Page 30 of Wolfish
“Exactly. The food is excellent,” she said, taking another bite of the steak. “And the corn is nice and sweet.”
“Your avocado, spinach, and mushroom salad hit the spot.”
“You have to have your greens.” They drank a toast to each other in celebration of her grand opening.
Then, after eating dinner and cookies, they headed over to the second cemetery, and it would make her night perfect if she found something important there.
7
Daniel wanted to do everything Selena wanted, though he would have been happy to just go to bed with her after a wild day at the shop. He was afraid she would find another skeleton if they went to a cemetery and want to identify it before they went to bed.
When he arrived at the location, they got out, turned on their flashlights, and began searching the graveyard. This one was still built in the 1800s, but newer than the other one.
They searched for about half an hour when she found a skeleton. “Ohmigod, it’s new, like a month old. It hadn’t been buried, which allowed it to decompose faster than if it had been more protected. And the distinctive odor of those three men is here.”
“Like father, like sons?” This was so not good. Daniel was glad to find it, but worried about their safety. He got on his phone and called Peter. “We just found a skeleton at the Northside Cemetery—a relatively new one. Not ancient like the others. The three men we’re after were here.”
“Don’t tell me that they murdered someone and dumped the body,” Peter said.
“Or they just happened to come here, while the skeleton had been here for some time and had nothing to do with it.” But Daniel wasn’t really feeling it. He just wanted to collect the skeleton and get out of there before they ran into anyone unsavory who might still be there and not want the skeleton found.
“Come on, let’s go.” He tried to keep the panic out of his voice, but he didn’t want to risk Selena’s safety. He took pictures of the skeleton and its location.
They searched the area, looking for other clues, but didn’t find any. There were no clothes there, just the skeleton, and he was certain the person hadn’t died there. He would have smelled a hint of decomposition in the area.
They collected the bones, put them in a body bag, and headed for the SUV, but heard a noise in the woods. He dropped the skeleton off in the vehicle and locked the doors. He turned off his light, and she turned hers off. The perps shouldn’t be able to see them in the dark, but they might know where his vehicle was parked.
“I’m going to turn into my wolf,” she said.
“What about the bones?” He didn’t want anyone to break into his SUV and grab them while they were off exploring.
“If the men are still here, I want to go after them so we can identify them. We won’t let them return to the bones.”
“All right. Me too.” However, he didn’t want Selena in any danger.
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Yeah. We’re safer in our wolf coats. They won’t be expecting anyone moving around in the dark as a wolf.”
“Right.”
They made sure they were in darkness, with no moonlight shining through the trees' branches, and then he and she stripped off their clothes and shifted into their wolves.
He stayed with Selena as they smelled the men's scents and set out to find them. He wanted to tear into them, but they had to be careful that they didn’t turn them into one of their kind.
Then they would have to kill them anyway.
They smelled the men this way and followed their scent until they reached the road. But their vehicle wasn’t parked on the side road either, and the men were nowhere in sight. He nudged Selena to go with him, and they returned to their clothes, shifted, and dressed. Then they hurried to his vehicle.
“Had they found the bones at the cemetery, gotten spooked, and then left them there?” she asked, climbing into the vehicle.
“Or they are the ones who left them there. They might have planned to bury them, figuring no one would ever come to the old cemetery and discover them, but they heard us coming and took off in a hurry.” The guys were no good so he wasn’t sure if they had anything to do with the bones or not. He started up the SUV.
“You know what this means?”
“We’re off to the morgue. Do you want me to call Ellie?”
“Of course. She can be indispensable, though she might not appreciate being called on this after helping at the shop for so long.”
