Feral Dust Bunnies (Offbeat Crimes Book 4) Read online

“Mike, she thinks you’re playing with her.” Jason called out to his trainee, his voice choked as if he were stifling a laugh. “Stand still.”

  That worked until Mike tried to slip the lead over her head. Then the dog leaped away joyfully, racing in crazy circles. None of these dogs had been on their own long. They’d been scared of something but they were clearly happy to see people.

  Jason shook his head as he crated the terrier, then got out a much smaller collapsible carrier for the kitten. “Here. Hold her a sec.”

  The kitten squeak-mewed as Wolf took her back and as he held her, she latched on to his neck with her tiny mouth and began to purr. Old enough to wean? Maybe. He didn’t know kittens as well as pups, but he knew a lonely nursing instinct when he saw it. Felt it. When Jason had the carrier set up, they had to disengage kitten claws from Wolf’s shirt again and she cried so pitiably, he nearly broke down and asked to take her back.

  “Sorry, sorry,” Jason murmured as their hands tangled trying to get waving kitten claws under control.

  The Jason scent invaded Wolf’s head and forced him to step back, confusion making him feel as if his feet were too big. “Sorry,” he whispered back and got a long unreadable look for it.

  “Would you mind helping Mike with that last stray, Officer? You really are better at this than he is.”

  The kitten was still twisted toward him and Wolf could’ve sworn she was crying for him. He stood frozen while thoughts of taking the kitten home crept in but that was ridiculous, of course. What did he know about kittens? What would Mom say? Finally, he managed to break eye contact, both with bright blue feline eyes and warm dark human ones, to stomp off toward the Mike fiasco. All humans confused him in some ways. He didn’t always understand their jokes or their strange obsessions. Jason Shen confused him in a loose wire, I-forget-how-to-human-at-all way.

  Wolf let out a little rruuf, just enough to get the last stray’s attention, hoping it was soft enough that the humans wouldn’t think he was deranged. The dog’s ears went up and she galloped over to Wolf for pets and wriggles and made no fuss about Wolf slipping a lead over her head.

  Behind him, Mike let out an exasperated sigh. “Is he like the dog whisperer or something?”

  The corners of Jason’s eyes crinkled, his mouth set in a hard line, so he was either annoyed or trying not to laugh as he crated the last dog and retrieved plastic bags from the utility box in the truck. “Officer Wolf has an uncanny knack with animals. You’ll learn to be grateful when it’s one of his calls.”

  Jason even talked to Mama Cat while he placed her body gently in the bag, something Wolf appreciated.

  “Someone will take her, right?” Wolf blurted out as they were closing up the truck.

  “Who, the kitten?” Jason waited until he nodded. “We’ll probably keep her for a couple of days. Depends on what the vet says. Then someone’ll probably foster her until she’s old enough for adoption.”

  “Oh. All right. Good.”

  “Call anytime you want an update,” Jason reminded him as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Or stop by anytime.”

  Wolf watched them pull away before he made his way back to his car. Had that been flirting? Or just being friendly? Professional courtesy? He wished he could tell sometimes.

  When he finally got home, he apologized to Mom for being late and got shooed upstairs to get changed, his conscience warring with his stomach about being relieved that there wouldn’t be an ironing lesson that evening. He came back down in bare feet, jeans and an old Smokey the Bear T-shirt to Mom ladling beef stew into bowls.

  “Did something hold you up at work?”

  Wolf shook his head and took the plate from her, devouring three bites of stew before he reached the table.

  “Alex. Manners.”

  “Sorry, Mom.” He swallowed his mouthful, having already burned his tongue. “I had to stop and check something out on the way home.”

  “Oh?”

  He told her about the dogs and the poor momma cat, then about the rats from earlier, and the kitten.

  Mom frowned, stirring her stew to cool it. “That does sound strange. I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

  Before retiring, Mom had been a biology professor at Drexel, so she wasn’t just saying it for conversation. Wolf had held out hope that she would have a reasonable, oh yes, you see that when this and that happens Mom explanation for the mummified bodies. No such luck.

  “Guess I’ll take it to the lieutenant in the morning. See what she thinks.”

  “That’s a sensible idea.”

  They ate in silence for a few minutes, long enough for Wolf to go back to the slow cooker for seconds, before Mom asked, “Is there a reason you don’t like ACO Shen?”

  Wolf looked up from his stew. “I never said that.”

  “You’re very uncomfortable whenever you mention his name, Alex. Does he make fun of you?”

  “No. Um. No.” Wolf put his fork down, staring at the yellow and red flowers on the vinyl tablecloth. “He’s…always nice. I mean, he jokes around sometimes. But not in a mean way.”

  “What is it then?”

  Wolf mumbled his answer.

  “I’m sorry. What was that?”

  He squirmed and let out a long breath. “I want to lick him.”

  “Oh, dear.” Mom’s forehead wrinkled in concern. “You haven’t licked him, have you?”

  “Mom!” Wolf’s face heated to the point where he could have substituted for the slow cooker. “I have some self-control.”

  “I know, sweetie. I was just afraid…well, it’s been a while since Anna, hasn’t it?”

  Wolf nodded miserably. Three years since his last disastrous try at a human relationship. He had no preference regarding gender—transgender, cis-gender, agender, genderqueer, he liked them all if they met certain criteria. Dad had jokingly called him a scentosexual since the collection of scents that made up a particular human could either attract or repel him. Anna had smelled like heaven but she’d found him too strange after a month of dating and told him so. Humiliated and hurt, he hadn’t wanted to try again after that.

  “Officer Shen’s a colleague, Mom. Licking wouldn’t really be professional behavior.”

  “No, I expect not.”

  They both returned to their stew, the ticking of the kitchen clock loud in the suddenly oppressive silence.

  Chapter Three

  The next morning, Wolf found himself fidgeting in Lieutenant Dunfee’s office instead of at his mom’s table. Krisk, of course, didn’t fidget, sitting there stone-still and staring at the lieutenant with his unnerving golden eyes.

  “I don’t like it, gentlemen.” She finally set the file on her desk, shaking her head. “My instincts say this is not a natural process. What did the vets at Animal Control say?”

  “No word yet, ma’am.” Wolf tried to channel Krisk and not squirm as Lieutenant Dunfee’s gaze pinned him hard. “We’ll, um, follow up.”

  “Do that.” She waved them out with a last admonishment. “Keep me up to the minute.”

  Back at their shared desk ten minutes later, Krisk was still staring at the photos, tail thumping rhythmically on the floor.

  “You don’t think it’s natural, either. Do you?” Wolf asked as he set a mint tea down for Krisk. His partner shook his head.

  “Fancy that. Something unnatural in our shop,” Carrington drawled as he walked past. “Will wonders never cease.”

  Krisk gave their vampire his coldest stare, which was hard to tell apart from any other Krisk-stare unless you knew him well.

  “Don’t, Carr,” Wolf growled. “Not now.”

  Instead of moving on, Carrington hitched a hip on the edge of Krisk’s desk to look at the photos, something he never would’ve done even a month ago. Having a steady boyfriend had changed him, though, made him more social, more cheerful.

  It was kinda weird. Wolf wasn’t sure he liked the new Carrington yet but that was probably just because he was so used to the old
snarky, melancholy one.

  “You’re both disturbed by this. Distressed. I could smell it across the room. Over dead animals.” The teasing had fallen from Carrington’s voice, a visible shiver racing through him. “What’s this about?”

  “Not sure yet.” Wolf drummed his fingers on his desk phone. “Hoping Animal Control can tell us something today.”

  Carrington raised an eyebrow at him. “You want extra eyes and preternaturally acute senses on this one?”

  “No idea what you just said, but I wouldn’t mind help.” A quick glance over at Krisk who gave him a nod in approval. “So, yeah. If you and Manda want to check out the scene, we can stop there before AC.”

  “We are at your disposal, gentlemen.” Carrington touched two fingers to his brow in a mocking salute then strode to his own desk in the shadows at the back of the room.

  A heavier tail thump got Wolf’s attention. Krisk was staring after Carrington.

  “Do you understand everything he says?”

  Krisk gave him a nod and a shrug, which Wolf took to mean, most of the time but not always.

  “Good. So long as it’s not just me.”

  The vet at Animal Control expected them at ten, so Wolf took his fellow officers to the site the dogs had led him to the previous evening, all four of them standing in the mouth of the alley, tensed, straining with their various not-usual-human senses.

  “Manda?” Carrington whispered.

  She held up a hand for them to give her a moment for her post-cognitive abilities to give her something. While she was never able to foresee events like the pre-cognitives at State Paranormal, she could sometimes see events in the recent past in bits and pieces. She had told Wolf once that there had to be enough emotional shit built up for her to get anything.

  “I’m seeing through too many eyes. Probably the dogs and the cats, ’cause the view keeps shifting. They’re scared. There’s something, I dunno? Hissing? There’s something gray. I can’t really see it.”

  “Most of what felines and canids see are shades of gray,” Carrington murmured as he turned his head, breathing in slowly between words, one lip curled up over a fang. “So that doesn’t help us.”

  “Do you smell it?” Wolf whispered, not certain why they were keeping their voices down.

  “If by it, you mean garbage, piss, mold and bricks, then yes.” Carrington took two steps forward. “But there’s a…one moment.”

  Slowly, Carrington walked the alleyway, down one side then up the other. Maybe he never hunted for his dinner, beyond getting a new pack out of the fridge, but he was still a hunter at his core. Finally, he stopped where Mama Cat had died and sneezed violently.

  “It’s as if a pile of blue cheese and ancient, unwashed socks had been struck by lightning.” Without even trying, Carrington managed to put the distressing scent into words.

  “Yeah. That smell.” Wolf caught his elbow as he sneezed three more times and nearly unbalanced himself. “Any ideas?”

  “Good gods, no. I’ve never smelled anything quite like it. But there’s nothing of it here now. Old scent and still that strong.”

  Amanda righted Carrington’s hat and guided her woozy partner as they all made their way back out of the alley to the accompaniment of Krisk’s agitated tail thumping. For a long moment, they stood side by side, staring at the dust and shadows.

  “Not liking this, Wolf. Just putting it out there now,” Amanda muttered.

  “Yeah, that’s what the lieutenant said, too.” Wolf scratched behind his ear fretfully before he realized what he was doing and stopped himself. “At least we all agree.”

  At Animal Control, Dr. Miro was waiting for them at the front desk and ushered them back to the treatment room. Her fluffy, fuzzy hair was up in a messy bun secured by colored pencils. They bounced in front of Wolf as she walked and it was all he could do not to take one in his teeth and shake it. He’d always had a thing for pencils.

  “Well, here she is, Officers.” She shooed them all inside and closed the door before she pulled back the sheet to reveal the desiccated cat. “We’re calling her Nefertiti after the Egyptian ruler because, honestly? She looks as if she died in the desert and was buried in the sands for many years.”

  Wolf tore his eyes away from the body. He’d been at human autopsies and never found them this disturbing. “Did you find anything, Doc?”

  “No.” She shook her head, some of the pencils clattering together. “This shouldn’t have happened in a damp alley after the wet summer we had. There’s no agency I can come up with that could have made this happen.”

  “No drying agents?” Carrington asked as he bent close to the cat. “Calcium sulfate? Some alkali or other?”

  “We’ve tested her fur for several chemicals. All we find is cat. She’s suffered no trauma other than the dehydration. It’s hard to tell at this point, but she looks like she was healthy enough. Before.”

  Wolf forced himself to look, to take in everything he could in case it helped later. She’d probably been a pretty cat, a dark tortoiseshell with white paws. “Carr? You smell it, right?”

  “Yes. The same scent as in the alley. Without a shadow of a doubt.”

  “Diseases?” Wolf blurted out after a long moment. “Were there any?”

  “Our normal tests might not be accurate since there are no fluids. Everything we attempted with rehydration came out negative but we’ve sent samples off for more thorough tests.”

  Krisk held out his phone screen toward Dr. Miro and she had to take her glasses down off her head to read the message. “No conclusions. I’m sorry, Officers. I just don’t have much to tell you, except this shouldn’t be possible.”

  “Even that tells us something, Dr. Miro.” Carrington reached out to shake her hand. “We appreciate your time.”

  Another officer, Vance Virago in particular, or even Kyle, might have been offended that Carrington took the lead on his case. Wolf was grateful for his colleague’s ease and grace in dealing with humans and besides, Carr was senior. He could take charge if he wanted. No big deal.

  They were walking back out through the AC officers’ desks when someone called out, “Officer Wolf!”

  He spun to find Jason hurrying toward him. “Oh. Um. Hi. Officer.”

  There was that expression again, the one with the eye crinkles and the pressed together lips and damn it, Wolf wished he knew if it was an angry or an amused one.

  “Morning, Officers Wolf, Krisk. Hey, Manda. Carr.” Jason gave everyone a nod before he turned back to Wolf. “Do you have a sec? It’s about your kitten.”

  “My kitten?”

  “The kitten you found.”

  Wolf nearly balked as Jason took him by the elbow and propelled him toward the cat room. His colleagues were no help at all, standing unmoving by the front desk, Amanda with her arms crossed, Carrington leaning hipshot against the wall and Krisk staring as he often did. But not following. Not coming to help.

  Damn them.

  “So your kitten—”

  “Not my kitten.”

  “The kitten.” Now Jason did laugh. “She’s just about old enough to be weaned but she isn’t yet. So we’re introducing some kitten food, or trying to, and she’ll have to be bottle fed for at least the next week, too. But she won’t eat and she won’t take the bottle. She’s just crying and crying.”

  Teeny baby squeaks reached Wolf’s ears even before Jason opened the door. He knew it was his…the kitten even out in the hall.

  “So I wanted to try something while you’re here.”

  Most of the cat kennels were empty. There were a couple of grown cats and another older kitten but none of them as loud as the kitten from the alley. She put a paw up on the mesh trying to stand on her hind legs, wobbled and fell back only to try again, crying and crying the entire time.

  “Okay, stand here.” Jason positioned him in front of the cage. The kitten cried louder. “I’m going to take her out and hand her to you. I think I’m right. I hope I’m right. If I’
m not, we’re going to have to try more drastic things.”

  Jason opened the cage and scooped the kitten out, her tiny paws waving in the air until he transferred her to Wolf’s hand. He only needed one since she was so small. She still cried but it sounded less…desperate, maybe? More demanding? Tiny kitten claws kneaded his palm as she began to gnaw on his thumb.

  “Good, that’s a good sign.”

  When Wolf glanced up, Jason had a tiny bottle in his hand and a crooked half-smile on his face. He helped position the kitten so she lay on her back in Wolf’s palm.

  “Great. That’s it. Just hold her gently like that.” Jason handed over the bottle. “See if she’ll take that for you.”

  Paws waving, she batted and pawed at the bottle until Wolf managed to get some of the milk replacement near her mouth, which she licked off greedily before latching on to the nipple. The pawing became less frantic and she purred while she sucked down the milk.

  “Yeah, that’s what I was wondering.” Jason shook his head in a bemused way. “She seems to have imprinted on you for some reason. I don’t suppose you might be willing to foster her?”

  Wolf jerked his head around to stare at Jason. “Foster?”

  “Yes.” Jason smoothed the fur between the kitten’s ears, a soft smile on his face. “She’s too little to be in this big noisy place and needs someone to be mom until she’s old enough for adoption.”

  “But…I don’t know anything about kittens!”

  “You have good instincts. And she looks like she’s made her choice pretty clear.”

  Wolf stared down at the tiny life in his hand, a life he had pulled out of a bad situation already. She gazed up at him, her blue eyes blinking in ever-increasing heaviness as she finished her bottle.

  “Oh, hell,” Wolf muttered. “I…I’ll ask Mom. She’d have to watch the kitten during the day.”

  “All we can ask.” Jason took the empty bottle. “I really appreciate you considering it. We do our best to save the little ones but a good home environment is always better.”

  Wolf frowned and pulled the kitten closer to cradle her against his chest. “We don’t have any kitten stuff at home.”