“How many times have you had to go before the Council?” I asked, never taking my eyes off Nicole’s incredibly thorough examination of the site. She had an entire chemistry set on a small folding table.
“Three times,” Gray replied. “Luckily, I had excellent evidence and Quinn isn’t on the Council. That brother of his is, but he doesn’t seem to give a crap about righteous kills. He’s a kill ’em all kind of guy.”
“So when you take your evidence to the Council, do you have to go through the whole ceremonial thing every time? How long do you have to wait for the full Council to sit?”
Gray smiled and it was that lopsided grin that told me he was embarrassed by whatever he was about to say. “I have a councilman I regularly meet with. He always takes my calls and has been easy to deal with up until now.”
“Marcus,” I guessed.
“Yeah. He’s an incredibly smart man and very interested in justice. He’s consulted with me on a case or two. I wouldn’t call him a friend, but I certainly got along better with him than anyone else on the Council. He’s quite tolerant, if you know what I mean.”
Except when he thinks you’re working with Quinn against him, then Marcus could be quite emotional. I chose to not bring up the subject. “So you’re willing to kill the only man on the Council you actually get along with? Won’t that make your job hard?”
“He touches my wife and I won’t give a damn about my job, darlin’,” Gray promised.
“I have five bodies here, Lieutenant.” Nicole was staring at her laptop screen. It was all incredibly high tech. The laptop was connected to some strange medical looking equipment. “All five of these are female and werewolves. Four are in an advanced state of decomposition and the fifth was placed here sometime in the last twenty-four hours. I’ll bag that one and take it back to my lab, but from what I can tell she died from blood loss. Someone really sliced her up. I think she might be missing a kidney, ewwww.”
“And the other site?” Gray asked.
“Strange.” Nicole surveyed the second, smaller grave over her glasses. “Only one female and she wasn’t a wolf. It’s definitely a shifter of some kind, but I’m not sure what. I’ve collected a sample and I’ll be able to run it better at the office. My field machines aren’t as accurate.”
Something gold glinted in the grass a few feet from me. “What’s that?”
Nicole made sure the latex gloves she was wearing were snug before she reached down and picked up a small gold necklace that was lying in the grass. She held it up and in the light I could see it was engraved with a J.
“Joanne Taylor,” Gray said with a sad shake of his head. His cell phone rang and he looked down. “Speak of the devil. I have to take this, Kelsey. I’ll be right back.”
“I think you’ll find she was a doe,” I told Nicole.
Nicole bagged the necklace in an evidence bag. “I’ll start there then. The latest victim shows evidence of being tied up. Her wrists are burned pretty badly, so it was probably silver.”
Gray grabbed my hand. “We have go, Kelsey. Nicole, can you handle the rest?”
“Of course,” the efficient tech said. “I’ll have my report on your desk Monday morning.”
“Good,” Gray said and started to haul me out of the cemetery.
“Where are we going?”
“That was Vorenus.” Gray guided me along, his long legs eating up the distance. I ran to keep up. “He’s on his way to Helen Taylor’s. She got a package this morning.”
“Oh, no,” I breathed, picking up the pace. “Tell me she didn’t get those pictures.”
“She did, sweetheart,” Gray affirmed. “The entire doe community is in an uproar. We have some damage control to do.”
We hopped into the truck and as we pulled away, something about the necklace played around in the back of my mind.
* * * *
When we turned down the narrow road to Joanne Taylor’s home, I knew we were in trouble. The street was lined with cars. We had to park a block away and walk. Gray held my hand, but I disentangled us as we approached the house.
“I’d like to look somewhat professional, please,” I said at the annoyed look he gave me.
We were moving up the sidewalk toward the Taylor’s small two-bedroom home when a limo stopped and Marcus Vorenus stepped out. He said something to the driver and then the limo slid down the road. His dark eyes turned to us but if he had an emotion in his body it didn’t show. He was polite and a little cool. “I’ve been waiting for you, Lieutenant. I thought it proper that we enter together. We must show that the Council and law enforcement are working together. Good afternoon, Ms. Atwood.”