Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery
Jaime Johnesee
DevilDog Press
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Shifters Series
About the Author
Also by Jaime Johnesee
Also Available From DevilDog Press
Thank You
Copyright © 2016 by Jaime Johnesee
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Editor: Rob M. Miller
Cover art: Dane at ebooklaunch.com
Created with Vellum
I'd like to dedicate this book to Lisa Lane who helped me grow Sam into the lovely werejaguar you're about to meet.
A big thank you to my husband and kids for putting up with my muse, and me.
Huge thank yous to Tracy Tufo and Devil Dog Press for believing in me and Sam, to my awesome beta readers who helped me smooth the story out, and Rob M. Miller for his hand in polishing this book into the gem I feel it's become.
Chapter 1
DOING HIS BEST TO NOT CONTAMINATE THE CRIME SCENE, Officer Joshua Hahn vomited into a plastic bag as I stood busy looking over the remains that was making the poor newbie blow chunks. When I say remains, I’m not trying to be polite; the body had been left shredded and broken in a bathtub.
Human stew.
The largest shard of bone found on this case had been a three-inch piece of femur. What lay before me looked more like cheap ground beef with a ton of gristle.
I decided that I probably wouldn’t be eating cheeseburgers anytime soon.
Looking at the morgue tech, I asked, “Same as the last two?”
“Looks like it to me, but I can’t say for certain until we get this mess back to the lab.” The tech continued ladling the remains into a five-gallon bucket.
I shuddered to think about how bad the doc was going to have it once those remains made it to the morgue. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to sift through all that masticated meat. Which, regrettably, is exactly what it was. Someone had eaten parts of the victims and spat some of the meat into the tub. Lab tests showed teeth marks on the bone and flesh samples from both of the other bodies we’d collected.
Unfortunately, the case hadn’t caught FBI attention until Hahn ran the details for the second scene through ViCAP, the Bureau’s database that tracks and correlates information on violent crime—and one of the tools I was most thankful for. I was even more thankful when they added supernatural status to the case reports. Though a rare event, this kind of red flag helped us to keep track of supernatural-related crimes while making sure the assigned team had the right skills to bring down the unsub, regardless of species.
When Hahn made the connection and called the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division where I work, we saw the links he’d connected were sound and kept an eye on ViCAP for another body.
The pictures from the first two scenes had been horrific, but actually standing here with the remains of his latest kill, the horror was tenfold.
“Have you guys come across anything else in the room?” I was really hoping for a break in the case.
“Nope, though the crime scene guys said there are prints everywhere, just like the other two scenes.” The tech continued ladling as he spoke and I felt my own stomach start to lurch. “Hopefully they’ll yield some results.” “This guy is a fucking monster.” I have a tendency to speak my mind.
“That he is. He didn’t leave anything but their DNA for them to be identified by. If we’re lucky, the motel, or someone will have a camera on this place and we can see who it was he brought in here.”
“I hope to hell we are lucky, because I don’t want to see another scene like this again.” I shuddered.
“Me, neither. I’ve never had to ladle a body before and I served in Afghanistan and dealt with all manner of suicide bomber.”
I felt bad for the morgue guy, but worse for the victims.
“Do you think we can match the teeth and tool marks to the others?” I was hoping for a yes; the guys at the US District Attorney’s office liked that sort of evidence.
“I really don’t know. You’ll have to talk to trace. As far as I can tell, the teeth marks are similar to the other two, but I’m only going off of the photographs. You’ll want confirmation from forensics.”
“Thanks.” I nodded and walked over to my partner, Quinn O’Reilly.
“Hey, Sam. Damn, he really tore this one up, huh?”
“I thought the pictures were bad, but it really looks like he’s escalating. We need to find this guy soon before more women die.”
“We don’t even know if this one is a woman. I agree on the escalation, though. I’ve seen a lot of bodies in my day, but never anything like this … at least nothing that wasn’t the result of an industrial machine of some sort. Whoever this guy is he has some serious power.”
“You’re telling me. There were some intact bones at the last scene, but here … it looks more like hamburger.”
“I just hope we can figure out his victim profile so we can start warning the public,” Hahn added from behind me.
“Hello there.” I was a little miffed.
I don’t like people sneaking up on me; call me old fashioned, but I find it rude.
“Sorry. I was at the last scene, too.”
“And yet you still managed to evacuate your stomach,” I teased.
“Hey, I’m not used to seeing shit like this, Agent Reece. Give me a break.” Officer Hahn reddened a bit.
I grinned. “It’s okay, I would’ve puked,
