Trey glanced at Alyssa as he straightened up and took off his gloves. “Do you think it’s possible he was tortured? Like whoever did this took an old man from a retirement home and stuffed them in a ceramics kiln or something like that?”
Alyssa shook her head. “If this is like the last body we found this way, we’re going to find out the victim is probably in his midtwenties or early thirties at the most.”
Trey looked down at the body again, trying to understand how that could be possibly be true. He couldn’t see it. “There have been others like this you said?”
“Two of them, killed about a week apart, both in Dallas,” she said. “The first one was found in a garbage truck parked at the Fair Oaks Transfer Station and the second was found in the middle of the DFW landfill. Our working theory is that the killer murders them somewhere else, then uses the nearest convenient dumpster to get rid of the bodies. If that’s the case, who knows how many others there are? We wouldn’t have found this one if the truck hadn’t accidentally dropped off this load of construction scraps in the wrong place and someone had to come out here to move it.”
Trey exchanged looks with his teammates before turning his attention back to Alyssa. “If you’re involved, I’m assuming you think whoever did this is some kind of supernatural.”
She nodded. “Our medical examiners are still arguing over the actual cause of death. Some are going with heart failure due to rapid loss of fluids and electrolytes. Others are sticking with some vague concept that the killer sucked the life force out of these people, whatever the hell that means. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. We need to stop this thing.”
“STAT has officially asked for our help on this one,” Mason said.
“Unfortunately, San Antonio PD has some murders that look like ritual sacrifices that STAT wants me to take a look, and Zane is coming along for backup,” Alyssa said. “Which means you’ll be on your own for this.”
Trey could understand why Zane would be her first and only choice for backup. If you were heading into a freaky, unknown situation, it never hurt to have a werewolf around to help. If that werewolf was your soul mate, even better.
“You sure you don’t need a little more help?” Connor asked. “One of the other guys or I could go with you.”
Kat didn’t seem to think much of that idea if the way she jumped off the pile of bricks and sank her claws into the leg of Connor’s uniform pants was any indication. The glint in her green eyes suggested she’d shred him to pieces if he even considered going with Alyssa and Zane.
Muttering something under his breath, Connor scooped Kat up with one hand and stuck her in the SWAT SUV, where she sat on the dash, staring at him with a pissed-off look that only a cat could come up with.
There is something seriously wrong with that cat.
That thought earned Trey a long-distance glare from Kat…like she’d actually heard him thinking it.
“Thanks for the offer,” Alyssa said. “But I think it’ll go better with just the two of us. We’ll draw less attention that way. Besides, there’s a good chance this is nothing but a bunch of college students playing with some old books they dug up somewhere. If it turns into anything more, we’ll call you guys.”
They talked for a while longer about what kind of supernatural creature might be involved in murders that would leave a desiccated corpse until an unmarked SUV that belonged to STAT showed up. A moment later, a man and woman got out to collect the body, as well as take pictures and samples from the surrounding area.
“All my files from the previous murders are waiting for you at the SWAT compound,” Alyssa said before she and Zane headed for their car. “You’ll have access to STAT intel support and our medical examiners. If you need anything else, just ask and they’ll get it for you.”
“What about the Butcher investigation?” Trey asked Mason as his pack mate and fiancée drove off.
“I’m hoping you can work both cases,” the deputy chief said. “Gage told me that you have an inside track with the medical examiner assigned to the Butcher task force. If she’s willing to float you a few leads now and then, you should be able to sniff around and find something they might not recognize.”
Trey scowled at Connor, having no doubt he was the pack mate who’d ratted him out to their SWAT commander/pack alpha, Gage Dixon. That was the only way the boss could have learned about the “inside track” he had with Samantha. The grin Connor gave him confirmed he was to blame.
Mason left a little while later, telling them he expected frequent updates. “And try not to do anything that attracts Chief Leclair’s attention. She’s already suspicious of your team.”
Trey watched the deputy chief drive away, wondering how the hell the man expected them to track down what was possibly two supernatural killers when they knew next to nothing about these creatures. This was so far outside the SWAT job description it wasn’t even funny.
“Okay, now that Mason’s gone, tell us what happened with Samantha,” Connor said, looking at him expectantly. “Did you finally ask her out or what?”
Connor and his other pack mates had been riding him nonstop about whether he’d asked her since they’d left the forensic institute yesterday. They all assumed he had, since he’d been grinning like an idiot when he came outside. After the way they’d ribbed him for the past two years, he figured he earned the right to mess with them.
“You know, it’s okay if she turned you down,” Hale said. “Rejection stings like a son of a bitch, especially when you’re really into the person, but it happens to everyone. I’ve been there, so trust me, I know how you feel.”
Trey snorted. “While I’d love to stand around this landfill and talk about it, in the interest of full disclosure, Samantha didn’t turn me down. We’re going out to dinner tonight.”
Connor did a double take. “Damn. You actually asked her out?”
“What, I thought you were all about me going out with her?” Trey frowned. “In fact, you were the one pushing for me to do it the other morning. Over a dead body, no less.”
Hale laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but we had a pool going at the compound over how long it would take before you two actually went out. Connor is pissed because he bet it’d be at least another two weeks.”
Trey looked at Connor, not bothering to hide his disappointment. “Really? Two weeks?”
“Sorry.” Connor shrugged. “But damn, dude. You’ve been dragging this out for months. At two weeks, I was actually one of the optimistic ones. Not as optimistic as Gage, who pegged you for this weekend. But at least I wasn’t as bad as Trevor. He put twenty dollars on you never asking her out at all. He insisted you’d never get off your butt and do it and that Samantha would have to make the first move.”