Mate’s Harvest: Bear Sheriff III Page 5

  They kept walking, Angie trying her hardest to keep pace with Marcus’s long strides. They exited the house and Angie immediately saw Julie Busch standing in front of them, smiling for the camera that was now tracking her and Marcus. Marcus lifted the yellow caution tape up, letting Angie move underneath it, then they were making their way back to the Bronco.

  When they got inside, Marcus slammed his fist against the steering wheel a few times. Angie just grimaced; she didn’t say anything.

  “Marcus,” Angie finally said. She felt exasperated, as if she didn’t know what to do or say. She’d never felt so used before. The serial killer wanted Marcus out – and it had happened. On top of that, Sheriff Nixon was doing everything in his power to control them. She had expected to feel better now that Marcus was out – but somehow, she felt even worse. “What do we do?”

  He didn’t say anything for a few moments.

  “We do this ourselves,” he said, looking at her. In the early morning light, his golden eyes glinted. “We don’t need their help. I don’t need to be a sheriff, either, though it would certainly help. We’re alone in this, Angie. But we can do it together.”

  “So where do we start?” she asked. “We don’t have any leads.” She looked around the outside of the Bronco. Already people were showing up at the crime scene. Angie had no idea why the Sheriff was dragging his feet with cleaning up the investigation. Maybe he’d wanted to show it to Marcus, she didn’t know. “We don’t have the slightest clue.”

  “There has to be something,” Marcus muttered, starting the Bronco and throwing it in drive. They slowly drove past the house, the camera still on them and recording. Angie covered her face as they drove off and back onto Charming’s main drag.

  As always, she expected it to be deserted, but it never was any longer. She recognized faces she’d never seen before. Even one man pointed to his friend and they both pulled out their phones, snapping pictures as Marcus drove by.

  “We should meet with the others. Joanna Rivers, her brother. Stu Copeland. That other Shifter, Branson. We’ve been talking, Marcus, about what to do now that the new Sheriff is in town. What we can do to protect it.”

  “Any luck?”

  “Not much,” Angie admitted. Marcus pulled up to the R&C. As Angie’s coffee shop’s popularity had exploded with all of the new arrivals, the R&C looked deserted by comparison.

  They went inside, found a booth at the very back, and ordered breakfast.

  “I’m glad you’re home, Marcus,” Angie said, sipping her coffee. “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

  He reached across the table and grabbed one of her hands, squeezing. “We’ll figure this out. We always have. Ever since the moment you showed up in Charming, I knew there was something about you, Angie. We’ve been through so much more than anyone else. And we’ll get through this.”

  Angie smiled and went to tell Marcus just how much she loved him, but there was someone immediately at their side.

  “You’re him,” Angie heard. She looked up to her right. Standing barely an inch back from the table, completely crowding their personal space, was a man – no, looking at him, he was barely more than a kid, he couldn’t have been older than nineteen or twenty – and he was beaming down at them. “You’re Marcus Stone.”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow and nodded. The kid’s face split into the biggest grin Angie had ever seen, his smattering of acne moving with it. His eyes beamed behind big, thick glasses. His shirt was too tight and his shorts too baggy; he could stand to lose a few pounds.

  “What was it like? Finding the Skinner’s victims? Getting framed for it?” he asked, barely able to contain his excitement. He moved to sit down next to Angie, his eyes never leaving Marcus, but Marcus shook his head slowly and the kid stopped, barely noticing just how strange he was acting.

  “Who are you?” Marcus finally asked.

  “Jeffy Denver,” the kid said, extending a pudgy and noticeably sweaty hand towards Marcus. He looked down at it as if unsure what to do. Angie covered her mouth to stop from laughing as Marcus took it gently in his hand and squeezed. He looked completely puzzled. “So, what was it like?”

  “Not… good…” Marcus said.

  “Absolutely, absolutely,” Jeffy said. “I’ve been following the Skinner –”

  “The Skinner? That’s his name?” Angie asked. “I hadn’t heard of anything like that on the news.”

  “Well, it’s unofficial, you see,” Jeffy explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “People like me, that’s what we call him.”

  “And who are people like you?” Marcus asked.

  “The ones who are gonna crack this case wide open,” Jeffy told them proudly. “See, the cops, they don’t know anything. I mean, how long did it take them to even realize there was a pattern of serial killings moving westward across the country? Months? Half a year? Well, me and some guys online, we found out there was a pattern on the third killing. Well – I thought there might be something on the second, I read it on the forums, see – but it wasn’t a pattern yet. But once the third happened, I just knew.

  “I tried to call the cops, but they just blew me off. Who’s laughing now?” he asked, and then he laughed, a loud, obnoxious laugh that caused a few of the other patrons to turn their heads towards him. Angie covered her eyes and put her head down. Marcus still looked like a deer in headlights.

  “You see, Marcus. Can I call you Marcus?” he asked, but he kept talking before Marcus could answer, “The Skinner goes after a very specific subset of people.”

  “And that is?” Marcus asked, his voice suddenly dangerous. Angie felt a pit grow in her stomach. Had this kid done enough research to put the pieces together? That the Skinner, up until today, was only targeting Shifters?

  “It’s a certain kind of people,” he explained. “I haven’t quite put my finger on it. Some of the pictures, they look pretty similar. But like I said – I can’t figure it out. I was hoping that maybe you could help me? What do you say? You’re a sheriff, I’m a genius. We can do this. We can solve this puzzle. We’ll be famous.”

  “First off, I’m not a sheriff any longer, kid,” Marcus said. Jeffy bristled at being called kid but kept his mouth shut. “And second, this isn’t a puzzle. This is serious. This serial killer – he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. If you get in his way, he’s going to kill you. So keep your head down.”

  “He doesn’t kill people like me,” Jeffy said. “I told you. He only goes after a certain set of people.”

  “What about Art Fields?” Angie asked.

  Jeffy bristled for a moment. “Who?” he asked.

  “Art Fields,” Marcus said, nodding. “Murdered yesterday morning. You should check it out.”

  “But what? That doesn’t make any sense,” Jeffy said, looking confused. At that moment, though, the waitress brought out their food. She waited a moment and then gently cut in between the table and Jeffy as best she could.

  Jeffy walked away looking stupefied as Angie and Marcus started eating, watching him go the entire time.

  Chapter 8

  “Well. That was weird,” Marcus said. They were standing outside of the R&C, looking up and down the sidewalk.

  “It’s all weird, anymore,” Angie said from next to him. “This isn’t…”

  “The Charming you knew?” Marcus guessed. Angie nodded. “I know. Do you think it worked?”

  “What worked?”

  “Mayor Copeland’s idea,” Marcus explained. “He wanted to commit murders to finally put Charming on the map. And look at it now. It’s exactly what he wanted, only he’s not around to see it.”

  “The main difference is that I’m still alive. And I think that’s pretty important.”

  “It is.”

  Marcus leaned down and kissed her, one arm wrapping around her in a hug. They stood like that for a few moments, just taking the new Charming in.

  “You know, when I had my vision on how to improv
e Charming – I didn’t care about Charming. Not at the time. It wasn’t home, and I certainly didn’t think it was important. It was just a place to fix up, a place for me to do my job. I wanted to put Charming on the map.”

  “I know.”

  “But once I moved here, once I met you, fell in love – I started to care about this town, too. It’s home, Marcus. Out on the ranch, out at the house. It’s honest. It feels good,” she said. She swung one hand towards the street. “And this. This doesn’t.”

  “I know.”

  “I never wanted it to change like this. I wanted to make it better, but I didn’t want to change it. And look at what happened. It changed and there was nothing we could have done to stop it. All of that work Copeland put into it, all of that work I put into it. It didn’t matter in the end. Charming changed and I don’t know if it’ll ever be the same.”

  “The hell with Charming, then,” Marcus grunted, surprised even as he said it. “I have you, and we have our house, and the land. We have cattle. We can farm. We can do this ourselves. You know, in today’s day and age, you can pretty much have anything you want delivered to your house. We’ll never have to set foot in Charming again if we never want to.

  “Once this is over.”

  “Once this is over,” Angie confirmed.

  “That was still weird,” Marcus said. They climbed into the Bronco. “What was that all about?”

  Angie told him, “Things have been different. People are here. Weird people. Thrill seekers, people who think they can solve the murder and become famous. Hopefully nothing more harmful than that.”

  Marcus nodded. He’d heard of copycat killers before. The last thing Charming needed was people trying to imitate ‘The Skinner’.

  “And what’s with the name?”

  “The Skinner,” Angie said, as if tasting it. She shrugged. “I’ve never heard of it. Even Julie Busch hasn’t reported it as that yet. Everyone just says, ‘The Serial Killer that’s been terrorizing the nation,’ or something like that.”

  “And everyone thought it was me,” Marcus said. Angie looked uncomfortable. “What did they say about me?”

  “It wasn’t good, Marcus,” Angie said. She looked over at him and he looked at her. She didn’t want to say anything else but after a moment from his most wilting look, she continued, “They talked about how you grew up mostly without a family. And Julie Busch –” at this moment she cursed under her breath, calling her a name that would make anyone else blush, “Did some real digging on you. She found out you were married. What happened to your ex-wife. Marcus, she reported that it was your fault she died.”

  Marcus wanted to say that it was, though he managed not to.

  “So everyone in town knows,” Marcus said simply.

  “Marcus, I’m sorry,” Angie said.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “It’s in the past. There’s nothing we can do, now. The only thing we can do is try to figure out who the killer is and what his next move is.”

  “Easier said than done.”

  “We have to start somewhere,” Marcus said, driving the Bronco down to Butchie’s bar. Marcus was surprised to find that even this early in the morning, the bar was decently busy. Marcus pulled up to the right of a line of six other vehicles, killed the engine, and together Marcus and Angie made their way into the bar.

  They walked up to the bar, which sat a couple of old timers Marcus vaguely recognized and a few other he didn’t. He got a couple of dirty looks.

  Marcus had expected Butchie to be behind the bar. Instead, he was nowhere to be found and a young, blonde woman was getting drinks – mostly coffees – for those sitting there.

  “Hi!” she beamed, personality bubbling over. She smiled a set of pearly white teeth. Marcus immediately felt worn out. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with someone so cheerful on a day like today. “What can I get you started with?”

  “Nothing right now,” Marcus told her. “Is Butchie around?”

  “He’s not here today,” she said, all smiles still. “But I’ll be happy to take your order. My name is Roxanne.”

  “That’s okay, thanks,” Marcus said. “Just let him know that Marcus stopped in.”

  The woman’s smile faltered for just a moment. “Marcus Stone? You’re the Marcus Stone?”

  “Yeah, I am,” Marcus said, halfway a statement and halfway a question. He felt something touch his hand that was resting on the bar top. Roxanne was stroking one finger along it. He jerked his hand back and gave Angie a look. Her eyes were blazing. “Just let him know.”

  With that, Marcus led the way out of the bar, Angie right on his heels.

  “What the hell was that?” she asked.

  “I don’t know!” he said, almost defensively. Her look was softening, though.

  “She probably wants you for the fame.”

  “Hey!”

  “And your good looks,” Angie continued, her recovery smooth. Marcus couldn’t help but smile.

  “Wonder where Butchie is…”

  “I don’t know, he’s usually there,” Angie answered. “He’s been good to us, Marcus. Real good. He’s let us meet in there these past few weeks. He even gave me a few free drinks.”

  Marcus laughed at that and it felt good.

  When was the last time I laughed? He truthfully couldn’t remember. With everything going on, he felt he’d almost forgotten how to.

  “I want to meet the other Shifter, Branson,” he said.

  Angie gave him a call and ten minutes later, they were parked in the deserted parking lot of the Great Southern, waiting for the man.

  Truthfully, Marcus didn’t know what to think about meeting another Bear Shifter. The Wolf Shifters he’d met – nasty men – had done nothing but try to kill him and Angie. They were trouble. He knew that others of his kind were generally respectable, though he’d never met any besides his father, and he barely remembered anything about him.

  A few minutes later another car pulled up next to them, an old beat up van. The door opened and the other Shifter stepped out.

  “Are you sure you trust this man?” Marcus asked.

  “He’s never done anything to make me not,” Angie said. “He kept an eye out for me while you were away. He’s after this Shifter, Marcus. Trying to hunt him down. He protected me.”

  “Protected? Or used as bait?” he growled, stepping out of the Bronco. He knew Angie wouldn’t like what he was insinuating, but Marcus couldn’t be sure. The list of people he trusted was short.

  Looking at Branson, Marcus could tell a few things instantly just by the way he held himself. The first was that Branson was a loose cannon. He was a hair shorter than Marcus but had the same, bright golden eyes unique to his kind. Marcus could also tell that this man was proud to be a Shifter, almost as proud as the Wolf Shifters he’d previously met.

  Marcus watched as Branson took in everything about Marcus and came to the opposite conclusions. Their nostrils flared as they sized each other up, then Marcus and the other Shifter extended hands towards each other at the same time.

  “Feels good to have a brother in the thick of things with me,” Branson said, grinning.

  “Likewise,” Marcus agreed. “Thank you for everything you did for Angie while I was on the inside.”

  “Anytime,” Branson told him. He nodded at Angie and asked, “Everything going okay? If this guy isn’t protection enough, I’ll come back and help out. All you have to do is ask.”

  “I’m good, Branson,” Angie said. “And thanks again. For everything you did. I know it wasn’t easy. I know you had other things you’re here for.”

  He shrugged and said, “Nonsense. I’m here to stop the killer. And if I helped him stop targeting you, well, then it was time well spent.”

  “So what do you know?” Marcus asked. “Angie told me you’ve been after this guy for some time.”

  “Truthfully, not much,” Branson admitted. “In fact, I don’t even know if he is a guy. I’ve never seen him. Never picked up a
scent, nor a mark from him. He’s careful. Perfect, meticulous. I feel like I’m always one step behind him. But…”

  “But?”

  “He’s changing his style, I think,” Branson explained, leaning back on his van and crossing his arms. “That bastard is crafty. Right when I think I was really figuring out his M.O., he changes things on us. Decides to go after someone new. And, he’s never stuck around in one place for long. Commits one kill, then moves on. He’s been in Charming for months now. Killed four that we know of.”

  Marcus didn’t bother to correct him. He wasn’t going to admit that he and Angie had killed two of those men that had been strung up.

  “But even those kills were different.”

  “Different how?” Marcus asked, suddenly afraid that there would be something to point the killings back to them.

  “Well, he’d never went after Wolf Shifters before.”

  “That you know of?”

  “That I know of,” Branson conceded. “And as far as I know, he’s never went after humans. So, I was a bit surprised when he went after that Art Fields.”

  “Some of those notes he left me, though…” Angie offered. “It seemed like he could be coming for me next. Not just Marcus.”

  Marcus stiffened. “Why didn’t you mention that?”

  Angie looked uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “So he’s after you, too. Why?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” Branson asked, grinning a hard grin.

  “What?” Marcus asked. “Angie has nothing to do with it. He’s after me, right?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Branson said. “He’s after you. But he’s after Angie.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “Yes, it does, Marcus,” Angie said, looking up at him. He looked at her confused for a few moments. “He’s after our unborn child.”

  Marcus felt the pit of his stomach fall. He suddenly felt sick to his stomach, as if the world was crumbling around him. He could deal with the killer coming after him. He was used to it. He could deal with the killer coming after Angie, too. He could protect her. He always would.