Chapter 8

Jenna couldn’t have been more astounded to see all the outpouring of love for Sarandon. The hugs and smiles—and a few growls when some mentioned they’d love to tear into the guy who had stolen Sarandon’s identity. She watched as wolf after wolf made statements and another deputy sheriff, Trevor Osgood, arrived to be a witness.

“Did you want me to go with you to Colorado Springs?” Lelandi asked Sarandon.

“No, thanks though. If the witness statements and my fingerprints don’t prove I’m not the man they booked, then everyone can arrive together to help me out. Until then, hopefully this will be enough.”

It was nearly midnight by the time all the statements were given. Sam had even brought over dinner for Sarandon and Jenna and the sheriff and his deputies. Unbelievable. And it was really wonderful too.

After the last of the witnesses arrived and four more of the ones on his butterfly tour sent statements to him, Sarandon had forty-two witness statements in hand. Jenna just couldn’t believe it.

“Where to now?” he asked her. “It’s a two-hour drive to the cabin, which means an extra two-hour drive tomorrow when we head to Colorado Springs. Or we can stay at my place. I doubt any police officers are going to arrive to arrest me, now that CJ has contacted them and sent my fingerprints. They know I’m headed in, so no need to waste time and money to come get me.”

“Right. I agree.”

When they arrived at his house, Sarandon opened the door and let her inside, then locked the door. “So tomorrow, I’m thinking I could just ride with you to Colorado Springs and then fly back home and someone will pick me up from the nearby airport. That way, we don’t have to take two cars.”

“Okay, that works for me. I have to admit I was surprised to see so many people come forth to make statements.”

“We’re wolves, a pack, a family. Humans won’t understand. They’ll probably figure it’s because we’re a small, friendly town. It’s a lot more than that. Everyone knows everyone. We all help each other out. And we run into each other all the time while we’re running errands. Nobody’s making false statements. We all have known each other for decades, so it’s not like we would make a mistake about having seen one another. When we see each other on the street, we wave. We’re also wary, so we watch whoever’s wandering around town. It’s not like with humans who don’t notice the people all around them. Plus, we live so long that we’ve known one another forever.”

“And the woman who said she’d swear she was having hot sex with you when the suspect had been arrested?”

Sarandon smiled. “Meghan MacTire is dating Peter. She was just joking, trying to get a reaction out of Peter.”

“Well, he was keeping his cool, but I saw the look he gave her. Besides the fact that having hot sex with her would mean you were mated wolves.”

“Yeah, if we’d been together, Peter would have had me strung up, no worry about identity theft charges. And as sheriff, he’d say he was completely justified.”

She chuckled. The Stepford Wolves did have that darker, wolfish side to them. They were totally territorial.

“Did you still want to sleep with me? You said you needed to stick to me.” He looked hopeful.

Smiling, she shook her head. “I’d say you were in the clear.”

“Okay, well, I don’t have a guest room. Just an office and a junk room and an empty room.”

“Empty room?”

“I’m trying to keep it from becoming a second junk room.”

She smiled. “I can sleep on the couch.”

“Wouldn’t think of it. You can have the bed. Let me just change the sheets.”

“It’s really not necessary.”

“Changing the sheets?”

She laughed. He was already stripping the bed, so she helped him. “You’re all right with sleeping on the couch?”

“If you insist.”

“Well, you can sleep anywhere, as long as it’s not with me. Cohabitation between a suspect and the fugitive recovery agent is strictly forbidden.”

“I proved beyond a doubt that I’m not this guy.”

“Right. Now you have to prove it to the police and get your name cleared.”

“And I suppose you want me to catch this guy for you too.”

“That’s my job. Though my mother put up a reward for tips leading to his arrest.” The thought did occur to Jenna that if there was an added incentive, Sarandon might help her with the case. Not as in just clearing his own name or looking for the guy on his own, but actually going with her to track down the guy. Then again, she thought he had the best lead—his dad had possibly fathered a child that was his half brother, and he might want to help her locate him for that reason alone. She really wanted to work with Sarandon. Still, he hadn’t had any of the kind of training she’d had. Yet he did say he was going to take his brother’s place as deputy sheriff while he and his mate had their vacation. She was certain Sarandon must have had training to be able to substitute for CJ.

She helped pull the fitted sheet onto the mattress.

“I don’t need any money to give me an incentive to take this guy down.”

“I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t either. You said Ritka was having an affair with your dad. If she had a baby by him, no one knew, correct?”

“She had a couple of female friends, but they’re dead.” Sarandon changed out the pillowcases, then hauled the used bedding out of the room.

She followed him. “I keep a diary.”

He looked back at her, his face brightening a bit.

“Do you journal?” Jenna asked. She only said it because she wondered if Ritka had mentioned having the baby in a diary. Maybe not, if she wanted to keep the shame of having a baby secret when she and Sheridan hadn’t agreed to reveal they were mated.

“Uh, no, I don’t journal. If Ritka and my dad had a child, they would have been mated.”

“Right, but if he was trying to hide the fact that they had mated, she’d have to keep the child secret.”

“Gotcha. Ritka had a diary.”

“Oh? Where is it?”

“It was for the period of time that Sheridan had been involved in several illegal actions. That’s how we verified the truth about him. It didn’t go beyond three years. If she had more diaries, Darien didn’t mention them.”

“If Sheridan made her get rid of the baby, he might have made sure she didn’t keep any record of it.”

“Possibly. I’ll call Darien and see if he knows of any other diaries. They wouldn’t have been relevant to the murder case, so no one probably read them.”

* * *

Sarandon could believe anything where his father was concerned. In the beginning, he’d fought against believing his father had done anything wrong. Now, nothing surprised him. He started the load of wash. Then he pulled out his phone and called his pack leader. “Hey, Darien, did you find any other diaries of Ritka’s?”

“We have them in storage for evidence, though we never used the others, just the one that convicted Sheridan of his crimes. What are you looking for?”

“A half brother.”

Darien didn’t say anything for a moment. “Hell.”

“Yeah, my thoughts too. What would be the likelihood that a near-clone likeness of me would steal my ID and not be related?”

“Slim, I would think. We have a special code to get into the warehouse. CJ can get you in, and he’ll know where Ritka’s things are stored.”

“Thanks, Darien. I’ll call him now.”

“There were a lot of diaries and journals. We live a long time. She didn’t have any relatives to pass them on to, so we just kept them in storage.”

“Good.”

“If you do really have a half brother, he might have been born at any time.”

Sarandon knew that. Which was why he wanted to get started on it tonight. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, thinking that a half brother may be the one who’d stolen his identity. If he had, then what? The guy must have been given to another pack to raise. He might have only recently learned who his father and mother were.

“Did Ritka have any siblings? Or other relations living with another pack that we know of?”

“None that I know of who are living. Which is why we couldn’t give her property to anyone. She had a twin sister, but she died years ago, according to Ritka.”

“Do we know if her sister was mated?”

“No, we don’t. She didn’t stay with our pack, so she could have mated someone and have a different last name than Ritka. Jackson is common enough that looking for an Evie Jackson who mated and changed her name won’t be easy.”

“You don’t know when she was supposed to have died?”

“No, but it was years ago. Dad was running the pack back then.”

“Okay, maybe I can find in a diary whether she had a son by my dad. Maybe she wrote who she gave the baby to.”

Darien sighed. “All right. Talk to you later.”

“Thanks, Darien.” Sarandon called CJ next. “Hey, I need you to help me locate Ritka’s diaries. Darien said they’re stored at the evidence warehouse.”

“For?”

“I’m trying to find out if Dad had a son by Ritka and she recorded it.”

“Ah, hell. All right. I’ll meet you over there.”

“Thanks, Brother.” Sarandon hated making CJ help, but this was too important not to look into. He figured finding the information quickly would be too much to hope for. He envisioned staying up all night and reading through diary after diary. He just hoped Ritka’s handwriting was legible.

“We’re going to a warehouse to look at years of diaries, I take it,” Jenna said, grabbing her purse.

“You don’t have to go with me.”

“Are you kidding? If this is a lead to my suspect, I definitely have to.”

He hadn’t wanted her to do this for him, but he realized from her words that she wasn’t. She still had a job to do. He swore he was such a sap sometimes when he thought a she-wolf he was interested in might be interested in him.

“Hopefully, we’ll find it right away,” she said, following him out to the car. When they drove off, she added, “We still need to leave first thing tomorrow for Colorado Springs so we can get your name cleared. That means we need to get some sleep tonight.”

“You don’t need to go. Your priority is finding this guy. Not proving my innocence.”

She smiled a little at him.

He wasn’t sure how to take her smile, but he suspected it had something to do with how growly he was feeling.

“You’ll need me to back you up if you get arrested. I can arrange for help for you right away, if that happens. You might not get to make a call immediately. Besides, if we learn a name and where he might be located from a diary, he could be my suspect. I need all the leads I can get.”

“What if there’s nothing in Ritka’s diary to say she had a son? This is all pure speculation.”

“I’m sure someone from your pack could keep looking while we’re gone.”

Sarandon was sure he could solicit someone’s help to do that, but he really wanted to learn the truth before they left in the morning.

When he reached the warehouse, no one was there.

“CJ’s on his way.” Sarandon parked, wishing CJ had already opened up the place. If the building hadn’t had a special secure lock, Sarandon would have used his standard lupus garou lockpick on it. He fought pacing back and forth in front of the building, not wanting Jenna to see how impatient he could be. As much as he wanted to pull out his cell phone and call his brother, he wouldn’t.

“He’ll be here,” Jenna assured him.

Sarandon glanced at her.

“No telling what he might have been in the middle of when you called.” Jenna folded her arms and smiled.

He hadn’t considered that. Then he heard his brother’s car engine. “That’s CJ.”

As if it would be anyone else.

CJ pulled up in his Land Rover and greeted them both. “Sorry it took me so long.”

“No problem,” Sarandon said, hoping he hadn’t interrupted anything. “If you’ll just let us in and show us where Ritka’s stuff is stored, we’ll get to work on this.”

CJ unlocked the door, then turned on a light and led them down a hallway. The evidence was either secured in lockers or, as in Ritka’s case, in a caged area. “A table and some chairs are in there. All her stuff is in that cage.”

They walked inside the eight-by-ten room and looked inside the secured area. Everything was in boxes. They saw several marked with her name, some of them listing the contents as diaries.

“Okay, this is it. Thanks, CJ. We’ll call you when we need to lock up.”

“It’ll lock automatically. And no problem.”

“On a guess, I’d say there are around a hundred diaries in here,” Jenna said.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” CJ said.

“You don’t need to stay.” Sarandon hadn’t expected him to help. Tomorrow, if they didn’t find what they were looking for, maybe, but not tonight.

“Always the jokester.” CJ walked back down the hallway and left the building. They soon heard his engine turn on, and he backed out of the parking area and drove off.

“So you’re a jokester?” Jenna said, unloading the first box of diaries and setting them neatly on one end of the three-by-six-foot table.

Sarandon chuckled under his breath. “Hardly. CJ was making a joke.”

She laughed. “Okay. I kind of wondered. You have a fun sense of humor, but I really couldn’t see you as a jokester, and I’m usually good about profiling people.”

“Like you thought I was guilty?”

“Well, you have to admit your face was on the ID and you did get caught—even if it wasn’t you.”

He set another box on the floor at the other end of the table to give them room to work. Instead of emptying his box and piling the diaries on the table like Jenna did, he pulled one diary out of the box, not wanting to crowd his space. She studied his work flow and smiled.

He began reading and groaned.

Jenna was already reading a diary and didn’t look up from scanning the content, searching for anything about Ritka’s association with Sheridan. “What?”

“Can you read her handwriting? I can see a case of major eyestrain coming on.”

“Yeah, I can. You’ll get used to it and begin to recognize words after a bit.” She went back to reading, but they both stopped when they heard a car drive up.

“Brett’s vehicle. Either Darien or CJ must have called him to see if he could help.”

Then another vehicle pulled up. Jenna smiled.

“Jake’s car.” And another parked outside. “CJ’s back,” Sarandon said.

Then people started coming into the building. Not just Sarandon’s brothers Brett and CJ and his cousin Jake, but at least three or four other pack members with each of them.

More cars pulled up.

Sarandon smiled. He loved his pack.

After a while, fifteen pack members had boxes spread out on the floor, and some were sitting at the table with Jenna and Sarandon. Others sat on the floor, going through every diary, page by page.

“Thanks, everyone. You don’t know how much this means to me,” Sarandon said, not believing CJ or Darien had notified so many in the pack to help him and Jenna out.

“We sort of do,” Eric said, joining the group and bringing five members of his new pack with him.

Sarandon was surprised to see his older brother. “Hell, Eric. You had a long drive.”

“Well, you’d sure as hell do the same for me. Besides, we were on the way here already. If Ritka had a son, he’d be my half brother too. If he’d been living with us, I would have whipped his ass into shape, and he would never have been in any trouble. Or created trouble for you.”

Sarandon chuckled. He was sure that was true. Eric certainly had kept the family together and had been responsible for his three brothers when their dad had quit caring about them.

Eric made a pack member move so he could sit at the table. Even though he wasn’t a member of this pack any more, he had always been a pack leader at heart, and he wasn’t changing the way he did business when he returned here.

“Do you really think Dad had another kid?” Brett asked. “Usually, it’s hard to keep much secret in a pack.”

“Ha!” CJ said. “Look how many secrets our dad kept from us that we’ve only recently uncovered. So yeah, I’d say it was possible. Even likely.”

“It’s way too much of a coincidence that this guy steals your ID and looks so similar to you,” Brett said.

Another car pulled up, and then another. That was Darien and Peter.

Sarandon looked up at them as they walked into the caged area.

“How’s it going?” Darien asked.

Sarandon looked back at the diary he was trying to read through. It was giving him eyestrain and a major headache. “Still looking. No one’s found any mention of Dad and Ritka yet. Or of Ritka being pregnant.”

Before Darien could take a seat on the floor, another wolf at the table quickly gave up his chair. “Thanks, Mervin,” Darien said.

Another pack member let Peter have his seat. As sheriff, Peter was well respected and everyone liked him.

“Any word from any law enforcement agencies about the sketches you sent to them?” Sarandon couldn’t imagine writing notes in a diary every day when Ritka really had nothing to say—what she was going to cook, a few things about patients she’d taken care of as a nurse at the clinic, but nothing novel-worthy. And it was the same thing day in and day out. Sometimes he’d get a break when she skipped a day or more and didn’t write anything.

“Not yet,” Peter said.

Sam and Silva arrived, bringing sandwiches, sodas, tea, coffee, and water.

“How much do I owe you?” Sarandon asked, standing and pulling out his wallet.

“Nothing,” Darien said. “It comes out of pack funds.”

“Thanks,” Sarandon said.

“If the pack hadn’t paid for the food, we would have given it for free,” Sam said.

“Now you tell me.” Darien smiled and continued to read one of the diaries.

“I found something,” Jake said. “She doesn’t say who she was seeing, but she said she’d hooked up with a wolf and she was in love. Then several pages later, a couple of weeks, and she admits he’s mated.”

Sarandon gaped at Jake. “Don’t tell me it was my dad and it occurred before my mother died.”