Murder in Misery (Spook Squad) (17 page)

             
“Coffee’s on the counter.” Matt pointed at the mug he had already prepared for her.

             
“Thanks,” Keegan poured to coffee in a to-go mug and slipped her feet into her boots. “We should get going.”

             
“Raring and ready to go already,” Matt let out a sigh as he scooped up his bag and followed Keegan down the hall and out the front door. “Damn it’s cold.”

             
“Could be worse,” Keegan threw over her shoulder. “And I like to think of it this way, the sooner we get done with the case the sooner we get a monster off the streets and the sooner I can get a full night of sleep.”

             
“Always some ulterior motive to solving crime,” Matt chuckled to himself. “Getting a full night of rest, how unusual? I haven’t had one of those in a long time.”

             
“So you see the appeal.” Keegan threw her bag across the car to land on the passenger seat.

             
“If only the myth of a full night’s rest were true.” Matt let out an overly dramatic sigh. “My guys are going to be canvassing the neighborhood. I’ll give you a call if we run across anything.”

             
“I’m going to be paying Bryton another visit and I’ll probably get Leeroy or Gary to see if they can finagle any more information out of Newton. Having a Djinn and a dragon around might scare him into giving something up.” Keegan shrugged. “Check in with you later.”

             
“Dr. Biggerson might have the autopsy done,” Matt added as an after thought, “If there wasn’t a backlog of bodies.  Hopefully this afternoon she’ll have finished up with Elaine.”

             
“If I hear anything I’ll let you know.” Keegan tipped her head to Matt and slipped into her car waiting for him to lead the way to Misery PD.

              Bryton was sitting in his usual seat in
The Jumping Bean.
If Keegan didn’t know any better she would say he looked smug and entirely too pleased with him self as she approached. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence Detective?”

             
Keegan took the chair across from him and smiled back at him. “I may be young but I wasn’t born yesterday. We arrested Ethan Newton.”

             
“Only Ethan?” Bryton clucked his tongue and shook his head. “That’s a shame because we both know he didn’t have anything to do with the murders you are investigating.”

             
“Yeah,” Keegan agreed without hesitation, “But the thing is, I’ve got a list of known associates of Ethan’s. He’s covering for one of them and as soon as I figure out who you told to get out of town after my first visit it is going to be that much easier to catch the monster that is murdering people.”

             
Bryton leaned forwards in his seat and his breath tickled Keegan’s nose as he spoke. “And we both know despite all your threats you don’t have any clue as to where you could start. So why did you come here this beautiful morning Detective.”

             
Keegan internally counted to ten. She gave up before she reached three and shook her head and stood so she was leaning into Bryton’s space. She felt energy coil around her wrists. “You are treading on a fine line Bryton. A line so fine if you aren’t careful you’ll find out what the inside of a solitary confinement cell looks like.”

             
Bryton’s nostrils flared in fury, “You might want to watch yourself. Just because you think you are more powerful than the rest of us that doesn’t mean that you are.”

             
Keegan grinned, “Was that a threat?”

             
“I don’t do threats,” Bryton leaned further back in his seat with his arms stretched out behind his head. “If something needs to be taken care of I take care of it. It is as simple as that.”

“The SIU isn’t like Misery PD Bryton, you’d do well to remember
that.” Keegan threatened as she started towards the exit.

“And what exactly are you implying detective?” Bryton’s voice carried across the room.

Keegan smirked, “That when something needs to be taken care of, one way or another, we get it taken care of.”

“We’ll see about that Detective Morne.”

Keegan called Melinda as soon as she was buckled into her car. She barely gave the wolf anytime to answer before she was speaking. “Packs do their own internal investigations. Have you heard anything, even if it was just gossip, about what has been going on with Anderson’s prowl?”

“Bryton Anderson is defin
itely not going to be winning any Alpha of the year awards if that’s what you are asking because the word is the prowl isn’t happy with how he’s been handling the murders.” Melinda answered.

“What exactly are you saying?” Keegan prompted for more.

“I’m saying that while my alpha would have been tearing the pack apart trying to find out who is killing the other members off, especially a family with a baby, Bryton isn’t doing much of anything besides hanging out in the coffee house of his.” Melinda explained. “This is going to cause a lot of trouble if we don’t get this figured out and figured out soon.”

Keegan pursed her lips together nodding to herself, “I’m already starting to see how much trouble these cases are causing. I want you to keep an ear out for a
ny rumbles about the Anderson prowl.”

“You got it boss.”

Keegan didn’t waste any time getting to work on Byrton Anderson’s background. She needed to know more about the man. She needed to understand why her gut was pulling her away from all their other leads and focus
ing on this one man. She had three visits under her belt and the rest of her suspicions were based off of her instinct and rumor mill rumblings.

His prowl
was being taken out family by family and he was not bothered by the murders. He wasn’t doing any of his own investigations into who was killing his people. Instead he was acting as if everything were playing out just the way he wanted it to. It felt like he was expecting more people to get killed or more people to disappear and he seemed satisfied with what was happening around him.

He shouldn’t act so content with how things were going. He should be the one frantic and tearing his hair out to f
ind out who was killing his prowl mates off and why they were doing it.

The worst offens
es Keegan had found in Bryton Anderson’s jacket were a handful of traffic violations. The most interesting thing Keegan found was his sealed juvenile files. The amount of entries that were sealed to prying eyes suggested a few things to Keegan. He was abused as a child or he witnessed something he shouldn’t have within his prowl.

Working backwards Keegan did a quick search for Bryton’s parents. Sometimes the past revealed more about a person in the present then Keegan could fathom. His parents Janelle and Burton Anderson had a record of their own. The strange thing though, was they were clean until the 1992. Clicking on the incident report Keegan grimaced. Bryton Anderson wasn’t always a
shifter. He had been attacked when he was only seven years old. From there on out they began gaining entries to their rap sheet. Mostly they were convicted of hate crimes aimed towards the supernatural community. At the time of arrest there weren’t any laws set in place for supernaturals so they got away with what was deemed petty crime and misdemeanor infractions.  Vandalism, making harassing phone calls but from there on things developed. In 1997 they were convicted of murdering a supernatural and considered to be suspects for two similar crimes but the investigating officers could never gather enough evidence showing they committed either of the crimes.

From the information she got about Bryton’s upbringing she knew who they needed to focus on. She left a quick message for Matt saying they needed eyes on the man and she was heading over to the penitentiary to speak with Bryton’s mother. It wasn’t going to be an easy trip and having to deal with suc
h obvious hatred for anything that was not mundane but Keegan needed to know if Bryton kept in touch with his parents. She stood a better chance of knowing what was said between them if she appeared in person.

After surrendering her weapon, her belt and jewelry Keegan was led through a maze of glassed in rooms. She was stopped and searched one last time before she was admitted to speak with Janelle Anderson. The woman didn’t look anything like she had in her more youthful days. Her hair had grown gray, her face was lined with wrinkles and her skin grew dry and taunt. Despite the aging, Keegan could see the resemblance between her and Bryton. They shared the same olive tones and the same bright eyes. There was no doubting Janelle was who Bryton got his piercing looks from.

“What can I help you with detective?” Janelle’s voice was rough from smoking cigarettes and age.

“Your son,” Keegan began and the smile that stretched across Janelle’s face was wicked. Shaking the darkness off Keegan began again, “Your son Bryton, does he keep up with communicating with you?”

Janelle dug at her teeth and let of
f a repulsing smack of her lips. “A boy knows that he should never forget where he comes from. Of course he calls and writes. No matter where your parents are you don’t forget who made you. What has my boy done that has you asking me these questions?”

“He is a person of interest in an on going investigation.” Keegan let the statement trail off waiting for some kind of reaction from Janelle. A reaction is just what Keegan got.

“Those murders, of all those,
things
. You think he has something to do with it don’t you?” Janelle almost sounded pleased with herself for coming to the conclusion without Keegan having to divulge much information.

“Yes,” Keegan nodded.
“We have reason to believe that your son might have something to do with or information concerning the shifters who are being murdered.”

Keegan could sense the change in the room. Janelle had inched forward, her hands curling happily into the other. The lines on her face softened and her lips curled into a cruel smile.

“Bryton was such a bright boy Detective,” Janelle started. “Ever since he was old enough to talk he did things to surprise his Daddy and me. Making sentences, building things out of his blocks. He had a lot to offer the world until he was
infected
. He had dirty blood ever since he turned seven.”

“Because he was attacked.” T
he question was posed as a statement but Keegan needed confirmation from Janelle that this was when things began to change.

The woman nodded, “From then on he wasn’
t the same. He didn’t talk much. He didn’t care about what he was supposed to be learning in school. He was put in a remedial class. My boy wasn’t stupid until he was turned into one of those things.”

“So what happened?” Keegan prompted trying to get the woman to keep going. To give her something that she could take to a judge to bring Bryton in.

“Burton tried teaching him how to be like us. You couldn’t beat the monster out of the boy.” Janelle shrugged and let the statement stand. Keegan added to it in her mind.
No you just tortured him and others like him until you were stopped.

“Is that w
hy you killed that woman, Emanda Libson?” Keegan asked.

“She was
the bitch who screwed up my kid.” Janelle barked out taking Keegan aback. “She was the reason he wasn’t right anymore. The bitch took my baby away from me. So I took her life away from her.”

“In later files, it says that Emanda Libson wasn’t the
person who infected your son.” Keegan swallowed down the fear that climbed up her throat at the vile look Janelle sent her way. “It was another little boy. He was still learning how to control himself and he was friends with your son. He got too excited and it was an accident. The woman you and your husband killed didn’t have anything to do with Bryton’s attack. She wasn’t even a leopard shifter. She was a wolf. She couldn’t have changed Bryton.”

“She deserved it anyway.
” Janelle waved her shackled hands. “She was a monster and this world has enough of those already so why add freaky monsters to the basket?”

Pulling away from
where the conversation had gotten to, Keegan changed directions and headed back towards the main reason she was here. “Bryton still talks to you though? After you killed and harassed members of the community he belongs to?”

“Like I said earlier Detective Morne, you don’t forget the people who gave birth to you no matter where they are or what they did. He’s my kid. Of course he
still talks to me. Why does his talking to me have a bug up your ass?”

Keegan raised a brow at Janelle’s words, “What do you two talk about?”

“Oh, this and that,” Janelle grinned. “Mostly now we talk about the people in his ‘community’ that have been killed. And let me tell you something Detective Morne, people think that the apple can fall far from the tree and not be like the people who raised them? Well that’s bullshit. He ain’t so different from his Daddy and I, no matter what anyone says. He knows who he is.”