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“Return to your post,” Bones whispered. “You didn’t see me. Then, in one minute, shout ‘Over here!’ and run the other way.”
Another nod. Bones released the officer, who resumed his leisurely stroll around the orchard for another sixty seconds.
Adrenaline and anticipation boiled within him, making him feel like a bomb about to detonate. Almost. Almost…
“Over here!” the officer shouted, and ran in the direction Bones had indicated. At once, the other six officers guarding the exterior rushed to follow him.
Bones burst from his spot and torpedoed through the back door of the house. Wood and glass exploded around him, briefly blinding the single guard on the first floor. One punch knocked the guard out, and Bones flew up the stairs. He heard another heartbeat coming from Cat’s old bedroom…
…where a bloke with brown hair and goggles jumped back from Bones’s sudden appearance. Aside from two very bloody bodies on the floor, the brown-haired man was the only one here, and from the silence, no one was in the other upper bedroom, either.
“No!”
The shout tore from Bones while Cat’s scent taunted him, heady even over the harsh stench of death. She’d been here, but she’d already left. Once again, he’d been too late.
Had the officer lied to him? No, Bones realized after a glance at the bodies. One was a woman, the other a man, so yes, a womanhadbeen inside the house. Just not Cat, and no wonder the officer had hesitated on saying “yes” to Bones’s other question of “More men inside with her?”
Technically, yes, but not how Bones had thought.
The brown-haired lad slipped in the blood while backing away. Bones grabbed him, a raking glance noting his surgical gloves and the plastic booties covering his shoes. A medical examiner, probably. Another glance took in the room, pausing on the words scrawled in blood over the victim’s bodies.
here kitty kitty
Ice covered Bones’s boiling emotions. Someone had wanted Cat to know that this murder was personal, as if slaughtering someone in her former bedroom wasn’t enough.
Bones shook the lad. “Where is the woman who was here?”
“W-hat woman?” he stammered before moaning, “Oh God, your eyes…what are you?”
“Never mind that,” Bones snapped. “Tell me about the redhead. When did she leave? Where did she go?”
“Redhead?” the man repeated. “I-I didn’t see a redhead-”
Bones showed his fangs. “Lie to me, and I’lleatyou.”
“I promise!” the man shrieked. “There was no redhead! A hot brunette was here earlier, that’s all!”
Brunette. So, Cat had finally dyed her hair to help conceal her identity.
Bones hauled him close. “Tell me everything about her.”
Under the power of Bones’s gaze, the man talked. Fast.
“I don’t know who she was. Some expert, they said, which is bullshit because she and her crew contaminated evidence, got footprints and fingerprints everywhere…they even dugintothe bodies! Then, they left in a helicopter, but right before that, Danvers overheard one of them talking about a special rock in the victim’s chest, but I didn’t see anything special about it-”
“What rock?” Bones interrupted.
The man gestured to a red-smeared evidence bag nearby.
Bones dropped him and grabbed it, ripping it open. Nothing special, indeed. No writing on the rock, no distinctive shape, no rare mineral content. It was just a hunk of limestone…
Limestone.
All at once, Bones knew exactly where Cat had gone.
“You never saw me,” he said to the shaking medical examiner, and left the house as rapidly as he’d entered it.
* * *
