“Hell. Doc, I need the area we found her in combed for evidence. I thought only Jake and I had been there with her. If we can find other footprints, size of shoe, scent, anything...”
“I asked your uncle to investigate, but not to tell you until I had a chance to discuss this with you.”
Darien would not have this insubordination! No one withheld information from him that was this important! He opened his mouth to say so when Ritka shrieked from the direction of Larissa’s hospital room.
Chapter 9
SILVA AND RITKA FOUGHT WITH EACH OTHER NEXT TO Lelandi’s bed, as she tried to ignore the yelling. Jake leaned against the doorframe, shaking his head.
Until Darien and the doctor stalked into the room and Darien shouted. “Enough! What the hell happened?” He appeared somewhat rattled, his face slightly drained of color, and he studied Lelandi a little too closely. Her neck actually.
She took a deep, settling breath. Good, peace and quiet now that the boss man has arrived.
“She hit me!” Ritka screamed.
Yeah, and if they hadn’t restrained me, I’d do it again!
“We can see,” Darien said calmly. “I want to know why.”
Lelandi fought to find the words, but the IV was hooked up to her arm again, and she figured heavier duty drugs were pouring into her veins because she could barely concentrate on what was being said, let alone keep her eyes open.
“She ripped out the IV and when I tried to stop her, the bitch hit me.”
“You grabbed her sore arm and yanked her back so hard, pain filled her face. That’s why she hit you.” Silva scolded. “Haven’t you ever heard of a good bedside manner?”
“Yeah,” Lelandi said, slurring her word.
Without taking his eyes off Lelandi, Darien said to Ritka. “What did you say to her?”
Ritka shrugged. “Nothing of consequence.”
“I just bet.” Darien glowered at her like she was next on the head-chopping block. “Why isn’t she any better, Doc?”
“Low-grade fever. She needs to stay until tonight at least. I’ll see then how she’s doing.” The doctor motioned for Ritka to leave.
She glared at Lelandi, then stomped out of the room.
“Did Larissa say anything to you, Jake?” Darien asked.
“Not a word.”
“Talked... ‘bout... you... an ... me.” Lelandi tried to scowl at Jake.
Darien shifted his attention to his brother, whose ears immediately tinged crimson. “You and I’ll speak later. Did she say anything to you, Silva?”
“Nope. And whatever Ritka said to her happened before I arrived. She looks pretty glassy-eyed, Darien. Don’t think she’s really with it.”
“What did she say to you?” Darien reached his hand out to touch Lelandi’s, but then he seemed to think better of it and shoved his hands in his pocket.
“About... green... dep’ty.”
Darien’s eyes rounded. “She told you about the deputy sheriff from Green Valley?”
She managed a slow nod.
“Shit.” He looked back at her neck and shook his head. “A snake, huh?”
Lelandi closed her eyes and hoped she’d be able to keep her mouth shut until they took her off the pain medication. Otherwise, she’d have to make up wild stories to mix in with whatever else she said.
Then she remembered her damned donut and lifted her finger at the wastepaper basket. Donut, she mumbled.
After she fell asleep, Darien motioned to Jake to come with him. I” want to know what the hell you said to Larissa.”
Jake shook his head. “She’s a wildcat. Where Lelandi was too much of an angel, this one has the devil in her.”
They walked into Doc’s empty office to talk.
Jake shut the door. “But I really don’t think she should go to our home.”
“It’s the safest place for her for the time being. But that’s not what I want to talk about. What did you say to her?”
Looking defiant, Jake shoved his hands in his pockets. “I told her you’ve already been through hell with her sister. You don’t need to have to deal with her, too. As for taking her to the house, you know how the rumors will fly.”
“I’m not interested in having her for a mate, but it’s my business, not yours. I’ll deal with her as I see fit. Understand?”
‘Yeah,” Jake said grudgingly. “So what’s the deal with this deputy sheriff from Green Valley and snakes?”
Darien explained everything, and how their uncle was Investigating the crime scene where they’d found Larissa. “Did you see or smell anything when we were with her?”
Jake shook his head. “I was concentrating on alerting the rest of our pack that we’d found the lady, and then we learned Sam had been shot.”
“Could the guy who strangled her be the same one who shot the gunman? Distance-wise, do you think he could have made it up there in time?”
“We don’t know when he left her.”
Darien frowned in thought. “Probably when we were drawing close. He heard our voices.”
“Then there must be two of them.”
“Great.” Darien ran his hands through his hair. “Now that I recall, I distinctively smelled the odor of decomposing leaves, but no smell of any lupus garou in human form, just that god-awful perfume Larissa was wearing. Do you think the perpetrator was wearing human’s hunter spray to disguise his scent?”
“I’ll have Uncle Sheridan check out the location and see if rotting leaves were in the vicinity. Now that you mention it. I smelled it also. But remember the red I got a whiff of?”
“He was in wolf form and couldn’t have strangled her.”
“True. What about this Leidolf? Are you sure we shouldn’t contact him?”
“We don’t know who he is really. Peter is looking into it. What I want to know is did she have a bag and if so, was it stolen?”
Jake stared out the window at the mountain view where clouds perched on top in a mist, coating the peaks like whipped topping. “Trevor questioned Mrs. Hastings who said her grandkids were visiting when Larissa checked In, so she was distracted and didn’t see if Larissa had a bag or not. She paid in cash and—”
“What name did she register under?”
“Melanie Weber.”
His eyes narrowed, Darien thought about the name. “The name sounds familiar.” He rubbed his chin as he thought back to her earlier comments. “She kept asking to see a Doctor Weber. He’s got to be real.” Darien glanced at Doc’s medical degrees and other certificates displayed across the wall, updated periodically over the decades to make it appear Doc wasn’t as old as he was. “I want you to find anybody by that name in the state who’s a practicing physician.”
“But Leidolf says she’s from Portland.”
“Deputy Smith said he was sure she was from Colorado. Another thing, Larissa said she received a letter from Lelandi before she died. It wasn’t in her purse. If it was in her bag, it’s gone. Apparently, a lupus was blackmailing Lelandi.”
Jake swore under his breath, “One of ours?”
If it led to her death, whoever had been blackmailing Darien’s mate was a dead lupus garou. “The letter didn’t say.”
“Larissa told you this when she was out of it?”
“She seemed pretty lucid, but she might not have been. Hell. I don’t know.”
“Where else could the letter be?” Jake asked.
“Maybe she burned it in the fireplace, or hid it somewhere else at the B&B. Mrs. Hastings mentioned Larissa was holding a letter in her lap in the loft and a teenaged guest said Larissa had been crying. It must have been the letter.”