Page 36 of Renaissance Bear

His paws were considerably larger. That meant the other shifter probably wasn't a bear.

His bear's nose twitched as it inhaled deeply.Can't tell,it said.Smells funny.

Jon shifted back to human, asking,Funny how?

The bear's nose was still twitching, like a sneeze captured inside Jon's mind.Funny like wrong,it said.I don't like it.

Could you smell anything else?Jon asked hopefully.The mayor?His own shifter-enhanced senses were considerably better than the average human's, but he had nothing on his bear's ability to scent.

It grumbled.Shift back. Let me smell more.

I don't know if that's safe, buddy…"Alis? Can you guard the door another minute?"

She was off the phone by then, although she now had it pressed against her chest like it was an old-fashioned wall phone that muffled the sound that way. "Yeah, but be quick. I don't think that woman is coming back in but I can already hear the sirens."

Renaissance wasn't that big a town, and the police station was only a block over from the city hall. Jon was surprised the cops weren't just running over on foot, but since they weren't, he hurriedly shifted again and paced carefully around the torn-up ground floor, trying to avoid glass, debris, and shedding any of his own fur into the mess. He sniffed at the blood, but had no idea whose it was: it smelled like blood, not a person. Otherwise, he could scent the faint lingering aftermath of the Mayor's aftershave, but it was days old, as was every other smell in the room except his own and Alis's.

That was something, at least. He shifted back to human as Alis made a warning sound, and a few seconds later, four police officers spilled into the city hall. They all had guns out, which was much worse than Jon expected. One was a shifter, at least: a square-jawed guy named Gus who had graduated a few years ahead of Jon's older brothers.

Gus barked for them to put their hands up, and they both did, while the woman who'd called from outdoors hopped around and shouted, "That's them! They're the ones I saw in here! They've been in there all morning!"

Alis gave the officers a shaky smile. "We've been in here about five minutes. I called 911 a few minutes ago."

Gus nodded. "Your call came in at the same time hers did. If you've been here five minutes, why didn't you call five minutes ago?"

"Because the first thing we thought was to check to see if anybody was still here and hurt," Alis said. "We didn't check upstairs, though. I was afraid someone might still be there."

Gus's gaze flickered to Jon, who nodded. The officer sighed and holstered his weapon, gesturing for them to put their hands down. "Hi, Jon. Sorry about the guns. Did you see anything useful? Check the upstairs, guys." That was to the other officers, who spread out and began going upstairs.

"What look like claw marks on the reception desk," Jon said quietly. "Blood. All the stuff your men will see. But what you don't know is that late Friday afternoon?—"

"Somebody filed paperwork to start the process of selling the fairgrounds? The whole town's talking about it." Gus crooked a smile as Jon blinked with surprise.

"Word gets around fast. Well, okay, but did you know it has Whitfield's signature on it?"

Gus's ready smile fell away, leaving a serious, good-looking man with worried light blue eyes. "I did not know that. And he's not in?" He pinched a radio on his shoulder, saying, "Somebody go check the mayor's house and let me know if he's all right," before releasing it.

"I thought maybe he was trying to make a buck for himself," Jon admitted. "But then we got here this morning and it all looks a lot more desperate than that."

"So you were coming over to confront him?" Gus squinted. "How didyouknow his signature was on the paperwork?"

This, Jon thought with sudden clarity, is why you were supposed to never talk to the cops. He couldn't answer without gettingsomebodyin trouble.

"We found this," Alis answered. She stepped up with an old-fashioned piece of carbon paper, something Jon hadn't seen since he was a kid. He'd forgotten they even existed. It had handwriting pressed into it, hurried cursive scribblesauthorizing the release of the fairgrounds for sale. It was signed by the mayor, and dated the previous Friday. "Sorry. I realized too late that I shouldn't have picked it up, but Jon hasn't touched it, so you can take my fingerprints to eliminate them. Hopefully it'll have the mayor's and whoever did this."

Gus pulled a pair of gloves out of his pocket and put one on before he took the paper, eyeing first Jon, then Alis. "When exactly did you find this?"

"When we were looking to see if anyone was hurt. I hadn't seen carbon paper in so long I picked it up without thinking. It was down there, under that plinth that fell. You can see where it was creased by its weight." Alis pointed to the chunk of metal she'd been threatening Jon with earlier.

Gus kept right on eyeing them. "So you came over to confront Whitfieldbeforeyou knew he'd authorized some kind of sale? Jon?" He added the name like he suspected Jon's story wouldn't match up with Alis's.

With good reason, Jon thought, but at least he had a reasonable answer for this one. "We came over to ask City Hall what the hell was going on. Then we found this mess, and this letter, and?—"

"You said you thought he was trying to make a buck," Gus said precisely. "And thatthenyou came over and found the mess and thought things were worse than that."

That was, in fact, what Jon had said. He hadn't remembered. Nowonderit was a bad idea to talk to cops. He stared at Gus until the other man sighed. "I know for a fact that you were at the faire Friday afternoon, so this isn't going to get pinned on you, but for Christ's sake, Jon, either get your story straight or keep your damn mouth shut. This," he said to Alis, with a shake of the carbon paper, "is useful, so thank you, but get out of here, both of you, and donotget any more involved in this or Iwillthrow you in jail for a few days just for irritating me."

Jon had never been so grateful for an escape in his life. Alis grabbed his hand and they hurried out, got into his truck, and drove three blocks away before either of them so much asbreathed. Then Jon pulled over and hauled Alis into his arms, mumbling, "I'm sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut."

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