“That’s not Theo,” she managed.
“Good,” Tonya said. “Now look at the clothes. What can you tell me about them?”
Becca leaned down, but Carl stopped her with a quick squeeze on her arm. “You can’t touch them.”
Right. Trace evidence. She straightened as she studied the pile. She didn’t have to keep looking, but she wanted to be sure. She wanted to pretend for just a moment longer that what she was seeing couldn’t possibly be true. But in the end, reality pressed hard against her mind and she needed a second breath before she could speak.
“The Nikes are Theo’s. As is the U of M sweatshirt and those jeans.”
“You’re sure?”
Yes. “Not a hundred percent, but that stain on the sleeve there? That’s ketchup. He did that…” She thought back. “Thursday. I didn’t get a chance to wash it, and he didn’t care.”
Amazing that her voice didn’t break on that. It wobbled a bit, but she squeezed Carl’s hand and managed to steady herself.
“Okay, that’s all we need,” Tonya said, but Becca turned back.
“No. Not yet.” It was time for her to see the entire basement. And that meant each cage. And anything else that was in this place of horrors.
“You sure?” Carl asked.
She didn’t bother to answer, but clenched her jaw and stepped around Tonya. She looked at a row of smaller cages, recoiling when she saw a couple with dead monkeys in them. What the hell? She averted her gaze from them. She doubted Theo had anything to do with that. She had to look at the larger?—
“There,” she said, and this time her voice did choke. There in the dirt by one of the cages was a dark, circular smudge. She went closer, her eyes tearing up as she recognized a lovingly drawn sunflower with a smiley face in the middle of it.
“What is it?” Tonya asked.
“It’s the sunflower from Plants vs. Zombies,” she said as she turned into Carl’s arms. She couldn’t look anymore. She’d seen too much already. “We used to joke that everything would be better as soon as there was more sun,” she said, her voice strong as long as she kept her eyes closed and only breathed Carl. “He gave me the mug for Christmas.”
That last bit took away her control. Her voice broke, and she shuddered. Carl held her tight, cocooning her in his arms. “That’s good news, Becca. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but it shows he’s alive.”
He was right. Theo was alive. She had to hold on to that. So she took a moment to gather her strength. To wipe away her tears and breathe the power that was all Carl. And from that place, she forced herself to turn around. She would see, damn it. And she would help them figure out what had happened to Theo.
Except she wasn’t more help. No matter how much she looked, no matter what horrible thing she imagined, there wasn’t more information she could reveal. Tonya insisted that she’d already given them a lot. They now knew that Theo had been here and that the bad guys were invested in keeping him alive. That last part was a guess, but Becca held on to it. It was all she had.
CHAPTER 12
Carl couldn’t stop touching her. She’d cried for hours, curled quietly against his chest. He’d tucked her close and let his shirt sop up her tears. There weren’t any words he could say to her. The whole situation haunted them both. Any boy trapped like that was bad enough, but holding a new shifter in a cage was beyond horrifying. The animal was strongest during the First Shift. To lock it in three square feet of space would make it choke on its own claustrophobia.
So they’d held each other while they waited for news. Eventually exhaustion claimed her, and her body fell lax against him in sleep. He could have left her then, but he had no desire to. She fit right where she was. And in time, his own eyes drifted shut until dawn, when she stirred against his side.
He woke immediately, delighting to see her eyes flutter open, the sunlight warming them to a brilliant blue. He watched awareness enter, then embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she said as she pushed up onto an elbow. “Your arm must feel awful.”
“You don’t weigh hardly anything,” he said, his voice thick with lust. Thankfully he was on his side, otherwise his morning wood would be tenting the sheets. “And I slept deeper than I have in years.”
“You must have been really tired,” she said.
He stroked the curve of her cheek, watching the skin turn rosy under his caress. “I’m with you. It makes things…settle.” He said the words because it was true, but the meaning reverberated in his mind. Man and bear were quieter around her. The war in his head went still for long moments. She had no idea what a miracle it was. In truth, he was only now beginning to understand the scope of it.
She didn’t answer, just held his gaze. Then, because he was sure she was thinking, he gave her a quick update.
“The police didn’t finish processing the crime scene until late last night. Tonya will call as soon as there’s news, but the earliest we can expect anything is noon tomorrow. They’ve got their hands full getting all of Bryn’s information. That other boy was his nephew.”
She winced. “How awful.”
“Yeah.” There was nothing more he could say to that, so he didn’t. He just held her gaze and lost himself in the way her hair fell across her cheek and the soft curve of her breast in his borrowed shirt.
Then she moved, rolling out of his arms and his bed. “I’m just going to use the bathroom.”
