Desert Bound (Cambio Springs) (7 page)

Ted kept silent. She had her own issues with what had happened to Missy Marquez, but she wasn’t going to talk to Caleb about it. It was cat clan business.

Caleb shivered at a gust of wind, clad only in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and his hat, of course. Ted had thrown on a jacket as soon as she got the call from him. Nights were cold in the desert, and at crime scenes, there was a lot of standing around. Technically, she was just a consultant. But since all of the county’s deputy coroner investigators lived in the cities, Ted had been authorized to collect evidence at crime scenes and collect evidence in coordination with the newly formed Cambio Springs Police Department. Most of the time she simply confirmed natural deaths when older people died at home. As the town’s only doctor, the arrangement had worked well. And murders in Cambio Springs were rare. 

Or they had been before Missy Marquez had killed Jena’s grandmother the year before, fearful of the old woman’s influence over the elders’ council. Crazed at the thought of having to leave the only place she felt safe. That fear had translated into Missy attacking and killing Alma Crowe to eliminate what she saw as the only obstacle to her husband’s plans to save Cambio Springs. Missy had been certifiable. And whatever Caleb thought, Ted knew the woman would have killed herself before she’d go to a human prison. It was twisted, but if Missy knew she was going to die, she’d have picked a shifter execution over suicide.

And now, less than a year later, there was another suspicious death.

 “Coyotes are scavengers,” she said, still kneeling by the body, noting the lack of blood. Not only dead, but mostly bled out when the coyotes had started on him. Interesting. “Marcus was a big guy. He would have been dead before they started eating him.”

“Could this have been an accident? Marcus shifted and the coyotes went after him in snake form?”

“It’s a possibility. Coyotes will eat snakes if they find them. And if they killed him as a snake,
then
he shifted…”

They all shifted back to human when they died. Born human. Died human. It was only the sticky in-between part that got interesting at times.

Caleb nodded. “They’d have taken advantage of the corpse. Started eating. Makes sense.”

“It’s possible, but…”

“What are you thinking?”

Ted was thinking that reptile shifters liked the sun, not the cold moonlight. But she said nothing as she looked around Marcus Quinn’s mangled body. Caleb had hauled a couple work lights out from behind the trailer at the job site, but there still wasn’t enough light to take good pictures. She stood up and looked at the thermometer.

“I’m estimating he was killed between midnight and two o’clock. Some of that depended on what form he was in when he was attacked.”

Quinns were the only residents of Cambio Springs who shifted to a cold-blooded creature, which was one of the reasons Ted had a hard time imagining Marcus would be out in animal form in the middle of the night where coyotes could get him.

“You’re saying if he was a snake—”

“Reptile shifters have to warm up a bit when they get back into human form. They do this shivering thing. It’s not instant. And even a few degrees could throw off the estimate on time of death. So I’ll make my excuses to the county, but between you and I, it’s impossible to narrow down death any more than I have.”

“Great.”

“It’s the way it is.”

“Ted?” She saw Caleb’s eyes narrow and focus. “How likely was it that Marcus Quinn just happened to be hanging out in the desert—in snake form—and got accidentally killed by a pack of coyotes?”

“Honestly?” She looked up at the nearly full moon.
Nearly
full. Not completely. “It’s not a moon night, Caleb. He didn’t
have
to shift. And it’s cool enough at night right now that he wouldn’t have shifted unless he had to. Reptiles are different from the rest of us. If it’s not warm, they’re not comfortable.”

Ted looked down at the cheerful man who’d been such a hard worker. A husband. A dad. She hadn’t known him well, but from all accounts, he was a bright spot in an otherwise messed up family. She’d been laughing and joking with the man a couple days before, and now he was nothing more than a pile of meat for the scavengers. Of all the twisted, messed-up—

“Alex is here,” Caleb said.

Ted quickly locked down the protest that wanted to spring to her lips. It was Alex’s job site. Alex’s employee. And Marcus and Alex had been friends. 

“Shit,” she muttered.

She hadn’t been sleeping when she got the call. Thoughts of their fight the night before had filled her mind. Alex’s anger. His accusations.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve known in my life, Ted. And the hardest.”

It was true. She could be hard. She had to be. 

Maybe he hadn’t recognized it at the time, but when they’d been together, she given everything to Alex. Every worry. Every fear. Every hope. She’d held nothing back. And when he’d left…

It was as if the foundation of her world crumbled. She’d given him everything, and he’d taken it all with him. It hadn’t mattered that she’d been the one to leave L.A. He’d left her first. She went home to lick her wounds and piece herself back together. And every time he came and left, the foundation she’d patched up crumbled a little more.

“What are you frowning at?” Caleb asked.

Don’t think about it. Think about anything
but
that.

“Maybe I’m frowning because someone I knew has been murdered, and I’m not quite as okay with it as you are.”

“Harsh.” Caleb’s eyes narrowed. He knew she was deflecting. “I called Alex because it’s his job site. Plus, he and Marcus were friends.”

“I don’t care that you called him, but if you want my professional opinion, the body was dumped here. There’s not enough blood.”

“I noticed the same thing, but we’ll look more when the sun is up. Hard to search right now, and the body has obviously been dragged.”

She couldn’t argue with that. The animals hadn’t done them any favors.

“Has anyone called Josie?” Ted asked. “She lives in Vegas with the kids, but I think she was coming down next week.”

Caleb’s face was grim. “Any of Marcus’s family live up that way?”

She nodded. “Call Old Quinn. He’ll know who to send. Those poor kids.”

Ted could hear Alex talking to Jeremy McCann, Caleb’s deputy and one of the higher ranking members of Alex’s pack. 

Caleb spoke in a quiet voice. “I’m asking for your read on this, Ted. Accidental or criminal?”

She paused, but went with her gut. “Criminal. The bite wounds could easily be obscuring the cause of death, but I’m not going to poke around at the body until after I’ve documented the scene and have him back in my office. I’m betting I find something. Sudden death by natural causes like heart attacks are practically unheard of with our kind. Especially at his age.”

“Keep me updated. Let me know what you need.”

“The body will go to San Bernardino. I can’t do anything about that. If we can’t play this off as an animal attack like we did with Alma, then they’re going to want to do a full autopsy.”

“Will they find anything?”

“I hope not. But honestly? I have no idea.”

Caleb nodded before he walked away.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Alex had clearly lost it by the time Ted was finished examining the body. She needed Jeremy to help her bag it and transport it back to her office, but currently, Jeremy was holding Alex back from throttling Caleb. The chief of police, as always, stood nonchalantly, watching Alex lose his temper in front of the growing crowd of construction workers who had gathered for their morning shift.

They were all shifters, and aggression was scenting the air. Alex was the future alpha of the Springs, and Ted might not have been a wolf, like many of the work crew, but her lion could scent the rising tension. Workers shifted toward others in their clans. The birds had already disappeared, but wolves drifted to other wolves. Cats to cats. The few bears on site stood where they were: tall, wary, and waiting. And the reptiles drifted to the edges of the crowd, watching. Always ready to run.

“I have to question her. Just like I have to question you, Alex. And the Quinns.”

Ted heard a hiss on the edge of the crowd, and a low growl rumbled from Alex’s throat. Caleb may have had a lot of fine qualities, but he could still be clueless about shifter politics. An open challenge like this helped no one. She, as the most dominant cat at the scene, needed to step in. 

“Listen, McCann, this is far from my first murder case. Over seventy percent of murders—”

“We don’t know that it’s murder yet,” Ted said in a low voice as she approached the three men. “What are we fighting about?”

Alex’s eyes were glowing. “He asks for Josie’s number, then tells me she’ll have to answer questions about Marcus’s death.” He was spitting mad, his wolf very close to the surface. “Does she even know her husband is dead yet? Has anyone talked to Joe Quinn? Who’s driving up there? If that woman and her kids get a damn phone call—”

“She’s not gonna get a phone call!” Caleb threw his hands up and pointed at Jeremy. “You explain it. I’m done with him.”

Alex’s lip curled up. “If you pull any shit with Josie—”

“Threaten me, McCann.” Caleb took a step closer and lifted his chin. “See what happens.”

Ted’s heart warmed at Alex’s protective stance toward Marcus’s family, but the two men were seconds from blows being exchanged. And despite current appearances, she knew that Alex actually liked Caleb and would regret tearing off one of his limbs in anger.

Probably.

“Whoa, boys.” She stepped between the two, then patted Jeremy on his shoulder and gently pushed him away. The poor guy was stuck between future alpha of his pack and his boss. “Remember, no one wins when testosterone starts flying. Jeremy?”

The young deputy turned to her, an instinctive response to her more dominant animal. Sometimes, it annoyed her, but in situations like this, it was useful. 

“Yeah?”

“Can you go to my Jeep and grab the bag in back? There’s a backboard there, too. We need both to get Marcus’s body back to my office.”

He glanced at Alex, who nodded briefly. Then he ran toward Ted’s green Jeep, and Ted stepped between the two glaring men.

“Alex, the Chief already talked to Old Quinn. Marcus’s sister is on the way to meet Vegas PD. She lives in Henderson, so she’s close. They’re probably already on their way to Josie’s. And Caleb, can we wait to talk about questioning people until we know for sure that this is a murder?”

“I’m done talking about any of this with
him
,” Caleb bit out. “He’s not my boss or my alpha. As far as I’m concerned, he has no role in this investigation. Send your boys home, McCann. This scene is going to take hours to process, and no one gets to work until I say so.”

Alex growled low in his throat, but Caleb was already walking away. 

Ted stepped in front of him, and put her hands on his shoulders. Thoughts of their fight the night before flitted through her mind, but she swept them away. Ignored the tense stares of the men around them. 

Alex had lost a friend. He needed calm. He needed comfort. He needed… petting.

“Alex?”

“What?” He was still glaring at Caleb’s back, and she could see his eyes glowing gold.

Ted slipped her arms around his waist. He tensed, then wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m sorry about Marcus,” she whispered.

His arms tightened, and she felt his cheek against her temple. “Ted, this is… It makes no sense.”

She stroked his back, urging him to calm with her touch. “He was a good man.”

They stood like that, lion and wolf embracing, until she could sense the tension of the crowd behind him start to dissipate. Low murmurs started as men and women got back to work. She could hear some moving toward vehicles. Hear what sounded like a foreman start to organize the ones that were left. Within a few minutes, the breeze had carried away the scent of adrenaline.

Alex didn’t let go. “What the hell happened?” he asked. “Everybody loved that guy.”

From what Ted knew, Alex was right. No one in the Springs had a problem with Marcus. Even those who didn’t much like Alex and his plans for the resort hadn’t shown any resentment to his crew. They were all local boys who were working. And Alex had made sure at least a few were hired from every clan. No one carried a grudge over that.

“I need to know what’s going on, Ted.”

She knew what he was asking, and she pulled away. “Alex—”

“Whether you want to admit it or not, this
is
my town. You know what being a McCann means. You and I and my father all know what’s coming. And you know a lot of people still don’t trust Caleb. Old Quinn is already stirring shit up about coyotes or some other canine shifter being responsible for this. Someone even mentioned Joe disappearing like he might have had something to do with it.”

“Did Joe even know Marcus?”

Alex grimaced. “They had words at the Cave a few days before Joe took off. One of the guys told me this morning.”

“Shit.” The last thing Allie needed was people talking about her kids’ dad being a murder suspect.

“I need you to keep me in the loop on this. I need to know where the fires are starting, so I can put them out before they get bad.”

And have one more excuse to talk to him, despite her bruised heart? 

“Why don’t you ask Jeremy?”

“I’m already putting him in an awkward position, arguing with his boss like that. You saw him just now. Caleb knows Jeremy looks to me as a higher authority. I don’t want to take advantage of that.”

Dammit. Why did he have to be such a good guy sometimes? As much as Ted wanted to dislike him, his obvious concern and respect for his pack always softened her. Cats didn’t have that. And maybe it went against her animal nature, but part of her longed to be part of something bigger than herself. If there was one thing she envied about the wolves, it was having a pack.

“I can’t make any promises,” she said.

“Ted, please—”