AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I heaved myself into the chair. “She became lucid for a short time, so I got to speak with her, but it didn’t last long.”
“I’m sorry, man. At least you got to speak with her. You haven’t been able to do that in a few months.”
True, it’d been a while since she was last lucid when I was around. The nurses and caretakers had moments with her, which gave me something to hold onto. It also helped to provide me with hope for Tori and how she could deal with her feral wolf. This illness didn’t have to be a death sentence. With Tori in the beginning stages, I was certain it could be reversed.
I changed the subject. “Okay, tell me what you’ve got. I’m ready for this to end.”
Sheriff Clawson huffed in agreement. “You and me both, brother.” He leaned forward in his chair. “I went back to the crime scene and checked everything over again. We had to be missing something. Why didn’t the killer leave any evidence of shifting behind inside the bar? It’s impossible for there not to be something another shifter wouldn’t have sniffed out. There was no fur, no ripped clothing, nothing at all. The crime techs and deputies scoured the bar inside and out, so I went and did another search outside, behind the bar. I searched deeper behind all the buildings near and around the tavern. I’m sure I’ve found something pretty damning.”
My interest was piqued. Could he have found evidence? That would be a Hail Mary. Up until now, Birch had been working off pretty much rumors and accusations.
He reached down beside him and picked up an enormous evidence box. When he opened it, I saw a massive knife inside it. My eyes widened. An enormous wolf’s claw made up the blade of the knife.
I grabbed the box from him and studied the knife. It was old. Owing to its size, the claw had to have belonged to an alpha. The claw was cast inside a gold base with an intricate design etched in. I couldn’t place the engravings, but the craftsmanship was exquisite, professional. It certainly wasn’t a recent piece. A leather cord bound around the handle in a crossing pattern appeared to maintain a grip when used.
“Amazing, isn’t it?”
“My uncle showed one to me when I was younger, but there weren’t many of them out there. This one is more of a showpiece than the one my uncle had me look at. That one was more of a makeshift defense weapon and was cast in silver, so a shifter couldn’t touch it. This is in gold. A shifter made it?”
“I know. I’ve never seen a piece in person before now. We don’t need anything like this; we have our own inbuilt. But it would make for a formidable weapon against our kind. I can’t think of any reason a shifter would make one. It’s odd. Hunters have created these for as long as they’ve formed groups to fight us, but they use silver and dip the claw in wolfsbane. Why would they not use silver to make this knife? I can only conclude a shifter made it.”
“Do you think it could have been to honor a family member after their passing?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten the history on it. All I know is that it was buried behind the psychiatric office and belongs to Lola Kipling. When she moved into town, I helped her move some of her furniture and saw it in her apartment. It’s pretty distinctive, Ridge. It’s definitely hers.”
The damning evidence presented was monumental and ingenious. We’d been looking for a shifter this entire time because Phil’s corpse showed damage that could only have been done by a shifter. But this claw could easily replicate a shifter’s claw, and after an investigation, it’d pass the inspection. All the experts had looked closely at the body, and sure enough, they all believed a shifter had done it.
“Did you get any DNA off it?”
Nodding, the sheriff put the evidence back in his bag. “I did. The only DNA match on it is a bit of blood, confirming to be Phil’s. This is definitely the murder weapon.”
My muscles relaxed. This was as close as we had gotten to solving this crime. Without a doubt, it absolved the shifters of this town, which made a large piece of me calm down. I hated thinking that a shifter would’ve done this when we tried so hard to make this place safe for shifters and humans alike. It wouldn’t bode well if shifters were killing humans.
Now, I had solid evidence, proof that I could physically show Tori, and she would have to believe now that she wasn’t a killer. I couldn’t wait to watch her face light up, and hopefully, she’d drop her shields a little more. This nonsense talk of hers about leaving would come to an end because she’d see she was completely safe to be around, especially now that she was working with her wolf rather than constantly fighting it.
“Since Lola Kipling was meeting with Martin Greenthorne so early that morning, she would have been awake and waiting for him. She must’ve seen the deputy going into the bar,” I said.
It was possible that Christie Greenthorne paid the therapist well to keep everyone else’s noses out of their drama. A lot of money could’ve made Lola do something drastic, even disgraceful. It didn’t help that no one had a real relationship with the woman in this town. She’d been reclusive since she’d first moved here. I didn’t think I’d spoken more than a few words to the woman myself, and I never saw her around much.
With the knife found behind her place, no real alibi, and this possible motive, I couldn’t help but think this wasn’t a good look for the therapist. I agreed with Clawson that she was currently our number-one suspect until proven otherwise.
Clawson and I spoke for a while about the case and other town details requiring my attention. Neither of us could wait for this murder to be solved. The sensationalism would be over with. And the workload would ease up, because a serious crime such as murder didn’t mean that other essential issues got swept away or minor, petty crimes couldn’t still occur.
After the meeting ended, I made a few phone calls and signed some papers. I didn’t leave the office for a few more hours, but I was eager to get home.
I smiled to myself. I couldn’t remember a time when I’d actually been eager to get back home. Normally, I didn’t mind staying at the office until late into the night or even the early morning. I couldn’t even remember when I’d last thought of the manor as home, or if I ever had thought of it as home.
Tori. That was why I wanted to head home so badly. Even more of a reason I needed to mull over our potential connection, another reason she needed to stay in Blackwood Creek. It was purely selfish on my part, but when did I ever ask for something I wanted for myself? Hardly. If ever.
With the murder weapon and Lola Kipling on my mind, I arrived back at the manor and instantly sought out Tori to tell her the great news. Despite all the work, she was still the main thing I’d thought about all day. Thanks to our running together last night and the phenomenal shower sex I was eager to repeat soon, it seemed she invaded my mind with no effort at all.
I was hopeful we’d soon have this murder solved and Blackwood Creek could return to its typical peacefulness. Once everything was back to normal, I could slow down with work, give more of my time to Tori to help her understand her wolf, and convince her to stay with me. Then, I’d focus on whether or not she was my fated mate.
Without this murder case hanging over her head, my wolf and I could help her become one with her wolf. That would stop her from going feral, and in time, the feral side would vanish completely. I was optimistic that figuring out our mate status would be easier if she wasn’t slightly feral anymore.
Shouting her name, I searched the manor and found her in my library. She was studying the old books and the family portraits. Her fingers trailed the spines of the books when her head lifted toward me, and she gave me one of her beaming smiles. Once, that had once been so rare, but now I got to witness it more often.
But slowly, her smile faded and the light in her eyes dimmed, and I wondered why.
