“The killer reported it?”
“Possibly.” Paul let out his breath. “Probably. Neither Lori nor Rose saw, smelled, or heard anyone. The killer had to have been wearing hunter spray while in hunting mode. Rowdy Sanderson is the homicide detective in charge of the investigation. Because the killer used silver rounds, whoever murdered the wolf had to have known she was a lupus garou. Even if he wasn’t certain, once she shifted into her human form after she died, that would have confirmed it.”
“He didn’t try to remove her body to claim he’d killed a werewolf?”
“No. I’m declaring that no one in the pack shifts until we can learn who did this and take him down.”
“Good idea. Any clues?”
Paul shook his head. “I suspect the woman was coming here to meet with us so she could join the pack. But why was she running as a wolf? I want you to check out the crime scene. I’ve got Everett trying to track down who she was. I’ve asked Lori’s grandma to find out if the woman had any contact with any member of our pack, since Emma and your mother have been involved the most in asking single female wolves to join the pack.”
Thinking in a purely police-procedural way, Allan said, “Often the killer is actually someone who knew the victim. It’s a family member or a close friend or an acquaintance. Random killings are more unusual. But in the case of someone using silver rounds to kill a wolf?” Allan didn’t even want to think they might have a self-professed werewolf hunter in the area. “Sounds like we have a werewolf hunter on our hands, don’t you agree?” In all the years of their existence, they had never had to deal with such an issue.
“It sure as hell sounds like it. On the other hand, what if it is a lupus garou, and he covered his tracks by making it look like a werewolf hunter was after her? If that’s the case, his victim wouldn’t have turned him.”
“Yeah, I was just thinking that too. And if he’s not recently turned, that can be good and bad. Good, because he won’t shift unexpectedly around humans and give our kind away. And bad because he’ll be harder to track down.”
“Either way, we have to stop him. But if he hasn’t been turned, we need the police to handle this.” Paul headed into the kitchen and got them each a bottled water. Then they moved to the living room and took seats on the couches.
“Agreed.” Allan noticed Paul’s cane leaning next to the couch, but he wasn’t using it today. “How’s your leg?”
“It’s fine. If one more person asks…”
Allan nodded. He knew how much that had to bother Paul. “But you’re getting around without the cane, and I don’t see you limping.”
“Inside buildings I’m fine. Plowing through snowdrifts or walking on ice…” Paul shook his head. “Besides, I get enough coddling from Lori, Mom, Rose, and Grandma. I don’t need it from you too.”
“Me coddle you? When have I ever done that? It’s not in my SEAL or wolf nature. Hell, any of us, broken leg or not, can have trouble on ice unless we’re in our wolf form and have better traction. It’ll get better.”
Paul grunted, then took a swig from his water bottle. “There was a lupus garou pack that had to deal with a werewolf-hunter group. They successfully turned one of the men, and he works for the pack. The others had to be put down. The pack members couldn’t have the men arrested and tried for murder, but they had to deal with the threat permanently. Otherwise the men wouldn’t give up their quest to destroy the wolves and convert new wolf hunters.
“They hadn’t even been looking for werewolves initially. They were searching for Bigfoot but saw a lupus garou shift. The same could have happened with this case. I could be mistaken, but I suspect the shooter is someone who had prior military service or is a hunter. I can’t imagine the average man taking up a gun to hunt werewolves.”
“All right, so that’s a possibility,” Allan said. “That the hunter didn’t know about our kind until the woman shifted and he saw her. I would agree with you about him being a hunter or prior military.” Allan set his bottle on the table.
“Here’s another thought, though it’s even more far-fetched,” Paul said. “After seeing the murdered woman, Rose told Lori that while we were away on a mission, she had looked into one of those live-action role-playing—LARP—groups in southern Montana: werewolf versus villager werewolf hunters. She wanted to see if it was just a game or if any of the players were real wolves.”
“Hell, Paul. Why would she even do that?”
“She had been corresponding with one of the players online, thinking he was one of us. She had no one to date in the area, and she had discovered his website where he talked about werewolves and being one.”