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She opened her eyes wider, half laughing. “I always forget you’re a doctor. You’re exactly right. As you might imagine, the ME is… concerned about her findings.”
“Yeah, so are we. Stone was shot earlier tonight by the same weapon, only the bullets didn’t remain in the body.” Max’s body was tenser than before.
“Shit. What are we dealing with here? Three Wolfen attacked.” She shifted her gaze from one to the other.
“How did you get the call?” Max asked.
“Gregor called me after he learned about Mr. Wimmer’s death. I just happen to catch the call about Mr. Holland and confirmed his identity with Gregor.” She gave him a heated gaze when Max glared at her. “I’m sorry, Agent Cordero. I knew you had the night off.”
“Any names of the perps?” Max asked.
She shrugged. “I made a call to the arresting officer. From what he’s been able to find, the two guys are drifters with no known addresses. They both have records, but nothing more than petty shit. They acted like they were just having a night on the town. They can’t get a single thing out of the one guy who can talk. Nothing. Both of them did have wads of cash in their pockets.”
“That means they were hired in the spur of the moment. If I had to guess, the third man is the ringleader, but we won’t know that for certain until we find him.” Max rubbed his jaw.
“We?” I asked, giving him a look.
“We will go hunting if necessary,” he half whispered.
“From the description Vanessa must have given the officers on the scene, there’s an APB out for his arrest.” She smirked after saying the words. “I’m not holding my breath. Her descriptions were… interesting.”
“A wolf,” I said, sighing.
“Actually, two.” Kathleen tipped her head in my direction.
“He’ll make certain he isn’t found,” Max countered even as he gave me a harsh glare.
“What about Vanessa? What is her condition?” I heard the demanding tone in my voice, but I had to know. While my connection with her was strong and I knew she was still alive, there was no way of knowing the extent of her injuries.
Kathleen stole a glance at Max before answering. I had the feeling she was holding something back from me. “She’s tough, already insisting that she be released from the hospital even though the emergency room doctor wanted to keep her for observation. Her injuries aren’t extensive, mostly cuts and bruises. I have a feeling she had a hero come to her rescue.” Her eyes lit up as she tipped her head, a smile crossing her face. “That’s all I was comfortable finding out without questions being asked. Not my case.”
Max huffed and pointed toward the examination room. “We need to see the body.”
“And I’ll need to get a few samples,” I added. While I was relieved, I couldn’t fight off either the guilt of not remaining by her side or the rage I had for the asshole who’d placed Vanessa in that position. The attack certainly hadn’t been random, which left the fact they’d been working for someone, taking orders.
Kathleen nodded, pushing her way in through the double steel doors. “The ME on duty, Dr. Douglas, is taking a break for a few minutes, but you’re going to need to hurry if you want to get any samples. That’s not something I can explain.”
While Max pulled down the sheet, I found what I was looking for in two of the drawers. No sense using crude implements given what we were dealing with. When I walked toward the body, I was shocked at the level of discoloration, the spider-like formations having crawled all the way to the man’s arms and up along his neck. “Christ.” What a way to go, buddy. The man was tough and mean, the only kind of guy to be able to handle the rough crowd he served.
“From what the ME said, the man died almost instantly. How could the poison continue to travel without a heartbeat or a pulse?” Kathleen’s question was a good one. She was yet to be completely versed in the alterations in structure within a Wolfen.
“The heart remains beating for a solid two minutes after every other organ dies, allowing blood flow to some degree. My belief is that the ability is another form of protection for the Wolfen body and possibly other breeds. If he’d been able to transform into his wolf, there is a chance, albeit slight, that he might have survived. The drug itself attacks the nervous system, worming its way into the blood supply and finally the organs.” I’d learned the majority of what I knew regarding the composition of wolves from my father.
“You seem to know a hell of a lot about this,” Max suggested.
“I have detailed pictures in case you need those,” Kathleen added.
“You mean other than from my father? I worked with a prominent doctor at Duke who gave us hands-on training with certain infectious diseases and fast-acting poisons.” I didn’t have time to inspect the wounds to notice the blue tint in the skin surrounding them. I snipped several samples of tissue as well as pulled four vials of blood. I only hoped that was enough to give us some kind of answers.
“You should go,” Kathleen encouraged after checking the clock on the wall. “I still have some work to do. I’ll check with the officers who responded to the call for additional information. I’ll also look into Vanessa Bridges and her attack, including going to see her, but I might not be able to do much else. The last thing I need to do is interfere with another detective’s case.”
“Thank you. You know, Carter had a wife and two small children.” I tipped my head to look at Max. We took care of our own.
“I’ll make arrangements to have her brought to Roselake,” Max stated as if it was his decision to make.
I wasn’t in the mood to argue. In fact, I wasn’t in the mood for anything but taking Vanessa to safety. I couldn’t help but have the distinct feeling that she’d stumbled into something that would get her killed.
Along with dozens if not hundreds of Wolfen.
