Walk on the Striped Side (7 page)

“And there was no other evidence?”
Her Aunt Thea asked. “No witnesses who might have heard them arguing around the
time of death? Nothing to tell us the motive of why Lulu might have killed the
demon?”

“According to the victim’s brother,
Lulu was his mistress.” Elena replied.

“So, they’re trying to pitch this
as a lover’s quarrel.” Thea mused. She leaned back in her chair, crossed her
arms and stared at the crime scene photos. After a few silent seconds Thea
said, “I don’t like it. It’s too clean cut.”

“Clean?” Chloe asked. Her eyebrows
inching up her forehead. Pointing her nail file at the pile of photos in front
of them she said, “Nothing about that says clean to me. Do you see the way that
room looks? It’s a mess. It looks like to wrestlers decided to have a no holds
bar smack down in that room. And look at all of that blood! It could be a scene
from Saw 4! How does that say clean to you?”

Aunt Thea rolled her eyes. “I
wasn’t talking about the room. What I meant was the Ninth Circle’s case against
Lulu. They give us a coroner’s report that points to shifter’s claws as the
tool implemented in the cause of death. There are no scents because supposedly
Lulu’s perfume bottle was thrown against the wall and shattered. They don’t
mention any witnesses, but the man was at his place of employment, which is a
dental office?”

“If they met at his office after
hours, why would there be any witnesses?” Delta asked. “The place is closed.
Everyone probably went home already.”

“His office is located in a medical
plaza with several other different medical practitioners. At least one of those
offices also doubles as an urgent care clinic. Because of the hours the urgent
care clinic operates on, there should at least be a witness from there. I’d bet
good money one of those employees saw something or someone around the time the
demon was murdered. I’m telling you girls, the case the Ninth Circle is giving
us is too clean cut. It may seem circumstantial to anyone else who looks at it,
but all I see is that they’ve left out any information that might give us
reasonable doubt.” Thea explained.

Elena shuffled through the reports
again. “She’s right. There are no witness statements here. We’ve got the
coroner’s report and the crime scene report. With the pictures, that’s all they
gave us.”

Elena leaned back in her chair and
tipped her head back to look at the ceiling. Why? Why in the fuck couldn’t this
have been a slam dunk case? Was it too much to ask that Lulu Ivanov would be
guilty without a doubt? Then, when she handed that asshole’s precious sister
over to the Ninth Circle Council, she could enjoy some much needed revenge. But
NOOOOOOOOOO – fate had to go and fuck with her plans. Now she faced the reality
that there was a good chance her Aunt was right and Gage’s sister was innocent.
And if that was the case, she couldn’t do it then, could she? There was no way
that Elena would stoop as low as turning an innocent woman – or tiger – over to
some pompous demons to be tortured in god awful ways before they killed her.
She didn’t like to admit it to people, but she did have a strong moral code.
Elena just let everyone who didn’t know her think she was capable of anything
because then they were more likely to fear you.

The thoughts running through her
head made her want to punch something. Gage’s face sounded like a good target,
but he wasn’t around for that. Which was a shame, because the idea of breaking
his pretty face was the only thing that might make her feel better right now.

“I’m sorry Elena.” Thea said.

A hollow laugh escaped from her.
“For what? Pointing out that I was already starting to let my emotions rule my
judgment and common sense? Don’t be. Perhaps I should be apologizing to you
instead.”

“For what?” Thea mimicked her.
“Being one of the many women in the history of the world who wanted to hurt a
man as much as they had hurt her? Don’t be. You forget your ancestors were
basically born from the concept. At least you didn’t do something stupid, like
TP his house and slash his car’s tires. Your mother did that once you know.”

Elena felt her spirits lift as an
idea started to form. Her Aunt Indigo’s voice interrupted her plotting. “I
don’t like that look on your face Elena. Please tell me that you aren’t
planning to toilet paper Gage Ivanov’s house and then slash his tires?”

A slow, sure smile spread across
her face as she looked over at her sisters. Trying to mollify her Aunt she
shrugged her shoulders. “Me? TP somebody’s home?
Naw
.
You don’t have to worry about that.”

Indio’s brows furrowed and she
hedged, “No? Then what should I be worried about? Because you’re definitely up
to something.”

“I’m not up to anything. But tell
me, if you were a scared tigress with two big, burly, badass brothers, where
would you run to for help?”

Her Aunts still looked at her
suspiciously, if perhaps a little worries as well, but Thea nodded in
understanding. Elena’s sisters who knew her inside and out more than likely
knew without a doubt that she was up to something. Instead of chastising her,
they did what any good sister would do. They gave her equally devious smiles
that let Elena know they were on board for whatever she was planning.

“Ladies, it looks like we’re headed
into the tiger’s den.” Getting up from the table, with a confident stride she
headed off towards her room to collect some much needed supplies.

She had one large kitty to
interrogate and irritate.

CHAPTER-SEVEN

Elena

“So let me get this straight. You
want us to go in there, shoot the bitch, and then drag her fat ass out here to
our car? Are you nuts?!” Chloe screeched.

Elena huffed. “No. I want us to
make entry into the structure, detain the suspect, and then secure her in our
vehicle.”

“Say WHAAAAA-” Chloe asked in
confusion.

“Yes Chloe, Elena wants to go cap a
beyotch. Where’s your ride or die love homie?”

Chloe and Elena stopped glaring at each
other to slowly turn their heads and stare at Delta, slack jawed and a little
confused as to what she was talking about. Whatever cockamamie thing that had
come out of her mouth was not her
sister.
Giving the
redhead a slow head to toe inspection, she decided that it still looked like
her sister, even if it didn’t talk like her sister. Had Delta been a victim of
a modern day body snatcher’s scenario? Was this someone else wearing a Delta
suit? There was a lot to the paranormal world she hadn’t learned about yet, but
she didn’t think there were body snatchers. Which meant only one thing.

Sighing wearily, Elena muttered.
“What are you researching now Delta?”

Her little sisters cheeks slowly
turned bright red in embarrassment, and then that blush spread down her face to
cover her throat too. Chagrined, Delta looked down to her feet. Then, used the
toe of her silver ballet flat with little spikes on the tip to kick a rock
before answering. “I might have watched a few movies to learn the intricacies
of urban slang.”

She didn’t know what to say. So she
kept gawking at Delta. Aware that Chloe was doing the same thing, and that both
of them doing it was probably making her shy little sister anxious. Which would
make her feel bad, but she kept doing it anyway until Delta threw her arms up
in the air in exasperation.

“What? You never know when we might
meet a new potential informant that has a rich dialect in urban slang! One of
us would need to be able to understand what they’re saying!”

Still unable to form words to
respond to another one of Delta’s oddball ideas, Elena shook her head in
disbelief. Her lack of response didn’t deter Chloe though. “I love you, perhaps
not as much as I love my Jimmy Choo’s, but I do love you. However, if I ever
hear
your
supposed urban dialect again, I will take
your precious laptop upside your head to deter you from further research.”

Elena snorted and Delta sulked.
“Whatever.”

Too keep from a fresh round of
ridiculous sibling fighting, Elena snapped. “Can we get back to the mission at
hand please?”

“Yes G.I. Jane!” Chloe gave a piss
poor mock salute that Elena had to grit her teeth over so that she wouldn’t
correct it. “Please tell me again how you want us to go into the Ivanov house,
shoot Lulu, and then have us drag her body out to the trunk of Aunt Indigo’s
car! The car that you STOLE I might add.”

Elena rolled her eyes at Chloe’s
theatrics. “We’re not shooting to kill you idjit, so calm down. We’re just
tranquilizing her so that we can chain her up at our house and question her.”

“And we can’t go knock on the door,
ask her for a cup of coffee and some answers, why?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Chloe
reached out with her hands to towards Elena’s neck like she wanted to strangle
her, but Delta stopped her. “Besides, I’m leaving behind a few presents for
Ivanov. If I can’t get my revenge by arresting his sister, at least let me have
this.” When both of her sisters continued to glare at her, she did what she’d
never done before. Begged. “Please.”

“You’re going to get us killed.”
Chloe sighed as she shook off Delta’s hold on her. After straightening her
clothes, Chloe nodded silently, and then turned to start stomping towards the
Ivanov’s house. “Fine. But if I get turned into cat chow during this stupid
bullshit, you better make sure to bury me in my Manolo’s. I wanna be the
hottest chewed up dead chick anyone’s ever seen.” She snapped.

Elena leaned over to Delta and
whispered. “And she says we’re weird.”

Delta looked at her and deadpanned,
“You’re like the Amazon version of RoboCop with your ridiculous mission speak
and small armory hidden away in your bedroom. I watch movies like Friday and
asked a vampire once if I could rub his fangs all in the name of research. Are
any of us normal?”

“Good point.” Elena pulled out her
tranquilizer gun that had enough darts in it to put down a herd of elephants
and headed after Chloe. “Now let’s go get that crazy hooker before she gets
herself clawed to death by tigers.”

They walked up to Chloe who was
standing at the front door. As Elena walked up she could hear the faint sounds
of scraping and clicking, so she peered over her sister’s shoulder to see what
she was doing. There was no way to hide her shock when she saw that Chloe was
picking the lock.

“Where did you learn to do that?”

A louder snick sounded as Chloe
turned the knob and opened the door. Without looking back, she whispered “From
a friend I met at a casino.”

Elena wondered when Chloe had been
to a casino and what else she had learned from this mysterious friend as she
watched her sister tip toe cautiously into the house. Elena edged silently past
her, holding the tranquilizer gun up and ready to shoot. Looking around, she
cursed the layout because it was in essence one big open area. One room flowed
into the next, so there weren’t a lot of hiding spots should they need to take
cover. There was a hallway to the left. The bedrooms and bathrooms would
probably be back there. Just as she was about to start silently easing her way
towards that hallway, a small body topped with red hair tumbled on the floor
past her.

She watched Delta try to pull
herself into a pitiful looking crouch. Delta was far from coordinated though,
so her feet slipped out from under her. For a second she almost looked like she
was trying to run in place with her feet slipping and sliding all over the
place. Finally Delta stopped her pathetic running man imitation so that she
ended up in a squat. Her hands held out in front of her, clasped together with
her pointer finger and thumb in the shape of a gun. Good Lord, her sister looked
like a Charlie’s Angel reject.

“What are you doing?” Elena said in
an angry whisper.

“A tuck and roll.”

“That was NOT a tuck and roll.”
Elena argued.

“Yes it was!” Delta snapped back.

“NO, it wasn’t. A tuck and roll is
a quick, smooth, efficient maneuver that allows you to stay out of the line of
fire while still moving forward towards your target. Whatever THAT was, was not
a tuck in roll. It was more like a flailing, sad advertisement that you would
be the easiest one to kill first. And why are you still holding your hands like
they’re a gun? Are you going to shoot imaginary bullets now too?”

“Well, you wouldn’t give me a gun!
What else was I supposed to do?” Delta wailed.

“You’re damn skippy I wouldn’t give
you a gun! You’d probably shoot yourself while trying and failing to do your
stupid tuck and roll!” Elena yelled back, forgetting that they were in a
tiger’s den and supposed to be quiet.

“Eh… guys…” Chloe shakily
whispered.

“My tuck in roll is not stupid!”
Delta shouted, ignoring her oldest sister.

“Not only was it stupid, I should
video record it and send in a copy to the Army! They can use it in their
demonstration of how
not
to do a tuck in roll.” Elena yelled back.

Delta stomped her foot. “I wasn’t
that bad.”

Chloe raised her voice a little and
said “Oh s-
i
-s-t-e-r-s…”

Nodding, “No, you’re right, you
were
worse
.” Delta started to sputter, but Elena cut her off with a wave
of her hand then pointing back to the front door. “That’s it, go back to the
car-”

“HEY BITCHES!” Chloe screamed.
Elena and Delta’s heads snapped up to glower at Chloe. “Can you shut the fuck
up about your rolls and tucks and
LOOK.
THE. FUCK.
UP!”

Slowly, knowing they weren’t going
to like what they were about to see, the two sisters looked up, and there, on
the other side of the vast living room, was a full grown tiger laying across a
beam. Watching them. Analyzing them really. And Elena would swear that the
tiger was smiling. Or, at least she hoped it was a smile. Because otherwise she’d
have to admit that all of those shiny, pointy white teeth it was showing right
now was a threat. This was not good. Like, a tiger’s going to eat me, and not
in a good way, not good.

The tiger’s tail was slowly
swishing back and forth, hanging down from the beam, while it continued to
watch them. Elena debated shooting the tiger with the tranqs now, but her Aunts
had told her that shifters didn’t turn back to their human form when they were
unconscious or dead. There was no way she and her sisters could drag that big
bastard back to the car. Hell, even if they could drag it to the car, it
wouldn’t fit in the trunk. So she stood there, warily observing the tiger for
any small, subtle movement while it continued to watch her.

Suddenly, the tiger jumped down from
the beam to lay on the ground. Elena brought her gun up in front of her, ready
to pull the trigger if she had to. She stood there with her sisters, and
watched in fascination as the tiger’s body started to shudder. Loud popping and
grinding noises started to come from the beast as it started to shift back to
its human form. Hair started to recede from the body, claws disappeared, and
the tiger’s thick muscled cat body morphed into slimmer parts. It was enough to
turn Elena’s stomach a little because it looked excruciatingly painful, but she
couldn’t tear her eyes away. In a matter of minutes the very large tiger was
gone, and in its place was a tall, slim, beautiful redhead. Lulu?

The redhead got up from the floor
in a smooth, almost elegant move, and then started walking their way. Naked.
Elena did not want to see a naked lady. Even if she had to grudgingly admit
that she was a drop dead gorgeous naked lady. But she couldn’t take the chance
of telling her to go get clothes because the shifter might grab a weapon
instead of the garments and use it on her. Keeping her gun trained on her
target, who was closing the distance between them with a smile on her face, she
pulled the trigger two times in quick succession.

The redhead’s smile turned into a
grimace, right before she let out an unholy roar that damn near made Elena go
deaf and fell to the floor. It seemed Lulu hadn’t thought that Elena would
actually pull that trigger. She snorted. That was because the woman didn’t know
her at all. Elena’s personal motto was shoot first, ask questions later.

“Holy shit, you actually did it!”
Delta squealed.

Giving her sister a ‘duh’ look, she
asked. “Did you think I was joking when I told you the plan?”

Shaking her head frantically, “No,
but I thought four sure you would change your mind once you saw her.”

“And there’s another reason why
you’re not getting a weapon. First rule of weapons training is that you don’t
point it at anybody unless you’re ready to use it. Stick to your computers
Delta, you, and everybody else, are safer that way.”

Delta rolled her eyes and Elena
turned back to the unconscious redhead sprawled out on the floor. “Come on you
two, let’s get her to the car and get out of here.” Chloe walked over to the
couch and snagged the green throw blanket. “Good thinking. I’m getting tired of
seeing this broad’s breasts.”

“Well then stop looking at them you
perv.” Chloe draped the blanket over the redhead’s body.

“How can you not look at them?
They’re like yours, unnaturally large. I can’t help but stare at the women who
have too much of what I don’t have enough of.”

Chloe bent over to grab the
tigress’ hands. “You’re jealous of my beautiful girls. Grab her feet Ms. No
Boob At All.”

Elena went to bend over and grab
the woman’s feet, but movement out of her peripheral vision stopped her. There,
standing in the doorway in nothing but a towel was another redhead. She could
damn near be the twin of the one Elena had shot with the tranquilizer darts a
moment before. How many of these damn redheaded, funky ass, tiger shiftin’
broads were there?

Redhead number two’s jaw was gaped
open in shock. “What the hell is going on here? Let go of my grandmother right
now you crazy bitches!”

Grandmother? Elena looked back down
to their unconscious victim and swore. She’d
traqued
the wrong chick! Bare feet slapping in quick succession drew her attention back
up to the woman who she was now sure was the real Lulu Ivanov. Lulu was running
towards them with her claws half shifted, her mouth open in a loud growl, and
some gnarly as fangs hanging out. Elena didn’t have time to scream ‘HOLY SHIT’
like she wanted to because she’d never known they could partially shift their
bodies like that. No, she had just enough time to raise her gun, point it out
the blur that was approaching her almost too fast for the human eye to track,
and fire two shots.

Then she barely tackled Chloe out
of the way in time before that blur kept going straight for where the two of
them had been huddled over Grandma Ivanov. Lulu’s uncoordinated limbs tripped
over her grandmother’s prone form, and then went flying like a naked human
airplane out the front door. Elena didn’t think the sight of a naked flying
Lulu could get any funnier, but she quickly figured out she might be wrong when
she promptly heard a loud startled squeak from Delta, followed by a crashing
thud.

Elena and Chloe scrambled to their
feet and then to the front door to make sure that the angry tigress was really
unconscious from the drugs Elena had shot her up with. What they found was
Delta laying stunned and confused sprawled on the ground on her stomach. Lulu
had collided into her and then landed with her face down in Delta’s derriere
and the rest of her body pinning poor Delta’s legs down so she couldn’t move.
The tigress’ nose was buried right in the crease of Delta’s backside, creating
a sight neither Chloe nor Elena would be forgetting anytime soon.