In the other room, the chest of drawers was completely devoid of clothing. Downstairs in her office, they didn't find anything but her billings to customers and to grocery stores in the area.
"I'll…" Trevor started to say when the front door swung open and Gavin and Cameron pointed their weapons at the entrance.
Kintail held up his hands in surrender, his amber eyes darkening, narrowed. "Just me. Find anything?" he asked Faith, looking at her as if she was the only hope he had in the world.
"A swimsuit," Trevor eagerly said. "She's one of them. A woman."
"Older, gray-haired, heavy-set, Mary McNichol's her name," Cameron said, holding up an invoice.
"And the men?" Kintail asked.
"It appears they've never been here. We couldn't find any trace of their scents." Faith looked back at the kitchen. "But there was an empty bag with her cookie company's name on it at one of Charles's cabins that's under renova tion. We smelled all of them there. So they work together, only the men must avoid her house for some reason."
"Do you have another clue?" Kintail asked.
"No, but if we split forces, we could ask various busi ness owners, like these grocers," Faith said, pointing to a list of the places Mary sold to wholesale, "if they know Mary and have any idea about a redheaded Chris and a dark-haired Matt. It's worth a try. Surely someone's seen the woman with the men, and they'll know last names and an address."
"I'll go to the grocery store here," Trevor said.
Kintail waited for Faith to say where she planned to go. "I'll be checking out the lodge where Cameron and I first stayed. A clerk I talked to knew a lot about you and your wolves. Maybe she knows something about Mary and her friends," Faith said.
Kintail looked like he wanted to go with her, but she handed him a list, thwarting him. "You might want to have your people check out these other businesses that dealt with her. Before long, everything will be closing. So we need to hurry."
Almost in panic, Kintail immediately began snapping orders to his men, while Cameron escorted Faith back to the SUV, with Gavin and Leidolf joining them.
"If we make Faith one of our partners," Gavin said, walking with them back to her SUV rental, not leaving Faith and Cameron's side for an instant, "we could sit back and watch her work and she could solve all our cases for us. Of course we'd provide her with protection. Think that could work?"
Cameron opened her door for her and shook his head at Gavin.
"I don't know," Gavin said, smiling, "I really think she's worth taking a chance on."
But she wondered if he'd think so if he knew what she and Cameron had become. She climbed into the front passenger seat and watched as Leidolf came around to the left side of the car and climbed in. She thought he was going to go sleuthing on his own. He'd been so quiet all along, she wondered what he was thinking.
But when they got to the hotel, she saw just what he intended to do. After getting a room so he could use the Internet and one of the lodge's guest computers, he sat down at one in the lobby and began searching through websites, looking for the Dark Angels. Gavin remained with him while Faith and Cameron got a room for the night.
Unfortunately, the clerk who'd been on the desk the evening they had arrived wasn't here tonight. But when Faith described her to the man at the desk, he said, "Sissy? Yeah, she knows everybody's business. We learned a long time ago if we wanted a rumor spread, tell Sissy. If you don't want the world to know, mum's the word around her."
"But she'll be on duty here in the morning, right?"
"First thing, six in the morning."
"Good, that's my kind of time." She took Cameron's hand and led him to Leidolf's table as he surfed the Net, barely pausing to see what she wanted. "We'll be in Room 213. What's your room number, Leidolf?"
"It's 442. Gavin can stay with me."
"If you find anything, let us know, okay? We're going up to the room to discuss plans."
A small smile lifted Gavin's lips, but he didn't say anything. Leidolf glanced up from the computer screen and frowned at Cameron. "Remember what I said, Cameron. We do things differently. Once you reach a certain point, there's no turning back. Not for us."
"I'll keep it in mind, Leidolf. Thanks for the advice." But Cameron sounded like he was peeved that Leidolf would mention it.
But she understood. Being a pack leader, Leidolf was used to taking charge of a situation. He probably didn't trust Cameron and her to follow the rules of their society, yet. And he was probably right not to trust them. At least, she figured some of the rules might need to be broken.
Cameron walked back out to the vehicle to get a single bag for each of them, then he led her to the elevator. "You really were talking about discussing plans to locate David and Owen, right?"
"Absolutely. I have to assimilate what I've seen. I kind of categorize everything in my mind, run over it mentally, back and forth, until I come up with another idea. There's no one way to do this. Something triggers something, and then that triggers something else. And then we've got our man, or woman."
"Or three men and a woman."
As they walked to their room, Faith said quietly, "Or more."
Once they were settled in the room, Faith pulled off her parka, hat and gloves, kicked off her snow boots, and climbed onto the bed. "Want to order some room service?" She leaned against the pillow and closed her eyes.
"You're going to go to sleep?"
She didn't open her eyes. "This is how I think, Cameron. Really. I have to have absolute quiet, shut down everything but my mind, so I can think."
"What do you want to eat?"
"Salmon. If they have any."
"What did Leidolf say to you?"
Faith opened her eyes and narrowed her gaze at Cameron. "My dad's a red wolf, damn it, and he has a red wolf girlfriend. And he's happy with everything that's transpired." She snapped her eyes shut.
Cameron moved in close to the bed and kissed the frown on Faith's forehead. "He's alive and well, and that's all that's important, Faith, honey. That's all that matters."
Afraid that her father might have been eliminated, or would be soon, Cameron was damned relieved her father was fine.
She quit frowning. "You're right." And then she didn't say anything more.
He watched her, worried that she was going to fall asleep on him when every minute that passed meant his partners were at risk. Then he gave up and ordered the salmon dinners. Every officer, every investigator had their own methods to work things out. Some looked over evidence a million times, some had to visit the crime scene to visualize what might have occurred, everyone did something a little bit differently. Combing through the physical evidence was more his style, so just thinking about random happenings didn't work for him.
For a while, he stared out the window at the parking lot, trying to figure out where they could look next, hoping that Kintail's people would pick up another lead, or that Leidolf would. He glanced at Faith. Her breathing seemed shallow. Hell, she had fallen asleep.
He kicked off his boots and joined her in bed, pulling her against his body, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand planted on his stomach, her inner thigh pressed against his thigh. Breathing in her subtle lavender fragrance, he felt the shaft of desire slamming into him. Every sense on higher alert—the sound of her soft intake as she took a deep breath, her fingers spread across his belly in a tantalizing touch, her leg draped over his as if screaming I'm yours, take me—keenly affected him. Ever since he'd felt he'd nearly lost her when she was in her wolf form, he'd been forced to realize how much the woman was already part of his life. How much it would kill him if she no longer was.
He stroked her hair, his other arm wrapped around her, holding her close, enjoying the moment of silence, of peace, wishing he didn't have to worry about his friends being in trouble at a time like this, when there was a knock at the door.
"Room service," a man cheerfully called out.
Cameron slipped out from under Faith and headed for the door. When he opened it, the man rolled in the cart, the same one who had brought him the steak the first night Cameron had been here. The man glanced at Faith, and Cameron expected him to smile at the sight of her sleeping on the bed, figuring he'd have remembered her slipping on her boots while Cameron was wearing only a towel, and that the lady was more or less a permanent guest of his, when Cameron noted a tattoo on the man's hand.
The words Dark Angel in small print stood out as if the letters were as visible as a billboard on a high speed highway.
Faith opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "The food's here."
The man was already edging toward the door, his eyes wide. Something clued him in about who Cameron and Faith were, or maybe just Faith, but he wasn't waiting for his tip and that confirmed Cameron's suspicions.
The man turned to bolt. Cameron tackled him to the floor. The guy was wiry, flailing with arms and legs, trying to connect with anything that might help him break free, but with his stomach pressed against the floor, he didn't have much leverage. If Cameron hadn't needed him to be coherent, he would have just as soon knocked him out.
"Who is he?" Faith asked, as she hurried to get Cameron's gun from his holster on the bedside table.
"One of them."
The man's green eyes widened even more when he saw Faith pointing the gun at him. "Where are they?" she asked, in a voice that bordered on dangerous.
He grew very still.
Someone knocked on the door, and Faith called out, "Yes?"
"It's me, Gavin."
Cameron nodded, still pinning their Dark Angel conspirator to the floor. Faith went to the door, but had the gun poised just in case Gavin wasn't alone.
She might not be a police officer, but she sure knew what she was doing.
