SEAL Wolf In Too Deep(41)
“When I told the police, they said they needed more to go on than what I had. Which was nothing. She had gone off with her lover. They thought the game we were playing wasn’t important enough to keep her here if the two of them wanted to go off somewhere else. I checked to see about Otis’s house, but it was the same way. Bad address. So I told the police. Since it was just for a game, no evidence of any crime, they couldn’t do anything about it. She wasn’t working at the time, so she hadn’t left a job behind.” Zeta took a deep breath. “How did they die?”
“Lloyd was found dead in a stolen vehicle, and Sarah was shot in the forest, both up north,” Debbie said.
Zeta frowned. “Did Otis do it?”
“Why would you think he had anything to do with it?” Allan asked, interested.
“Because he hated Sarah and he was furious that Lloyd had started seeing her. I overheard them in back of the park restrooms where we used to meet to begin our game. We would sit at one of the tables under a pavilion and discuss where we were in the game, trying to figure out who the wolves were. Then armed with whatever evidence we thought we had—or the players had, since I was just the observer—they would go off and hunt werewolves. Anyway, the restrooms were a few hundred feet away, but I heard this argument between the two men.
“Lloyd and Otis were trying to talk softly, but it got really heated and their voices began to rise. Otis said that if Sarah was a wolf, she was dead meat. And if Lloyd got bitten, he was too. I thought they were playing the game a little too seriously again, but they sounded too angry to be playing. The police assumed they were just actors who really got into their roles. But I checked their applications and the places they said they’d acted in theater and couldn’t find that they’d been in the plays either.”
She motioned to the walls. “You can see my name on all the playbills. So false addresses and they lied about the plays they were in? And then they all vanish at one time? Something had to be wrong with the two men. Then here comes this private investigator out of the blue.”
“Could we have a look at their applications?” Allan asked.
“Sure. The local police weren’t interested.” She pointed to the table. “I got them ready for you just in case.”
“Thanks,” Allan said and took a look at Otis’s, while Debbie looked over Lloyd’s and then Sarah’s. “Can we have the photos? We’ll turn them over to the homicide detective in charge of the case.”
“So he’s making you do all his legwork and he gets all the credit?” Zeta asked. “Sure, take them. They’re duplicates.”
“Were their phone numbers bad too?” Debbie asked.
“They were disconnected once the men left the area. Those are copies for you. I”—Zeta choked on the words—“I thought you might be able to find Sarah. I didn’t think she’d be… Well, I worried about it, but I thought she might just be with Lloyd. Not that I really liked it; he wasn’t good for her. But I wish she was with him rather than dead.” Zeta wiped away fresh tears. “Otis’s unaccounted for, right?”
“He’s not dead, as far as we know,” Allan said, although if Otis was responsible for Sarah’s death and turned up in Cunningham pack territory again intending to kill, Allan sure wanted to end the man’s career as a werewolf hunter.
“You said the car Lloyd was driving was stolen? The blue Impala?” Zeta asked.
“Yeah. Do you know what he was driving before that?”
“A blue Ford pickup. He apparently liked blue vehicles.”
“So what happened to it?” Debbie asked.
Zeta shrugged. “The day before the three of them vanished, he was driving the Impala. I figured he traded in his truck for the car.”
Another stolen vehicle?
“Do you know what Otis was driving?” Allan asked, hoping they’d get another good lead.
“A red Camaro.”
Immediately, Allan thought of Franny. But the guy she knew had a different name. Still, Allan didn’t like the coincidence.
“He had this hunter look about him. He wore camo gear a lot, except when it got snowy. Then he was wearing a white parka. So I’m thinking—to fit the look—pickup truck, antlers in the back or a rifle hanging in the window. But a red Camaro?” Zeta shook her head. “It didn’t fit the picture.”
She glanced at her watch and continued, “Listen, I’m so sorry about what happened to Sarah. I wish the police could have saved her. Or that I could have convinced her the two men were bad news. But I’m glad you’re looking into this. If you ask me, Otis did it. I’ve got an audition in half an hour, so I need to get going. If you need to ask me any other questions, feel free. I’ll help any way I can to bring him to justice.”
“You’ve been a great help,” Debbie said.
“Yes, we couldn’t have asked for more,” Allan agreed, “although I have one last question. What did the PI drive?”
“A black sedan.”
The investigator had to be a wolf working for Devlyn Greystoke, another wolf from Colorado, leader of the pack, and his cousin. Allan didn’t have his number, but Tessa, his SEAL team leader’s mate, was distantly related to Devlyn, so she should have the information. Allan would have to call her when Debbie wasn’t around. At least he was glad to know that the driver of the black sedan was on their side.