Debbie studied the posters while Zeta offered seats in her living room on the brown velour wraparound sofa.
“Another man came asking about Sarah Engle and Lloyd Bates. Otis Lister too. They’re all members of the Wolf Zone but have disappeared. I was afraid something bad might have happened to them.” She handed Debbie and Allan photos of each of the three people. “I take pictures of the players, and then we pass them around so that everyone can decide who the wolves are. Oh, and when a person dies, as in a werewolf kills a hunter or a hunter kills a werewolf, then everyone knows and that person no longer plays the game. They can watch but not participate. They’re dead for the purposes of the game.”
“Another man was questioning you? A police officer, you mean?” Debbie asked, glancing at the photos. She immediately recognized the woman from the morgue and the man they had found dead in the car. She looked to see if Allan had too.
He nodded to her.
“No, he wasn’t a police officer. He said he was a private investigator looking into a friend’s request to find Sarah and make sure she was safe. I assumed he might actually find her when the police felt their hands were tied in the case.”
“Okay, so this man,” Allan said, pointing at the one that featured the Van Lake murder victim, “is Lloyd?”
“Yes. Sarah’s lover.”
Was the man in the black sedan Otis? Following Debbie because he thought she might know something about the case? But why would he not just go to the sheriff’s office and ask them? Or follow anyone who was working on the case?
Debbie chewed on her bottom lip. “What was the PI’s name?”
“Vaughn Greystoke.”
No one Debbie knew. “Who was he working for?”
“He said it was a man named Devlyn Greystoke, so I assumed they were related. He said they were cousins.”
Allan stiffened a little beside Debbie, and she glanced at him. Allan quickly pulled his gaze from hers and again looked at the photos. “What about the man who was her lover?”
“Mr. Greystoke wanted to know about him too, afraid that he might have had something to do with her disappearance. He said he was a private investigator, but I think he was more than that. He seemed really protective of her and angry her lover had disappeared too. Like he believed Lloyd had something to do with her disappearance in a bad way.”
“Where was Mr. Greystoke from?” Allan asked.
“Somewhere in Colorado. Can’t remember the exact location. I don’t remember Sarah ever mentioning being from there. Then again, I don’t recall her saying where she was from, nor did I think to ask.”
“Are you sure the man who disappeared also was her lover?” Allan asked.
“Yes. We all joked and said if one of them was the werewolf, the other would be in real trouble. Well, unless both were the werewolves. But I knew better. You understand that none of them knew who the real werewolves were, except for me. I was the moderator for the game, so I made all the rules and made sure everyone stuck to them.”
“So you knew Lloyd was a werewolf hunter and Sarah was a werewolf?” Debbie asked.
“Yeah. Really, they made a big deal of it to begin with when I first assigned everyone their roles. Sarah came and secretly told me she didn’t want to be the hunter. And Lloyd did the same with his role as a werewolf. He wanted to be a hunter. No big deal to me. I swapped them out, though normally we play the roles we’re given. So even though they made a big issue out of wanting to play different roles, they ended up being lovers. Go figure. But secretly? I think Sarah was really interested in Lloyd. There was some intense stuff going on between them.
“Lloyd?” Zeta shrugged. “I think he was interested in the sex, and I think he believed she was playing the part of a hunter. So it was okay to be with her. But I think she knew he was a hunter. Maybe he told her, and she let on that she was one too. Players are supposed to lie about what role they’re playing while they try to convince everyone they’re one of the good guys so they don’t get killed off early in the game. It’s all a matter of acting the part.”
Zeta offered them sodas. Both thanked her but declined.
“If you had a part to play, which would you prefer?” Zeta asked. She sounded curious, maybe wanting to know if they thought her games were silly.
“A hunter,” Allan said, not even hesitating.
“Hmm, whatever part I was offered, I’d play it the best I could,” Debbie said.
Zeta smiled and Debbie felt she’d won her over a bit.
“Was there a man by the name of Guy Lamb in your group?” Allan asked, and Debbie snapped her mouth shut as she wondered what that was all about.
“Yeah, yeah, he was here. But he was here before the others arrived—Otis, Lloyd, Sarah. So what’s this all about?” Zeta asked.