When a brief search of the woods around the trailer had shown no sign of Billy, Austin and I had shifted back into human form. If we’d heard him, we could have followed the sound of his footsteps, or even the huff of his breath as he ran, but cats cannot track by scent. Alas.
Austin and I followed Vance inside, and stepping over that threshold felt eerily like stepping into my own past. Much of the previous week had felt like that—like a tour of bygone traumas.
None of the furniture had changed, which was no real surprise. Billy couldn’t have afforded to replace it if Eamon had taken it with him, and Eamon couldn’t have gotten permission from multiple Alphas to drive a moving van through their territories even if he’d wanted to. So, he’d had to leave all his stuff here when he flew to Montana, where he’d had to buy or rent new stuff at his new place. Once he found a job.
Yet another of the hurdles thrown up in front of strays at every turn. There were only two free zones left in the US, and there was no such thing as unrestricted travel between them. Not by car, anyway.
Eamon’s trailer no longer smelled much like him at all, and on one level, that was a huge relief. It meant that if hehadbeen sneaking back into the Mississippi Valley Territory, he hadn’t been staying here. Which meant he likely hadn’t been seeing Billy.
Which lowered the chances that he was involved in any of this.
By contrast, Billy’s scent was everywhere.
“Find anything?” I asked Vance as he came in from the bedroom.
“Not a goddamn thing,” he swore, brows deeply furrowed. “There isn’t one scrap of evidence in this entire trailer that Billy has ever been in contact with Yvette, or with any of the other victims.”
“Other than you,” Austin added, with a glance in my direction.
“He left his phone,” I noted, pointing out where it lay on the charger, on one scuffed end table. “Which means he’s either ditched it for good because he knew we were coming, or he had no idea we were on the way, and he left it because he went for a normal run without pockets.”
And there was no evidence that he’d cleaned recently. Which made me think that the latter scenario was the most likely.
“Unfortunately, if heiscoming back, he’ll know we were here the second he walks in.”
“He may not think anything of that,” Vance pointed out. “He knows you searched my place and Tucker’s. He may believe this is standard procedure for employees of the bar.”
Austin’s brows rose. “Maybe it should be.”
“Shh!” Vance hissed before I could reply. He swung toward the front window, and I was suddenly glad we hadn’t bothered to turn on any of the lights; we didn’t need to, considering how well even our human-form eyes worked in the dark.
Austin and I each dropped into a squat, putting us below the level of the window, listening. After a second, I heard it—the snap of a twig, easily audible through a window left open two inches. A few seconds later, I heard the soft crackle of dry leaves, which continued instead of repeating, as it would have with footsteps.
“He’s shifting,” Vance said just as I drew the same conclusion; we all knew the sound a body makes as it writhes on the forest floor. Which either meant that Billy had no idea we were there, or he didn’t think he had any reason to fear us while he was at his most vulnerable, mid-shift.
I pointed toward the back door, and Vance took off in that direction while Austin followed me out the front. We moved nearly silently on human feet, even though hiking boots were nowhere near as stealthy as a cat’s paws, and converged upon Billy from two sides, not twenty feet from the trailer. Just inside the tree line.
He had human arms, and his muzzle had nearly receded into a round human head, already forming a familiar squarish jaw as the last of his fur seemed to melt back into his follicles.
Billy’s eyes rolled up at an awkward angle when Vance stood over him, as he convulsed with the last of his shift. For several seconds afterward, he lay panting on the ground, naked and evidently completely unafraid.
“Hey,” he said as he finally sat up, tucking his knees to his chest. “What’s going on?” The first diffuse rays of sunlight were just starting to bleed through the forest canopy.
For a second, I could only blink at him. Considering the circumstances, his complete lack of anxiety—confirmed by the calm pace of his pulse—seemed beyond preposterous.
“Was I supposed to come in early today?”
“We’re taking you into custody,” I said. “We’ve just finished searching your trailer.Eamon’strailer,” I corrected myself.
Billy blinked up at me. “Seriously?” His pulse spiked, but just once. “Why?”
Austin glanced at me, but Vance never looked away from Billy, who still sat on the ground. Naked.
“For now, we just want to ask you some questions.” I reached down and offered him a hand up.
“Okay.” Billy shrugged. “My shift starts at nine today anyway.” He frowned from me to Vance, then back. “Can I get dressed first?”
I nodded. “We’re going to need to see your phone.”
