Alpha Omega 03 - Fair Game

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    This is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
    Copyright (c) 2012 by Hurog, Inc.
Map by Michael Enzweiler.
Text design by Kristin del Rosario.
    All rights reserved.
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    FIRST EDITION : March 2012
    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Briggs, Patricia.
Fair game : an Alpha and Omega novel / Patricia Briggs.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(Alpha and Omega; 3)
ISBN: 978-1-101-56000-6
1. Werewolves—Fiction. 2. Serial murderers—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3602.R53165F35 2012
813’.6—dc23
2011047724
    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
    ALWAYS LEARNING
    PEARSON

To all those who live in the dark fighting monsters
so the rest of us stay safe

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    No story is written alone. I’d like to thank the usual suspects as well as Supervisory Special Agent Randy Jarvis, Public Affairs Specialist Katherine Gulotta, and Special Agent Greg Comcowich of the Boston FBI for the time and effort they spent so I had a chance at getting things right. Thanks also go to the fine people of the Ghosts & Gravestones Tour of Boston. You rock. Though I have to say, if I never hear the phrase “Boston Molassacre” again, it will be too soon. Brenda Wahler sent critical information at just the right moment. Thank you.
    As always, if this book is enjoyable, it is their fault—all mistakes are mine.

PROLOGUE

A Fairy Tale
    Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Leslie.
    The year she turned eight, two things happened: her mother left Leslie and her father to move to California with a stockbroker; and, in the middle of a sensational murder trial, the fae of story and song admitted to their existence. Leslie never heard from her mother again, but the fairies were another matter.
    When she was nine, her father took a job in a strange city, moving them from the house she’d grown up in to an apartment in Boston where they were the only black people in an all-white neighborhood. Their apartment encompassed the upper floor of a narrow house owned by their downstairs neighbor, Mrs. Cullinan. Mrs. Cullinan kept an eye on Leslie while her dad was at work, and by her silent championship eased Leslie’s way into the society of the neighborhood kids who casually dropped by for cookies or lemonade. In Mrs. Cullinan’s capable hands, Leslie learned to crochet, knit, sew, and cook while her dad kept the old woman’s house and lawn in top shape.
    Even as an adult, Leslie wasn’tsure if her dad had paid the old woman or if she’d just taken over without consulting him. It was the kind of thing Mrs. Cullinan would have done.
    When Leslie was in third grade, one of the kindergarten boys went missing. In fourth grade, one of her classmates, a girl by the name of Mandy, disappeared. There were also, throughout the same time