Chapter 33
Stacy informed Dominic of the situation and grabbed Micky to join her before driving to the pound.
During the drive Stacy filled Micky in on the information she had, in true Micky fashion he instantly blamed the antipreter activists, once they arrived they both knew that no human could have done this, the entire place was staffed by Preternatural, and they would be able to pick up on any scent they didn’t recognize.
They were greeted at reception by a woman in her forties, she smelled like the forest, Stacy assumed Bear-shifter but would never be so impolite to ask, she had shaggy dark brown hair and a triple scar running down her cheek, it looked like a Wolf’s mark, maybe the woman was older than forty, maybe old enough to have lived through the clan war. Either way it was obvious she had been crying, her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks looked moist and clammy.
“Hi, I’m Stacy Jeen, this is Micky Barber, someone called us about Marie.”
The woman sobbed, “That was me, I’m Karen, I’m… I was Marie’s boss, who could do such a thing? She was so sweet.”
“That’s why we are here, to find out, Can you take us to her?” Micky asked sympathetically.
“I can’t go back there.” She replied bursting into tears once again.
Stacy immediately stepped in, “It’s ok, tell me where and I’ll find it.”
“Block three, kennel five.” Karen said as she pulled a tissue from the sleeve of her cardigan to wipe her eyes.
Stacy turned to Micky, “Can you stay here, ask her some questions?”
Micky nodded and made his way behind the reception desk as Stacy made her way to the kennel block.
The staff had moved all of the dogs to the exercise paddock making the Kennel block eerily quiet, but the stench of death lingered in the air, it grew stronger as the young Wolf approached kennel five, when she did, she gasped at the sight, Marie had been gagged using barbed wire and tied using the same, the floor was awash with crimson fluid and stank of decay, this wasn’t something that had just happened, she had been here a few days, maybe over the entire holiday weekend.
Stacy took in all of the scents she could and began sifting through them mentally, there was the usual, dog urine, disinfectant, kibble, obviously the smell of death in all of its glory, and one more, one that couldn’t place, it had a spice to it, like when you smell chili powder, but it wasn’t from a creature she could identify.
Stacy called Grace and asked her to collect the body and send a cleaning crew, Stacy wanted a full autopsy before Marie was laid to rest, as she made her way back to reception the scent kept running through her mind, What was that scent? Why didn’t she recognize it? And who would want Marie dead? She reached the reception and found Micky hugging Karen supportively, she was actually shocked to see Micky comforting someone, he only ever showed the cocky side of himself, and it was nice to see he had feelings.
“Hey, I’ve got all I can, Grace s on her way with a cleaning crew.” The last part was said for Karen’s benefit more than Micky’s.
“Well, unfortunately no one knows what happened, Marie stayed on Friday to close up, and they all arrived today and found her like that.”
“So she could have been here for three days? How did no one in the Pack notice?”
“She was a quiet one, she has no Mate or family of any kind other than the Pack, her only real friend was Tyrone, and since he passed she has thrown herself into her work.” Micky didn’t like mentioning Tyrone around Stacy, it was still an open wound to her, losing the person that trained her and treated her like a sister.
“Well we are going to have to wait for Grace to do her autopsy, hopefully then we will have some answers.”
The two enforcers said their farewells to Karen and drove back to Westingdale house, when Stacy made it to her bedroom, Kyle was in the shower, she decided not to strip down and join him, and instead she sought out someone who might have some answers.