Page 16 of Old Secrets

“Murdered, torn to shreds, and left to rot out in the woods?”

I nodded.

“With a child who disappeared without a trace, like the Henry kid? Except Jacob showed up at his uncle’s place,” my partner replied, narrowing his eyes and looking over the photographs again. “I’d suspected a Fenerec attack of some sort, but the autopsy showed the victims had been shot, killed, and then torn apart. The cuts were consistent with those of curved tools. They’re too sharp and clean for Fenerec claws.”

“You actually got the autopsy reports?”

“I did some of the investigating while you were in Europe. They wanted to keep me busy. I also did some looking into the case while you were in New York.” Jake flipped through the papers. “The cause of death is due to gunfire, one bullet for the man, two for the woman. The notation here matches—torn apart after death, and the cuts were consistent with those of curved tools.”

What could I possibly have in common with the Greenwich and Henry cases? “This doesn’t make any sense. That implies the group was doing this long before the Greenwich case started—which we had somewhat guessed from the photographs I’d gotten from the Henry family.”

“I think that’s part of our problem. We have no idea how early this group formed, what they’re up to, or why they’re up to it. More importantly, why are they trying to mask their murders the way they are? Autopsies are able to easily determine curved weapons are being used. It does imply they’ve been aware of the Inquisition for a long time and might be a group of Normals or witches? If they wanted to blame Fenerec and are Fenerec, they would have just killed them while a Fenerec. That way, they’d be identified as such.”

“Unless they don’t want to be identified as Fenerec.”

“Unlikely. It’s not easy for a Fenerec to remain human when engaging in that sort of behavior. They would have to have ridiculously good control to take such an approach with people they killed without the wolf becoming riled up. It looks more like they were trying to blame Fenerec but lacked the appropriate tools for the job. Also, they went with modern lore for the kills.”

“Modern lore?”

Jake curled his fingers into claws and growled at me. My fox went on high alert, and I bared my teeth at him, holding back her urge to chitter a warning.

He smirked, reached over, and pressed his finger to my nose. “The wolf man lore, where they take on characteristics of men and wolves at the same time. That modern lore.”

Oh. I nipped his finger, allowed the fox a single chitter to warn him he’d pushed her buttons, and replied, “It could be related to those pro-Normal groups we got that briefing about a few months ago.” I had filed the group away as a problem to keep in mind, but I hadn’t factored them into the Greenwich case.

I would not make that mistake again in the future.

“That’s actually a significant possibility. There are several groups, and the primary one the Inquisition is investigating operates in a completely different fashion. While they’re performing acts of terrorism against Fenerec and witches alike, this group seems to be engaging in actual terrorism.”

“You mean the weapon security systems and similar Mr. Greenwich worked on.”

“Right. If you can access the security software of global superpowers and take over their weapons, you can do a lot of damage in a hurry. Men like Mr. Greenwich are good targets for that sort of thing. He adores his family.”

“And people who adore their families will do terrible things to protect them.”

We’d seen that with Pauline, as to her, I hadn’t been an actual part of her family.

“Exactly. And unlike my mother, who is still undergoing education on how to be the absolute best mother-in-law to have ever walked this planet, had Mr. Greenwich caved and given the kidnappers the information, millions would have paid the price for it.”

I agreed. While we had paid hefty prices for his mother’s actions, it barely counted as a ripple when compared to the possibilities of the Greenwich case. I’d accidentally made a difference in a situation where one man could bring destruction to an entire country of people.

I didn’t want to think about what would happen if a terrorism group got access to the weapon arsenals of global superpowers.

“What do we know about the weapon systems, really?”

“I know more than I want to know about them. But, in a nutshell, Mr. Greenwich was working on the security software that manages launch codes, warhead activations, and targeting.”

“So, everything needed to launch a warhead was at his fingertips?”

“Yep.”

“Wouldn’t that be classified information?”

“It is classified, but we’re classified.”

“I would know if I was classified, Mr. James Thomas. I know what is involved with getting classification, and the first rule of classification is you don’t spread you’re classified—and that the government has stuck its entire hand up your ass before deciding to give you said classification.”

He stared at me, and he raised a brow. Then he waited.