadler supposedly had a partial breakdown when his parents died in a car accident. He took six months off work, and when he came back, his colleagues noticed a change in him, but put it down to the recent trauma. Interestingly, he left that business two weeks later to run the newly formed consortium.”
“A consortium with a paper trail so convoluted it’s almost impossible to track down its true beginnings.”
“Exactly.” He raised his glass and clicked it lightly against mine. “All roads point to the man we know as Nadler being a face-shifter.”
“You’ve made a case for it,” I agreed. “But it’s no certainty, and it’s not something his lawyer can tell us. Hell, if a face-shifter has taken over Nadler’s life, then there’s no saying that the Nadler the lawyer sees is the one everyone else involved in his day-to-day life does. He’s a face-shifter, remember.”
He frowned slightly. “Hadn’t actually thought of that.”
I grinned. “Sorry to burst your excited little bubble.”
“Oh, you haven’t.” His expression held altogether too much warmth and a whole lot of sexual hunger. And that, I suspected, wasn’t so much about the desire that raged between us as it was about the thrill of a case that had him intrigued. Which wasn’t saying he didn’t want me; it was just that I wasn’t the prime motivator of said hunger.
Which didn’t make the desire surging through me any easier to ignore. I dropped my gaze back to my beer and took several slow, deep breaths. They helped about as much as the cold beer.
“Thing is,” he continued, “the lawyer will at least be able to describe the Nadler he knows well enough for me to work up a sketch, and we can go from there.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“Oh, I’m full of them.”
“There’s no denying you’re full of something,” I said dryly. “But I’m not sure I’d call it ideas.”
His soft laugh shivered across my senses enticingly. Damn, damn, damn.
“Well, I’d offer to show you exactly what is filling me at the moment, but I rather suspect you’ll refuse.”
“Don’t you know it.” Thankfully, my phone chose that moment to ring, cutting off any other comments he might make along those lines. It was Mike. “I’m guessing it’s bad news, seeing not much time has passed.”
“On the contrary,” he said. “The tickets will be dropped off at the office tomorrow at nine, and you can pick them up anytime after that.”
“Excellent.” I gave Jak the thumbs-up. “Thanks heaps, Mike.”
