Hart and Hunter

Chapter 17

Ch. 17: Dane

"You're sure you've got a positive ID?" I ask, angling my flashlight down into the well-like depths. Far below, the beam glances off pale, bloated flesh and a shock of gray hair.

"I'm sure," Halloran says, wiping sweat from his brow and leaving a smear of mud. "I got a good look when we collected his body from the scene, and I've been staring at photos of the man for the last several days. It's him."

"How is that possible?" Julian breathes, leaning over the edge of the chasm for a better look. "I thought he was cremated."

"Somebody was," I say, hooking my fingers through the back of his belt in case he leans too far.

"Someone switched the bodies?" Ingrid asks, her voice still a little shaky after her shock.

"I don't think so," Halloran says. "I think this body has been here all along."

"Wait a minute." Julian shakes his head. "You just said you got a good look at Lagrange's body, and that this is Lagrange." He points into the pit. "So, which is it?"

"If I'm right, both," Halloran replies.

Footsteps draw my attention to the corridor, and I turn as Ian, Sam, and Chloe appear.

"What happened?" Ian asks. "We heard a scream."

Julian and Sam wear matching scowls as Ian's eyes fix on Julian first.

"Everyone's fine," Julian says. "Ingrid found a dead guy."

Ian gawks. "A what?"

In a few excited sentences, Grace and Ingrid tell the others what we've found. Ian's expression grows grim; but to my surprise, his confusion clears while the rest of us remain perplexed.

"Shit," he says. "Sounds like a skin-changer."

"Skin-changer?" Grace repeats nervously. "Is that like... like a skinwalker?"

"No, not really," Ian says. "Skinwalkers are human witches who use magic to take an animal form. Skin-changers are..."

He trails off and looks at Halloran.

"Fae monsters," says he. "A cross between the vampire and the doppelganger, you might say. They feed on the life force of a victim and thereby assume the victim's shape. Such, it seems, was the fate of the unfortunate Mr. Lagrange."

"Then the body in the shop..." Ingrid trails off.

"Was the skin-changer."

"That explains why Lagrange's name wasn't in the database," Grace says, "and why nobody knew he was a Shifter. He wasn't."

"Now, the question is, who was?" Chloe adds. "Who was the skin-changer, really?"

Halloran shakes his head. "We may never know. They don't really have their own identities. But it explains why Rhiannon spent so much time tracking her target: she knew he'd taken one of the shop-owners, but not which one."

"Something's not adding up," I say, tugging Julian back from the ledge. "If Lagrange's body was down here, and Rhiannon was down here, how did she not know the skin-changer had taken Lagrange? Wouldn't the body have made it obvious?"

Halloran shrugs. "I doubt the skin-changer left the body lying around. It was probably well hidden. Perhaps finding it is what finally led her to her target."

"It wasn't here before, anyway," Julian adds. "We'd have noticed a dead body. Maybe Rhiannon left it here for us to find."

"What, like a cat leaving a dead bird on the front step?" Ingrid asks.