“Which should have clued her in that he wasn’t.”
“I agree. But no lupus garous had passed through our area in months, and she was lonely. When she began to talk to him, she convinced herself he really was a lupus garou. So she went down to see him. This was a month before she met Everett. Which shows we were right to stay here and take over the pack.”
“Sounds like it.” Allan couldn’t believe his sister had done that. “I’m surprised Mom wasn’t upset about her doing something like that.” Rose was way too curious for her own good.
“She told Catherine she was going on a shopping trip to pick up leather-crafting supplies to make some things for her shop. Catherine never knew the real purpose of her visit because Rose brought back leather-working materials. When Rose arrived in Helena, she had lunch with the man, Guy Lamb, and discovered he really was a wolf.”
Allan’s jaw dropped, then he shook his head. “I never would have believed it. And by the name of Lamb?”
“Yeah, it was his parents’ idea. Everyone teased him about being a lamb when he was a kid, so he had fun with saying he was a werewolf on his website.”
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
“Right. Anyway, he liked Rose, but once she met him, she wasn’t interested in getting to know him further. She said he was too weird for her. Loved horror stories, music she didn’t care for, books she wouldn’t read. He was such a big horror fan that he loved to act in plays of that nature and visit horror conventions. They just didn’t have anything in common. But she wanted to check out the game for curiosity’s sake, in case one of the other players was also a real wolf. Someone she might connect with more.
“Rose did manage to meet with the group, which had eight werewolf hunters, one seer, and two wolves. Though who was playing which roles was a mystery. She said no one smelled like a wolf. But when she and Lori came across the woman’s body, Rose was pretty rattled and told us about the group, in case it had any bearing on this situation.”
“Okay,” Allan said. “I can’t think of any other scenario offhand. The notion the killer saw the lupus garou shift and then eliminated her has my vote.”
“I agree. Even so, just to be thorough because we certainly don’t want any more surprises like this one, I checked to see if any LARP groups were listed online. I didn’t see anything like that in our area. If it is a local group whose members don’t share about it on the Internet, then we wouldn’t know about it.”
Allan rose from his seat and paced across the living room floor. “It doesn’t sound like someone who was just playing a game. The business with silver rounds and luring a wolf into a leghold trap first…”
Paul finished his bottle of water and set the empty container on the coffee table. “After viewing the wounds inflicted on the woman, I really think something deeper was going on. The murderer attacked her in a rage. It wasn’t just a case of killing a random person. Passion was involved—anger.”
“Maybe he was a former lover and discovered what she was?”
“Now that could be.”
“Why would he leave her like that? Why not hide the body?”
“Lori and Rose’s arrival might have stopped him.”
“Why would he call the police to warn them about the killing, if he was the one who called in anonymously?” Allan asked.
“Because he’s proud of the kill? Maybe he thought the coroner could prove she’s a werewolf through DNA. Then he could brag about killing a werewolf.”
“Then he had to know or believe the woman was a werewolf. She had to have known him, probably trusted him.” Thinking of an even worse-case scenario, Allan ran his hands through his hair. “What if he was watching when Rose and Lori arrived? And when they left, he followed them?”
“That’s what I’m worried about. The police were at the crime scene while you were at work this morning. I told the homicide detective in charge that you’ll also be looking into it since it happened so close to our cabin and we’re concerned about more trouble for the two ladies who found the victim.”
“Good. What were the police told about how Lori and Rose located her?”
“They were taking a hike through the woods. There’s a trail near there. They were headed up to the lookout over the lake. Anyway, that’s the story. In truth, they smelled blood—and lots of it. So they headed that way to locate the wounded wolf and help if they could. When they discovered the woman and realized she was one of us, they hated to have to leave her body behind, but they didn’t have any choice. They went to the cabin, shifted, dressed, called me, and then headed back to the killing site to ‘find’ her as humans.”