The woman, Nita, said hesitantly, “Don’t you want to see Charley’s room first, you know, to fix his scent? I haven’t made his bed. I thought perhaps I shouldn’t touch anything.”
Baxter nipped Sorley’s lower back between finger and thumb. “Of course,” she said smoothly. “My colleague’s so proud of Lukey, it’s like he expects him to pick up scents like magic.” She patted my head, and I had to bite back a growl, but we were shown into Charley’s room. As a wolf, I couldn’t take in everything the way I would in human form, so I concentrated on where his scent was strongest, the bed. I wanted to climb between his sheets and stick my nose under his pillow and whimper, but instead I made like a good doggy and controlled myself while his mother held a crumpled T-shirt under my nose. Sorley then led me through the house and out the back door, where I instantly picked up Charley’s trail. His parents followed us out, opening the side gate for us when I pawed at the ground to be let through. “When will you know anything?” Nita asked.
Baxter sounded very steady as she gave them both firm instructions to forget we’d been, and to go inside, lock their door, and make a nice cup of tea. They turned around like obedient zombies and disappeared. Baxter pulled the gate shut behind us. “Right, Luc, how far can you track him from here?”
We got maybe fifty yards along the street before there was nothing. I planted my butt, and stared between the pair, shaking my head. “Nothing past here?” Sorley looked gutted, Baxter resigned.
“It was a long shot.” She unclipped the harness, and waited while I shook my fur out, then we headed back to their car. “C’mon, let’s go.” She sat in the passenger seat, and Sorley turned the engine over to warm the car up. I was too impatient to care about being seen naked — for all her faults, I got the impression Baxter was too scared of Charley to risk being inappropriate in any way — and shifted so I could dress, and more importantly, speak.
“Charley, obviously,” I said as I pulled a sweatshirt over my head. “And someone else that’s not Nita or David. Very clear scent. I think male, which would fit with someone being strong enough to abduct Charley. Slight aroma of tobacco, so probably a smoker as there’s no hint of it inside the house. Lost him at the kerb where I stopped. I reckon he had a vehicle, but I can’t prove it.” I shoved my socked feet into trainers, and fastened the seat belt. “What a shit ton of nothing.”
“It’s not nothing.” Sorley caught my eye in the rear view mirror. “It’s more than we had an hour ago, plus I presume you’d know the stranger again by his scent, right?” I nodded. “Then that’s progress, even if we have to use our own justice system and not a legal channel. Because we will catch him.”
“And he will pay.” Baxter swivelled to face me. “Dalziel is ready to burn the world down right now. There’s no doubt this bastard will rue the day he thought this was a solid plan.”
“If, when, we catch him, I’m not sure I’ll be able to contain myself from ripping his throat out,” I admitted. I could feel my limbs tremble with the effort of calming myself down. Usually I had little trouble containing a shift, but my jaw ached to let my fangs out, and my fingertips burned with the effort of keeping my claws sheathed. I tapped the front seat. “I feel a bit weird. Perhaps I should shift back and run for a while.”Your scent is doing my head in, and I feel trapped in this vehicle.
“Bet you haven’t eaten recently. Well, have you?” Baxter’s gaze was knowing, and when I shook my head, she rolled her eyes. “Drive through then,” she said, pulling up a maps app on her phone. She directed Sorley through the early evening traffic, and picked up enough to feed a small army. I’d gone through a third of it before we arrived back at my flat.
I’d assumed they’d drive off, but they followed me indoors, where Baxter casually emptied the familiar-looking contents of a cool bag into my fridge. “Back up rations,” she grinned. “So what’s the plan now?”
“Make yourselves at home,” I grumbled sarcastically, although more for show than because I was genuinely annoyed at their casual takeover of my abode. They weren’t the company I’d have chosen, but they weren’t terrible. A little voice whispered that perhaps it was better than being alone right now.
“I need a quick shower,” I announced. I wanted to double check I’d healed properly, and the shower excuse would give me time.
Dressed in fresh sweats, I put the remainder of the takeaway in the fridge, and made myself a mug of tea, because much as the idea of eating and drinking repulsed me, I’d be useless to Charley if I was too hungry to think clearly. My metabolism was no joke, and shifting burned through a ton of calories every time. I dropped onto one end of my couch and stared blankly at the television. “The fuck is he doing?”
Baxter looked up from her laptop. “Checking all the news channels for mentions of anything that could be relevant.”
“That fast?” Sorley was going so quickly, the flip-flip of the remote would trigger a fit in someone with epilepsy.
“Yeah. He’s very good at focusing.”
“He must be.” It was beginning to give me a headache. I stared at the wall instead. I realised I had nothing with me that carried Charley’s scent. Unless…Was I sad enough to go and sit in my own car so I could lean against the passenger head rest? I probably would have done had I been alone. Christ, I needed him.
I stood up, and in front of Sorley, until he stopped his zapping and narrowed his eyes at me. “I can’t see now.”
“That’s the point,” I said with a bite to my tone. “You won’t find anything on there. We need to be back out there, tearing Tratton apart.” When neither of them immediately moved, I snarled, and grabbed my trainers once more. “Fuck you then, I’m going anyway.” I wasn’t going to tear up in front of that superior ginger wanker, so I needed to get outside, and quickly.
Baxter caught my sleeve before I got as far as my SUV. “We’re coming too. Three sets of supernatural vision are better than one. Where do you want to start?”
I took another moment before I could be confident my eyes were dry. I turned around slowly, then explained how I’d taken the centre of town street by street, and found nothing. “It seems hopeless, but he must be somewhere. Why couldn’t I find him?”
Sorley cleared his throat. “Have you got a list of all the properties owned by the motorcycle club? Outbuildings too, home addresses of all the members?”
“What? Of course not. I’m not some kind of—” My heart sank. I’d approached this all wrong, and in my panic, probably wasted the entire afternoon. A wave of self-recrimination threatened to steal my remaining breath. I inhaled determinedly and looked at Baxter. “Was that what you were doing on your laptop just now?”
Her eyes were kind. “No, love, most of it was done while I was waiting for it to get dark. I’ve been keeping Dalziel up to date with progress.” She pursed her lips. “You all right to drive?”
Even with several broken bones if the alternative is that vamp touching my car.I bipped the fob. “He can sit in the back.”
With the two vampires directing me, we were methodical in sweeping through the dark streets of Tratton St Mary, a section at a time. Baxter had some kind of spreadsheet she used to tick places off, and Sorley seemed able to watch through both side windows and the rear one simultaneously. Guess his hyperactive nature was good for something. We quickly crossed off all the properties known to belong to the Wyverns, except Ritzy’s. I didn’t feel it was likely anyone was holding Charley there, and the vamps agreed with me. “Doesn’t have a cellar, or anywhere soundproof.” Baxter put a question mark next to it anyway. “If nothing else turns up, we’ll go clubbing, but it’s bottom of the list for me. Way too impractical, even for an impromptu kidnapping.”
We spread out, scoping out run-down — even for Tratton — council houses, a couple of very nice detached places that looked more likely to belong to bankers than bikers, and an assortment of dwellings at every point on the scale in-between. Baxter and I took it in turns to creep around the homes and gardens of the biker gang in the damp and dark, leaving Sorley in charge of the car. Yes, Charley’s scent was embedded in the head rest. No, I, probably unfairly, didn’t trust Sorley to accurately pick it out. Baxter at least didn’t seem to hate me on principle, and she was evidently very close to Dalziel, so she’d presumably admit if she wasn’t able to work to his exacting standards.
When we came up empty-handed, I took a deep breath, and allowed them to direct me to plan B, a wider circling of the town. Tratton didn’t have a ring road as such — most sensible folk avoided it quite easily — but it was approximately circular, and roughly ringed by enough roads that working outwards was doable.
I knew we were searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The houses out this far were scattered at random intervals down twisty country lanes, with long, barely-accessible driveways, or even ones blocked by tractors, potholes, or both. There were fields and hedgerows and more fucking fields. A veritable wonderland for a wolf shifter to find somewhere uninhabited to run; a borderline disaster when searching for someone lost or kidnapped. It felt impossible. But we weren’t stopping until we found Charley, or until the approaching dawn meant I had to drop the vamps off somewhere before I could continue. But Iwouldfind him.
