Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
A Body… Because of Course There Is
Gideon
After a short stop at the Thistle Café for coffee—seriously, my man had a problem—Elwood coaxed the microbus onto the road. The whole vehicle gave a lurch like it was on its last leg, but in the old girl’s defense, we’d crammed half the Misfit Monsters Support Group inside.
Declan sat pressed against my side, knee bumping mine, his magic humming just soft enough that I could feel it. Or maybe that was just the caffeine. I wrapped my arm around him, more instinct than thought.
Tulip twisted around from the seat in front of us. “Declan, sweetheart, if you tell me where Josh is staying, I promise I’ll only drown him a little.”
“Absolutely not.” Elwood looked up in the rearview mirror at Tulip. “And there’s no such thing as a little drowning.”
Declan groaned. “Nobody’s drowning anybody. Please stop offering. Josh is my past. I don’t care if he’s here in town or not, but I don’t want anyone to hurt him.”
“Just a splash then,” Tulip said. “I could at least get him a little wet. It wouldn’t hurt him at all.”
Declan let out a sigh, but he didn’t respond to her. Tulip could be a lot, and I actually wouldn’t put murder past her, not if the offending party hurt someone she cared about, and she cared about Declan.
We hit the stretch of road out of town, and the microbus rattled over a pothole, and we all felt it. I knew Elwood loved this old microbus, but seriously, there was something to be said for modern suspension.
Declan leaned forward a little, peering out the window. “Do you see that?”
My gaze followed automatically. At first, I saw nothing but trees—then a shadow peeled off the air. Licorice swept low beside us, huge wings beating slow and sure. And right beside it? A bat, flitting along, trying to keep up.
“Is that Mellgren?” I asked. I thought our resident vegan vampire was supposed to be at work at the convention center today.
Az leaned over and looked out his window and nodded. “I believe it is.”
“It looks like they’re following us. Should we stop? If that’s Mellgren, he shouldn’t have to fly all the way.”
“It’s not that far. Besides, he can only be out in the sunlight as a bat, not in his human form,” Hazel said.
“Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that.” Declan looked thoughtful for a second. “Have you known him for a long time?”
“Oh yes.” She nodded. “I’ve known Mellgren forever.”
Declan watched the two fly alongside us with a big smile on his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s nothing. I’m just so glad to have Licorice as my familiar. Can’t believe it wasn’t that long ago that I believed magic wasn’t real, and now here I am with a raven as a familiar and a wolf shifter boyfriend. My life is awesome.”
I laughed and pulled him closer. “You’re awesome. And you deserve all the good things.”
He snuggled in closer, and we rode like that the rest of the way to the brewery.
A short time later, Elwood parked beneath the trees, and we all piled out of the bus.
Licorice and the bat we assumed was Mellgren—it was hard to tell one bat from another—swooped around us until Licorice peeled upward and perched in an oak tree near the drive, feathers gleaming.
The bat shot straight through an upper window of the brewhouse and vanished inside.
“I guess Mellgren will be waiting for us inside then,” Declan said with a shrug.
I squeezed his hand once before I let go. “Stay close to me in there.”
He glanced up at the tree where the raven perched, then toward the open window the bat had disappeared through.
“Trust me,” he said quietly, “I’m not going far.”
We were here to further our investigation. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but for some reason, I had a bad feeling about this brewery tour. I couldn’t say why, but I was sure that whatever waited in that brewery was trouble.
We were early, but there were already some people milling around, eating tacos and hot dogs from the food trucks out in the parking lot, waiting for the tour to start.
The door to the brewhouse creaked when I pushed it open, and warm air, heavy with hops, rolled over us, thick enough to taste on the back of my tongue.
“Hey, Roy!” I called out, but no one answered.
Just then, Mellgren fluttered in from the upper walkway, shifting from bat to vampire mid-air with a grace that always made my wolf bristle with envy. He landed silently, smoothing his vest like he hadn’t just fallen twenty feet.
“Mellgren, what are you doing here? I thought you were at work,” Az said.
“I was, but I was coming to see Gideon about something, and Sable said I’d just missed you.” He looked at Declan. “I took a chance and flew over to the cafe. I figured you would need to fuel up.”
“What was so important you flew all this way?” I asked.
“I was going over the booking for the upcoming shifter conference, and while your old pack has reserved a block of rooms, they said the alpha and his luna would be staying elsewhere. I just thought it was weird and wanted to let you know.”
“That is odd, but thanks for letting me know.” Knowing there was a shifter conference coming to town that I wouldn’t be included in left me feeling some kind of way, especially since my old pack would be attending, but that was a problem for another day.
Today, we had other things to deal with, like a rogue witch using her powers to influence the brewing competition.
A clatter from deeper inside the building made Declan stiffen beside me.
A moment later, a tall man with curly hair and wide eyes popped up from behind a row of kegs.
Caesar had been working at the Black Feather tent at the festival, and Roy had mentioned that he’d hired him after he’d fired his previous assistant, Beckett.
Not that I knew him well, I’d always liked Caesar.
“Oh, thank God,” Caesar said, breathing out a deep sigh.
“I thought you were more tourists here for the brewery tour. I told them to wait out front until the tour started.” He rushed forward, wiping his palms on his apron.
“Have you heard from Roy? He’s not answering his phone.
He was supposed to be here to lead the tour an hour ago, but he still isn’t here. He’s never late. Never.”
Well darn. Looked like my intuition was right, and something was wrong here. As excited as Roy was about all the perks of winning, I couldn’t imagine him blowing off a chance to show off his brewery.
Declan stepped closer, voice softening. “You haven’t heard from him?”
Caesar swallowed hard. “No. I even called Nadia, but she doesn’t know where he is either. His truck is here, though.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Umm, yesterday. He was really excited about the tour. He thinks winning this contest is going to really put us on the map.”
I looked around, but I didn’t really know much about brewing ale, so I wouldn’t know if anything was out of place. “Do you know for sure if he got—”
“Gideon,” Mellgren said. “I think you need to come look at this.”
I turned to find him standing in front of a row of large copper vats in the middle of the room.
“What is it, Mellgren?” He didn’t look all that good, like all the color had drained from his face, which said a lot for a vampire since he was already super pale.
“There’s blood in that vat,” he said quietly, his voice a little shaky.
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve asked if he was sure, but I knew Mellgren wouldn’t have said it if he wasn’t.
“Not again,” Declan groaned.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” I murmured.
I approached the vat, the copper warm beneath my hand. Even though the lid was closed, the scent hit me: hops, yeast, with something metallic hiding underneath.
“How do we see inside?” I asked Caesar.
“We have to go up there.” He pointed to the raised metal walkway that Mellgren had floated down from earlier.
“Okay, let’s take a look.”
Declan, Az, Caesar, and I made our way up. Everyone else stayed on the floor with Mellgren. I had no idea what we would find, and there was no way I was subjecting the vampire to a vat of bloody soup.
Caesar unlatched the lid with a long, complaining creak, and steam hissed upward.
We leaned over to look inside, and floating near the surface, bobbing gently in the foam, was something that looked a little like a dead rat.
Declan made a strangled sound that might’ve been a laugh, might’ve been panic. “Please tell me that isn’t Roy’s hair.”
Az leaned in, squinting. “That’s a cheap toupee. Whoever it belongs to didn’t care about quality.”
Declan edged up beside me and squinted his eyes like he was trying to see better.
I grabbed a long metal stirring paddle off the wall.
“Be careful,” Declan said, worry threading through his voice.
I dug out the ball of hair, placing it on the metal walkway beside us. Then I slid the paddle back into the vat. The liquid churned, thick and sluggish. The metal scraped something beneath the surface—something solid.
Everyone froze.
I stirred again. Definitely not a pipe. Not a tool left behind. Something soft, slippery, and wrong.
My wolf pressed against the inside of my ribs, claws raking, trying to break free in a body that wouldn’t shift. I took a deep breath, willing him to settle.
“There’s something down there,” I said.
Caesar’s hand shook so badly that he had to brace it on the railing. “Oh, God. Oh no. Oh, please tell me it’s a raccoon. They get inside sometimes and, man, they cause trouble when they do.”
“A raccoon that wears a toupee?” Tulip asked incredulously from down below.
“It’s definitely not a raccoon,” Mellgren called up. “That smell is human blood, not animal.”
I pulled the paddle free, foam dripping down the handle.
“I think we’d better call Grady.”
Declan reached for my hand again, and the raven outside let out a low, echoing call that threaded through the brewhouse like a warning.
“Caesar, let’s go outside and wait for Grady. While we’re there, we can tell the people waiting for the tour that it’s been postponed.”
He nodded and headed down the steps. I looked at Declan. “I’m going to send Mellgren home. He doesn’t need to be here for this, but the rest of you stay here and don’t let anyone near the vat.”
Declan nodded, and I followed Caesar down the steps to the ground floor while I made the call to Grady.
He picked up right away. “What’s up, Gideon?”
“I think we have a problem out at the Black Feather Brewery.”
“What kind of problem?”
“Like a body in the beer vat kind of problem.”
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack,” I said.
He sighed. “Well, let’s hope that’s what it was… a heart attack.”
“That’s unlikely. I’ll wait here for you to arrive.”
Grady arrived in record time, and he followed me and Caesar back inside.
“So,” Grady said with a resigned tone. We’d filled him in on what we’d found, and he was less than happy. “The body was in a closed vat, so not likely an accident.”
“I guess we’ll have to drain the vat…” Caesar said.
“God, Roy’s going to kill me if this turns out to be, well, a prank or something.
I mean the toupee would probably contaminate the beer anyway, but…
” He worried his hands and looked around the room as if hoping Roy would pop up and take control.
“Maybe we should wait and see if he shows up.”
“Caesar, son, this is a crime scene.” Grady clamped his large hand on Caesar’s shoulder. “So that means I’m in charge. And I’m going to decide if the vat needs to be emptied. No one else. If anyone has a problem with that, you send them in my direction, okay?”
Caesar nodded but was looking queasy again.
As a bear shifter, our sheriff had always been pretty good at reading people.
And it was obvious Caesar was a nervous wreck.
“You know what?” He gave Caesar a kind smile.
“I want you to wait for my deputies by the parking lot. They’re just a minute or two behind me.
When they get here, I want you to explain to them what we’ll need to get the beer out of that vat.
” Grady squeezed Caesar’s shoulder. “You go on now and do that while I have a chat with these folks. But don’t leave. I’ll need to talk to you, too.”
Caesar didn’t have to be told twice. He bolted for the door.
Grady took in our little band of misfits and everything else about the room. His dark eyes didn’t seem to miss a thing, including the open vat and the dripping toupee.
“Nobody else has been up there or touched anything,” Declan said. “Just the four of us.”
Grady nodded. “Thank you for that.”
“I’ll take you up top,” I said. “Show you what we found.”
Grady’s mouth was a flat line as he followed me up the steps to the walkway.
Declan started to follow us, but before he climbed the first step, someone else walked in. For just a second there, I let myself hope it was Roy coming to announce that we’d all been worrying for nothing. Except it wasn’t Roy. It was Josh.
I watched as Josh’s face lit up when he saw Declan.
“Dexy,” he called out, using that stupid nickname that Declan said he hated, and before I could stop it, a growl escaped my throat. Declan looked up at me, and I feigned innocence while Josh continued to talk. “Where is everyone? And why do you all look so grim?”
“Oh, man, I really need to start carrying around popcorn,” Sandy whispered, but of course with my shifter hearing, I heard him.
“What are you doing here, Josh?” Declan asked.
“I’m here to cover the brewery tour. This will be marketing gold for Kettlebrook’s newest brewmaster. Let me see if I can find Roy,” Josh said, glancing around the brewery. “He’ll set you up with a flight of beer, and that’ll be sure to put smiles on your faces. Where’s he hiding?”
While I’d watched Josh make his grand entrance, Grady had been doing something at the vat. There was a grunt, then another, followed by a sloshing sound. I spun around to see Grady use his bear strength to haul a very large, very person-like shape from the vat.
“Roy’s not hiding,” I said. “He’s dead.”