Kissing the Werewolf - An Izzy Cooper Novel Read Free Page B

again.
    Cocking his head to one side, he fixed me with laughing blue eyes. “Well Agent Izzy … can’t see as why your boss wouldn’t have filled you in on the details.”
    “It’s Special Agent Cooper … remember?” I corrected.
    Jeb didn’t mean any harm. He was just having trouble coming to terms with the fact that a young whippersnapper, such as myself, was actually a federal agent.
    “True enough,” he chuckled, and then glanced down at the clipboard in his hand. “The cleaning staff arrived this morning and found Dale in his office … deceased,” he added in a hushed tone, as if it were some kind of secret.
    Dale Simmons was one of the hotshots of Storm Cove. That was because the Simmons family was one of the town’s founding families, and they were filthy rich.
    The Simmons family didn’t impress me much. Most of the families in town were descended from the founding fathers, but the Simmons family did tend to forget that part. In other words, they thought they were several steps up from the rest of the population.
    They also happened to own the Smuggler’s Bay Lodge, along with several other business establishments.
    “Agent Fontaine is back there now.” Jeb pointed toward a hall that led to the resort’s administrative offices.
    I nodded. “Thanks Jeb. I’ll let Granny know you asked about her.
    The blood drained from old Jeb’s face. “That’s not necessary. I’m sure I’ll see her around town.”
    I quickly turned away so that he wouldn’t see my smile. No way was Jeb going to say a single thing to Granny, even if he did run into her. They hadn’t spoken in decades, though they would both ask about the other any chance they got.
    The feud between Jeb and Granny was well known in Storm Cove. According to the town gossips, the two of them had a fight just before their Senior Prom. Jeb got angry with my grandmother and took Millie Brodrick to the prom. Granny was so irate, she witched Millie, who lost all her hair within a few days. It took months for it to grow back.
    There was no way to know how much of the story was true. If it had anything to do with Jeb Bourne, Granny refused to talk about it.
    I found Ayden and Tim Lehman in Dale’s office.
    Judging by the crime scene, Dale had put up one heck of a fight. Either that, or the perpetrator liked destroying things. The place looked as if it had been hit by one hell of a hurricane.
    My boss was so engrossed in examining the victim, he didn’t even look up to acknowledge me.
    Ayden was a walking contradiction. He had the body of a male stripper, and the looks of a Greek god. Along with that, he had a head of blond hair that any woman would love to run their fingers through, but he hid his assets behind black business suits, and stuffy haircuts. I only knew what he looked like out of his disguise because I’d been fortunate enough to run into him at the gym.
    Actually, what happened was that I let my natural curiosity take over and I’d followed him to the gym.
    Of course, Agent Fontaine might call that stalking, along with the rest of the world, but as long as no one knew, I was good.
    Ayden was kneeling next to the victim, examining Dale’s fingernails with a gloved hand.
    “What do you have?” I asked, as I managed to keep my eyes averted from the bloodier aspects of the crime scene, like the head that had been completely removed from the body.
    Sighing, Ayden dropped the victim’s hand. “They found him at 6:00 this morning. Myron estimates time of death at just after midnight.”
    Myron was the ME, and the strangest guy in town, at least as far as I was concerned. You’d have to be odd to play with corpses to begin with, but he was really strange. Myron liked to dye his hair black, and wear eyeliner. Not only that, but he would paint his fingernails black. This wasn’t so bad if you were into the Goth scene, but add that to the dead body thing, and he was definitely creepy.
    Doing my best to block out the disturbing image of