Page 5
“I’ll get us—”
Pierce's words are cut off when there’s a heavy knock to our open door, and our Captain walks in. Never good to see a superior this early in the morning, especially him who we rarely see at all, but our LT is on leave because his pack recently had a baby.
“Warren,” he says quickly, his eyes on Pierce. Then his gaze darts to me. “Thane. My office. Now. We have a case.”
He leaves without another word. Pierce and I share a look. This can’t be good. But we follow him. If he’s calling us into his office to talk about a case, it has to be a big deal. Otherwise, he’d drop the case file on one of our desks like he has been doing for the last three weeks.
Captain Bartholomew Mendes is a no-nonsense guy, which is something I appreciate. He’s getting up there in age, closing in on sixty, I’d guess, but he’s in shape and takes his job seriously. No mention of retiring or anything.
The moment we step into his office, he tells us to close his door.
This really must be bad.
So I close the door.
“Drop whatever you’re working on. There is a case I need the two of you on,” he says.
“Yeah, sure thing,” I say.
“Of course,” Pierce says.
He steps closer to us, flicking his eyes from me to Pierce like he’s already disappointed about something.
“Patrol found a man dead this morning at a small pack community about sixty miles out of town. Everything points to homicide and we have reason to believe someone from inside the pack is responsible.”
“Were there witnesses?” Pierce asks.
“None that we’ve found yet, but there was an omega’s scent at the scene. The victim was a beta, so whoever was there left before the officers arrived and hasn’t come forward.”
“Why us?” I ask.
There are plenty of other detectives with lighter caseloads who could spend all their time on this case. Why have us put all of ours on a back burner just to focus on this?
“The omega is either involved or saw what happened. If it’s the latter, they’re either scared or in danger. I need to know which one.” His expression hardens. “And you two are the best I have at finding people who don’t want to be found.”
He’s right on that point. We are good at finding people who don’t want to be found. It’s why we’ve been called in to work on a few missing person’s cases, even though we focus on homicides.
“Do we have a name?” I ask.
“The community is small, and we got the same story from everyone. Raewyn Forester was doing morning errands, and multiple people saw her head toward the home in which the man was found. She hasn’t been seen since.”
“Could she have been taken by whoever did this?” Pierce asks.
“It’s possible, but unlikely. There were only two scents caught on the scene.”
“Then we don’t have much,” I say. “And right now, she’s our main suspect.”
“Exactly.” Mendes holds my gaze. “Which is why I need my best detectives on it. She needs to be found and brought in for questioning immediately.” He flicks his gaze to Pierce again. “I expect updates in real time. I want to know where you are, who you talk to, and what you find. This girl needs to be found before she hurts someone else.”
We’re given the address and are told to head over immediately. We do as we’re told, grabbing what we need and heading downstairs to the parking garage.
“Well, you weren’t wrong,” Pierce says as he backs out of the parking spot. He always drives. “Feels like it’s going to be a shit show.”
Chapter Three
Raewyn
It’s been three days since I saw what I saw. Two days since I’ve been at my home. Two days since I’ve slept in a real bed, ate real food, saw my family…
