Chapter 15

Rather than ridein Belle's car, I headed to the bureau on my bike. I wanted the freedom to take off at will. Not to mention I needed speed so I could race away from the turmoil churning within.

It didn't work.

I fucked the wolf.

Fucked a killer.

And God help me, I loved it.

Despite the crazy hour of not quite four a.m., pretty much everyone showed up with the exception of Luanne. Ralph, the night shift receptionist, greeted me as I entered.

"Hey, Hood. I hear we nabbed the Big Bad Wolf."

"Yup." A terse reply but all I could manage for the moment.

On the top floor, people were bustling. Cinder bent over her laptop. Belle had not arrived yet but only because I'd broken some speed limits. Sally waved her left hand as she talked to someone on the phone. I could see Hilda pacing in her office, her lips moving, and a stoic Levi nodding in reply.

Mahoney and Judd conversed together but stopped as I neared.

Judd gave me a small wave. "Hey, Hood."

"Boys." Slightly younger than me and usually a trio, which led to me asking, "Where's Tyrone?" He never missed a chance to be in on a big score.

"Down on second questioning the prisoner." Mahoney pointed to the floor.

"Oh." Guess someone had to do it and, rather obviously, it couldn't be me.

Mahoney hesitated before blurting out, "Dude's claiming he's innocent."

"Which is bullshit," Judd interjected. "He's a wolf."

"He admitted to being one?"

Both guys nodded. "Yeah, he came clean about that right away, but he's insisting he's being framed."

"He can claim all he wants. The evidence doesn't lie." And we now had enough circumstantial stuff to convict. Once the blood found on the fingers of the new victim got matched to him, it would be game over.

"Rumor has it you two were a thing," Mahoney dropped casually.

I could have been pissed someone spilled the news so quick, but at the same time, I knew it would come out because I'd had to inform the techies dissecting his apartment.

"What can I say? I have shit taste in men." A bit of an insult to Mahoney, whom I'd gone out with on a single date. Not because he didn't try for a second. I just kept refusing. The man bored me to tears talking about himself. "Excuse me. I gotta check in with Cinder."

I sauntered to her desk, escaping from the uncomfortable questions and judgment that would arise from my brief affair with a serial killer.

I flopped into the seat across from her. "Hey."

"You look terrible," she claimed, lifting her head from her laptop screen.

My lips turned down. "You would, too, if you'd had my night."

"You couldn't have known." She tried soothing me.

"Feels like I should have, though. I'm supposed to be the agent who hunts monsters, and yet he flew right under my radar."

"He fooled everyone."

True, but it still stung. "Anything new since we last talked?"

"Actually, yes. A bag of bloody clothing was found in the basement of your building tucked behind the boiler."

"This just gets better and better," I muttered.

"Given the fluids on it are fairly fresh, we're assuming it's from the latest victim."

"Can you believe that prick has the nerve to claim he's being framed?" said with a bitter laugh.

"I heard."

"Like, for fuck's sake, we've got so much evidence. The wolf hair found at the crime scene. A partial license plate that matches his truck, even the fucking sticker on his bumper. Plus he had a connection to several of the victims through his handyman work. And now, the clothes he wore at the murder scene." I sighed. "What a clusterfuck." It made me nauseous to realize he'd killed someone before having sex with me.

"You forgot the keys," she murmured. "The set Walden turned in turned out to be a match for his apartment."

"Jeezus. How could I have played so easily into his hands?" It made me wonder now if the whole plumbing thing had been a sham. Maybe he'd wrecked his ceiling to get at my pipes to give himself a plausible reason to come knocking.

"The important thing is he was caught and you weren't harmed." Cinder reached over to put her hand over mine.

"I wasn't, but what about those other poor people?" I'd failed them.

"You tried your best. We all did."

By dawn, word leaked to the media that the killer had been caught. News channels didn't wait for an official statement and ran with the story. My mom texted to say she and Grams would be heading home since it was now safe. She hated being away for long, claiming her garden needed her.

Around seven a.m., Hilda emerged from her office to find me staring blankly into space and used a softer tone than usual to say, "You should go home."

"To do what? Wonder how I could be so dense?" I shook my head. "No thanks."

"He fooled everyone from the sounds of it," her understanding reply.

It didn't help. I stood abruptly. "Have the recovered clothing and other collected evidence been shipped off to the lab yet?"

Hilda shook her head. "We're waiting on a courier. Why?"

"Because I'd like to torture myself," my sarcastic reply.

Luckily, she didn't ask why I wanted to see the clothes. I couldn't stop wondering if they'd collected the same shirt he'd worn when we made the movie date with me earlier that day. He'd changed before I showed up. Showered too. Not suspicious on its own but with what I now knew…

The box with the things they'd grabbed from his apartment wasn't very big. They'd not really found much, if anything at all. Business cards that matched the one found at the most recent crime scene. Shoes that might have something stuck in the treads. And the bag with the clothing.

The generic and bland blue T-shirt at least wasn't the one I'd seen him wearing that afternoon when we'd made plans.

Hannah walked in as I frowned at the blood-stained fabric. "What are you doing here?"

"Something's wrong with this." I shook the plastic package. "The shirt is new."

"And?"

"I've never seen him wear anything that hasn't been well washed and worn." Could be he'd bought a throwaway set of clothing, but a normal person would have purchased and kept the new, not immediately ruined it. Disturbed, I began scrounging in the cupboards lining the wall.

"What are you looking for?" Hannah leaned against the table, arms crossed.

"Gloves. I want to check something." I couldn't have said what exactly in that moment, only that I wanted a better look.

Once I'd located the latex gloves and slipped on a pair, I unsealed the bag and withdrew the shirt, letting it hang from my grip.

My lips pursed.

"What's wrong?" Hannah queried, cocking her head.

"This shirt looks too small to fit him." I should know since I'd explored that wide chest.

Hannah grabbed her own set of gloves before reaching for the shirt.

"What are you doing?" I asked as she snatched it from me.

"Checking the size on the label because you're right. This shirt wouldn't have fit that beast."

I winced at the term. But it did technically fit. Aidan was a wolf. But was he the wolf? The piles of evidence sure seemed to point at him. So why did I have this nagging uncertainty?

"It's a large," Hannah declared. "And he's at least an XL, maybe even a double with those shoulders. I would know, seeing as how Gerome is close to the same size." She put the shirt back into the bag and snared the pants next. "Thirty-two waist. Kind of skinny for a guy his size."

"Maybe he wanted to throw us off track by using undersized clothes."

She snorted as she put the clothes back in the plastic. "Only if he wants attention. No way he could have buttoned these." She snapped off the gloves and began typing furiously on her phone.

"Who are you texting?" Nosy? Yes, but she seemed rather intent.

"Gerome is still at Aidan's apartment, inspecting it top to bottom for hidey holes. I'm going to have him check the closet for sizing." It didn't take long for Gerome to reply. Hannah glanced at me. "The shirts are all XXL, and the pants are a thirty-six."

"Maybe he lost weight since he bought those." I refused to allow myself any hope.

"Maybe. But something about this feels off." Hannah chewed the tip of her finger and stared at the bags.

"Given the blood hasn't dried yet, we're assuming this is from the newest victim, right?" I asked.

"Would seem most likely. Why?" she asked.

Rather than reply, I suddenly flew out of the room and went hunting for Cinder. She was at her desk as I rushed up to ask, "What time did the murder happen?"

"What?" She blinked at me as Hannah arrived on my heels.

"The woman we just found in the woods. What time approximately did she die?"

"We don't have the full autopsy yet, but given it appears the podcaster interrupted the suspect in the act, sometime around ten."

When Aidan and I were in bed. My mouth rounded. "Holy shit. It wasn't him."

"What do you mean it wasn't him? The evidence—"

"Must have been planted because I know for sure he didn't kill the woman in Regent Park because he was with me," I crowed.

Hannah muttered, "I'll be damned. He's actually being framed."

Hilda happened to be walking by and overhead. "What are you two yapping about? Of course he did it."

I whirled to state, "Aidan couldn't have killed the woman in the woods because we were together at the time it happened. As in naked in his bed from nine p.m. until almost midnight when Belle called."

The sudden silence told me everyone had heard.

Hilda's brows shot into the stratosphere. "Are you giving him an alibi?"

"I am." My cheeks wanted to burn, but I kept my chin high.

"You better not be lying to save your lover," my boss growled.

"As if I'd do that," I huffed indignantly.

Hannah cleared her throat. "I can vouch she was gone for that period of time. And unless she managed to fly out a window, she and Aidan didn't leave that apartment. The Knights would have noticed."

"An alibi for this murder doesn't mean he's innocent of the rest," Hilda barked.

"No, but I think it casts enough doubt that we shouldn't railroad him so fast. The other evidence we found could have been easily stolen and planted. After all, as a Grimpher, he makes a good scape-wolf."

"Shit. Fuck. Goddammit." Hilda began to curse. "If he's innocent, then this is bad. So bad. The media has already announced we caught the killer."

"What if we haven't, though? What if he's telling the truth and he's not the wolf we're looking for? We have to warn the public the killer is still at large," I pointed out.

An unhappy boss rubbed her forehead. "Patterson is going to shit a brick." She stalked off, and Hannah patted me on the back. "She might not be happy, but in good news, our bad-guy-dar isn't broken."

Maybe not, but that meant the real killer remained a threat and would most likely strike again. But before I worried about that, I had to deal with something just as pressing.

"We need to release Aidan."

Cinder rose. "I'll get the paperwork started since they've already booked him." She put a hand on my arm. "Why don't you go see him?"

See him after believing the worst? "I doubt he'll want to even live in the same building as me after this." He'd hate me and with good reason. I sighed. "I need a smoke." I'd barely had any the past few days but could use that nicotine rush now. I headed outside and leaned against the building to puff on the stale cigarette I found in the pack kept in my desk drawer.

On my third drag, my phone rang. I glanced at the call display and frowned. I let it go to voicemail. I had no time or patience for Walden today.

It immediately rang again, this time showing my mother's number. I answered. "Hey, Mom."

"Hi, baby girl." Spoken without her usual exuberance.

"What's up? Have you left June's yet?"

"We got home a short time ago, but we're already wishing we'd stayed. Whatever you do, don't come here!" Mom yelled, and then a coldness spread through my veins as I heard a scuffle. Then a deep male voice came on the line.

"Good morning, Agent Hood."

"Walden? What are you doing at my mother's?" My heart began to race with fear and confusion.

"I thought we'd agreed on Alistair."

"Don't fuck with me. Put my mother back on the phone."

"I don't think so." A low drawl. "I think the time has come to finish the story, don't you?"

It hit me in that moment. "You're the killer."

"Give the agent a promotion!" he crowed. "Or not, seeing as how you so easily believed the false trail I set implicating that man in your building. How lucky for me to have a wolf so handily available to keep the heat off of me until I had all the pieces in place."

"What do you want?" I growled.

"To have a nice chat."

"Fine. Where do you want to meet?"

"How about the place it began?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The cottage, you dense twit. I'll be waiting with your mother and grandmother. Oh and, Hood, show up alone, or I won't be responsible for what happens to them."

He hung up, and I screamed as I tossed my phone. It hit the ground and cracked. I didn't care. The killer had my family.

A mistake he'd soon regret.

A good thing I'd eschewed riding back to the bureau with Belle and had brought my bike. I didn't say anything to anyone. Couldn't. I had no doubt he'd kill them. Besides, he'd made this personal.

If he wanted to die by my hand, then so be it. He'd already twisted the Red Cap tale to suit his sadistic predilection. Time for me throw in my own addition. Screw taking goodies to grandma. I was bringing my gun and a thirst for vengeance.