Part 13 (1/2)
On the other hand, the next likeliest suspect was a police officer and Vicki didn't want to believe that Barry Wu was responsible. She glanced down the table at Colin who, while larger than his uncle and father, was still a small, wiry man and probably wouldn't have made the force under the old size requirements. He looked like someone had a knife in his heart and was slowly twisting the blade. He hadn't said two words since he'd sat down.
Did she think it was old man Biehn? No. Nor did she want to think it was Colin's partner. Nor could shecompletely rule either of them out, not until the murderer was found. A great many people had access to the woods, however, and in spite of the statistics, the most obvious suspects didn't always turn out to be guilty.
She turned back to Rose, waiting predator patient for an answer.
”Until I get more information, I have to suspect everyone, Rose, even Mr. Kleinbein. This is too important not to.”
Having cleared the table of anything remotely like food, the wer were rising and going their separate ways. Donald had already changed, padded out to the porch, and collapsed in a dark triangle of shade.
Shadow, with permission from his mother, had taken a bone into a corner and, holding it between his front paws, was chewing it into submission.
Vicki stood as Colin did, but he turned and headedout of the kitchen without acknowledging her in any way.
”Colin!” Even Vicki stiffened at the command in Stuart's voice and Colin stopped dead, shoulders hunched. ”Vicki wants to talk to you.”
Slowly, Colin turned, canines gleaming.
”Colin. ...” The name was a growl, low and menacing.
The younger wer hesitated for a moment, then his shoulders dropped and a curt motion of his head indicated Vicki should follow him.
It was far from gracious, but it would have to do. She fell into step behind him as he started up the stairs.
”It's too hot to walk outside, so we'll talk in my room,” he said without turning. ”Then the kids won't interrupt.”Vicki wasn't so sure of that, given the wer sense of privacy but, if it made Colin more comfortable, they could talk on the roof for all she cared.
His room was one of three in the addition built on over the woodshed and the door next to his was the first closed door Vicki had seen in the house.
”Henry,” Colin said by way of explanation as they pa.s.sed. ”He bolts it from the inside.”
”It's not a bedroom. ...”
”No. It's a storage closet. But it doesn't have a window, and if we shuffle stuff around there's room for a cot.”
Vicki brushed her palm over the dark wood and wondered if Henry could sense her in the hallway.
Wondered what it was like, lying there in the dark.
”Ihaven't seen the sun in over four hundred years. ”
She sighed and entered Colin's room. He threw himself down on the bed, fingers laced behind his head, watching her through narrowed eyes. Despite the outwardly relaxed position, every muscle in his body hummed with tension, ready for fight or flight. Vicki wasn't sure which, nor did she want to find out.
”I used to get the laundry to do mine, too,” she told him, nodding at the half dozen clean uniform s.h.i.+rts hanging on the closet door, still in their plastic bags. Pus.h.i.+ng a pair of sweatpants off a wooden chair, she sat down. ”I had better things to do with my time than iron.”
”So,” she leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees, ”do you think your partner did it?” Colin's eyes narrowed further and his lips drew back but before he could move she added matter-of-factly, ”Or do you want to help me prove he didn't?”Slowly, his eyes never leaving her face, Colin sat up. Vicki accepted his puzzled scrutiny with her blandest expression and waited. The next line was his. ”You don't think Barry did it,” he said at last.
”I didn't say that.” She rested her chin on her folded hands. ”But I don'twant to believe he did it and you're the best person to prove he didn't. For Chrissakes, Colin, start thinking like a cop, not a ... a sheepdog.” He flinched. ”Did he have the opportunity?”
For a moment she wasn't sure he was going to answer her, then he mirrored her position on the edge of the bed and sighed. ”Yeah. We were working days both times it happened. He knows the farm and he knows the conservation area. We got off at eleven last night and he could have easily come out here after s.h.i.+ft and made those tracks.”
”Okay, that's one against, and we know he has the skill. ...”
”He's going to the next Olympics, he's that good. But if he's casting silver bullets I couldn't find any evidence of it and, believe me, I looked.”
”Does he have a motive?”
Colin shook his head. ”How should I know? If he's doing it, maybe he's crazy.”
”Is he?”
”Is he what?”
”Crazy? You spend eight hours a day with the man. If he's crazy, you should have noticed something.”
She rolled her eyes at his bewildered expression and used her voice like a club. ”Think, d.a.m.n it! Use your training!”
Colin's ears went back and his breathing sped up but he held himself in check and Vicki could actually see him thinking about it. She was impressed by his control. If a stranger had used that tone on her, she'd have probably done something stupid.
After a moment, he frowned. ”I wouldn't swear to this in court,” he said slowly, ”but I'd bet my life on his sanity.”
”You are betting your life on his sanity,” Vicki pointed out dryly, ”every time you walk out of the station with him. Now we've settled that, why don't we concentrate on proving hedidn't do it.”
”But. ...”
”But what?” Vicki snapped, getting a little tired of Colin's att.i.tude. She recognized that he was in a terrible position, torn between his family and his partner, but that was no reason to shut off his brain. ”Just tell me about the man.”
”We, uh, we were at the Police College together.” He ran his hands through his hair, the cropped cut accentuating the point of both chin and ears. ”I wouldn't even be a cop if it wasn't for Barry, and I guess he wouldn't be one if it wasn't for me. He was the only 'visible ethnic minority' cadet there and I was, well, what I am. We ended up together to survive. When we graduated, we managed to stay together - well, mostly, it's not like we're mated or anything. ...”
Vicki wasn't surprised by Barry's philosophical reaction to his partner's actual race. In the ”us against them” att.i.tude that the job forced police officers to develop, finding out that one of ”us” was a werewolf could be dealt with, at least on an individual basis.Can I depend on my partner to back me up ? was the crucial question, not,Does my partner bay at the moon? And now that she thought about it, Vicki had known a number of cops who bayed at the moon.
”... and the night I got shot. ...”
”Wait a minute, you what?”
Colin shrugged it off.”We surprised a couple of punks during a holdup. They came out shooting. I took aslug in the leg. It was nothing.”
”Wrong. Very wrong.” Vicki grinned. ”Barry was there?”
”Course he was.”
”He saw you bleed?”
”Yeah.”
”You probably talked later about dying, about how you thought you were going to be killed?”
”Yeah, but. ...”
”Why would Barry shoot at the wer with silver bullets - expensive rounds that he'd have to make himself, risking discovery - when he knows that good old lead will do the job?”
”To throw us off his trail?”