Bear of Interest Read Online Free PDF

which might well be the case.
    “Dr. MacDonald, good to see you again, and thanks for stopping by.”
    Cole stood and extended his hand. Like the first time they’d shaken, her grip was firm and she looked directly at him.
    “No problem. You said the statement’s ready for me to sign?”
    “Yes, I have it in my office. If you’d like to follow me back there, and I do have a few more questions. It won’t take long.”
    She turned and Cole followed close behind her. She opened some double glass doors and indicated for him to go ahead of her.
    “Third door on the left,” she said.
    He turned into it, and she came in behind him and closed the door. Cole glanced at the photos she had sitting around. One with her and some other officers, one of her with a Yorkshire terrier, but certainly no family snaps.
    “Have a seat,” she said.
    He pulled out a chair and sat as she walked behind her desk.
    She opened up a folder. “We did find bear tracks close to the victim’s body.”
    Cole pulled on his tie again. Shit, he’d been in bear form and only in bear form when he’d been close to the body. Even he’d find lack of human prints suspicious.
    “Did you see any bears around that day?” she asked.
    “I can’t say that I did.”
    It wasn’t a lie. No other shifter had run with him. And the only way he would have seen a bear was if he’d looked into a mirror. So technically he was telling her the truth.
    “Is it an area where you often go running?”
    “Yes, well, I haven’t been in town long.”
    “Really, where did you move from?”
    “East coast,” said Cole.
    “And you came here to take a job at Kalispell Hospital?”
    “No, actually I work at a private clinic.”
    “Don’t tell me you’re a plastic surgeon.”
    “No, actually my specialty is genetics and infertility.”
    “Really, that sounds interesting.”
    Cole nodded, hoping she wouldn’t ask too many questions about the clinic. They tried to keep it off the radar of anyone who wasn’t a shifter.
    “The thing that puzzles me the most is this.” She slid one of the photos of the crime scene across her desk for him to see.
    He saw his own bear paw prints in the mud close to the victim.
    “I’m told the bear who made these prints would be a grizzly.”
    “Wow, grizzly, glad I didn’t run into him that day or her…don’t want to be sexist.”
    He pulled on his tie one more time. He hoped she wasn’t a body language expert because he knew he was giving off signals that he was as nervous as hell.
    “But your prints aren’t anywhere to be seen.”
    “I can explain that.”
    I hope I can explain that.
    “I ran on the other side of the woods there,” he said, pointing to the photo. “I did notice the mud and I didn’t want to get my shoes dirty so I avoided that particular area.”
    It looked like she was biting the inside of her mouth or chewing gum or something.
    “Yeah, that makes sense. By the freshness of these prints, I’d say the bear must have been in the area close to the time we all were, so I guess we got lucky. Wouldn’t want to run into a bear with those size paws. Well, any bear for that matter.”
    Hmm, didn’t like bears. If she’d care to run into him he could show her that he was one bear who wouldn’t hurt her. In fact, he’d bring her nothing but pleasure.
    “Do you have any suspects? I mean besides the bear?” asked Cole.
    Oh dear lord that had sounded a tad sarcastic and the last thing he wanted to do was antagonize her in any way.
    “Not at the moment, but I’ll find whoever did this. You can bet on that.”
    “Well, I’m glad I could help in some small way. And if you don’t mind I have to be back at the clinic soon so if I could just sign the statement?”
    “Absolutely.”
    She pulled it from the folder, slid it across to him and then held out a pen to him. He took it, the very tips of their fingers brushed and they looked at one another.
    If she wasn’t a human, wasn’t a detective that he