She couldn’t address her other reasons at this point, her stomach was too twisted in knots. “What if something’s happened to Jeff? Why didn’t I think to ask you why you were in the lab? Who am I, Harry? I’m usually smart and intuitive and I can always figure out whodunit on CSI. Why can’t I figure this out?”
“You’re not the only smart one in the Smart Car right now, Mara. I’m just as guilty.”
His joke whizzed right past her. “You’re supposed to miss things. You’ve been traumatized. By me! I did this!”
As they pulled into the driveway of Jeff’s small ranch house, Harry flipped the car into park and reached for her with hands she didn’t even see coming. Even in the midst of her worry for Jeff, she had to admire how he was growing into his abilities.
Pulling her close, Harry mumbled into her hair, “We still have to talk about the council. What happened?”
Tears stung her eyes, and the comfort of Harry’s embrace was so tempting. It would be so easy to focus on her fears, tucked against him. “We have a fellow geek to find. We’ll talk about it later.”
Kissing the top of her head, he let her go and popped open the door just as Nina approached them. “It’s goddamn dark out here. What is it with you dorks and the deserted locales?”
“Smaller radius of stupid people in a square mile,” Harry joked on a chuckle.
Mara ignored their banter and made a beeline for Jeff’s red front door. The house was entirely dark except for the small LED lanterns along the paved path to his house. She ran up the small set of steps and rapped her knuckles on the door. “Jeff?”
Nina was right behind her, grabbing her hand before she could knock again. “Shut the fuck up,” she hissed in Mara’s ear. “You wanna tell the world we don’t know where the fuck your fellow nerd is? Lay off.” Nina shoved her out of the way, cupping her hands around her eyes to peer into the small arched window above Jeff’s front door. “It’s damn dark in there. Looks like stuff’s been knocked around.”
Mara’s stomach began to flutter with nerves. She tugged her beret down over her forehead with nervous fingers.
Harry trotted up the steps, putting his hand at Mara’s waist again. “His car’s in the garage.”
“So what do we do now?” Mara asked, turning to Nina for an answer.
“We break the fuck in,” she said, popping the door open with a quick flick of her wrist. It creaked as it opened, revealing the landscape of what was supposed to be Jeff’s living room. But it looked more like a disaster area.
Four computers littered several tables, all turned off. Printers held reams of paper with Jeff’s notations along the columns of numbers in black ink. His furniture was toppled over as though there’d been a fight. But no sign of Jeff.
“So either he was a total slob or some shit went down. I smell shit, you, Short-Shot?”
Mara lifted her nose and sniffed as she made her way to two of the bedrooms in the back of his house. “Something’s not right. That’s all I can smell. His bathroom’s clean as a whistle,” she said, giving the guest bath a once-over.
Towels in earth tones neatly lined an organizer over the toilet, and the soap dispenser and a small plant lay squarely on either side of the sparkling white sink. This was the Jeff she knew. Orderly, calm, not the Jeff of the living room full of toppled furniture.
“So what do we do now? Sift through his personal belongings?” She scoured the bathroom one last time before making her way back to Harry, turning to him for advice. She found him with his mouth open, swinging like it was hinged.
“Harry? What’s wrong?”
“Jesus,” he whispered, holding his hand in front of his face. “It’s like having night vision goggles. I can see everything. I don’t think I realized it until just now. We don’t even need to turn on a light. I think I can see sounds.”
Mara smiled up at him, ticking off another pro for team werewolf. “I told you so would be trite, wouldn’t it?”
Nina clapped both of them on the shoulder. “Lovebirds, quit with the starry-eyed bullshit and let’s roll. Your fellow nerd was a slob—look at this place.”
Harry’s gaze said he was skeptical. “Truthfully, I didn’t know Jeff outside of the Pack gym and work. We didn’t go out for beers or whatever. I was too busy with the kids to get out much. So I can’t say for sure if he was disorganized.” His gaze went to Mara in question. “Mara, were his work habits like this?”
She shook her head. No. Jeff was meticulous, not only in his research, but his physical belongings at his desk and at his worktable in the lab. His beakers were always crystal clear, his portable scale shiny, and all of his acid-base indicators aligned. “Jeff was neat as a pin at work. That’s not to say it wasn’t just for show, but he was pretty thorough. His desk and lab space were always pretty neat.”