Cain glanced over his shoulder and frowned. "You lost faith in me?"
Adam nodded. "Yes. The evidence was hard to disprove, but the conversation between the judge and Lilith has shown me I was wrong."
"You mean the part about the security system?" I guessed.
"Precisely that. Cain is terrible at numbers, and worse at modern technology. He would never have been able to deactivate it," Adam explained.
I glanced between the pair. "Um, not to burst your theory bubble, but what if Abel just gave him the code?"
Cain shook his head. "Abel would have had to be very desperate to reveal the security system combination to anyone. He was very suspicious of others."
I snorted. "Sounds like the whole werewolf world is one big pack of paranoid people," I quipped.
"Unfortunately, one doesn't live long trusting others as Ashton proved," Adam reminded me.
I sighed. "Well, what now? Do we keep cramping up in here or can we get back to that lovely dark tunnel so I can get a breath of fresh mildewy air?"
"We will go see Lilith," Cain suggested.
Adam frowned. "That isn't wise. They brought her here for the purpose of luring you to her."
"Yes, but they don't know we're here yet, and I have not seen my mate in many months," Cain argued. He didn't listen to any more reason, but crawled away from us towards the end of the tunnel. Cain popped open a vent panel at the end and slipped out into the little nook.
"So follow or no?" I whispered to Adam.
"Follow, if only to keep him out of trouble. He can become very blind when a matter involves Lilith," Adam explained.
I snorted as we moved forward after Cain. "You don't say?"
Chapter 10
We followed Cain out of the vent and into the small nook. Cain glanced around the corner and sniffed the air. "It's all clear."
"But not for our scents. We will leave them behind," Adam pointed out.
Cain turned to him with a glare. "You needn't come. This is a private conversation," he shot back.
"Nothing is private in a murder case, and you were the one to ask for our help," Adam reminded him.
Cain sighed and nodded his head. "Yes, forgive an old wolf for forgetting that. I guess I'm just eager to see her again." Cain took off a couple of layers of his clothes and stuffed them into our arms. "This will cover your scent, at least a little."
I took a whiff of the clothes and wrinkled my nose. "Or maybe a lot. The guards get a whiff of this and they might think another werewolf died."
"Dress quickly and we will move across the hall," Cain commanded us.
Adam and I draped the clothes over our bodies. Cain looked around the corner again and signaled us with his hand. He dashed quietly across the hall, and we followed so we all crowded around Lilith's door. Cain tried the knob. Unlocked. He opened the door and we slipped inside. The room was a bedroom complete with a small table with four chairs to our left, a four-post bed to our right, and tall, wide windows opposite us. They looked out on an expansive lawn covered in snow.
Lilith stood in the middle of the room, and Cain made enough noise latching the door that she turned. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened as Cain turned and rushed over to her. "Cain! What are you doing here?"
He snatched her hands and smiled. "Seeing you, my dear."
"But the guards! They will-" Cain silenced her with a passionate kiss that was only broken when Adam cleared his throat.
Lilith pulled away from Cain and looked past him at us. "Adam! Has he dragged you into this horrible mess, also?"
Adam bowed his head. "We are here to help."
Lilith's eyes fell on me and she tilted her head to one side. "A human?" She leaned towards me and gave me a good sniff. A coy smile slipped onto her lips and her eyes flitted to Adam. "And one who bears your scent."
"They are here to help, but my dear, how have you been?" Cain spoke up.
Lilith sighed and shrugged. "Harassed at every hour by the judge and his deputies, and put through a questioning I would rather forget." She slipped from his hands and plopped herself onto the foot of the bed. "It has been like a living nightmare, and every moment I worried word would reach me that you were captured."
Cain joined her on the bed and clasped a hand in his again. "If we can prove my innocence then they will have no case." Cain paused and frowned when Lilith closed her eyes and sighed. "You do believe me, my darling, don't you?"
Lilith shook her head. "It doesn't matter if I believe you. The judge has already prepared your execution papers," she told him.
He grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "But you do believe me, right?"
She turned away and bit her lip. "I. . .I don't know what to believe. I mean, I don't remember that night very well."
"Anything you can tell us about that night would be beneficial," Adam spoke up.
Lilith sighed and shrugged free from Cain's grasp. "I will try, but as I said, I don't remember much of that night, either. What I do remember will-well, it might not help your defense."
"We will see," Adam replied.
She smiled. "Such faith in your friends-" her eyes flickered to me, "-and your lovers is admirable. As I was saying, the night was a blur. It started at the end of dinner when Abel brought out an old bottle of strong bourbon. We all partook a little too much, especially Cain. You do have a weakness for good bourbon."
"It's hard to find a good bourbon," he defended himself.
She chuckled. "I drank a little too much myself. I don't know what you remember from-"
"Nothing," Cain told her as he shook his head. "After the bourbon was passed out my mind passed out with it."
She cringed. "Then you're fortunate for you didn't make yourself out to be the perfect guest. Abel and you slipped into an argument about who was the strongest. Of course, you both thought you were. You even smashed up the chairs in the dining room to prove who could bend the wood in their bare hands without transforming."
Cain furrowed his brow and rubbed his chin. "I do recall the chairs being broken the next morning. Was that how it happened?"
Lilith nodded. "Yes. I was disgusted by the act and left the table soon after. I heard you both shouting at each other a few minutes later from my room, but thought nothing of it. Abel was-well, he could be very difficult to get along with when he was in a stubborn mood. Even then I detested his practical jokes." The last few words were spat out and her face darkened.
"He never meant any harm," Cain defended his deceased friend.
"Did you hear any more after the argument?" Adam spoke up.
Lilith shook her head. "No. I retired and woke up the next morning to Cain standing over me with the wrench in his hand and his clothes soaked in Abel's blood."
"And what did you advise him to do?" Adam asked her.
She sighed. "I. . .I panicked. I told him to run away, to hide himself."
"You were quite angry when you learned I'd called the judge," Cain remembered.
She nodded. "Yes. I wanted you to have a headstart, but the call eliminated that precious time." She turned to him with a furrowed brow. "How did you manage to escape? You never told me of a secret passage in the manor."
Cain shook his head. "That's not important. What is important is trying to find evidence that I'm not guilty."
Lilith raised her head and looked him in the eyes. "Can you be so sure? You said yourself you can't remember any of that night."
"I-I-" Cain closed his eyes and hung his head. "No, I can't remember. I just know something is wrong. Something doesn't make any sense. Even under drink I can't believe I could have murdered Abel."
"We will see what we can find," Adam promised as he stood. "For now we should return to the passage before we are found."
We all stood and Lilith escorted us to the door. She grasped Cain's hand and smiled at him. "Be safe, darling, and be careful. The judge means to catch you however he can," she warned us.
He returned her smile with a grin and a no
d. "I will." He pecked a kiss on her cheek and, after Adam made sure the way was safe, away we went into the hall.
Cain closed the door behind us and we hurried back to the vent. Adam boosted me up, and Cain and he followed behind me. When the grate was safely in place Adam looked to Cain. The old werewolf clutched his hand in one hand.
"Are you well?" Adam asked him.
Cain shook his head. "It seems I'm doomed. Even my own mate believes I murdered Abel," he whispered.
"The evidence is against you," Adam agreed.
"Adam," I scolded my fiance.
"He's right, Chris, the evidence is against me," Cain glumly agreed. He sighed and raised his head. There were shimmering tears in his eyes. "I'm sorry to have led you this far only to find I was guilty all along. You two should go to the shed through the tunnel and return to the car. I will throw myself before the judge's feet and plead for-"
Adam pursed his lips and shook his head. "We have not inspected the scene of the death. Before you admit defeat, at least let us investigate all the evidence."
Cain blinked at him. "Then you. . .you believe I'm innocent?"
Adam furrowed his brow. "I believe something is amiss. You told us the security system activates after dark and only Abel could deactivate it." Cain nodded. "How far is its reach? Does it include windows and doors, as Hawthorne mentioned?"
"Yes, but what does this matter?" Cain asked him.
"You told us you tried to escape through a window in your room, but while on the lawn you smelled the deputies coming. Did you have to open it?" Adam questioned our friend.
"I did, but-" Cain's eyes widened. He smashed a fist into the palm of his other hand. "That's what bothers me! I should not have had such an easy escape! The alarms should have sounded!"
I raised my hand. "So I'm just guessing here, but that means somebody shut off the alarm, right?"
"Yes," Adam agreed.
"And that somebody had to be Abel?" I continued.
Cain nodded. "Yes, he was the only one to know the code."
"So maybe he shut it off some time before he was killed?" I suggested.
Cain shook his head. "It takes a steady hand and a clear mind to do that. The code is fourteen characters long and the pad is very small. If he was as drunk as Lilith told us then he couldn't have done the task."
"So then what happened?" I asked them.
"That is what we must find out," Adam replied. He turned his attention to Cain. "How can we enter the billiard room? Is there a vent like the one behind us?"
Cain shook his head. "More like a hidden panel, but I'm not sure we'll find anything. The room has probably been cleaned."
"We will see if any clues are left," Adam insisted.
His old mentor smiled. "Always the stubborn one. I'm glad you're on my side. Chris, lead on to the billiard room and we will follow."
Chapter 11
I reluctantly led the way forward face-first down the narrow stairs to the bottom floor of the cramped space. I happened to glance to my right at the entrance hall and paused when something caught my eye.
"Adam, Cain," I whispered to the pair, and nodded at the slits beside us. "You might want to see this."
The men looked through the opening. They saw what I saw, a troop of six people in similar garb to the judge. The group stood in a line in front of their leader. "Search the premises, including every tree limb and hallway. If Miranda's assumption for their destination is true then they may be here already. Now spread out and find them." The deputies saluted and bounded off to all corners of the house and through the front doors to the property.
Adam pulled away and frowned. "This is not good. It is only a matter of time before our scent is discovered in the upper hall," he commented.
"Then we'd better get hurrying to clear my name," Cain agreed. He turned his attention to our left and felt the wall. His hands pressed against a solid-looking part of the vent passage that gave way beneath his prying fingers. Out popped the secret exit to the secret vent.
"Abel really liked his secrets, didn't he?" I mused.
"Very much," Cain agreed as he pushed the panel. It swung down, but didn't crash to the floor because of a piece of thin wire to which it was attached.
Cain crawled out, and we backed up and followed. The slide out was to a floor eight feet beneath the bottom of the vent, and Adam caught me as I slid head-first out of the secret passage. "Remind me when we get home to never complain about the woods being crowded again."
Adam smiled. "You are being very optimistic about our chances."
I rolled my eyes and pushed past him to get a good look at the billiard room. There was the table in the center, the pool stick holder on the wall to our left, and a buffet table opposite us. A few chairs sat against the wall behind us near the door. The wooden floor boards were waxed to a reflective shine, and beneath the table was a carpet to steady the players during their turns at the bat. Or ball. Or whatever they called it.
The rest of the room, specifically its walls, was covered in oddities that rivaled Adam's collection. There was the head of every big and little game animal along with skulls, posters of old movies, new movies, foreign movies, and theater shows. Between those collections were hanging candy dishes, the crescent-moon shaped kind. I was disappointed to find they were all empty.
Cain turned to us and pressed his finger against his lips. "We must be very quiet. The doors are not as secure as the vent," he whispered to us.
"So what are we supposed to be looking for?" I asked them.
"Anything that might look suspicious or unusual," Adam told me.
My eyes swept over the snarling, and very ugly, face of a possum. "You might have to be more specific than that."
"Anything that might not fit in with the collections you see," he rephrased.
I shrugged and wandered around the billiard table. "All right, but I don't know how we're going to find something that the deputy werewolf and sheriff guys didn't find," I pointed out.
"Judge," he corrected me.
"Hangman if he finds us," I quipped.
"A little more silence, if you would," Cain advised.
We started our perusal of the room. There was nothing unusual about anything. The table was in good condition, the sticks were all there, and there was a nice bloody stain on the rug. I froze and did a double-take at the spot. Adam was inspecting the top of the table, and I slid up to him and yanked on his sleeve. He turned to me with a raised eyebrow and I pointed at the floor beside his feet. Adam leaned back and looked under the table. A frown slipped onto his face and he knelt down to inspect the spot. I knelt with him.
"Blood?" I whispered.
Cain noticed our inspection and came to kneel on the other side of Adam. "That is where Abel lay," he explained.
"What else can you remember from that morning?" Adam asked him.
Cain shrugged. "Nothing except the weapon in my hand and my friend lying dead there."
"What happened to the weapon?"
"I left it in my room. I imagine that is Exhibit 1 for Hawthorne," Cain surmised.
While they discussed murder I stood and wandered to the far side of the room. The buffet table was an intricate piece of wooden furniture fashioned from pieces of oak and dark cherry. It was as shiny as the floor and as heavy as a bomb shelter. The thick legs kept it five inches off the floor, or just enough for a tight squeeze for a dainty and delicate woman such as I. Maybe the werewolf men hadn't had much of a chance to squeeze their hefty bodies beneath the furniture.
I lay on the ground and slid myself beneath the furniture. The bottom of the buffet was as smooth as the rest. No sign of anything strange there. The legs were solid, and when I knocked on the bottom the sound was the same.
"Not so loud," Cain scolded me.
"I've got to test it somehow," I hissed back.
With my findings complete, I slipped from beneath the buffet. However, the right shoulder of my shirt caught on something. I turned my head and glimpsed a
smudge of white in the floor where there should have been bright, shining wood. "Guys, there's-"
"Someone coming!" Adam whispered to us. He hurried over and grabbed my legs. I was swept from my spot and packed under his arm like a sleeping bag.
Cain raced to the pair of doors that made up the entrance. He pushed his shoulder against both doors and held the handles with his hands. "I can hold them off for only so long!" he warned us.
Adam rushed me to the vent. He lifted me up and shoved me into the hole. "You can't stay here!" he argued
"And I don't stuff that way!" I yelled at Adam. My legs flailed in back of me and my face was squished against the far side of the vent.
"Someone's in there!" a voice yelled on the other side. The door handles jiggled, but they couldn't get far with Cain holding them. "Open up!" cried the voice.
"Those aren't the magic words," Cain shot back.
"Open up in the name of Judge Hawthorne!" the voice argued.
"These definitely aren't the magic words," Cain quipped. He cringed when someone put their shoulder into the door. The doors shook, but his shoulder held them in place. "Hurry! Run!" he yelled at us.
I felt Adam pull away from my legs and hurry to the door. He, too, put his shoulder against the door beside Cain. "Not without you!" Adam argued.
The door decided that it didn't care who was going where with whom. Another battering from the other side and the hinges broke from the walls. The doors fell to the sides and Adam and Cain found themselves in a tussle with half a dozen half-transformed werewolves. I crawled into the vent and scrambled along its route until I lay over the entrance to the billiard room. Cain and Adam held their own in the doorway only because the doorway wasn't wide enough for all the wolves to get inside at once. The door frame was the dividing line between trouble and salvation.
I bounced up and down on the vent. The flimsy metal with its white plaster squeaked and groaned as I strained the brackets that held the vent to the ceiling and wall. A few more bounces and the brackets that held my section of the vent gave way.
"Look out below!" I yelled as the vent broke in front of me. The wide metal boxes crashed downward. Cain and Adam heeded my warning and jumped back. The werewolves thought it was their chance to jump forward, but the vent fell on top of them. I slid forward through the new opening and onto their squirming bodies. "I warned you!" I scolded them as I scrambled off the pile.