Chapter 39

39

T abby wondered if the sounds of cars coming up her driveway would always bring back her feelings of terror and helplessness in the wake of Clancy's home invasion. "Stay here," she told Franzi firmly the next morning. "I'll see who it is."

The sight of a strange blue SUV that spilled out strange people wasn't very comforting. It looked more like a minivan than a government vehicle. "How did you get past the gate?"

"Aiden picked the lock," A dark-haired woman explained. "It's a really basic system. I'm Juliette. This is Aiden, and Noah is the suit." Aiden was wiry, wearing glasses, and grinning unrepentantly. Noah looked like he was wearing enough fabric for two suits, perfectly tailored for his rather beastly brawn.

"You could have texted first," Tabby said sharply. "Warning would have been nice."

"We weren't sure if Clancy would return, and we wanted to surprise him if he'd holed up here and was monitoring your phone," Juliette said calmly. "It looks like he didn't."

Was she so sure he wasn't because shifters could sense each other? Tabby still wasn't sure how far the ability extended. She felt like the magical one out and eyed the others curiously, wondering what their animals were. The big guy was probably a gorilla.

"We've got some paperwork to get started," Juliette said briskly. "I'd like to hear the entire story from the top. All the details you can remember. Can my guys look around the farm while we talk?"

"Sure," Tabby said faintly. "Oh, do you want his gun?"

Noah took it from her and wrapped it with surprising delicacy in a silk handkerchief from one of his pockets.

Tabby gave Juliette the tracking for the luggage tag. She'd slept with her phone, obsessively checking to make sure that the little blip on the map was comfortably far away. Clancy had driven about a hundred miles south and had stopped moving somewhere north of Butte. Tabby couldn't discount the idea that he'd found the tag and tossed it out, but she thought there was a real possibility it would never occur to him to look for it.

"This is all incredibly useful," Juliette said, after Tabby had talked herself hoarse and told her stories all out of order again. Juliette was a good listener, with excellent attention to detail, and she took Franzi's frequent interruptions in stride. She didn't seem to care that Tabby and Logan had competed in shows, though she was intrigued that there were other shifters in the classes, too. She frowned over the sale to Tallier, but didn't indicate that it would be problematic for Logan and Tabby. "We've got enough of a case to nail Clancy even without his crimes on file, and attempting to kidnap a shifter kid makes this a high priority. I'll get a team out there to bring him in and let you know when we've got him in custody."

"I'd like that," Tabby said with a sigh, as they went out to the porch. "It's been a lot."

Juliette's two guys were standing with Logan in the driveway and one of them had brought the felt board and letters out. They were clearly trying to communicate. Logan was miming something with his feet and face, twisting, to point his nose at his flank. Noah and Aiden were quizzing him, and Logan stamped in frustration.

"Can you do anything about Logan?"

"I'll get my team to investigate that," Juliette said. "It's not something we've ever run into."

Before they could get in earshot of her men, Tabby caught her arm. "What about Franzi?"

"We'll make sure Clancy is safely in custody," Juliette said.

"No, I mean about her custody. Logan is a horse. "

"Her legal guardian is here on site," Juliette said with a shrug. "Our agency recognizes shifter autonomy in either form."

"I'm not sure that CPS will see it that way," Tabby reminded her. "What with that whole not knowing about shifters thing."

"We've got contacts in other departments," Juliette promised. "We won't let them take Franzi away from you."

Tabby felt like an iron band had been released from her heart. Someone was on their side. Someone, from the looks of it, with power and organization.

Aiden had a tablet out, and Logan was squinting at a map. He nosed around on the display, snorting when it didn't do what he wanted, and then pointed at an area and shook his head.

"My language skills in charade are a little rusty," Aiden explained. "But, it seems like Logan got away with the branding iron that did this, and had to drop it on his way home. I want to try to find it! It could be the key to undoing Logan's little transformation problem here."

Logan nodded enthusiastically and pawed the ground.

"Let's mop up Clancy first," Juliette said briskly. "Before he changes his identity and moves out of our jurisdiction."

"What is your jurisdiction?" Tabby wanted to know.

Juliette winked at her. "That's classified."

Tabby was so relieved that she wasn't even annoyed, and she stood on the porch with Franzi as they drove away.