Blake’s suitcase made just as much noise hitting the floor as he did dropping into his chair. He saw the blinking light on his phone. Muttering a curse in Old Irish, he accessed his voicemail.
“Mr. Thompson, District Attorney Brown here,” said a woman’s voice. “Regarding State of Michigan versus Leonard Panthera Carlin, we have dropped all charges. Please call if you have any questions.” Click.
“Ah, shit,” he fumbled for his personal phone and summoned up the DA’s number. It was after hours, but he had all the DA’s personal phone numbers. He never called unless it was an emergency, and this was a damn emergency. She answered on the fourth ring.
“Mr. Thompson,” she said, surprised.
“Regarding my client, Mr. Carlin…”
“Yes.”
“Have you charges levied against Mr. Malcolm King?”
She went quiet for a moment. “He’s a person of interest, yes.”
“I’m just letting you know, any evidence you have is circumstantial.”
“We got the autopsy report back, and the bloodwork on the victims.”
“And?”
“It was as you stated. The victims were attacked by some sort of animal, and both victims had large amounts of methadone in their systems.”
“Does the coroner say what kind of animal?”
“I’m afraid I’ve already said too much, Mr. Thompson, as Mr. Carlin is your client.”
“His partner, Mr. King, may also be my client.”
She sighed heavily, “Mr. Thompson – ”
“Penny, I have another lead.”
“Another lead? What’re you talking about?”
“Someone else, another shifter, might have done this.”
“Blake, this better not be some kind of dead rabbit to throw the dogs off the scent.”
Blake thought that was a pretty apt way of putting it, considering who she was talking to. “It’s not. Listen, there’s a shifter out there named Gabriel who knew Mr. Carlin and Mr. King – and is jealous of their relationship, and is causing trouble in Vibora Bay.”
“A jilted lover?”
“That’s what it’s sounding like. And if you look him up, he has a record, murder included.” He found the reports. Families were murdered. It was horrible what this man – this shifter – did. He was going to make damn sure that this creature got what he deserved.
“How do you spell that?”
Blake told her, and gave her the information that both he found and that Scott gave him. “If you need to talk to Mr. Carlin about Gabriel, I’ll be happy to allow that.”
“What about Mr. King?”
“I’d like to be there for that too.”
“Always got to know, don’t you, Blake.”
He grinned, a wide, wolfish grin. “I’m curious as a cat.”
“You know what happened to the cat.”
“Yep. Got eaten by a wolf. Talk to you later, Penny.”