The Winter Solstice: A Cassandra Blake Mystery

Chapter 5.2

“Are you alright?” Malekai asked.

“What?” Cassie asked, oblivious to what Malekai had said to her.

“Are you alright?” he asked again, putting his hand on her back.

“Yeah, I’m just running what we know through my head and what steps need to happen next.”

Malekai asked, “So, what’s next?”

“We need to get something with Laura’s scent on it and see if the trackers can follow her trail. They need to be careful and not step in or on any tracks they find. They might be critical to the investigation. We also need to call all the searchers back to city hall so I can give them instructions on doing it without destroying any potential crime scenes.”

“I will let Aaron know and have him go by and get something that Laura has recently worn.” Cassie watched as Malekai’s eyes briefly grew distant before returning to normal. “Aaron wants you to link him so you can explain what he needs to get and how he needs to collect it.”

“Tell him not to worry about it,” Cassie told him. “I will run back and get what we need while you go to city hall and gather all the trackers so I can talk to them.”

“Sounds good,” Malekai said. He grabbed her and planted a kiss on top of her head before he let her go. “Be careful and take care of yourself.”

“Always. Try to relax a bit when it comes to me. This is what I do, and I am good at it. I will be back a city hall shortly,” Cassie told him before she turned and jogged back toward Laura’s home.

Cassie was back at the Sutton home in under three minutes. She ascended the steps and knocked on the door, listening carefully for anything that could be used in the investigation. Calvin opened the door and seemed surprised to see Cassie again.

“Cassie? Did something happen? Did they find her?” Calvin asked.

“Nothing else has happened, and we haven’t found her yet. I’m sorry to bother you again tonight. I’m afraid I need to ask you for something.”

“Yeah, OK,” Calvin stammered a bit. “Come on in. Althea is in the living room with Laura’s boyfriend.”

Calvin led the way into the living room, where Althea sat beside a young man in his late teens or early twenties with tears streaming down his face. Cassie could see immediately from his demeanor that he was heartbroken about Laura. She didn’t want to bother him, but knowing he was expected to leave the next day to visit family, she had little choice.

“Althea, Cassie said she needs to ask us for something,” Calvin told his wife.

“What is it, Cassie?” Althea asked as she wiped her wet eyes.

“I’m sorry to ask this, but we need an article of clothing that Laura recently wore and has not been washed to help the trackers locate her. We won’t damage it and will return it as soon as possible,” Cassie explained.

“Of course,” Althea replied before turning to her husband. “Cal, Laura’s gym bag is in the laundry room beside the garage door. It has the clothes she had worn for the day and did not change back into after her workout.” She turned back to Cassie and asked, “Will that work?”

“That will be perfect. Thank you,” Cassie replied sincerely.

“How long will it take to find her?” the young man asked Cassie.

“We don’t know. Are you Brian?” Cassie asked him softly.

“Yeah. Are you going to blame me for what happened because I’m her boyfriend?” he asked, his voice tinged with fear.

“No, not at all. I don’t think you have anything to do with this. However, I do need to ask you a few questions, if you don’t mind.” The boy nodded that it was OK for Cassie to ask the questions. She moved to sit in the chair across from where he and Althea sat on the sofa. “Brian, do you know where Laura likes to go for her walks?” Cassie asked.

“We go to the lookout and the bluff most of the time. We go once in a while to the old stone bridge and sit under it to watch the fish,” Brian sniffed.

“OK, that’s good. You just gave us another place to look for Laura,” Cassie tried to comfort him. “Is there anyone you can think of who might be mad at Laura or not like her for some reason? A school rival or someone with whom she had a run-in at work?”

“No,” Brian said firmly, shaking his head. “Everyone loves her. Please find her.”

“We will,” Cassie told him as Laura's father returned to the living room with a bright pink duffle bag. Cassie’s heart cracked a little when she saw he was also carrying a small, well-worn stuffed wolf in his other hand.

“Here is Laura’s bag, and I thought this might help too,” Calvin said as he held out the bag to Cassie as he looked at the wolf in his hand. “She has had him since she was three and has slept with him every night.”

“Thank you, Calvin,” Cassie told him. She took the bag from him before he sat beside Althea, his eyes welled with tears. “I promise I will take care of it.”

Clavin muttered, “Thank you.”

“I promise all of you that we will do everything we can,” Cassie told them. “I will see myself out. Either Malekai or I will let you know as soon as we have any information.”

The group sat silently and nodded as their tears flowed freely again. Cassie quietly left their house and jogged back to city hall as she thought about Laura’s family. She hated this part of her job. Seeing families in pain was sometimes soul-crushing, yet Cassie always had to put on a strong front and continue as if it didn’t bother her. She tried to push those thoughts to the back of her mind as she approached the city hall. She slowed to a walk when she hit the end of the block, seeing several men out front of the building, most glaring at her. Her guess was they did not like to be told how to do their jobs, especially by a woman.

As Cassie reached the door to city hall, one of the men stepped in front of the entrance to block it. He scowled at her with pure hatred in his eyes as she looked at him with an unconcerned expression.

“Get out of my way, Derrick. I don’t have time for your nonsense right now,” Cassie told the man, who was several inches taller than her and nearly twice her weight.

“Who do you think you are? Coming back here and ordering us all around like you are,” Derrick spat with contempt.

“I am a police detective with over ten years of experience in law enforcement. I have worked on more homicides and missing person cases this week than have happened in the history of Bloodstone. The Mayor, your Alpha, has asked me to help because this town has no police department. The last thing we want is to have the county sheriff’s department or state police show up here and start asking questions. Unless you can top that, that makes me the expert. Now get out of my way, or I will move you,” Cassie told him flatly. She could feel Freya in the back of her mind wanting to rip the man’s throat out, and she was almost ready to let her.

Derrick laughed at Cassie, “Then do it if you think you can. I dare you.”

Cassie didn’t hesitate. With lightning speed, the palm of her free hand met with Derrick’s nose and then his throat, causing him to gasp for air. She deftly grabbed him by the back of the neck as he leaned forward, as he gasped for air, and tossed him into the street. She looked back at the other men who had silently approved Derrick’s actions to see them all take several steps back and clear the way for her.

She yanked open the door and stomped into the city hall as everyone inside turned to watch her. She didn’t even bother to glance at the shocked faces of those who had just watched her take down the pack’s head tracker. She entered Malekai’s office and placed Laura’s duffle bag and stuffed wolf on his desk.

“Derrick Bishop is out for the night,” Cassie told him.

“Why?” Malekai cautiously questioned. He could feel the anger rolling off of her and smell a slight hint of blood that was not hers.

“Because I just broke his nose and threw him into the street for being a complete jack-ass,” Cassie explained coldly.

Aaron snickered from the couch, “He’s always a jack-ass. What made now so special?”

Cassie took a deep breath and sighed, “Because he demanded to know why I had the authority to tell him and the other trackers how to do their job and blocked me from entering the city hall's main door. I told him if he didn’t move, I would move him. He told me to do it if I could, so I did. I moved him into the street, with a broken nose, gasping for air, and out of my way.”

“Next time you do that, will you warn us it is about to happen so we can watch?” Aaron asked with a smirk.

“You got it,” Cassie replied.

“What did you bring for the trackers?” Malekai asked, looking at the bag and stuffed wolf on his desk.

“Laura’s duffle bag, which contains clothing she wore before she went to the gym, and the stuffed wolf she has had since she was three. Laura slept with it every night, so her scent should be well embedded in it. If you want to call the trackers in, I will give them their instructions, and we can get them on their way. With luck, we will find her soon. While I was at the house, I spoke with her boyfriend. He only added that she liked the old stone bridge, so she might have gone there.”

Malekai’s eyes became distant as he mind linked with the trackers who were waiting outside the city hall. His eyes cleared, and Cassie heard the door open. All she had to do was give one look at the men coming toward Malekai’s office to make them stop in their tracks before they regained their composure and entered the office, closing the door behind them.

“Gentlemen,” Cassie politely addressed the group. She wanted them to know she had no ill will toward any of them after what had happened between her and the head tracker, Derrick. “Unfortunately, you will be looking for Laura Sutton. Because we do not know the nature of the events tonight, it needs to be treated as a crime until it is determined otherwise."

Cassie waited for a moment to continue, "We need you to avoid stepping on any footprints that you may find. If you see or smell blood, avoid contact with it and carefully note the location because it might be valuable evidence. The same applies to any signs of a struggle. While we hope for a good outcome, I think we are all aware of how this will likely end. If you find her body, do not approach it. Let us know, and we will come to the scene and process it.”

Malekai spoke with authority, “You will follow Detective Blake’s instructions to the letter. She is the expert and the only police officer in this town now. We cannot contact outside law enforcement because that would reveal who and what we are. That would be disastrous, not only for Bloodstone but all werewolves. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Alpha,” came from the trackers assembled in his office.

“Good,” Malekai stated. “Cassie has brought you items belonging to Laura to help you in the search for her. Please link me as soon as you find anything, no matter how insignificant it might seem. Get to work.”

“Yes, Alpha,” the group said.

They each made their way to Laura’s things on Malekai’s desk. One of the men unzipped the duffle bag and leaned close to it, inhaling deeply. Each man in the group followed the same pattern of inhaling from the bag until they had all taken in her scent and were ready to follow it.

“If you are ready, then get started. Do not shift until you are well out of town and the sight of any tourists here for the festival,” Malekai instructed.

“Yes, Alpha,” the group said once again before they turned and left the building.

“Cass, why don’t you rest a bit?” Malekai asked her once they and Aaron were the only ones in the room.

“I will in a little while,” she replied. “I need to ask you a question. How would you feel about me calling in someone to help with this? Before you ask, he isn’t a wolf. He is human, but he is open-minded. I think he can handle knowing about us, and I know he would never say a word.”

“I’m not thrilled with the idea, but I trust your judgment,” Malekai told her.

Aaron asked, “How do you know he can be trusted?”

“We went to the police academy together and have been friends ever since. We have worked together many times. He was even in the detective unit for a while before returning to being a beat cop. We have had a lot of talks about the paranormal and the different scenarios of what we would do in the event we ever encountered anything that he considered supernatural.”

“If you think we need help, I want you to call him,” Malekai told her. “After you have, go back to the break area and lie down. I will wake you if they find anything.”

Cassie smiled and gave him a nod. She knew she needed the rest and would try to get some after she made her call.