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CHAPTER10
I’d never been in Billy Bob’scooler. In here, he kept things that needed refrigeration, like certain medications, burn treatments, and, apparently, dead bodies. He kept the room at thirty-six degrees. In other words, ass-crack cold. It was five in the morning, and he finally agreed to let me see the corpses.
He had three body drawers. Frankly, I thought it was odd he even had one, but as the only medical doctor in a therian community, I guess he had to be ready for anything. Seeing a skinned person in the stark, fluorescent light took away any mystery that might have remained for me. Without shock to protect me, I could see the muscle striations, the bones where the killer had cut too deeply into the flesh as he filleted the skin. I sniffed, sifting through the myriad of aromas on the corpse. There was the expected blood and meat, the sassafras, which seemed to cover his entire body, not just in his mouth, but there were other things as well.
“Do you notice the burnt smell?”
“Yes,” Billy Bob said. “I believe it is thyme.”
“The herb?”
“Some cultures believe it purifies the soul. Not that this is part of a ritual, but…”
“It all feels ritualistic, like what I’ve seen on some of the crime dramas on TV.” I thought of the star in my pocket. “Whoever is doing this, I don’t think they’re done.”
“I agree.”
“What can you tell me about Blackwell?”
“A thirty-six-year-old therian, born and raised in Oklahoma, moved to Kansas to join a community when he was twenty-two. His father was bear, his mother coyote.”
“So he was mixed?”
“Yes.”
“Mike Wares was mixed too. Bear and Raccoon.”
“Hmmm.” Billy Bob tapped his chin. “Probably just a coincidence. Two doesn’t make a pattern.”
With my armchair degree in criminology thanks to the Investigation Discovery channel, I thought the killer was too confident for these to be his first murders. He displayed both bodies at places where the possibility of getting caught was high. “I bet if the sheriff looked, he’d find similar murders somewhere. And with people in from Kansas and Arkansas, he should start inquiring there as well as Missouri.” I crossed my arms and stared at a metal shelf across the room as the smell of disinfectant began to overtake all others. “I’d read in an article that there are serial killers all over the place, and most never get caught because they don’t have any real motive other than to kill.” I glanced back at the bodies. “These poor guys probably never even saw it coming.”
“I’ve sent off blood samples for analysis. I think they were drugged, or at least paralyzed while the perpetrator did this to them. I don’t know how, but I think they might have been forced to partially shift.”
I cringed as I remembered the way the hunter’s guards had tormented me, trying to force me to shift. There were so many sick fucks in the world. Billy Bob put his arm around me and kissed my temple. “Seen enough?”
“Yes. More than.” I rubbed my upper arms. “I better get back into town. Jo Jo and Sunny are opening.”
“I’ll tell the Sheriff about the sassafras. You really should give the star to him—it’s probably evidence.”
I nodded, even though I had no intention of handing over the star. I didn’t know why, but it needed to stay with me.
“Sunny is going to be unbearable,” I said. Mynot-to-worrytext sent at 2 a.m. didn’t mention Billy Bob, but after the night I spent with the doc, she would know! And not because she was psychic. My BFF had a gift for reading me as easily as a Doctor Seuss book.
“Tell Tartan hello for me,” he said.
“Tell Bethany to go to hell for me,” I said back.
He smiled. “We’ll meet up at three. Your apartment?”
“It’s a plan.” I rose on my tiptoes and kissed him. I’d meant it to be chaste, but he encircled me in his arms and commanded me with his lips, conquering me where I stood.
When he finally let me go, he said, “Remember. I’ll kill him.”
I shivered all the way down to my toes as he and his fine ass walked out of the cooler in a grand exit. Until I realized he’d left me alone with bodies. Son-of-a-bitch!
I swore under my breath and fled the room with all the grace of a deer on ice.
* * *
