Wild Card by Mark Henwick, Lauren Sweet

all my previous experience went out the window—I needed their specialized knowledge. “Is a rogue like a serial killer? Could a female werewolf go rogue?”
    “Rogues can be male or female,” Ricky said.
    “Serial killers and rogues are completely different,” Alex said. “A psychopath behaves in specific ways, probably from childhood. A rogue becomes a rogue at a point in time and the wolf side goes first. The trigger may be the human side, but there might not be any evidence, on the human side, for some time.”
    Or the trigger might be the Athanate side in my case.
    “Some Were say you wouldn’t even be aware that your wolf was rogue for a while,” Ricky said.
     “Not this long, surely?” I asked, and he conceded the point.
     “Anyway, we don’t even know for sure that it’s not a pack of them,” Alex pointed out. “We can say ‘he’ to keep it simple, but we should keep our minds open.”
    We thought about that while our main course was brought out. I forgave Alex for ordering for me. We all had steaks, raw, and cut into strips. We cooked them ourselves on hot, flat stones that the wait staff brought to the table on an iron tray, along with potatoes and salad.
    “This rogue is behaving like a serial killer in what he does when he’s in human form,” Alex said, while the steaks sizzled. “He plans, he selects, he even has a secure procedure for dumping the bodies afterwards, given how long it’s taken to find some of them.”
    I’d come to that conclusion, but it was reassuring to hear someone else reach it. “That probably means there are more bodies out there.”
    “And he must have a place he uses for killing,” Ricky said.
    “A vehicle to take the bodies out to the dumping area? Some disguise so he wouldn’t attract attention?” Olivia said.
    We kept throwing in suggestions while we ate the steaks and I made mental notes.
    All of the things they came up with were good investigation points, but I needed more help on the paranormal side of the case.
    “Is there a connection between the size and strength of the wolf and the human?” I said.
    Ricky stirred.
    “Yeah,” Alex said. “Changing is not a fixed rule, but this person is big and strong.”
    “Give me an idea of how big a person you think the rogue is in human form.”
    “At minimum, Alex’s size,” Ricky said. “And the biggest I’ve seen is Silas. He’s about six-ten.”
    Ricky himself was about six-six, and Alex six-two. Neither of them were people who disappeared in a crowd.
    “Bigger human, bigger wolf,” Ricky said. “Although there’s some variation. Two guys exactly the same size might end up different-sized wolves.”
    “What makes the difference?”
    “Ego,” Olivia said, and laughed. Ricky scowled at her, but she went on. “An alpha ends up bigger than a beta who was the same size as a human.”
    “Dominance?” I said, and Alex waggled his hand—he didn’t think it was that straightforward. Anyway, it made no difference to what I needed, which was a basic description of a human form of the rogue. Big and strong. Very basic, but a start.
    “Okay,” I said when it was obvious the suggestions had dried up. “I’ll be at the police station tomorrow to give a statement about Hoben kidnapping Jen. I’ll visit Morales and see if there’s anything more. CSI may think some things are unrelated when they’re not.”
    “We’ll need a base,” said Alex. “Somewhere we can meet and store evidence. I’ve got a small meeting room at the office we don’t use, and Olivia can coordinate for us.”
    “Felix won’t like that,” Ricky said. His eyes flicked to me.
    “Where then?” Alex asked.
    “I think Jen would allow us to use a room at Manassah,” I said.
    Ricky nodded, but Alex growled.
    I ignored the subtext. “You have any experience in this kind of work?” I asked Olivia.
    “Not police work, but I did work in a lab once. I reckon I can handle basic forensics.”
    I was happy for the offer