The Winter Solstice: A Cassandra Blake Mystery

Chapter 5.1

Both Cassandra and Malekai sat bolt upright. They were dozing off when a sharp snap resounded through their minds, causing their wolves to whine before letting out a long mournful howl. One of their pack had just died. The clock beside the bed read 9:35 pm, meaning that the festival was winding down, but many were still out and about.

“Aaron! Do we know who it is yet?” Malekai asked, using the mind link.

“Not yet. I will let you know as soon as we have any information,” Aaron replied.

“I will go to city hall. Let’s start by taking a head count. Anyone with an unaccounted family member can stop there and give us the information.”

“Yes, Alpha,” Aaron replied before cutting off the link.

Malekai and Cassie got out of bed and began to get dressed. He looked at her and scowled.

“No, you need to rest,” he told her sternly.

“Yes, I need to rest, but I am a cop. Remember? This is what I do. At most, I will have to park my backside on a bench and rest a few minutes before I continue,” Cassie objected as she continued to get dressed.

“Fine,” Malekai lamented. “I’m going to the city hall so we can begin work on determining who it was that we lost. You can take a nap on one of the couches there if you need it.”

“See,” Cassie chirped. “You already have it worked out, so what’s the problem? I will be fine.”

“Are you up for running to city hall?”

“I should be. It isn’t that far, and I got in a nap,” Cassie said as she pulled on her coat.

Malekai took his coat from the back of her chair and said, “Then let’s go.”

Within minutes, they were at the city hall. Pack members were wandering in to let them know everyone in their families was alright or to notify them that there was an unaccounted-for family member. Cassie had printed off a list of all the pack members and marked them off as they were located. Within an hour, they narrowed it down to a couple of dozen residents, most teenagers and young adults whose whereabouts were still unknown.

“Alright, Alpha,” Cassie said as she handed him a list containing the names of the pack members who had not been contacted yet. “I recommend you do your Alpha command to each one individually and see if they are close enough to hear and respond.”

“And what happens when someone doesn’t reply?” Malekai asked, the strain of what might happen weighing on him heavily.

“Then we contact the family and let them know we are unable to make contact. We tell them to be prepared as we continue to attempt to locate them,” Cassie told him gently. “When it is confirmed, we give them the support they need to get through their grief.”

“Why are you so calm about this?” he asked almost accusingly.

“I’m not calm. I feel like my heart is in a vise. This is what I do, Malekai. And I can tell you that it never gets easier. It’s even harder when it is someone I know, like now. But, I owe it to them to do my best to find justice for them if warranted and help the family however possible.”

“How do you do it?”

“I spend a lot of time at the gym beating the crap out of things. When I said that everyone in Seattle is afraid to spar with me, I meant it. Remember last year when I got banned from my favorite gym? That was because a guy was talking trash during our kickboxing session, and I broke his jaw. And when I say broke, I mean it was shattered. He had to have it wired shut and dozens of pins, screws, and plates put in.”

“Holy… are you serious?”

“Sure am. I told you I had been working on a bad case where a child died. We found the guy who had done it. He had no remorse. Absolutely zero. I still won’t go into the details, but what the guy did was vile. He tortured the kid before he killed him. Not only was he not sorry for what happened, he delighted in telling us every graphic detail of what he did to that child.”

“And you snapped?”

“I snapped. The guy I was fighting had read some details of the case in the paper and was smarting off about how it couldn’t have been that bad, and the kid might have even deserved it. To me, that made him almost as bad as the guy who committed the murder. We got in the ring. He started talking. Freya and I both lost control. I almost became a murderer myself that evening.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No. I didn’t, but it was close. I prayed to Selene that night and thanked her for keeping me from killing him.”

Malekai sighed, “I wish Selene would answer my prayers. I want this all to be a bad dream and to wake up soon.”

“So do I,” Cassie told him as she took his hand. “In the meantime, you have to reach out to each person on that list to see who responds. They won’t respond to me the way they will respond to you. If you do it as a command, they have no choice but to reply if they can.”

Cassie continued to hold his hand as he made contact with each pack member on the list. She could feel him become tense with each attempt and then relax when he got a response. They had worked their way through the many names, contacting each one and chastising the teenagers who had refused to acknowledge their parents. Finally, they made it to the last name. Their hearts dropped because they both knew her. She was a waitress at The Wolf Pack Diner.

Malekai sat as he tried to establish a link with the last name on the list. “Laura, this is Alpha Malekai,” he said. There was nothing. He could not establish a link with the last person on the list, Laura Sutton. She was the one who had been lost. Malekai looked up at Cassie with his eyes full of tears and shook his head.

“Kai, if you want, I can take Aaron or Zach, and we can visit her family to let them know,” Cassie said as she rubbed her thumb on the back of his hand.

“Thank you, but I need to be there,” Malekai told her as he stood and embraced her. “It is my duty as pack Alpha to be there when the family is told and to offer any needed assistance.”

“Unfortunately, we will need to ask them some questions too.”

“Why? Do you think they did something to her?”

Cassie leaned back to look into his eyes. “No. She might have told them where she was going tonight and who she would be with. If she did, we can find her quickly, bring her back to her family, and find the person who hurt her if someone did. She could have fallen on a run or been in an accident. I am not pointing fingers at anyone until we have found her and examined her body to find out what happened.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Malekai admitted.

“I do. You just have to let me do it. This is my job.” Cassie sighed and continued, “Come on. We need to go talk to her family.”

-

The pair left Aaron at the city hall to handle the pack members who came in to get or give information about loved ones. Cassie and Malekai walked the two blocks to Laura Sutton’s home. As soon as they began the walk up the stairs of the front porch, Laura’s parents threw the door open. When they saw the expressions Cassie and Malekai wore, it confirmed their daughter was the one who had been lost.

“It was Laura. We felt the bond break, but we are still hoping that it wasn't true,” Mrs. Sutton said to them.

Cassie squeezed Malekai’s hand and replied, “We believe it was Laura, Mrs. Sutton. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

“What happened?” Mr. Sutton asked.

“We don’t know. We haven’t found her yet,” Cassie told them. “I know that right now is a very difficult time, but we need to ask you some questions if possible.”

“Do you think we had something to do with this?” Mrs. Sutton asked as a tear ran down her cheek.

“No, ma’am. We don’t think either of you had anything to do with whatever happened to Laura. What we are hoping is that you might be able to tell us when you last saw her. Perhaps where you last saw her or who she was with,” Cassie explained.

“Alright,” Mrs. Sutton said as she stepped out of the doorway for Cassie and Malekai to enter the house. They followed her and Mr. Sutton into the living room and sat on the couch across from the couple.

Malekai quietly said, “Althea, Calvin, I can’t tell you the sadness it brings me to be in your home under these circumstances. Please do not hesitate to ask if there is anything I or the pack can do. As a pack, we support our own in their time of need.”

“Thank you, Alpha,” Calvin replied.

“Please, Calvin, call me Malekai. We are a family, especially now.”

“Thank you, Malekai.”

Cassie hated to interrupt, but the faster she got the information, the faster they could find Laura. “Althea, Calvin, when did you last see Laura?”

“We were at the festival,” Althea answered. “Right after Malekai’s speech, she said she wanted to go for a walk and would meet us at home later.”

“Was she with anyone or maybe meeting someone?” Cassie asked.

“No, she was alone and wasn’t meeting anyone that we know of,” Calvin said.

“What about a boyfriend she might have fought with or an ex-boyfriend? Is there anyone who might have a grudge against her that you can think of?” Cassie continued to question.

Althea released a slow, calming breath and answered, “Nothing like that. She didn’t have an ex-boyfriend, and her boyfriend was with us the entire time. We have never heard of anyone saying or doing anything against Laura. We were going to come back here and give her boyfriend his Christmas present early because he and his family were planning on leaving tomorrow to visit family in Olympia.”

“Who is her boyfriend?”

“Brian Garrett,” Althea answered.

“Do you know where Laura normally goes for walks?” Cassie asked.

“She often goes to the lookout and out to the bluff. She likes to watch the moonlight on the river below,” Calvin told them.

“I understand why. I have done the same thing myself many times,” Cassie confided. She looked at Laura’s parents and knew they could not give much more information then. She pulled a pen and one of her business cards out of her coat pocket. Cassie marked out the Seattle police department number and wrote in the number for the Bloodstone city hall. She handed Althea the card and explained, “Here is my card. It has my cell phone number and the number of Bloodstone city hall. If you can think of anything, someone she might have been with or someone who might know where she went walking, please give me a call.”

“Thank you, Cassie,” Althea said. “I know we don’t know each other well, but Laura spoke highly of you. She said she wanted to be like you, go to school, and find her own path in life.”

“That means a lot, Althea. We will show ourselves out. Please remember to call us if there is anything you think of, even if it seems small or silly. It might be important,” Cassie said.

“Thank you, both of you,” Calvin said.

Cassie and Malekai nodded to the grieving parents as they stood and left the house. Cassie’s mind raced as she walked with Malekai back to city hall. They had to find Laura. There was still a slim chance that she might be alive but unconscious. Cassie was kicking herself for not taking an item of clothing that Laura had worn so the trackers could use it. She would need Aaron to go to the Sutton's home and get some of her things to allow the trackers to get the scent.