Keegan didn’t waste any time getting to work on Byrton Anderson’s background. She needed to know more about the man. She needed to understand why her gut was pulling her away from all their other leads and focusing on this one man. She had three visits under her belt and the rest of her suspicions were based off of her instinct and rumor mill rumblings.
His prowl was being taken out family by family and he was not bothered by the murders. He wasn’t doing any of his own investigations into who was killing his people. Instead he was acting as if everything were playing out just the way he wanted it to. It felt like he was expecting more people to get killed or more people to disappear and he seemed satisfied with what was happening around him.
He shouldn’t act so content with how things were going. He should be the one frantic and tearing his hair out to find out who was killing his prowl mates off and why they were doing it.
The worst offenses Keegan had found in Bryton Anderson’s jacket were a handful of traffic violations. The most interesting thing Keegan found was his sealed juvenile files. The amount of entries that were sealed to prying eyes suggested a few things to Keegan. He was abused as a child or he witnessed something he shouldn’t have within his prowl.
Working backwards Keegan did a quick search for Bryton’s parents. Sometimes the past revealed more about a person in the present then Keegan could fathom. His parents Janelle and Burton Anderson had a record of their own. The strange thing though, was they were clean until the 1992. Clicking on the incident report Keegan grimaced. Bryton Anderson wasn’t always a shifter. He had been attacked when he was only seven years old. From there on out they began gaining entries to their rap sheet. Mostly they were convicted of hate crimes aimed towards the supernatural community. At the time of arrest there weren’t any laws set in place for supernaturals so they got away with what was deemed petty crime and misdemeanor infractions. Vandalism, making harassing phone calls but from there on things developed. In 1997 they were convicted of murdering a supernatural and considered to be suspects for two similar crimes but the investigating officers could never gather enough evidence showing they committed either of the crimes.
From the information she got about Bryton’s upbringing she knew who they needed to focus on. She left a quick message for Matt saying they needed eyes on the man and she was heading over to the penitentiary to speak with Bryton’s mother. It wasn’t going to be an easy trip and having to deal with such obvious hatred for anything that was not mundane but Keegan needed to know if Bryton kept in touch with his parents. She stood a better chance of knowing what was said between them if she appeared in person.
After surrendering her weapon, her belt and jewelry Keegan was led through a maze of glassed in rooms. She was stopped and searched one last time before she was admitted to speak with Janelle Anderson. The woman didn’t look anything like she had in her more youthful days. Her hair had grown gray, her face was lined with wrinkles and her skin grew dry and taunt. Despite the aging, Keegan could see the resemblance between her and Bryton. They shared the same olive tones and the same bright eyes. There was no doubting Janelle was who Bryton got his piercing looks from.
“What can I help you with detective?” Janelle’s voice was rough from smoking cigarettes and age.
“Your son,” Keegan began and the smile that stretched across Janelle’s face was wicked. Shaking the darkness off Keegan began again, “Your son Bryton, does he keep up with communicating with you?”
Janelle dug at her teeth and let off a repulsing smack of her lips. “A boy knows that he should never forget where he comes from. Of course he calls and writes. No matter where your parents are you don’t forget who made you. What has my boy done that has you asking me these questions?”
“He is a person of interest in an on going investigation.” Keegan let the statement trail off waiting for some kind of reaction from Janelle. A reaction is just what Keegan got.
“Those murders, of all those, things. You think he has something to do with it don’t you?” Janelle almost sounded pleased with herself for coming to the conclusion without Keegan having to divulge much information.
“Yes,” Keegan nodded. “We have reason to believe that your son might have something to do with or information concerning the shifters who are being murdered.”
Keegan could sense the change in the room. Janelle had inched forward, her hands curling happily into the other. The lines on her face softened and her lips curled into a cruel smile.
“Bryton was such a bright boy Detective,” Janelle started. “Ever since he was old enough to talk he did things to surprise his Daddy and me. Making sentences, building things out of his blocks. He had a lot to offer the world until he was infected. He had dirty blood ever since he turned seven.”
“Because he was attacked.” The question was posed as a statement but Keegan needed confirmation from Janelle that this was when things began to change.
The woman nodded, “From then on he wasn’t the same. He didn’t talk much. He didn’t care about what he was supposed to be learning in school. He was put in a remedial class. My boy wasn’t stupid until he was turned into one of those things.”
“So what happened?” Keegan prompted trying to get the woman to keep going. To give her something that she could take to a judge to bring Bryton in.
“Burton tried teaching him how to be like us. You couldn’t beat the monster out of the boy.” Janelle shrugged and let the statement stand. Keegan added to it in her mind. No you just tortured him and others like him until you were stopped.
“Is that why you killed that woman, Emanda Libson?” Keegan asked.
“She was the bitch who screwed up my kid.” Janelle barked out taking Keegan aback. “She was the reason he wasn’t right anymore. The bitch took my baby away from me. So I took her life away from her.”
“In later files, it says that Emanda Libson wasn’t the person who infected your son.” Keegan swallowed down the fear that climbed up her throat at the vile look Janelle sent her way. “It was another little boy. He was still learning how to control himself and he was friends with your son. He got too excited and it was an accident. The woman you and your husband killed didn’t have anything to do with Bryton’s attack. She wasn’t even a leopard shifter. She was a wolf. She couldn’t have changed Bryton.”
“She deserved it anyway.” Janelle waved her shackled hands. “She was a monster and this world has enough of those already so why add freaky monsters to the basket?”
Pulling away from where the conversation had gotten to, Keegan changed directions and headed back towards the main reason she was here. “Bryton still talks to you though? After you killed and harassed members of the community he belongs to?”
“Like I said earlier Detective Morne, you don’t forget the people who gave birth to you no matter where they are or what they did. He’s my kid. Of course he still talks to me. Why does his talking to me have a bug up your ass?”
Keegan raised a brow at Janelle’s words, “What do you two talk about?”
“Oh, this and that,” Janelle grinned. “Mostly now we talk about the people in his ‘community’ that have been killed. And let me tell you something Detective Morne, people think that the apple can fall far from the tree and not be like the people who raised them? Well that’s bullshit. He ain’t so different from his Daddy and I, no matter what anyone says. He knows who he is.”
Keegan felt her heart drop from her chest to her stomach. She remained quiet hoping that Janelle would reveal something else about her son. That she would plainly state that Bryton was talking about the people who had been killed and how he did it. It would wrap everything up with a nice tidy bow on the top. But she didn’t have that luck. Instead Janelle stood up and shouted for a guard.
She looked down at where Keegan was still sitting. “You came to the wrong parent Morne. I may be proud of my boy now but I ain’t telling you shit from here on out. You’ll be lucky if Burton tells you anything. Last I heard he was stuck up in the infirmary of the men’s ward with a tube down his throat because someone decided to crush his wind pipe.”
The door slid open with a heavy clank and the guards placed shackles back on her ankles before leading her from the room and back towards the cells. Keegan stood up and stared after the woman. The words they exchanged might be enough for a judge to grant her a warrant for Bryton’s arrest. She knew one thing, Bryton Anderson knew what was going on with these murders and had been leading SIU and homicide on a wild goose chase. That was stopping tonight. From here on out he was the focus.
Matt was sitting in the empty chair beside her desk when Keegan got back from the penitentiary. He was waiting with a folder in his hands and a grim look on his face. A look that said something had gone wrong for them.
“Please tell me that isn’t a complaint?” Keegan started as she dropped into her chair and set her bag in the bottom drawer of her desk. Matt dropped it on Keegan’s desk before he leaned over a file bin and flipping the pages to what he wanted to show her. “The bite marks weren’t a match to Ethan Newton’s.”
“That’s not the worst news is it?” Keegan compared the pictures and internally felt a victory for her suspicions. The first time she had approached Bryton, Ethan had been sitting next to him in the coffee house.
“The word is,” Matt licked his lips, “Ethan is tight with Bryton. Not in the traditional bro way if you understand what I’m saying but he isn’t the only one. Cassidy got the low down from the woman who runs the coffee shop, Lane Smithson. Apparently the mornings after full moons things get interesting in The Jumping Bean. Bryton is picky with who he shows his affections to or who sees him sharing said affections but there are two people who get the most attention.”
“Ethan Newton and who else?”
“A woman named Elaine Phillips.” Matt rolled his lips together and watched Keegan’s reaction. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a fraction. “Except lately, she hadn’t been too found of the attention she had been getting. She had a fiancé and even if most shifters are handsy with each other she didn’t want the alpha in the prowl touching her the way he was.”
Keegan let out a heavy sigh. “How long has it been obvious she didn’t want him around her?”
“Four months but he wasn’t letting her go without a fight apparently.” Matt shrugged.
“It could explain why the victims allowed their killer to get so close to them.” Leeroy’s voice broke into their conversation. Keegan looked up to see him still focused on the paper work in front of him and pen scribbling furiously across the paper but he continued talking. “If he was their alpha they wouldn’t have any other choice but to trust that he hadn’t meant them any harm. Even if he broke into their homes they wouldn’t be thinking the worst of him. They would be thinking that he was there to help them.”
“Exactly,” Melinda agreed. “If my alpha showed up in my house I’d be thinking someone was going to hurt me and he was here to help me. No matter that he broke into my house. I wouldn’t be thinking he was there to hurt me. It’s instinctive to just trust your alpha because you’re supposed to be able to.”
Keegan scrunched up her nose trying to make sure Matt understood what they were trying to get across, “He’s their alpha. He’s not supposed to attack them. They might be shocked he broke into their homes but he would know when they were home – most pack or prowl-mates know each other that intimately.” Keegan added for Matt’s benefit. “So when the Barr’s found him in their house what were they supposed to think? That he was there to hurt them? No. Once they realized that the reason he was there was for harm, they didn’t have much time to react. On the other hand, we have reason to believe that Elaine knew she was in trouble the moment she set eyes on the intruder. Whichever form they approached her in. She would have instantly been on edge seeing Bryton at her place. She wasn’t submitting to him like he wanted her to.”
“What about her fiancé? The leopard who we believe to have crashed the crime scene? Where has he been since all this has gone done?” Matt added in wonder.
“So we find him,” Leeroy suggested. “He might have a little more insight as to how Elaine felt and how the prowl ran. Because his girl was murdered, he might be more inclined to give us the information we’re looking for.”
Keegan nodded and turned towards Matt. “Have your guys been keeping eyes on Bryton?”
“Not that you gave me any particular reason but yes they have.” Matt leaned back in his chair, his knees bumping against Keegan’s thighs. “What’s going on that you didn’t have the time to tell me?”
“I went and spoke with Janelle Anderson.” Keegan pulled up the searches she did on Bryton before she left earlier. “I needed to see if what my gut was telling me about Bryton was right. So I went to the source, his mother. Who is a very hateful woman I’m just going to throw that out there.”
“What did you get?” Matt nudged Keegan’s thigh with his knee to get her to move on.
“Both of Bryton’s parents were convicted of murdering a shifter but before they actually made their way to capital murder they were charged with numerous misdemeanors. Things like vandalism, harassment and so forth. So I wanted to see if they had any influence on whom Bryton is today. I think we have our guy.”
“So a shifter is going around killing his prowl because his parents were hate mongers?” Matt asked dubiously. “That isn’t going to fly so well in court. You know that right?”
“He keeps in contact with his mother.” Keegan ticked off the points on her fingers, “He writes to her, calls her and she eggs him on. The Anderson’s manipulated Bryton into thinking he had dirty blood when he was younger. She even said he was stupid after he was attacked and shifted. The way he grew up until his parents were convicted and he was sent to a state home, suggests that he would hold some of the same beliefs. And I know, in my gut, that he is behind all the murders. He is the monster killing these shifters.”
“But why?” Matt leaned back in his chair. “Why would an alpha kill his prowl members? That doesn’t make any sense, even if he were prejudiced against supernaturals. Numbers mean something in packs, don’t they? It’s power or something?”
“More members mean you hold more power,” Keegan nodded. “But you have to see it the way he sees it. The Barr’s conceived a child, a half-breed, with dirty blood. Elaine refused her alpha. Alphas don’t experience refusal like that often. That anger threw him over the edge.”
“It’s not enough,” Matt’s voice had grown soft. “Judge Rollins or Judge Malone will say that it’s all a crack pot theory. We need more than your gut feeling Keegs. We don’t really have any evidence against him.”
Keegan tapped a pen against her desk in frustration. “I know and I also know that Bryton Anderson is our guy though. He’s killing his prowl off one by one. The people who don’t do his bidding and the people who don’t hold the same beliefs he does, he kills.”
“We’ll keep eyes on him. Maybe we’ll get something more that we can go to the judge with for an arrest warrant. Until we get that solid piece of evidence and not just circumstantial stuff then we can’t make a move on him.”
The plastic casing around the pen cracked in Keegan’s palm, “This blows.”
“We need to find Elaine’s fiancé, like Leeroy suggested. Maybe then we’ll have more to go on. Having the testimony of a prowl member could go a long way Morne. You and I both know it.”
“Then that’s where we focus,” Keegan nodded. “We need to talk to her friends to see if we come up with anything.”
“That’ll have to wait until the morning,” Matt groaned as he twisted in his seat and cracked his back. “Nine at night really isn’t a good time to go knocking on doors, especially when someone’s friend is dead. The parents weren’t much help on the answers front when they came in to ID the body. Just shocked they their baby girl was actually, ‘one of those things’ and she didn’t bother telling them she had been changed.”
“I agree with your human.” Leeroy absently commented as he began packing his bag. “I’m going home, getting some sleep and then we can interrogate people. I’m f*cking exhausted.”
Keegan shook her head. They all were exhausted. Coming in early the last few mornings, even earlier since the Barrs and Elaine had been murdered, trying to find some sort of lead they could grab hold of and stop any other people from getting killed. All she wanted to do was drop into her bed and sleep through the night. Hell, she’d love to sleep past the crack of dawn and not rush to slurp down her coffee.
“You are a very smart man Leeroy.” Matt yawned into his hand. “And I plan to follow your example and head home.”
Keegan couldn’t help the bright smile when Leeroy’s eyes widened in shock from Matt’s statement. It wasn’t every day a homicide cop was friendly to any one in the Spook Squad but it seemed things were slowly changing. Keegan doubted that any of them would actually mind the change in the morning.