Page 27 of Bad Medicine

“Dammit.” I called Rick,because I had a very bad feeling that his “gift” was something the detectivewas going to need to see. I wanted to ask him about Tammy, as well.

“Kait,” he said, when heanswered. “I was going to call you.”

“What’d you learn about Tammy’smurder?” I asked.

“She wasn’t killed by ashapeshifter. Our serial killer murdered Tammy. Everything was the same, downto the victim’s blonde hair. And there was another similarity—Tammy had beenvisited several times by children’s services. There were reports of abuse byher son’s school, nurses, and neighbors.” He hesitated. “The women Samuel killsare all abusive to a male child.”

I wrinkled my nose, confused. Iknew for a fact that a shapeshifter had killed her. I’d seen him on the videofootage, and I was not mistaken. The shapeshifter had killed Tammy—not Robby,and not Lucy’s ex, Sam. Then I closed my eyes. “Oh hell, Rick.”

His voice sharpened. “What?”

“The shapeshifter is Sam.They’re the same person. Lucy was with a shapeshifter all that time and I neverhad a clue.” And that made everything so much worse. I’d believed we could keepLucy safe against a regular human serial killer, and we could have. But if RayChristian—Sam—was a shapeshifter, no one could protect her.

And for the first time, I trulybelieved her dreams about being taken by the serial killer were accurate. Itdidn’t matter if she’d stopped dreaming, or if we wanted to believe she’d onlydreamed she’d been taken because she was seeing him every day.

No. Sam was going to take her.

“How could you not have seenit?” he asked, frustrated. “You’d met him, hadn’t you?”

“Yeah,” I answered, not upsetby his accusation. It was understandable. “You can’t really see a shapeshifterface to face. He doesn’t have a certain scent, and there are no telltale signsor tics. But if you see a shapeshifter’s face on camera, or even in a mirror,sometimes, there’s a stutter, sort of. A wavering over the face. If you knowwhat you’re looking for, you can almost see its true face beneath the one itput on.”

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered.“How are we going to catch him, Kait, if he can look like anyone at any time?”

“Exactly,” I said, grimly.“Exactly.”

And I was not looking forwardto telling Lucy that the man of her dreams—literally—was a shapeshifting stalkerfrom whom she could not hide.

“He called me,” I told him.“Just before I called you. He claimed he was only taking out the garbage.Killing bad women. I asked him why only blondes, and he said they’re the onlyones he sees. This shapeshifter had an abusive mother, Rick. He’d have had achildhood as a human child. Shapeshifters are born, but they don’t beginshifting until they’re older. Usually, both parents would be shapeshifters, butoccasionally, you’ll hear of a shapeshifter with one parent who is human. It’sextremely rare.Shapeshifters are rare in general. I’m betting hismother was human. The offspring of such a union is always abnormal in some way.They’re seen by pure shapeshifters as abominations.”

“And it’s likely he killed hismother long ago.”

I thought about it, then shookmy head. “I don’t think he did. I think more than anything else in the world,he wants his mother to love him. To accept him. That can’t happen if she’sdead.”

He sighed, and I could almostsee him rubbing his eyes. “I don’t see a way to solve this one, Kait. When hetakes on another person’s body—does he have their fingerprints? Their DNA?”

“Yes,” I murmured. “He evenabsorbs some of their memories. But I think I know how we’ll catch him. Mighttake a while, but…”

“How?”

“He thinks you, I, and Lucy arehis people. He needs us. He needs friends, and he needs to belong, to be caredabout by some-damn-body.”

“You sound like you—”

“Yeah,” I snapped. “I know howI sound. Still, Detective. His emotional need is how we’ll get him in the end.”

He blew out a breath. “So youthink we should foster a relationship with him.”

“Yes, but not quickly. He’llsee through that.”

“He’s not a stupid monster.”

I clenched my jaw and saidnothing, but if he added, “no offense,” I was kicking his ass.

He didn’t. “So when you saw thevideo and his stolen face wavered, you couldn’t see what the real face lookedlike?”

“No, not really. Just becareful. He can get near you anytime he wants to. Actually, I’m sure he alreadyhas.”

“Can he shift into animals aswell as humans?”