Page 34 of Hard Shift

She gave a slow nod. “I just had a few questions for you. You said that Jennifer has been sleeping on and off for twenty-four hours. How did she get home that night after the bar?”

Patrick shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “Jennifer has never been one to handle her liquor. One glass of wine, and she’s normally tipsy. When she told me she was going out with the girls, I didn’t expect her to come home hammered. Around midnight, when I couldn’t reach her on the phone, I got dressed and was heading out to see if I could track her down, but all I had to do was open the door. She was leaning against the railing on our doorstep, passed out. It’s amazing she still had her purse and not a single scratch on her car.”

“When she woke up, did she say anything to you?”

“She didn’t say anything but that she had a bad headache.” He ran his hand through his hair. “She took some meds, drank a gallon of water, ate some toast, and went back to bed.”

“Thanks for your help clearing that up. Do you know who reported her missing or why?”

“Not a clue.” He shook his head and pressed his lips together. “All I can tell you is that it wasn’t me.”

“Thanks for your time.” She patted his arm as she passed heading toward the door, only stopping before she pushed through. “One more thing.”

She walked back to him, stopping halfway. “What’s your wife’s animal?”

“What?” He tilted his head. Fine lines crinkled his forehead. “My wife isn’t a shifter.”

She sniffed the air as he said the words and got a whiff of what she already knew. He was lying. Why would he lie about something so easy to prove?

He glanced over his shoulder toward the security guards. “If you’ll excuse me, I really need to get back.”

She smiled and nodded before spinning around and pushing out through the rotating door.

DNA, either in the lab or confirmation by talking to Jennifer’s parents, would tell her story. She pulled out her phone and dialed Colton. “Tell me you’ve got the information on her parents.”

“15thand 7th, Lot 22.”

She stopped in her tracks. “The trailer park?”

“Yes.”

“Huh.” She continued walking. “Their daughter lives in the ritzy part of town. I guess I was expecting them to be kind of well off.”

“On the marriage license filed two months ago, Jennifer indicated her parents were dead, but when we cross-referenced them in our database, we found them alive and well.”

“She is also pretty adamant she’s not a shifter, and the funny thing is, she smelled like she was telling the truth. What the hell is going on?”

“She just arrived a few minutes ago to give her DNA sample. I guess we’ll know soon enough.”

“Copy that. I’m going to talk to the parents. Get the guys to work on finding me someone that has seen this woman shift. Jennifer and Patrick Smith might be denying the existence of her animal, but she couldn’t have hidden it for twenty-five years. I need to know what she is.”

Colton was saying something into the phone, but she wasn’t listening. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she unlocked the door of her car. She glanced around, letting her gaze scan her surroundings. There was a shift in the air, indicating something foreboding and sinister nearby. She felt it down deep in her core. It felt similar and yet unknown. She felt as though she was being watched and lifted her nose to the air, taking a deep breath. Nothing. She turned back toward the building and scanned the windows to figure out what was causing her unease.

Patrick was standing at a window on the third floor, looking down at her with a scowl on his face. Farther up on the top floor, a man in his fifties stood in the window, also looking down at her. His hands were clasped behind his back. He was wearing a dark business suit that matched his dark hair.

“What do we have here? You’re new,” she whispered into the phone.

“Elizabeth?” Colton asked with concern in his voice. “Are you all right?”

“If you call two pissed-off men staring down at me from a building all right, then yeah, I’m fine. Listen I’ve got to go.”

She ended the call and palmed her phone. She smiled up at both men and walked back into the building, straight to the marque.

“Detective?”

She waved him off.

The guard picked up the desk phone and was talking in hushed tones as she used her phone and took a picture of the names and floors of the people listed on the marque.

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