“SNOW WHITE!”
Leaning across the desk, Riley poked Glenn. “Hey, do you want him to do it or not?”
Dragging his eyes away from Alex’s lips, Glenn turned to Riley. “What was that?”
Raising an eyebrow, Riley tilted his head. “You okay?”
Ignoring the question, he refocused on Ghost. “Did you let the guy go?”
“Yeah…he didn’t know nothing. I pulled out a wad of cash from Panther’s wallet to pay him off, and warned him if he ever breathed a word of what he saw, I would personally come back, chop him into bait and feed him to the sharks. He took off like a bat outa hell, pissing all over the nice marble floor on his way out.”
“Where’s Panther? Is he talking?” asked Glenn.
“Smokey tied him up nice and tight. Right now, he ain’t saying nothin’ since he has a shiny red ball gag occupyin’ his mouth cuz he wouldn’t shut the fuck up…it was driving me crazy.”
“An asshole…”
“Yup,” Smokey said. “We have computers, phones, and other electronic gear including a shit load of cameras and recording devices. Riley’s gonna have fun going through all this shit.”
Muting his phone, Glenn glanced over to Riley. “Is the signal coming through from Panther’s house?”
Pointing to a monitor on the far side of the room, Riley said, “Yup, all systems are up and running. If anyone shows up, I’ll know it.”
Nodding, Glenn unmuted his phone. “Make sure you remove any evidence of being there, then come on back. There’s a nice cell waiting for Panther and after a sessionwith Smokey, he might be more inclined to start singing.”
Riley spoke up. “Ghost? Two trucks are on their way to you now. Get your team in them and my drivers will take you to a landing strip where a plane is waiting for you. Don’t worry about any mess because my crew will wipe the place clean.”
Seeing Smokey’s hand signal the arrival of the vehicles, Ghost replied, “They’re just pulling up now. Thanks.”
“Good job,” Glenn said. “See you shortly.” Then, hanging up the phone, he smiled at his mates. “Gimme a minute. I need to talk to Riley.”
“Certainly,Snow White,” Alex replied, giggling.
Barely able to keep from rolling his eyes at his mate’s teasing tone, Glenn turned to Riley. “Any luck on finding video showing who was snooping around Sawyer’s campsite?”
“Yes…and no.” Clicking a couple of keys, Riley opened a video feed from one of the camera feeds he’d hacked into. “Look,” he said, turning his computer screen so Glenn could see it. “It begins an hour earlier than the time you gave me. There aren’t a lot of campsites occupied and, as far as I can tell, everyone who entered the campgrounds belonged there, since I was able to track them to their campsites.”
Studying the images on the screen, Glenn agreed with Riley’s assessment. While he obviously couldn’t scent them, after many years of closely observing shifters and humans, it was easy for him to spot their differences. It was one of his talents that helped him crack many cases when he was working for the agency. Sighing when the video ended, Glenn leaned back in his chair. “You’reright. It wasn’t any of them. Maybe I should go back and see if I can find out more from the scent.”
Riley looked sharply at Glenn, thinking his friend was joking about tracking a scent that had probably long disappeared.
But Glenn wasn’t kidding. He just hadn’t told Riley about his increased abilities, including the one that would let him pick up the faintest of scents.
“Before you do that,” said Riley, “I searched the businesses around the campgrounds to see if there was video that might be useful.” Hitting several different keys, he waited until the program uploaded the other video he’d found. “Here, I think this is the guy you’re looking for.”
Peering at the screen, Glenn watched someone cross the street outside the campground. Then, after looking furtively around before hefting himself over the tall chain link fence, he dropped softly onto the leaf-covered earth below. Scanning the area once more, he then walked along the perimeter for twenty yards before melting into the foliage. “He’s a shifter. What about a face shot? Were you able to find one?”
“Just this one,” Riley murmured, opening another file on his computer. “I’m running it through a program to see if I can find a match.”
“Can you sharpen this one?” asked Glenn.
“That’s the best I can do. The only one showing his face was when the dude was in the shadows, making it hard to see any of his features,” explained Riley, trying to tweak the photo more.
Glenn backed the video, and played it again, more slowly. Something was bothering him about the shifter on the screen. Glenn could swear he knew who it was, but when he tried to pull the name up from memory, he met a blank wall.
After watching Glenn view the video clip half a dozen times, Riley asked, “Do you know who he is?”
“My gut tells me I do…everything seems so familiar…his walk, the way he holds his body…even the hair…but I just cannot remember where we met. Have you run him through the agency database yet?”
