time.”
“I need to reach out to some contacts. Check in with the others and see what you can learn. There has to be something we’re missing.”
“Do you want me to call my incubus friends?” Aleron asked.
“Do it,” Logan said. “We need information if we’re going to find this fucker.”
Logan shared the few insights he’d found with Detective Alfred before heading toward the club. Scout let out a frustrated growl at Logan’s approach, then breathed in deep. He took a startled step back, his eyes wide as he stared at Logan.
“What?”
“You… oh. Well. Um.”
Dasan shot a confused glare toward the young wolf. “What’s wrong?”
It took Logan a second to realize how potent he probably smelled. He’d not bothered showering before leaving Bailey’s, and with Scout being focused on scenting at the moment, he no doubt had picked up on what Logan had spent the previous night doing.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Logan said. “Scout, what have you got?”
Dasan glanced between them but didn’t question Logan’s word. Scout scratched his head and scowled. “There’s a scent here. I know it from somewhere. But I can’t remember…”
Logan stepped closer. “Show me.”
Scout nodded and took Logan to a dark area of the parking lot. “I first caught it here, but it’s nearly gone now.”
Logan breathed in and attempted to catalog the scents he encountered. Many wolves didn’t work on this area of their senses because it could quickly become overwhelming. Most of them learned at an early age to tune the scents out completely.
If they didn’t, their brains were constantly bombarded with scent after scent, an endless supply of information that constantly needed to be processed and filed away. Logan had always preferred the knowledge his sense of smell gave him and had worked to hone it as a skill. Even still, it overwhelmed him sometimes.
And at moments like this, when it was important to isolate a single scent out of hundreds in the small area where they stood, it became even more difficult to isolate what your senses were trying to tell you. It took him a minute, but he finally caught the vaguest hint of something other.
He focused on it for another long minute, letting his mind form connections he didn’t even understand. All he knew was that it didn’t smell like anything he’d encountered before. Somehow, the incubus kept managing to change its scent, but at least now he had something new to track it with.
“Keep processing it, Scout. Relax and let your wolf do the work.”
The young wolf nodded and mimicked Logan’s actions. He closed his eyes and breathed.
“Good, now file it away. You’ll know when you smell it again.”
“I want to find this thing,” Scout said.
“We will. Dasan, anything?”
“Security cameras don’t point here, so if this is where he hid, they likely won’t pick him up. There are cameras at the door and inside the club in a couple places. I’m sure the cops will process them once they get here.”
“Good. We’ll make sure Detective Alfred gets a team over here. Let’s go check the victim’s residence.”
Unfortunately, they didn’t have any luck there either. It didn’t appear that the attacker had stalked Jeff at home. Neither Logan nor Scout caught any scent of other—or lack of scent at all—at Jeff’s apartment complex.
They made their way back to the warehouse, where Logan wanted nothing more than to take his frustrations out on the new punching bag that had arrived a few days before. He’d not even taken the time to set it up yet and had a feeling another new one would have to be ordered.
Instead, they went to the upstairs room they used for keeping track of their cases. They had whiteboards and plenty of wall space to tack up pictures and other information. It helped Logan to see things laid out visually, so he wasn’t at all surprised to find a small stack of papers already waiting for him at the printer.
The oracle had read his mind once again.
Gideon helped him get the information on the walls from the first two attacks. “What do we know?”
“Both seem like victims of chance,” Gideon said. “Both Ashley and Rebecca were college students attending college bars. Jeff was a student as well. Neither appeared to be stalked beforehand.”
“Except he did know the scenes, and knew them well.”
“That freezer thing couldn’t have been known by that many people,” Scout said. “Employees and maybe the contractors who installed it?”
“Delivery people,” Dasan added.
“I’m sure the cops have that angle covered, but I’ll confirm with Detective Alfred next