Animal Attraction (13 page)

Now my ears perked. Two sets of footsteps
sounded in the hall, both making the telltale sounds of women’s
heels. Giving Gerald a quizzical look, I put away my emptied bottle
of BP. It clinked against two other bottles in the trash can that
hid behind my desk. With Gerald’s warning use of my predecessor’s
name, I made sure I kept my glamour in place.

Wendy breezed in, her attitude all
professional except for her slightly wider than usual eyes. She was
followed in by another woman. “Um, Ms. Keith, this lady wishes to
speak to you. I know she doesn’t have an appointment, but,
well—”

I knew my eyes were wide as well as I rose to
my feet. I clung to my glamour like a life preserver as I looked
the visitor over. For a moment I came close to diving behind the
desk. The first thing my stunned mind jabbered was,
not like
this, she can’t see me like this, not as a vampire.

Except for eyes of blue, the face looking
back at me might have appeared in my mirror while I lived. It was
my twin sister Ashley.

After a split second that felt like it lasted
a lifetime, I remembered she’d never recognize me in a million
years. I was in Patricia Keith’s body. As far as Ashley knew, I was
eleven months dead, long gone to wherever it was that most of the
dearly departed end up. She had no idea I’d been earthbound as a
ghost. She most certainly didn’t know that I occupied a vampire’s
body.

Hoping my shock had disappeared fast enough
that Ashley hadn’t noticed it, I made myself as cool and composed
as Patricia had been. “Yes, well, come in. Please. Thank you,
Wendy.”

Wendy knew darned well who Ashley was to me.
Her gaze bounced back and forth between us, like we were involved
in a tennis match. She managed to draw herself up and return the
calm look I gave her.

Needing an extra moment before I dealt with
the sibling I hadn’t spoken to since our parents disowned me, I
called the assistant back. “Oh Wendy? I know we’re a bit crazy with
the election, but please get a computer tech in here as soon as
possible. This new system is completely unworkable, especially for
members of Tristan’s committee.”

Wendy’s lips quirked in a smirk. “I’ve been
waiting for official authorization on that. I’ll get on it this
very moment, Ms. Keith. Thank you.” She left.

Hey, I finally made someone happy. At least
one of us was. I still had to deal with Ashley.

I made myself look at her. Wow, she looked
great. Red hair expertly styled, slender health club figure, face
showing a few careworn lines but still looking more
twenty-something than the early thirties she’d attained – Ashley
was every bit the society lady our parents had wanted. She even
managed to make mom-friendly jeans and a t-shirt topped with a
tuxedo-cut jacket look uptown. Her favorite scent, sweet but
elegant, wafted to me. I barely managed to keep from leaning over
the desk to see her shoes. I bet on sensible but expensive flats or
kitten-heels.

I motioned to one of the leather chairs in
front of my desk. Trying to sound unconcerned I invited, “Won’t you
sit down, Ms. –?”

Darn if I didn’t almost say her name.
Patricia and Ashley had never met that I was aware of, though my
sister had been the sole member of my family to attend my funeral.
Patricia would have known who Ashley was in any case. It wouldn’t
have been a complete flub if I’d identified her. No way she’d know
it was me ... but wanting to keep it that way meant I’d be as
careful as possible.

Ashley held out a perfectly manicured hand
for me to shake. “Ashley Payson-Warner. Thank you for seeing me,
Ms. Keith.”

I shook her hand and tried not to feel how
warm she was. Meeting with your twin sister who thinks you’re some
other undead person? Awkward. Jonesing for her blood? Really
awkward.

Ashley settled ladylike into her chair and I
gathered my composure. “This is my colleague Gerald Clark. I can
excuse him if you’d rather.”

She looked at the big werepanther, and I was
impressed to see no fear. It’s not as if someone like Ashley comes
in contact with shifters every day. They’re below her social
status.

Her answer surprised me even more. “Let Mr.
Clark stay. He may have insight into my problem.”

I blinked. Well, this was getting more
bizarre by the second. Ashley seemed determined to throw me off my
composure. I doggedly refused to allow her to do so. “Can I offer
you something to drink, Mrs. Warner?”

She looked away from Gerald to stare intently
at me. “No, thank you. I’ll try not to take up too much of your
time. In fact, I doubt you can help me, but you do have contacts
with the shifter population, and I—”

She glanced again at Gerald and shocked us
both by bursting into tears. The werepanther gave me as close to a
scared look as the big man could.

Ashley moved a hand in his direction, as if
to reach for him. “Can you tell me? Ever since it happened, he
won’t talk to me. He says I could never understand and maybe I
can’t, but at least let me try!”

Gerald looked at me helplessly and I
shrugged. I remembered now that the last time I’d seen Ashley, it
had been three months ago. She’d been sitting in a park crying.
Whatever had gone wrong then was apparently getting no better.

I called to her in the gentlest voice I could
manage. “Mrs. Warner. Mrs. Warner? Ashley?”

My sister visibly fought for control. She
pulled a tissue from her jeans pocket and dabbed at her eyes. She
looked at me and reddened. “I am so sorry, Ms. Keith. Sir.”

Gerald smiled a little at the ‘sir’. “Gerald
would be fine, ma’am.”

“What’s happened to get you so upset? What
can I do to help?” I asked.

Ashley swallowed. “This past year has been
awful. First my sister died. We’d been estranged. I can’t express
the guilt I felt over that. And then – and then my husband
contracted the Zoo Flu.”

My mouth dropped open. Ashley’s perfect
parent-approved husband had been infected? Holy smokes.

I was in too much shock to react right away.
It was Gerald who dropped to one knee next to my twin. “He
survived?”

She nodded. “Ryan is a werebear now.”

Gerald patted her arm. “I’m sorry. It’s a big
blow when someone you love turns into one of us.”

Ashley’s head raised and her shoulders went
back. In a firm tone she told us, “Ryan is alive, and that’s all
that matters. I refused to divorce him, although everyone said I
should. He’s a good man and a wonderful father.”

Whoa. The surprises kept coming in faster and
faster. I could well imagine my status-conscious parents being the
ones to demand Ashley leave her husband. In fact, I could guarantee
they had. And Miss Perfect and Obedient had refused them? Wow and
wow again.

I wondered if dear old Dad and Mom had
disowned Ashley as they had me. I didn’t know how close my sister
was to her in-laws. Had she and her family been cast out to
navigate the waters of sudden change on their own?

With that in mind I asked, “Does your husband
need a mentor, Ash – um, Mrs. Warner?”

She offered a shaky smile. “Actually, I think
I could use one. The beginning was hard, but we got through it. We
were adjusting to the changes once Ryan began recovering.”

“Pretty big changes,” I muttered, knowing how
vicious certain circles of Fulton Falls’ society could be.

Ashley’s smile turned grim. “They certainly
were. But we had each other and hung in despite how ugly people
got. Our son’s private school asked us to find another place for
him. Ryan lost his private practice, of course – he was a
pediatrician. But the para wing of the hospital welcomed him to
their staff.”

Ah, the bigotry run rampant. Unfortunately it
was the one thing that hadn’t surprised me so far.

Ashley continued. “We adjusted. We had our
bad days, but we picked up the pieces and made a new life, a good
one. A few of our old friends stuck by us, and the shifters were
kind and ready to help. We were doing fine until the phone calls
started coming a couple weeks ago.”

We were finally getting to why she’d shown up
at my door. “Phone calls?”

Ashley got a steely look in her face that I’d
never seen from her. “From that awful man trying to take your
brother’s seat on the county commission.”

“Cliff Tattingail?” But he hated shifters.
Why would he be calling Ashley’s husband?

I asked that question. Ashley wavered between
a scowl and refreshed grief. “Ryan says it’s old business,
something from way back that needs to be squared away. But each
time he gets one of these calls, a couple of nights later he leaves
without telling me where he’s going. It’s happened three times
now.”

“And he won’t explain?”

“Ryan says his going out has nothing to do
with that old snake handler. He says it’s about being a shifter,
that he has to run with his kind. He says it’s too embarrassing to
discuss and insists I drop the subject.”

Gerald looked at her with confusion. “I’m not
much in the loop when it comes to the bear shifters, but I’m not
aware of them getting together that often. I mean, we have support
groups and such, but we don’t go baying at the moon or hunting
rabbits.”

Ashley grabbed his hand and held onto it.
“You see, that’s what I thought. I’ve made inquiries with a few
shifters who offered to help us when Ryan first got sick, and they
don’t know anything about it either. Especially the werebears.”

Ryan Warner’s strange situation had me
thinking about the missing shifters I was investigating. Family
man, good job ... I’m not so dense that I can’t pick up a clue or
two. With mounting hope I asked, “Where do you think he’s
going?”

Her eyes filled with tears again. “I can’t
even guess and he refuses to tell me. I’m scared, Ms. Keith. Two
weeks ago, Ryan insisted we update our wills and he took out a ton
of life insurance on himself. He tells our son Jesse ... he’s only
five ... that he’s got to be the man of the house if anything
happens to him. What kind of talk is that?”

Gerald’s brows drew down. “The worst kind. It
sounds like your husband is giving up – but for the regular
disappearances.”

I added, “And phone calls from Tattingail,
who despises all things para. Ashley – I mean, Mrs. Warner, is it
possible Tattingail might think he has something to blackmail your
husband with?”

Gerald shot me a look. Good, he knew where my
suspicions were heading.

For her part, Ashley seemed startled. “Well I
– I can’t imagine Ryan doing anything wrong. He’s always been a
rock, a real pillar of the community. There was that one thing –
nothing big, of course, just a little thing really—”

When she hesitated I urged her on. I smelled
smoke and I wanted to find the fire. “What?” When she bit her lip
with indecision I added, “Nothing you tell us leaves this office.
You have my word on it, champ.”

Something flickered in Ashley’s eyes. She
regarded me for a few seconds, as if weighing the heavy things in
her mind. She drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders anew
before speaking.

“A couple of years ago, there was an illegal
gambling ring in the area.”

I nodded. “I remember that. A bunch of
convenience stores around town had slot machines and tiny casinos
in the back of their businesses. It was big news for this little
town when the cops took it down.”

Ashley kept staring at me in that intent way.
“Ryan liked to play. He thought it was harmless fun, but the games
were rigged. After a little while, he found himself in debt to the
people running the thing. I found out when one of their thugs
showed up at our door demanding money.”

That was what, Shocker Number 500 for the
night? Ashley had been through the wringer with her parent-approved
marriage. For the girl who had always done what was expected of
her, she hadn’t reaped many rewards.

Hoping the news would get better at some
point I asked, “He wasn’t taken down with that group, was he?”

Ashley sighed and shook her head. “By then,
he’d paid up and stopped playing. He swore to me he’d never do
anything like that again and I’m certain he stuck by it.”

I spoke more to Gerald than Ashley. “It
doesn’t sound much like something a blackmailer could hold over his
head.”

He agreed. “Being a shifter carries more
scandal than playing blackjack in the back of a store.”

My sister wrung the tattered tissue in her
hands. “I don’t know what to think. My family is falling apart.
Though you have no reason to care,” she swallowed hard when she
said that, “I don’t know who else to turn to.”

I fell quiet for a few moments while I turned
the matter over in my head. Ryan Warner had done some piddly
gambling. Gotten into a little monetary trouble with thugs. It
wasn’t much. But a man who could trip up a little and keep it quiet
might have something even bigger in his past. Something a
blackmailer might use against him.

The situation had too many similarities to
our shifter problem to be ignored. It might turn out Ashley’s
husband was involved in something else ... maybe a shifter
girlfriend? But I had the gut feeling he was in big trouble.

And Cliff Tattingail could be involved.
Wouldn’t I love to find some reason to string that self-righteous
prick up by his balls!

I gave Ashley an encouraging look. “I can’t
promise you anything, Mrs. Warner. However this matter may be
linked to something else we’re looking into. We’ll see what we can
find out and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” The
waterworks turned on again, spilling tears down her cheeks. Gerald
offered Ashley a hand up and she took it without hesitation.
Whatever shortcomings my sister might have, bigotry against
shifters didn’t seem to be among them.

She dabbed her eyes with one hand while
digging into her light blue Prada clutch. She withdrew a card and
handed it to me. “My phone number if you need to reach me, Ms.
Keith. Again, I can’t thank you enough.”