***
A few minutes later, Cameron walked into the office and said, “Hey, Elizabeth.” He frowned. “Where’s Sheri?”
“She’s gone with Gavin to help him on a case, and David’s on a call.”
“Oh, good.”
The phone rang and she answered it. “Yes, let me check and see if one of the investigators is free to talk with you.” Elizabeth put the call on hold. “A case of a missing champion-sired standard poodle?”
“I’ll take it,” Cameron said. “Good work.”
She smiled. Then the phone rang again, and she answered it.
***
David worked on the details of the contract with Ms. Lamont, then refocused on the Mel Warner case.
Elizabeth stood in his doorway. “I have a call for you,” she said. “Jimmy, the teen looking for his father.”
“Okay, perfect. I was just about to dig back into that. Could you check with the hospitals in the area for me again? I checked twice, but he wasn’t there. But you can confirm it for me again. While you’re at it, you can check with the hospital about Ms. Lamont’s birth records.” He slid his notes on the case across the desk. “Here’s her information.”
“I can do that.” Elizabeth grabbed the paper off the desk, then nodded to his phone. “Jimmy’s on hold for you.”
David picked it up. “David Davis, how may I help you?”
“It’s me, Jimmy. I…uh, I need to come in and talk to you.”
The tone of voice, the slight undercurrent of guilt… Every one of David’s police instincts—not to mention canine instincts—told him Jimmy knew more about the situation with his father than he had first let on. “Yeah, come on in. My schedule is open right now.”
“Thanks, I’ll be right there.”
“Jimmy’s coming in to see me,” David called out to Elizabeth. “Send him in as soon as he gets here.” And David hoped he would still be fine, no shifting difficulties.
Elizabeth came back to his doorway. “Will do. I checked the local hospital. No one by the name of Mel Warner has been admitted.”
“That was fast. Thanks.”
A few minutes later, Jimmy showed up. He either lived in the woods on the property or had already been on the way there, as quickly as he had arrived. And the pack would have known if he lived in the woods.
Elizabeth directed him to David’s office.
Jimmy shook his hand, his palm damp with sweat. David surreptitiously wiped his against his jeans.
“Hi, I, uh, guess I need to tell you something else.”
Jimmy sounded like he knew he was in trouble. Smelled like it too—worry and anxiety coming off him in waves, his hands clutched together and then shoved in his pockets, his brow furrowed, and he just stood there like he wasn’t even supposed to take a seat. But worse, he smelled of wolf.
Not that him being a wolf was a bad thing, it just meant David had to handle the case in a different way. As a wolf, the dad wouldn’t have willingly abandoned the family. At least, David didn’t think so.
David had the teen take a seat and closed the door. “Yeah, what else is going on?”
Jimmy breathed in deep, his nostrils flaring, then let the breath out. “You’re one too.” He finally took a seat. “But you’re not a gray like me.”
“We’re Arctic wolves.”
“Right. The sign. I knew that’s why you used that for the name of your PI office. At least I hoped so.”
“So what’s the problem?” David was worried the teen had done something to his dad, and maybe he had come to confess to him.
“Okay, the deal is, uh…” Jimmy looked down at his lap, then up at David, appearing a little panicked.
“Just spit it out. If whatever you tell me will help us to find your dad”—and David damn well hoped it meant that they would find him alive and well—“then we need all the help you can give us.”
“Okay.” Jimmy took another deep breath. “The thing is, my dad…” Tears filled the boy’s eyes, and he looked out the window. “He’s not a wolf.”
David just stared at him in disbelief for a moment. “He’s not a wolf?” That changed everything. Lupus garou mated for life, unless one died, and even then some never looked for another mate. But if Jimmy’s father wasn’t even a wolf, that meant Mel and his wife would not have the same commitment to each other they would have had as wolves.
It was also extremely hard for a wolf to impregnate a human. It happened, but most times they couldn’t conceive that way.
David frowned. “Is he really your biological father?”
Jimmy let out his breath in a huff. “Okay, look, he’s my dad. I love him. He doesn’t have to be a wolf for me to care about him. Mom would never turn him because she didn’t want him having issues with shifting. My biological dad died a long time ago in a boating accident. I don’t even remember him. My mom married Mel soon after. He has really been the only dad I’ve ever known.”
Which David totally understood.
“But I think in the back of her mind, she always felt she could divorce him if she wanted to—because he’s human—and I think that’s where this is headed, but—”
Tears filled Jimmy’s eyes again.
“Mom was still working her shift at the hospital as an RN. I’d made up my mind that I didn’t want to lose my dad, so I shifted into my wolf and went to meet him when he came home from work. I mean, I hesitated because I really didn’t want to scare him or…or hurt him, but at that point I knew I’d gone too far anyway. He’d seen me as a wolf, even if he hadn’t known it was me. Some part of me reasoned he did know, and I had to turn him now because it was dangerous for us, for him, if I didn’t. He had to be one of us.” His eyes pleaded with David to understand. “He was just standing there looking horrified, like he was a statue and couldn’t move. And I couldn’t either, realizing I just couldn’t attack him. I couldn’t.” He wiped away tears with his arm, looking every inch the kid he was.
“I finally got my courage up and I raced up to him. He tried to run, to get away, but I bit his arm. He cried out, then shouted to my sister and me to stay in our rooms and lock our bedroom doors—”
As if a wolf, or even a dog, if that’s what Mel assumed it was, could open a door, David thought.
“My sister was at a friend’s house, which was why I did it then. I heard him running to his bedroom, and I knew he was getting his gun that he keeps in the top drawer of his bedside table. I ran back to my bedroom, shifted, and pulled on my shorts.”