Page 44 of Renaissance Bear

"Don't," Jon said with what sounded like honest enthusiasm. "I'd really love to hear it. I like hearing what you think."

Alis accidentally said, "Oh yeah, he's a keeper," out loud, and Jon beamed.

"I'm glad to hear it. We'll figure out the details later."

"Hah! Okay!" The funny thing was, Alis kind of thought Jon might mean it, although as they were apparently pulling up to the mayor's house, this wasn't the time to dive into that.

There was, in fact, a cop lingering in front of a longish driveway: a bluntly built woman pacing back and forth. The house itself was set back into the woods, almost on the mountain, and had no immediate neighbors, although there were houses on either side of the large lot. The cop waved as Jon and Alis climbed out of the truck, and Jon shook her hand. "Hey, Fran. This is Alis, she's with the Faire. She and I found?—"

"Yeah, you were in City Hall yesterday morning." Fran was broad-shouldered and broad-hipped, with a reserved smile and heavy eyebrows. "What can I do for you, Jon?"

"I was hoping I could sniff around," Jon said so forthrightly that Alis suddenly suspected Fran was a shifter, too. Fran lifted an eyebrow in Alis's direction and Jon nodded. "She knows."

Fran exhaled explosively. "Well, I'm paired up with Sully. He went to get coffee, so you've got a minute, but hedoesn'tknow, so be careful. I had a sniff around myself. Nothing." She paused, shook her head, and repeated, "Nothing. Maybe you'll catch something I didn't."

"Is it—can I—is it rude to ask?" Alis asked both nervously and hopefully.

Fran gave her a semi-quelling look. "Yeah, kind of, but I'm a badger. More subtle than a grizzly," she said to Jon, pointedly, "but not a lot of them around here so I had to be quick myself. Go, before Sully gets back with the coffee. I've already been walking around out here like an idiot for twenty minutes."

"Where'd he go, Denver? Be back in a minute." Jon hurried down the driveway, disappearing behind the house before he shifted. Alis stood frozen, not sure if she should follow him or stay with Fran, but it wasn't like she spoke bear, so anything Jon learned would require him becoming human again anyway.

Fran folded her arms and looked Alis up and down without saying anything. Alis had no idea if she passed muster or not, and offered a careful smile. "Sorry for being rude. I'm new to all this."

The officer's heavy eyebrows rose. "Oh really. How new?"

"Like, yesterday new?"

A little to her surprise, Fran's expression softened a bit. "Oh,newnew. Jon told you? Out of the blue?"

"Kind of? He wanted to see if the claw marks on the reception counter at City Hall were shifter-sized and he couldn't do that without telling me."

"Uh-huh." For some reason, the officer sounded amused. "Sure. That's a reason."

Well, it was. Alis, slightly offended, frowned at the other woman. "Do you think he's okay? The mayor, I mean. Not Sully. Or Jon." She glanced toward the house, where presumably Jon was just fine. It was a nice house, smaller than she expected for a mayoral residence, but she didn't think it was an official residence, just where he lived.

Whatever had amused Fran disappeared and she shook her head. "I hope so. This sounds cliched, but this kind of thing doesn't happen in Renaissance. Chester is a good guy. I hope nothing's happened to him."

"If you got what you wanted out of him, why would you also take him? Or—" Alis shivered. "Or worse."

"I suppose so he couldn't go back on the deal he'd made. None of it's going to hold up in court as it is. The council would have to sign off on a deal to sell the land, for one thing, and they haven't, but besides that, it's pretty clear he was coerced into signing what he did, and since the bank slowed everything down even before Mackenzie Torben put in an injunction stopping the sale, it's not even likely whoever is behind this is gonna end up with possession of the land being on their side."

"Then why would they do it?" Alis rubbed her face. "What good is a few days of disruption?"

"Well, you gotta assume they figured they were going to get away with it. It's a messy damn way to do business, though. Makes me think it's some kind of personal beef, not a corporate move. That'd be tidier. The bank's forensic accountants are following the account trail. They'll come up with a name."

"Even if it's hidden behind shell corporations?" Alis waved a hand, a little embarrassed. "All I know about that kind of thing is from television and movies. Don't they end up in a lot of dead ends?"

Fran offered her half a grin. "Mostly only in the movies. You gotta be dealing withrealmoney to bury an account through so many shells that the owner can't be found, but most people figure, they get away with it in the movies, so I probably can now. It's also not as fast as it is in the movies." She glanced toward the house, obviously wishing Jon would hurry it up. "It goes faster if there's a dead body to link to it, because then there are murder charges and that can loosen some red tape, but we'd all rather it didn't end up that way."

"God. Yeah. Thank you." Alis gave the officer a shy smile. "I didn't know any of that, and I know you didn't have to tell me any of it, so thanks."

"Well, anything for Jon's…friend. He's a good guy. There he is. About time."

Alis glanced toward the street, first, wondering if it was Sully returning or Jon who was 'about time,' but luckily, she thought, it was Jon. He came jogging around the house, an interested frown on his features, and shook his head as he approached. "It's just like City Hall. I can scent you, Fran, but otherwise nothing."

"But kind of aggressively nothing, yeah?" Fran was suddenly on point, her dark eyes glittering. "Likeweirdamounts of nothing?"

"Yeah. I don't get it. It's like somebody ran hand sanitizer over everything, except it doesn't have that kind of smell, either. It's just…empty."

---