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Chapter 14

The ht in Crow Valley, Wisconsin, Jessie wasn't hard to find My car and hers were the only ones trolling Main Street

I stopped hts blazing I felt safer that way

She put the squad car in park, stepped out, leaned over the door "What's your problem?"

"Got an hour?"

Her eyebrows shot up "I got nothing but hours They roll up the sidewalks around here at seven pm

You wanna come to the station?"

"How about your place? I'd like to talk to Will, too"

Jessie shook her head "He's sleeping"

"At night? What is the matter with him?"

She set used to my schedule, but he just couldn't cut it"

"Maybe we should wake him up?"

"Maybe we shouldn't" Jessie's expression was set and e

"Fine Station it is"

I got in my car and followed her Inside the Andy Griffith museum, she took a seat at her desk "What's up?"

"Did you find out anything about Damien?"

Jessie frowned "Why the rush?"

I hesitated How much to say? Howthat wasn't personal Which turned out to be quite a bit

"Do you think he's a rogue agent?" she asked

Rogue agents had been Juger-Suchers once They'd gone off on their own, still hunting, still searching, but they no longer followed any rules but their own

"Could be All we have to do is ask Edward"

He knew every agent, past and present I put the question on my mental to-do list

"I talked to the owner of the tavern," Jessie said "Fitzgerald is working for cash The guy doesn't have his Social Security number, next of kin, address, or shoe size The setup screams shape-shifter"

"Except for the silver ring and the silver bullet in his gun," I murmured

"Which shoots that theory all to hell" She shrugged "I ran the naerald, from New York

Without his Social Security nuot back a sheet of Da as erprints or photos on file"

"Damn"

"Yeah"

Silence fell between us I was thinking as fast as I could, but I wasn't getting anywhere

"You didn't co into town to talk about Da else spooked you

Wanna tell me what?"

"Not really"

Jessie sighed and leaned back in her chair "I know about your family"

My head came up so fast the room spun My eyes narrowed

"Relax Mandenauer didn't say anything that wasn't in the police report" Her lips twitched "Except for the part about the olves"

The police had decided that s killed my family There were so many of them in Topeka

"I can't iently

"No, you can't"

"My best friend was a olf She fooled me for years Wanted to make me one of them Then rule the world I stopped her"

Our eyes met, and I sasomeone you trusted turn furry and try to kill you didn't happen every day For an instant I wanted to reach out, but she just had to open her ain

"You know soet killed because you're too much of sissy to tell me what it is"

I shook gled er in my ear "Sissy?"

"You heard h to make you run to me?"

Jessieperson on the planet, but she wasn't duo away until I told her

In truth, I was scared Had I seen the white wolf or hadn't I? If I had, ere all in deep shit If I hadn't, only I was Either way, it couldn't hurt to ask a question

"Have you ever heard the name Hector Menendez?"

"Should I have?"

"I don't know You're the sheriff"

"You think he's here?"

I sighed "Maybe"

"What does he look like?"

"Six-foot-two, a hundred and eighty pounds, black hair, goatee, blue eyes, Hispanic Very handsome,"

I ed

Hector had been one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen Beauty was part of his allure By the time I'd discovered what that beauty hid, it had been too late

"I haven't seen hi People coo Did you see him?"

"I'm not sure"

"Maybe you'd better tell me who he is"

"Hector's the olf that killed my family," I said

Her eyes widened "And you saw him in Crow Valley?"

"I'ht I saolf outside the bar I followed him, but the one I shot was black, not white"

"You said Hector had black hair"

"He did"

"Then how could he be a white wolf?"

"His mother was blond and so was Hector"

He'd shown me a picture of her and him Hector had been a true towhead as a child - the thick, wavy locks nearly white instead of blond I'd thought it cute that he carried a picture of his mother and himself in his wallet Later, when he'd told me the rest, the picture had disturbed h to h by then it was probably too late

"His , and he hated her So he dyed his hair the shade of his father's Hector is a tiny bit psychotic, I'm afraid"

"How can you be a tiny bit psychotic?"

"Fine" I threw uplunatic"

"Swell A psychotic olf" She stood up, kicked the desk "Just e need"

Suddenly she whirled towardfor a cannibal Now you tell me there's a lunatic in town That seems like too much of a coincidence to me"

"But the broolf ate the others"

"Did he? You told me you saw the broolf, he killed one; then later we found them eaten It doesn't mean he's our man" She frowned "I mean wolf"

"But if he isn't, that "

"Or two of the both"

"Hell," I muttered

Silence fell

"Jessie?"

She glanced atin my face must have reached her, because she sat down and spread her hands "What?"

"I'm not sure I saw Hector I - " This was hard to say, especially to her "I lost s that weren't there for quite a while Maybe I saw Hector" I took a deep breath, let it out sloished like hell for a cigarette "And maybe I didn't"

I expected her tocomment, put me in my place, then tell me she'd call Edward and have hied, pulled a pad of paper across the desk, and picked up a pencil "That's Menen-dez? M-e-n-e?"

I stared at her She made an impatient sound "How the hell do you spell his name?"

"But - "

"But what? If that psycho is in my town, I want to know about it"

"But what if I was seeing things?"

"What if you weren't?"

"Doesn't it bother you to ith someone as once certifiable?"

"Noof a pain in my ass as you are"

We stared at each other for several rowl "Do you ot so much time available to check out your delusions"

Wow, another war moment

" M-e-n-e-n-d-e-z," I spelled out

"Gracias," she mocked

Miss Politically Incorrect

"I doubt you'll find much," I said "Back when my family was killed Well, by the time I was able to"

Think without screa?

"Articulate," I one They checked him out"

"And?"

"He'd been pronounced dead in 1977 fro accident Kind of made it hard to put out an APB

on him"

"What did the police do then?"

I rolled my eyes "What do you think? When they arrived at the scene of the cri to ht I was loony toons"

"In other words, they did nothing"

"What were they supposed to do, Jessie?"

"Let me ask a better question: What did Mandenauer do?"

Her words ht, then called the police and disappeared I saw him next at the hospital" I lifted a brow "The psychiatric hospital"

She shrugged and et on with it

"After weeks of being told I was crazy, he believed ot me out of there I'm not sure how"

Having soive me a pill every time I said "olf" had clearedwith Edward had ain

"He told me my family was at peace He'd made sure they wouldn't rise"

"I hate it when that happens," Jessie muttered

I glanced at her quickly "You've seen one?"