The Witch City Detective Agency: Silver In The Sunlight

By Allison Whenman

"Terrance’s case lined up almost perfectly with the case of Georgia Helm, and Arthur Indigo. Georgia had been a mother of four and Arthur hadn’t had any kids at all but the scenes of their suicides were a little too close to each other. All were killed with a bullet to the brain, all died in the bathrooms of a close family member, and all had left suicide notes on the sinks.

Even if it was nothing, even if the three had just called it a quits and ended it all by their own hands, things were suspicious and should be looked into.

Much like with Katie’s case, though, the police weren’t doing a thing.

Because there was something else that the three victims had in common that made it so that they didn’t even get an obituary in the Boston Globe. In looking at birth certificates Ben had discovered something that had left him swearing softly and having a stiff drink entirely too early in the day. Under the birthdate was a big, silver L. Lycans. In layman's terms - werewolf."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9781678175771

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The Witch City Detective Agency: Silver In The Sunlight

Copyright © 2020 Allison Whenman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-67817-577-1 (ebook)

Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination.

Front cover image by germancreative.

Printed by Lulu.com

First printing edition February 2020.

The Witch City Detective Agency:

Silver in the Sunlight

To those that keep fighting to do what’s right even when the whole world is against you.

The strength of the pack is in the wolf and the strength of the wolf is in the pack. - Rudyard Kipling

One.

Genna tossed him the ball and water lapped against his toes, the sand crinkling under his toes. Ben almost missed it, a splash from the breaking waves smacking him in the nose so hard it almost felt like he broke it and he pulled himself out of the water, shaking his head like a dog out of water and sputtering the salt water from his lungs. Genna laughed that way little sisters always did, a bit of a cackle at finally beating her big brother and definitely a giggle at the drowned rat state he must be in. His white shirt clung to him in a way that was horribly uncomfortable and somewhere up the beach he heard the flash on his mother’s camera going off and his father yelling at Genna to take it easy on those weaker than her.

I’ll get you for that. It  was an empty promise and Genna knew it, her soft brown eyes twinkling like the summer sun.

Bring it, Benji.

He pounced and she squealed as he lifted her up, up, up and threw her into the next oncoming wave her body making a big splash that scared several of the people around them and made the lifeguard sit up a little bit straighter. Ben had a bit of a heart attack when she failed to pop back up for ten seconds later but she did with a loud yelp, her mouth open wide in the sort of gasp that Ben knew meant trouble. You started it! He yelled behind his shoulder, already halfway back to their parent’s towel.

I’m going to end you! She snarled.

Ben laughed, the sun beating down on his shoulders, skin crusty from the quickly drying salt. His feet pounded against the sand, his smile so wide it almost hurt.

He knew his mother was happy to see it. Since his freak car accident a year ago it was hard to catch Ben smiling about much, instead he tended to fade into moments of soft worry, had nightmares of fire dancing on fingertips and ocean blue eyes and a smile that he could feel like a ghost against his own. He didn’t believe what the therapist said and his parents (and therapist) knew it - Daniel Anderson might be a figment of his imagination in their eyes but he was as real as the dreams Ben had of warm palms and runes traced by calloused fingertips. He knew it. The same way he knew that it was summer or that his own name was Benjamin Andrew Cole. Some things were just fact.

A few people on the beach scoffed as him and Genna ran by, kicking up clouds of sand and deftly avoiding those sunbathing. The lifeguard lost interest the moment they left the ocean waters, going back to looking out at the water with disinterest.

Ben could hear his father laughing at their antics as Ben nearly tripped over his own two feet and Genna reached out almost blindly, her hair plastered to her forehead and way too many young men looking at her over their sunglasses. Ben purposely may have flicked sand at a few of the ones that leered too much but, really, what Genna wouldn’t know couldn’t hurt her.

Hey! A strong hand shoved Ben backwards and he stumbled, his back banging hard on the sand. No matter how cushiony sand looked it didn't actually make a good thing to land on. He felt it dig into his skin and crack it open and he hissed a sharp breath.

It wasn’t Genna who shoved him, that much was obvious when she went down hard next to him, her cry as she fell a pained and alarmed one that set Ben on edge.

Stop right there! Ben crawled over to his sister, Genna’s hand over her ankle and teeth digging into her bottom lip.

People on the beach were scrambling to their feet and rushing away from their general area.

Ben could hear his parents yelling their names.

Above them and to the right was a police officer, a long, red gash on his cheek, dripping sluggish drops of blood at his feet. His gun wasn’t steady in his shaking grip and, just  behind them, was a woman, her lips pulled back in a snarl and finger nails simply too elongated to be normal. Werewolf. Genna’s mouth said the word but Ben couldn’t hear it over the ringing in his ears.

The woman’s ears were cocked, turned towards them. She was missing clothes, her body bare to the world around them.

Ben thought, dimly, that she was going to get a terrible sunburn.

Her feet were bleeding, and it must have been hurting her a ton to be barefoot on the hot sand. She had blood dripping down her left arm from her shoulder. A bullet wound.

He remembered thinking she looked scared and the police officer looked murderous.

You okay, Genna? He asked instead of mentioning either of those observations.

His sister nodded tightly but she had tears in her eyes.

Ben moved closer to her and the werewolf broke into another sprint, bloody sand kicked up by her feet and spraying against the bare skin of Ben’s leg. He flinched but moved to block Genna’s smaller body from the path of both the werewolf and police officer.

But the officer was gone too and, soon, their parents were rushing towards them, emergency lights flashing off the road. He helped Genna up, her arm slung around his shoulders and his back a wet sting from open wounds. Their parents met them halfway, his mother fretting over the two of them in the way mother’s were supposed to. She hugged them both tightly and their father glowered at anyone that looked their way. Off the beach! It was a black clad SWAT officer that said it, shouted in their general direction and people clamoured to follow orders.

Ben stumbled with Genna, the two of them hobbling along to where the officers waved them frantically, his father’s hand heavy on his shoulder guiding him along.

Bang!

Ben jumped at the roar that seemed to fill every cell of his body. Genna breathed in a sharp breath and the general crowd fell into sharp silence.

He looked over his shoulder and saw the female werewolf drop to her knees in the water. He saw the waves break over her bare skin and come away painted red. Her mouth was open in a wide howl that was the only noise to break through the air.