Chapter Seventeen
Strategy Sessions and Surprising Discoveries
Nick
This is the third time I’ve turned our semi-weekly brunch into a work session at my place, but no one seems to be too put out seeing how loud they are right now.
One reason can be all the free food I promised as a bribe.
Werewolves are always hungry and readily lured with good food and a place to blabber.
I drag my two murder boards out of the office with no help from anyone, I should add.
“You’re a werewolf, it’s literally zero work for you,” Marcus says when I glare at him while pushing the second one into position. He at least has the courtesy of moving his lazy ass a few steps to make way.
I glare at him some more. He sighs.
“Oooh, you split the murder boards. Wait, why do you have the human murder victims on it?” Sloan notices.
“I’ll explain once Meena joins us. She should be here soon,” I tell everyone.
They nod easily. Too easily. And why are they all so coordinated? This distinctly feels like a trap. When will I stop being so trusting and inviting traitors into my home?
“So, how are things going between you and Elliot? Matt was telling us about the dinner,” Cami asks, confirming my suspicions.
I shoot Matt a betrayed look, which he acknowledges with an eye roll. Traitors, all of them. “Nothing is going on between us. It’s just casual. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that,” I warn them.
“On the contrary. Please,” Sloan does the ‘go ahead’ gestures. “Be as detailed as you want.”
I stick my tongue out at her.
“Wow, I’m surprised he even likes you,” she complains.
“He doesn’t. It’s casual,” I insist.
Cami tilts her head. “Oh, honey. You can’t do casual with your firsts,” she says sympathetically.
Are all experienced queer people this condescending?
“Oh, you definitely can,” Bree counters her.
Okay, so not all of them. “Exactly,” I say.
“Says the woman who moved cities after her first girlfriend broke up with her,” Cami throws at Bree.
“She was not my girlfr—oh.” she finishes, realization dawning on her. “Yeah, firsts are hard to get over,” she nods.
“Well, I’ve dated people before. He’s not my first,” I remind them.
“Yeah, but the first achillean relationship must also count as a first,” Marcus, the lazy traitor, points out.
“That’s homophobic, honestly,” I tell him, because well, we don’t have enough straight people here for me ever to say that.
Marcus looks caught off guard for a second. “No, it’s not.” He looks at Cami for confirmation.
She shakes her head. “It’s not. Nick, are you sure you’re okay with doing this?”
“While the concern is nice,” I start sincerely. “I am thirty-one, a lot older than when Bree had her first girlfrie—whatever she was,” I finish over Bree’s correction. “This isn’t even my first regular casual hookup, so I’m good,” I assure them.
Cami raises her hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. But just be careful, okay?”
I nod at her.
“That’s all great and well, are we getting the deets or not? I mean, I don’t know a single thing about Elliot. The guy is a closed book, shut tight with a rope then wrapped in cellophane for good measure,” Sloan complains.
Well, that’s the perfect description of the man. And I want to say I know everything about him, but in the last week since he stayed over, we’ve barely even seen each other. I was too busy with the other cases piling up while I worked on the murders.
I lured him for a quick lunch at a diner close to the precinct once, but he had to leave in half an hour because he had a surgery scheduled.
Anyway, all this talk about Elliot is just grating. “We don’t need to know much about each other to hook up, do we?” I drawl.
Matt blanches. “While I’m okay with whatever your relationship is with Elliot, I don’t want to know what you guys do in your own time,” he groans.
“That’s probably homophobic,” Marcus points at Matt, then looks at Cami for confirmation.
She shakes her head again.
The doorbell interrupts the conversation, and I thank whoever’s at the door in advance. It’s Dominic, I can tell from his scent as I walk towards the door.
I smile at him when I open it. I invited him to join the session, too, after I remembered that I need to become better at delegating work. But the poor guy looks ready to bolt with the loud noises coming from inside.
“They’re not always like this. You'll like them,” I assure him.
“You'll find them okay,” Marcus says from behind me.
“You won't hate them?” I say.
“You might not want to kill them.” Marcus nods.
I nod with him. Dominic laughs.
We walk back into the fray with a nervous Dominic in tow.
“Guys,” I shout over them, clapping my hands. They all glance up at me together. “This is Dominic, the new L.A. Bureau agent.”
“Oh yeah, we’ve met,” Cami gets up to hug Dominic.
“Yeah, we met at a scene.” Matt gives him a casual bro nod. I glare at him.
Sloan hugs him, too. “We've hung out twice now,” she says to me. “Why are you sulking?”
“I’m not sulking,” I say. I’m not.
“I haven’t met him, if that helps,” Bree offers.
“ I think we’ve talked on calls a few times,” Dominic says.
“Oh, right. I’ve directed calls to him. The chase last week was intense, dude,” she adds.
“Right?” Dominic commiserates, grabbing Marcus’s empty chair beside Bree.
Great, everyone knows everyone. Amazing.
Marcus turns to me. “You really should hang out with more people outside the group,” he suggests.
I glower at him. But the doorbell ringing again saves him from my wrath. The smell of Chinese food coming from outside helps too.
I collect the delivery and take it to the kitchen.
Matt follows me wordlessly. He’s definitely coming back to a Marcus in his chair.
We may have to move the couch over to the dining area since Meena will be here soon.
Well, if anyone can do it without making any noise and causing damage, it’s a bunch of werewolves.
I’m just happy Oliver picked up Mickey this morning, the poor guy would have lost his shit, and we wouldn’t have gotten any work done.
Matt starts unpacking the containers. “I was just telling them about the lasagna Oliver baked. They concluded about you and Elliot all by themselves,” he says, sounding apologetic, which is so unnecessary it catches me off guard.
“Dude, it’s okay. It’s just them,” I wave him off.
“Didn’t want you to think I was discussing you guys behind your back,” he explains. “But you’re really okay, right?”
His concerned tone really grates on me because he, of all people, should know I’m not some fragile little dude who’ll get his heart broken at the drop of a hat. “I said I was, didn’t I?” I snap.
He sighs. “I’m just— you know what, you know best. Are you still stalking him, though?” he asks, lowering his voice enough that even the werewolves in the next room won’t pick it up.
“I’m monitoring him in a more direct way now.”
He snorts. “So, Mission Creepily Stalking Elliot Because I’m a Suspicious Bastard is now Mission Sleeping With Elliot Because I’m a Suspicious Bastard?”
I grin at him. “Couldn’t have explained it better myself.”
“As long as—”
“Hey, do you need any help with these?” Dominic’s voice makes us turn.
Looking at the mess we’ve made on the kitchen counter, we definitely need help. But I’m hesitant to ask him to do anything because I don’t want to create the impression that he needs to be my junior, or my lackey, as Serena calls him, here too.
Luckily, Sloan and Bree fix that problem when they saunter in after him.
Meena arrives once the food has been distributed and the couch has been moved. I stand in front of the Human Murder Board..
“So we found Tyler Robertson and Nathaniel Rambert at their homes last month. Both humans. Both tortured before being killed. There’s a good reason to believe it’s the same perpetrator. The way their bodies were staged, it’d be too big a coincidence to be two different killers.
“The human police have been trying to find a connection between them for a long time, but the only one I could see is that they were both close to werewolves. Until I found this,” I point at the printout of the Whack-A-Wolf icon on the board.
“What the fuck is that?” Matt asks with disgust.
I one hundred percent agree with the sentiment. “Oh, it’s as fucked up as it sounds. It’s a stupid game, where the task is, you guessed it, whacking werewolves.”
“And Nate played it?” Cami asks, anger coating her words.
“Yup, and you were right to warn your sister off him. The guy was bad news,” I tell her.
“But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, or a cover to be more precise.
The open chat between players is the app's main purpose. It’s a bunch of people openly being hateful towards werewolves.
The messages range from death threats to brags about conquests. ”
“So, the killer found them on the chat? Can we get their information from here?” Marcus asks.
Meena joins me near the boards. “We tried to hack the game servers and got some data. It wasn’t all that secure, and the reason is clear.
Almost everyone used a first name to register, and there’s no way to guarantee that they are real.
There are no paywalls that would require any significant information,” she says.
“So how did the killer find Nathaniel and Tyler?” Sloan asks.
“I’ve been going through the chats the entire week, and I could identify a few details that might have given away their identities to the killer,” I explain.
With Nathaniel, it would have been easy because the dumbass uploaded Isabel’s picture on the chat.
But with Tyler, they weren’t significant.
But if you were intent on finding him, you could.
“So, we think the killer is targeting people from the game?” Matt asks.
I point at him. “I thought that too. But then I thought, why? The game is silly, and most of the conversation on there is stupid too, except for the few ones that aren’t.
Particularly one where users discussed realistic ways of getting rid of werewolves.
And guess who had the most helpful suggestions? ”
“No,” Cami whispers dangerously. “If that son of a bitch were still alive, I would have murdered him myself,” she says, her face promising retribution to Nate in hell.
If only she knew how much worse the guy was. But I’ll save her the anger. “And he would have deserved it. So Tyler and Nathaniel suggested the same variation of carefully killing them with chemicals instead of a direct attack. Sounds familiar?”
Bree gasps. “They were the Vigilante Wolf Hunter? Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense,” she backtracks quickly.
“Exactly. It doesn’t in hindsight. Because we know the Vigilante Wolf Hunter struck again after Tyler and Nathaniel were murdered,” I say gleefully. This is the best lead we’ve found in both cases. And the first clue that they’ll intersect at some point.
“Oh no,” Sloan gasps.
“Oh no, indeed. We might not be the only ones hunting the Vigilante Wolf Hunter. Still hate the name, by the way, but it opens up tons of opportunities for dramatic statements,” I say.
“Nicholas,” Meena warns.
“Alright, let’s keep it Vigilante Wolf Hunter.
Tentatively,” I throw my hands in surrender.
“Here’s what I need help with. Sloan, Matt, I want you guys to download the app and comb through the messages again.
There are a lot, and they are horrible, so be warned.
But see if we can identify anybody else. ”
“Do I really have to add that filth to my digital footprint?” Sloan blanches.
“If I had to do it, you’ll have to do it too.
Now, suck it up and get to work. Bree, I need you to find close relatives and significant others of all the werewolf victims. Use everything, social media, police records, everything.
Tyler and Nate’s murders seem personal. The killer must have lost someone close to them to want to kill this way. ”
Bree nods.
“Cami, talk to Izzy and comb through Izzy and Nathaniel’s written conversations to see if he ever let on that he knew about us, because he definitely did.
Also, try to find out if he ever met anyone through that app.
Marcus, see if you can talk to the werewolves working on The Pack and find the same thing about Tyler, too,” I point to them.
They nod. “Lauren has a cast and crew get-together next week. I’ll join her,” Marcus says.
“You do that. Dominic, continue adding to the chemical suppliers and buyers list since that is the only lead we have to find the Vigilante Wolf Hunter before the other killer finds them,” I tell him.
“Perfect,” Meena starts. “In the meantime, I’ll have agents find more about this game and their creators. It’s vile and needs to go.”
We all nod in complete agreement.
Meena leaves, and we get to work.
Vigilante Wolf Hunter is mine, and I’m a territorial bastard. No one gets him but me.