Shifting Dreams (26 page)

“And Grandpa Gabe is a total blowhard,” Ted said. “Aunt Paula will rein him in. I’ll let my mom know. I apologize, Ollie.”

“Not your fault.”

“Still,” Alex butted in, “if we’re going to find out which cat or cats did it, we need Gabe and Paula’s help.”

“Why are you so sure it’s a cat?” Caleb finally spoke. “Fill me in on your reasons.”

Ted answered, “The claw marks, mostly.”

“Been meaning to ask about those. Mountain lion?”

“Bobcat, most likely.”

He glanced around. “There a lot of those around here?”

Ollie said, “It’s the most common cat in the Springs. Mountain lions are less common. House cats crop up occasionally. But bobcats, lynxes, they’re the most common.”

“So there’s a lot of them.” He frowned. “Do they hunt in packs?”

“No,” Ted answered. “Definitely not. Mated pairs, if both are shifters, but usually we hunt alone.”

Caleb nodded again. “So alibis become a problem.”

“Wolves are pack animals,” Alex said. “We’re highly social and tend to shift together and hunt together on moon nights. That’s why Jeremy can alibi me and we can vouch for most all the wolves.”

“And me!” Allie added. “I ran into the pack when I was running from one of the lions.”

“Which one?” Ollie rumbled.

“Aw, don’t worry.” She bumped his shoulder with hers. “This fox is way too fast for them.”

“They do that again, you run to my den,” Ollie growled. “Not one of them is going to go into that cave if they know what’s good for them.”

“Thanks, big guy.” Allie said as Ollie blushed. “But I’ll be fine.”

Caleb held up a hand. “So, all the wolves are alibied, right, Alex?” The other man nodded. “But the cats are pretty much untraceable because they don’t shift together, so we have to look at other ways of eliminating cat suspects.” He frowned. “No one has mentioned the reptiles.”

Jena said, “To be honest, this time of year they’re not very active on moon nights. It gets chilly remember? And they’re cold-blooded. Most of the Quinns just find a nice warm den and curl up during the winter moons. They like shifting, do it more than anyone else, probably, but only during sunny days.”

Caleb looked around. “I’m noticing a distinct lack of scales in this group.” He grinned. “Not a fan of the fangs?”

Devin gave a low laugh, but everyone else was silent.

“Sean left,” Allie said quietly. “He got out of town a long time ago and never came back.”

“He e-mails,” Ted said. “He’s a journalist.”

Jena couldn’t help the sharp pang of loss. Sean Quinn had made the seventh of their group of friends in high school. Eight if you counted Joe. It had always been Jena, Ted, and Allie. Lowell, Ollie, Alex, and Sean had rounded them out. The last time she’d seen Sean was when he came to visit Lowell in the hospital in Portland. It was one of the last visits that her husband had been lucid for. She hadn’t spoken to her friend since.

Caleb must have noticed the sad look on her face because he was staring at her. Jena cleared her throat and spoke up. “Besides the injuries, there’s also the claw marks on the back door. They look like bobcat, or Ollie has suggested a large lizard.”

Caleb looked at Ollie. “How large a lizard are we talking about?”

“Hey, I just threw it out there. Komodo dragons are big suckers. They can take down a bird, saw it on Animal Planet.”

Everyone laughed a little, lightening the tension. Jena said, “And they have pretty nasty claws. I suppose it could’ve been a large lizard. I’d have to see some claw marks up close, though.”

Caleb asked, “Would they be able to move fast on a cold night? I’m thinking they’d have to move pretty fast to catch an owl in flight.”

Jena nodded. “An older one could. They’re the most powerful. Our human bodies eventually slow down, but our shifter bodies only get stronger as we age.”

“So, it could be Old Quinn,” Caleb muttered.

Jena looked around in alarm. “Old Quinn?”

Caleb said, “I like him, but I can’t consider that. He could’ve done it. You said the older reptiles are powerful—”

“He’s the most powerful,” Devin said. “If any of the Quinns could shift out of their natural form on a moon night and attack quickly, it would be him. Don’t let the good ole boy act fool you.”

“Oh, I can tell that. He’s smart. And motive? What do you all think?” Caleb looked around the back yard.

“The money,” Allie said quietly. “He wouldn’t care for himself, but his family is hurting right now. The resort that Alma was voting against would provide a lot of jobs.”

Caleb nodded as if Allie had confirmed his own thinking. “So Old Quinn could be our killer.”

Jena shook her head. “What are you all saying?” She looked around at her friends incredulously. “Quinn? Joe Quinn turned into a Komodo dragon and killed Alma? They may have had their problems over the years—”

“They fought like cats and dogs half the time,” Ted said.

“And the other half they didn’t talk to each other at all,” Alex added. “I’m not saying it
is
him, Jena, just that it could be.”

“Well, what about the cats?” she asked. “They’re the most likely suspects, but we’re not talking about them.”

Caleb asked, “Is Matt Marquez a cat?”

Everyone stopped and turned to Ted.

“Yes,” she said. “A bobcat. His wife, Missy, and he are both members of the Vasquez clan. My clan. Though Matt is originally from the Leons.”

“So, when you all marry, you join the wife’s clan?”

“Just the cats,” Alex said. “Wolves are different.”

“And Missy is the one who just had the baby?”
 

Everyone nodded in response.

“So Mayor Matt and his wife are bobcats.”

“No, just Matt,” Ted said. “Missy’s a lion like me.”

“Hmm,” Caleb seemed to consider that, even pulling out a notebook from his shirt pocket to jot something down.

“And Matt was just as invested in the hotel plan as Alex was,” Jena said. “But we know Alex didn’t kill Alma.”

Caleb nodded. “I’ll tell you guys, when I made up my list, I had three people on it that stuck out. Alex McCann, Matt Marquez, and Joe Quinn.”

Alex muttered, “Well, you know I didn’t do it.”

“True.” Caleb nodded again. “So that leaves me two suspects that I can see. Which one do we take on first?”

“Old Quinn,” Jena said immediately. “I don’t think there’s any way he could’ve murdered Alma, so let’s eliminate him as a suspect.”

Caleb’s smiled turned up at the corner. “Anyone want to act as my deputy? I’m a bit short-handed with Jeremy out. None of you are reptiles, but I have a feeling it’d go easier with someone around he’s known longer than me.”

Alex said, “Joe and I had words the other day. Probably don’t want to take me.”

“Not me,” Ted said. “He gets nervous around doctors. Any doctor.”

“I’ll go,” Jena said reluctantly. “And I’ll even give him his hat back if he talks to us.”

Caleb looked at her and, for the first time that night, gave her a full, mischievous grin. “Well, if that won’t get him to talk, nothing will.”

The next day, he showed up at the diner just as they were closing. It was three o’clock and Jena had already arranged a sleepover for the boys with Allie and Joe, not knowing how late they’d be questioning Joe Quinn. Jena pulled the nail out of Quinn’s hat before she grabbed a sandwich her dad had stuffed into a box.

“What’s that?” Caleb asked, looking at the box as they walked to his truck.

“A BLT and a big pile of coleslaw. They’re his favorites and he hasn’t been into the diner since I took his hat. Bribery works.”

Caleb smiled and glanced at the hat. “That is one ugly hat.”

“It’s his favorite. Alma always said the man had no sense.”

She fell silent, nervous about the whole plan. What on earth did she think she was going to find? Joe Quinn hiding in his villain’s lair, washing bloody claws and gloating about killing one of his oldest friends? More likely, the man would never speak to her again for even suggesting it. As much as the old snake annoyed her, Jena didn’t want to get on his bad side. Besides that, he’d raised Sean. She could never forget that. Suddenly, Jena was irritated with the whole situation.

They drove in silence out toward Quinn’s house in the hills. It was just a few miles from Alma’s as the crow would fly.

“What has you so serious?”

She shrugged, her irritation mounting with every bump in the road. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Why?”

She shook her head. He’d shown up at her door the previous afternoon and practically eaten her alive within minutes. Then, when it was time to leave the night before, he’d brushed a quick kiss over her cheek before he hightailed it to his trailer.

“It’s nothing. Forget it.”

“No.” He pulled over a little outside of town. “Something’s eating at you. If you don’t want to go with me, I’ll go by myself.”

She flushed bright red. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I just…” She huffed. “I think this is a waste of time.”

“If he didn’t do it, then we eliminate him from the suspect pool. Either way, it’s not a waste of time.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” He was silent after that. She could see his irritation mirrored her own.

She squirmed. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Really? I thought I’d made that pretty clear.”

“I don’t do that, remember?” The anger started to build, and it felt good. “I’m not some roll in the hay that’s looking for a good time and—”

“What on earth gave you the impression that’s what I’m looking for?”

“—and you… you’re not what I expected, and—and you act like you want me one minute, and then I feel like you brush me off the next and—”

“And I feel the same damn way!”

She finally looked at him. He was fuming. His teeth were set on edge and his hands gripped the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white.

“I feel the same way, Jena,” he said in a low voice. “I feel like there’s some sort of test I need to pass, but I have no idea what the rules are. And I don’t even know if you want me to pass or if you’re just…”

“Just what?”

“Jerking me around.” He shook his head and pulled the truck back on the road. “And the thing is I can’t even blame you. I’m not the most reliable person in the world. Hell, that’s probably why my ex never wanted kids with me. I get obsessed with my cases, and I’m always looking for the thing that’s going to go wrong and mess up the stuff that’s going right.”

“Why?”

“Why?” He glanced at her, then back at the road. “Because… because things change like
that
.” He snapped his fingers. “People lie. And the things you thought you could rely on disappear, or you find out they were never what they claimed to be in the first place.”

It hit her like a punch in the gut, and she leaned back in her seat, staring at the harsh desert landscape they bumped past.

“I’m sorry I lied to you.”

“It’s not…” He shook his head. “I understand why you did. Why everyone did. It’s not you I’m talking about.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I didn’t mean it to be.” He paused before he muttered, “I was thinking about New Mexico.”

She considered his profile, tracing the worry lines that marked his eyes, the corners of his mouth. He felt responsible for her grandmother and he hadn’t even known her that long. How much more would that kind of worry translate to a beloved cousin who was ruining his life? The men under his command? How would it feel to have to choose between them in a split second?

“And aren’t you responsible?”

“Pathologically.”

“You’re a good man, Caleb Gilbert. And they were wrong to blame you,” she said softly. “I don’t care if it’s my place to say it or not, but it was a shitty thing to do. I don’t care what their beliefs were. That was not your fault. And I’m sorry I’m not… I don’t know. Better at this, I guess. If it makes you feel better, it’s my problem, not yours.”

“Jena…” He stared out the windshield, but his hands relaxed slightly. “Let’s just focus on Joe Quinn, all right?”

She knew there was more to say, but she nodded and let him lead. “Okay, let’s talk about Quinn.”

“He’s a lizard.”

“Yes. His natural form is horned toad.”

Caleb frowned. “I would have thought snake.”

“Nope. Sean’s a rattlesnake, though. Old Quinn is his great-uncle. He raised him.”

“No kids of his own?”

“Nope. He never married.”

“Is that unusual?”

Jena shrugged. She’d never really thought about it. There were plenty of people her age that didn’t marry for various reasons, but her grandmother’s generation?

“I guess it is sort of unusual. I never really thought about it before. He was just Sean’s uncle. Kinda sketchy, but in a funny way. The kind of old man that the phrase ‘Don’t take any wooden nickels’ was invented for.”