She squeezed his hand and grabbed another Kleenex. I noted that in spite of how many tissues she appeared to be going through, the room was spotless. I pictured the perfectly coiffed Tansy making passes through each room as she fretted and cried, making sure there wasn’t a single couch ruffle out of place.
I guess some people dealt with trauma in different ways. I was more of a run-away-to-the-swamp kind of girl, myself. Or failing that, stuffing myself with Oreos and Abita beer. Tansy was a tidier.
Still, it bothered me, the overall neatness of the place. I wasn’t sure what about it rankled me. I wasn’t against cleanliness. My own home was kept orderly and uncluttered, though I could stand to dust a little more. Yet the cleanliness of the room set off an alarm bell.
I ignored it for now but didn’t put it entirely out of my mind.
Maybe I was being extra sensitive because of the way Cash was squeezing Tansy’s hand, and I was hunting for reasons to not like her.
I hoped I wasn’t that petty, but the subconscious had a mind of its own.
“Did you contact their families? Reach out to the school?” I was fairly certain of the answer to this, but I had to ask anyway. “What about the police?”
Tansy shook her head firmly with every new question. “No one cares, Genie. Their stuff is still here, there’s no sign of a struggle or incident. Two of the girls, Alexandra and Heidi, they’re from…well, they don’t come from standard families. Alex was the first to vanish, but her grandmother seems to think she’s off on an adventure, and Heidi’s mother has six other kids at home. Heidi hasn’t spoken to her in almost a year, so her mom doesn’t think this is unusual.”
“And the third girl?”
“Laura. Her family is in Europe right now, and I haven’t been able to reach them.”
Interesting. It could be a coincidence the girls all came from disinterested families who might not notice or care if they went off the grid. I didn’t believe in coincidences though. Usually if there was a connection, it was worth taking note of.
“Okay.” I leaned forward in the chair and fixed my gaze right on Tansy, not letting myself be distracted by Cash or Wilder. I needed to see her honest reaction to my next question. “Tansy, are any of the girls in your sorority werewolves?”
Her right eye twitched, but she didn’t recoil or give me a disgusted look. Points to her. Sometimes folks couldn’t school their feelings about supernaturals. Though I suspected, since I was here, she must have an open mind at the very least.
“No. We don’t have any wolves. One of the other sisters, Cassandra, is a…” She drifted off, like she suddenly didn’t know if she was allowed to finish her sentence.
“It’s okay. Anyth
ing you tell me here stays here. And if you have a shapeshifter in the house, even if she’s not a wolf, it might be relevant. You brought me here to help, and that’s all I want to do. What is Cassandra?”
Tansy chewed the inside of her cheek. “She’s a leopard.”
There was only one local leopard pack—or a leap as they were officially known—and I happened to be familiar with their leader, Lola. Leopard shifters, much like the animal they transformed into, were solitary creatures by nature, but they tended to create social groups around an alpha female. They hunted and lived alone but gathered for protection or to make important decisions. This differed wildly from wolf culture, where we tended to remain close to the pack, or at least surround ourselves with other wolves.
The New Orleans leopards were very distinctive in that they were one of only three groups in America who shifted into clouded leopards.
I would want to speak to both Cassandra and Lola, if this investigation turned into anything.
As of right now I still didn’t know why I was here.
“You know I’m not a private investigator, right? I don’t have those kinds of resources or connections to help you find them.”
Tansy went pale, and I thought it was because she was upset by my response, but then she said, “No, you misunderstand why I asked Cash to bring you here. I don’t think the police would believe me—”
Something thudded hard upstairs, and Tansy’s gaze slowly lifted to the ceiling before returning to me. I don’t know how it was possible, but she’d gone even more pale. Next to Cash, she practically looked like a ghost.
“What was that?”
“That was Laura.”
I stared at her. “As in…missing Laura?”
“Yes.”
Chapter Six
“Come again?” I was staring up at the ceiling, gripped by a sudden chill.