Page 20 of Werewolves Don't Howl
She shrugged. “She’s a fussy cat, not the kind that could rip a screen and climb in. And look how fat she is. Street kittens are scrawny enough to squeeze through a crack, but not this one. If I wasn’t allergic, I’d take her home to eat.”
“Mossy!”
She grinned at me. “Just joking. Knew that’d get you. So, what are we looking for?”
There were no signs of forced entry. Loren’s place wasn’t an apartment but a small house just out of downtown in a neighborhood of artistic types. Not wealthy, but people who cared. Everything was neat and tidy. I couldn’t tell if her clothes were missing. The only out-of-place thing was the kitten.
“There’s no cat food,” Mossy said, coming out of the pantry and avoiding the cute kitten, who made it difficult because she’d decided to chase Mossy’s long laces.
“And no one would go on a trip without taking the cat somewhere else, so why is it here?” I walked hesitantly to the kitten and then crouched down over it. I was a werewolf. Cats didn’t like wolves. She looked at me and then meowed and batted my hand. She was absolutely adorable. She had a collar with a cute little star constellation on it.
“Is your name Star?”
“It’s the constellation of lynx. That’s optimistic,” Mossy said.
“Oh. So it is.” I smiled at her. “I didn’t know that you studied astronomy.”
“Astrology, but same difference. My aunt’s a fortune-teller.”
“Maybe we should have her predict the future.”
“You could go. She does a good job. You’ll have a tall, dark, handsome stranger, romantic adventures, and true love. I’ll have a buck for bringing a sucker in.” She winked at me.
“Win-win. What do we do with Lynx?”
“We don’t do anything. I’m allergic.” She danced backwards, away from the pouncing kitten.
“But I’m…” I didn’t say ‘a werewolf.’
She looked at me with raised brows.
“I’m living in someone’s pool house right now. I don’t have my own place.”
“So take it to a shelter. If I took it home, my cousins would eat it. No joke.”
I took a deep breath and scooped up the kitten. She stared at me with big soft eyes and mewed. She was truly adorable. And also, my beast kind of wanted to eat her. I tucked her into my bag and turned to Mossy. “And now we have our best clue yet.”
“If you say so.”
I nodded firmly while the kitten meowed in my bag. “Now, we check the crime scene.”
My heart was beating too fast the whole way. Returning to the scene of the crime wasn’t what I’d intended to do this morning. Or ever.
The alley was blocked off by yellow tape, but no one was currently there. Of course, they’d moved the body already, but the blood wouldn’t have been cleaned up yet. I parked my scooter at one end and handed her my bag with the kitten in it. “Watch Lynx and Cherry.”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, taking the bag, but holding it at arm’s length. “Hurry up.”
I nodded and took out my phone, taking shots before I ducked under the tape and continued down the alley, crouching down to take pics of the blood, of which there was a great deal. Some would be mine. Yes, I was definitely irrevocably tied to this crime scene. What would Loren have seen? I clicked open the email I’d forwarded and read through it, checking the photos of the body with the alley. I took photos and scanned the whole thing, but it took me ages to notice that the large garbage dumpster had been moved a few inches. I crouched there, staring at the big metal square, avoiding stepping in the dried blood, trying to peer beneath the can without getting my hair on the filthy floor. Senator Silverton had washed it out so well for me. My beast wanted to rumble at the thought of him.
“There you are. You’re little, but not even you’d fit underneath that can, and think how disgusting that would be.” Max’s voice was slightly amused, but underneath was a strain of worry.
I looked up to see him standing at the end of the alley opposite where I’d left Mossy and my scooter.
I stood up and held up my hands. “Max. I didn’t do it.”
He snorted. “Obviously. But you were here. What wolf ripped him apart like that?”
I blinked at him. “I don’t know. If you don’t think I killed him, why are you here?”
