Page 136 of Secret Shifters Next Door

“So, uh, is it Miss Knight or Miss Steele?”

I sighed wearily. “My legal name is April Knight.”

“Okay then, Miss Knight. Any idea why someone would drop a dead body off in front of this security firm?”

“I really don’t. It’s crazy. I grew up in this town, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The detective nodded and rubbed at his chin. “That’s exactly what I figured. Lilly Valley is not, as one would assume, a hotbed of murder and violence. This does have all the hallmarks of a gang-style intimidation tactic. Do you know anything about some of the dealings this firm handles? Maybe you’ve heard something while hanging out with Mr. James? Steffen James? He’s one of the principal owners, isn’t he?”

I could see where the questioning was going. They thought Steff and his friends were involved in something illegal. Drugs,guns, human trafficking—God knows what. They assumed that whoever dumped the body had done it to send a message. In that, they were right. The problem was they were way off on what kind of message they were trying to send. It was frustrating to know the truth and not be able to say anything.

I shook my head. “Officer, I can assure you, those men are not doing anything illegal.”

From the conference room, I heard Miles raise his voice. “You do realize there are other businesses in this shopping center, don’t you? Why are you treating me and my partners like criminals? We already gave you the camera footage. You can see we did nothing wrong.”

He was right. I’d seen the footage when I’d slid into the surveillance room. All the people involved had worn ski masks and big bulky coats, so you couldn’t tell whether they were men or women. The van was generic white, and the license plates had been removed. Watching them dump the still bleeding body out onto the pavement had almost made me vomit. The fact that Ryland was part of a group of people like that made my skin crawl.

The detective talking to me glanced at the conference room. “He’s getting a little worked up, isn’t he? Wonder why that is?”

That was the final straw. I’d had enough. “Officer, if you’re going to charge anyone in this building with something, then you’d better start. Otherwise, I’ll have my lawyers here within the hour, and we’ll let them start discussing this harassment. You’ve wasted hours here trying to get us to tell you something we don’t know. You need to get your ass out there and figure out who killed that poor man. Unless you’re too lazy or scared to do it.”

The cop’s face reddened, and he pursed his lips. He looked like he wanted to say something but held back. A celebrity of my stature could bring down a shitstorm of reporters, TV stations,and everything else a small-town police force would loathe dealing with. I glared at him, not flinching away from his stare.

Finally, he spun on his heel and yelled down the hallway. “Let’s go, team. We’ve got what we need. Good night,” he said without another glance in my direction.

After the cops got into their unmarked cruisers and departed, everyone took a moment to get their bearings. Even when you’d done nothing wrong, being questioned by the police was nerve-wracking. Miles and Tate sat at the reception desk, cradling their heads in their hands. Steff stood beside me, gently running his hand up and down my back.

Before any of us could speak, Blayne leaned around a door and called to us. “I’ve got some info on the dead guy.”

Confusion swept through me. “That fast?” I asked.

Steff whispered, “He’s pretty good at stuff like this.”

We filed into Blayne’s office and scattered around, grabbing whatever was available as a seat. Blayne clicked away at his computer. “I’ve got his name, but that was easy.”

“Wait, how was that easy?” I asked, still not sure how Blayne could have gotten the information.

He grinned at me. “Cops aren’t always great about keeping information secret. Especially in a small town. One of the forensic guys pulled the wallet and wrote the name down on a pad before bagging it as evidence. He set the pad down, and I saw it. The rest was a piece of cake.

“Anyway, David Dawes. No connection to any of us that I can find. We’re still in contact with the other shifter clans nearby because we wanted to stay synched up after the disappearances started last year. We haven’t had any word about a missing member in the last few days. I found a driver’s license registered to the same name out of Duluth, Minnesota. Picture looks like it might be him, but,” Blayne winced, “the… face on the body was pretty messed up.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Tate said, shaking his head.

“Anyway,” Blayne went on. “I can’t find anything else connected to this ID. It’s like he’s a ghost. No credit, no records of any kind. It’s weird. I think this guy was either traveling or was maybe a down-on-his-luck shifter. He could have been wandering, looking for another pack before he went feral. That’s the best idea I’ve got. The hunters found him and targeted him for extermination. Then they used him to send us a message. A message signed, sealed, and delivered by Ryland. He may not be at the top of the totem pole, but he’s running point on this operation.”

I moved around the desk to get a glimpse of the driver’s license photo on Blayne’s computer. The image on the screen was grinning and had a strange gleam in his eye. My body went stiff and the hair rose at the back of my neck. I knew that face.

The three other men in the room seemed to sense my reaction. Steff stepped up beside me. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

I leveled a shaking finger at the picture on the screen. “I know him. I know why he doesn’t have any records.”

“What? What do you mean?” Blayne asked.

“David Dawes isn’t his real name. He’s Heathrow Burns. A couple of year ago, I took out a restraining order on him because he stalked me. At one point, he broke into my hotel room and trashed the place. He…” I tried not to gag at the memory. “He jerked off all over my clothes and did other nasty shit. He spent about three months in jail for it. That was the last I ever heard from him.”

“Holy shit. It’s a fake ID. An alias.” Blayne spun in his chair and started working with the new name.

Steff pulled me close and kissed me on the temple, “I’m sorry, babe.”

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