Dylan looked offended by the question. “Of course not. We were just married. We wanted to start a family. She asked me to mark her. You all of all people should know that’s not something that’s taken lightly.”
“Were you having an affair?”
“No,” Dylan replied through his teeth. “How could you ask me that?”
“I’m sorry, Dylan, but I have to ask these questions. I need to understand why—”
“Why I would kill her? I didn’t kill her!”
Sloane asked a few more questions, satisfied with the answers. He told Dylan what would happen next, but Dylan didn’t seem to care. He was only half of a whole now. Sloane made to get up when Dylan threw a hand out.
“Agent Brodie, please find out who killed my wife. I don’t care what happens to me, but I need to know. I need to know who would do this to her. To us.”
Sloane swallowed hard and nodded. “Your lawyer will keep you informed. I’ll do my best, Dylan.”
Dylan nodded before he dropped his face into his hands and cried. It was hard. Sloane hadn’t had a case this bad in a while. He left the room and went into the observation room next door, where Maddock sat, his jaw clenched tight.
“You think he’s innocent.”
“I think there’s some credit to his story.”
“Dental records identify the victim is indeed Alicia Reynolds. She was five weeks pregnant. Dylan’s blood, fur, and saliva has been found on the body. A claw analysis shows Dylan’s claws are a match for the tears in the skin.” Maddock continued to scroll through the information on his tablet, including new evidence recently added by the forensics team. “Although his employer confirms the time Dylan left work, and phone records show he spoke to his wife minutes before, no one saw him go into the house. Hudson puts the time of death at roughly half an hour before we arrived.”
Maddock looked up at Sloane, his dark eyes searching for something. Sloane had no idea what.
“It doesn’t look good.”
There had to be more. “Why would he have stayed? Why not run?”
“Maybe he only realized what he’d done when she was dead. It could have been an accident, and he’s trying to cover it up. It wouldn’t be the first time, Sloane.”
“What’s the motive?” Sloane looked through the information himself. “Everyone who was questioned by Recon said the same thing. He was a good man who loved her with all his heart. They never fought. No marital problems that anyone knew of.” Sloane met Maddock’s gaze. “She was pregnant with his child and either didn’t know or was waiting to tell him. There’s no motive.”
“Yet. Do you really believe he’s innocent? Or do you want to believe there’s no way a Therian can harm his marked mate?”
Sloane swallowed hard. “It goes against our nature.”
Maddock pressed his lips together and placed his tablet on the empty chair beside him. “Son, none of us know what we’re capable of when we’re pushed over the edge.”
Sloane entered his security clearance into the panel by the door, securing the room. He turned back to Maddock. “Do you think I could hurt Dex?”
Maddock frowned at him. “Sloane, I don’t think—”
“I’ve gone feral before. I’ve hurt him.”
“Those were extenuating circumstances, Sloane. You were being pumped full of some drug that was messing with you. Besides, things are different now.”
“Because Dex is marked. That’s what you were thinking, right? That now that Dex is marked, the idea of my feral half intentionally hurting him is hard to believe.”
“Ah, but there it is,” Maddock said, leaning forward. “Intentionally. Let’s say Dylan would never intentionally hurt his wife. We have to consider that something might have caused him to go feral, lose control of his Therian half, and for some reason, he attacked her instead of protected her.”
“Okay,” Sloane conceded. “You have a point.” It wasn’t like there was a whole lot of information out there on Therian markings. Every Therian was different. Their experiences were different. After what happened with him and the drugs Shultzon had pumped into him, there’s no telling what was out there. If there was something that had indeed caused Dylan to lose control of his Therian form.
Sloane stood. “I’ll ask Hudson to run an in-depth toxicology report on Dylan’s blood, along with a full Therian scan. I want to know if anything changes while he’s in his Therian form.”
Maddock nodded. “Keep me posted
.”