Page 25 of Midlife Shifter Unexpected

“Did you find any of the dead bodies?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Mae said.

“What do you mean, dead bodies?” Jane asked.

“It’s one of the reasons why I brought you here. I was thinking that perhaps if you had the gift of the sight, you could also help us find some dead bodies.” I raised and lowered my shoulders as if I could shrug away the creepy oddness of the request.

For the first time, I saw a look of doubt cross Jane’s face. It made me nervous because she was typically very unflappable, but who wouldn’t be flappable at the thought of a dead body?

“Did you kill anyone?” she asked, including all four of us in her gaze.

“No, of course not!” I exclaimed. “At least, I didn’t.” I looked at the other three.

“I killed the locksmith,” Mae answered the question seriously.

“But he was a vampire, Bianca,” Trina said. “Doesn’t count.”

“I wish I wasn’t in a situation where I actually had to ask that question,” I pointed out.

“Me too,” Jane said. “Me too.” She shrugged herself out of her coat and put her purse on the table, moving some of the potions slightly out-of-the-way. “Now. Why do you think that there are dead bodies around?”

“How much can we trust her?” Trina asked.

“I trust her with my life,” I said.

“How much do we trust you?” Trina asked.

“You tell me,” I said. “You’re the one who turned me into a werewolf.”

“A what?” Jane asked. Clearly that wasn’t what she was expecting to hear at all.

“I didn’t turn her into a werewolf,” Trina addressed Jane. “I accentuated some of her natural instincts of being a werewolf, nothing more.”

“You’re a werewolf and dead bodies are turning up. Is nobody else seeing the connection here between these two things?” Jane asked.

I whirled on her. “I’m not turning people into werewolf dinner. I’ve only shifted one time so far and Mae was there the entire time, so it couldn’t possibly be me.”

“If you turned into a wolf only one time and one person watching, who’s to say that you didn’t turn again when no one was there?”

“The one time I remember turning into a wolf,” I said. “I had full clarity when I was in my wolf form. So, there was no way I was out there ripping up people and eating them for sport.”

I swallowed a little bit as I heard the words come out of my mouth. There was something different though. When I was a wolf there was something, I couldn’t quite name; a hunger to tear and eat and gnaw on flesh. It was something I hadn’t told anybody about.

My phone buzzed. “Have to get this. It’s the Sheriff,” I said.

“Bianca, where in the tar blazes are you,” Sheriff Ted asked.

“I’m at The Estate,” I replied. Why?”

I opted for the truth, knowing that I was a lousy liar. There was no point in making stories up.

“What are you doing up there?” Sheriff Ted asked. “Never mind. Look, a body turned up in the forest just outside of the cemetery gate. I want you to come and take a look.”

“What do you mean, take a look? I’m the dispatcher. I don’t go to crime scenes.” I’d seen enough of C.S.I. to not want to go near a real murder scene. “No dead bodies.”

“A dead body hasn’t turned up in Cougar Creek in forever, so you’re going to meet me there and act as my deputy.”

He hung up the phone before I could even ask for more information. He sent me a text with a pinpoint on the map showing me where I was going.

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