Bear This Heat (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Last of the Shapeshifters) Read Online Free PDF Page B

sir?”
    “Work the case a little more. We don’t need to stir up a panic… not if we don’t have to.”
    Sasha narrowed her eyes. “With all due respect, sir, you shouldn’t be worrying about politics on a homicide.”
    “Don’t put it out yet,” the superintended repeated, enunciating each syllable slowly. “Work the case.”
    “I’m working it, damn it,’ Sasha snapped.
    “Make it fast, Monroe. I want this thing sorted. After that meth house incident, we don’t need any more bad press.”
    Sasha looked back down at her notes without replying.
    “Monroe?”
    “Yes?”
    “Button up your shirt, would you?”
    Her pride ruffled. All the men had their shirts unbuttoned at the top. She thought about saying something, but decided against it. “Yes, sir,” she said, doing up the button and putting her head down.
    An hour later, Sasha had nowhere to turn, and no conceivable avenue for further investigation. The prints from the door knob all belonged to old man Charlie, and she’d have to wait until the end of the day for the analysis of the hair fibers.
    At half past ten in the morning, it had already been a long day, and Sasha still had the rest of it ahead of her. She heard a grumble in her stomach, and decided she’d take an early lunch. One of the benefits of being promoted, she supposed.
     
    *
     
    Sasha: I’ll admit it. I was stumped.
    Interviewer: Stumped?
    Sasha: I had nowhere to turn. There were only two leads, and one was a drunk’s vague description of a man in the dark, who may or may not have been there. The other was seemingly fur from a jacket lining, or something.
    Interviewer: Was it tough, catching a case like that on your first day?
    Sasha: Yes. I was also tremendously hung-over. [Laughs quickly.] I mean, I thought I’d come in, be shown around my new office, introduced to the other detectives as an equal rather than uniformed slave. That’s how they treated the uniforms. Instead I catch a whodunit. I don’t have prints, and as you know, forensics on the body didn’t come in until much, much later. I’ve got hair but the lab is stalling. Boss doesn’t have my back, and I’m on the case alone. [Shakes her head.] Yeah, it was tough.
    Interviewer: What about the animal sighting from Sally Clark?
    Sasha: I didn’t take it that seriously. I mean, even if there was a big dog that escaped from its front yard or whatever, who cares? What happened to Charlie Kinnear was not just your run of the mill household pet. Even a big one.
    Interviewer: You were sure of that?
    Sasha: I think so. That’s what I thought, anyway. What my gut told me.
    Interviewer: So why send the fur to the lab?
    Sasha: Old man Charlie didn’t own a fur coat. [Shrugs.] It had to come from somewhere. I doubted that the fur was connected to Sally Clark’s big dog. But I didn’t doubt that the fur was connected to the homicide. Looking back, I only had it half-right.
    [Short break. Bottles of water handed out.]
    Interviewer: Do you think you did bad work?
    Sasha: [Frowns.] I wouldn’t say I did a great job. Not the best I was capable of, anyway. At the time, I felt all this pressure, you know?
    Interviewer: Why didn’t you do a good job?
    Sasha: To tell you the truth, Circe, I want to say it was because I was tired, but that’s a bad excuse. Everybody is tired. I shouldn’t have gotten tunnel vision like I did. No, if I had to point to one thing, it was meeting him. [Points.]
    Caleb: Yeah, and that’s not the first time he made a mess of things, either.
     
    - Excerpt from full transcript of Interview with a Shapeshifter by Circe Cole. Printed with expressed permission.
     
    *
     
    Dylan Macready cradled his cup of coffee, breathing in the steam that wafted upward from it. The air was dry as hell, and his airways felt as though they were lined with dust and sand. He had walked around the small town of Salty Springs all morning. It had a considerable sprawl to it, especially when considering that it had such a low