But Kenzie was willing to bet it was nothing good.
The worst part of these findings was that Austin was listed as the person in charge of this project. Austin, of all people, was behind this? That couldn’t be right.
But upon thinking of his behavior the past couple of days, Kenzie had to admit that it was a possibility. He had been steering her attention away from the case. Showing her around town, going horseback riding, and then last night. Had it all been a rouse to keep her from looking into him as a suspect? And he refused to mention why he was on hiatus, even flat out avoiding the questions about it. Plus, his pets (or rather, his dog) were the only ones she knew of that hadn’t been kidnapped. Only a guilty party would leave his own pets behind and not use them for experiments, right? He'd also been hesitant to answer her question regarding anyone he knew who might have a motive for kidnapping the animals around Appaloosa Plains.
This was just her luck. It was bad enough that she’d foolishly had woohoo with him the previous night, then her (now ex) boyfriend had caught them in her hotel room together, and she was thinking she might be falling for him again. No, now he had to be a suspect too. And that made this case just what Elliott had warned her about – a conflict of interest. Her personal involvement with Austin could cloud her judgment on the case, which meant that if Austin was guilty, she would be more likely to turn a blind eye.
Not that she would, but that's how it was looked at from higher authorities.
And investigating a case where a conflict of interest was involved could cost Kenzie her job.
What had Logan said online the other night, when they'd had their fight? How did she know Austin wasn't responsible for the whole thing? She'd defended him, but now she was wondering if she should have.
Feeling depressed and confused, it was a relief to see Jillian sign in. Kenzie hadn’t even blocked Logan yet. She didn’t want to be vindictive, but it was probably for the best.
After doing so, she migrated to the desk and sent Jillian a frantic message.
WolfKen: Jill! Please tell me you’re there at the computer and not running around. I need to talk to you.
LifesABeach: I’m here! What in the world is going on?
WolfKen: Ugh, you wouldn’t believe the night I had. And the day I’ve had so far, and it just keeps getting worse.
LifesABeach: Spill it.
WolfKen: Well, first of all, Austin and I went horseback riding yesterday, and after that we just sort of…connected. He took me out to dinner at this fancy restaurant, and we danced there since it has a dance floor, and he said he still loved me after all this time, and then he kissed me. And then, well, he brought me back to the hotel, and he never left.
LifesABeach: Are you telling me you had WOOHOO with Austin?
WolfKen: Yeah, and believe me, I’m beating myself up over it. I feel like a stupid, lying, cheating heartbreaker. I really do feel bad about it. The first thing I did when I woke up was go take a shower, since I didn’t get one last night, to scrub away my stupid mistake. But it didn’t work. The next thing I know, Logan is at the door.
LifesABeach: What?! Logan came to Appaloosa Plains? And he was at your hotel room door? I don’t like where this is going…
WolfKen: At least you didn’t have to see it. Austin answered the door (although I don’t know why, it wasn’t his room), and there he was, standing there in his underwear, with Logan giving him the evil eye. He knew right away what we’d been up to. They got into a huge fight, so I finally had to throw a shoe at them to get them to stop, and then I told Austin to go home and check on his pets. Then I talked to Logan and it turns out he doesn’t want to get married or have kids. He can never see that in his future. So I told him we both want different things in life, and…well, we’re done.
LifesABeach: Oh, Ken. I’m so sorry. You’ve definitely had a bad day. Although your night doesn’t sound too bad…Which one’s better in bed?
WolfKen: JILL!
LifesABeach: Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Just trying to cheer you up, but that was in bad taste. Anyway, has something else happened? You said your day keeps getting worse.
WolfKen: Yeah, I called Chief Allington and told him about seeing a unicorn, and he said not to mention it to anyone because the scientists at the research facility may try to capture it, which is illegal, so they can study it or something. So then I got to thinking, maybe they’ve got something to do with the unicorns people keep seeing, and the one I saw. So I hacked the database, and I found out that Austin is the head of this big thing called Project Metamorphosis. It’s supposed to be for people who can’t talk anymore, or people who can’t walk. It actually transfers their mind into another body so they’ll be able to do the things they can’t.
LifesABeach: But what happens to the other body? And the other person’s brain?
WolfKen: It didn’t say that part, but…well, Austin said that he was on hiatus because of something involving his latest project. My guess is, this project didn’t work very well, or it didn’t go through with the higher authorities, and that’s why he’s not working at the lab right now.
LifesABeach: Yikes, it sounds like he’s turned into a mad scientist. That wouldn’t even be a surprise, considering he’s such a genius.
WolfKen: Yeah well, that’s not all I found. I found subfolders in the Project Metamorphosis file, and each one has information on one of the pets missing around town.
LifesABeach: So you’re saying that Austin is the one taking all the animals in town? But why? What would he need them for?
WolfKen: I don’t know yet, but I do know that I feel absolutely terrible. I never wanted to be an unfaithful bad girl who cheated on her boyfriend. And now I have to find this out.
LifesABeach: Kenzie, do you love Austin? Or Logan?
WolfKen: I don’t know. I thought I might be starting to love Logan, but he never said it to me. I don’t think he ever felt that way. He just wanted one thing. Probably because of how fat I am, since most girls that are a certain weight are classified as being easy because they’re so down on themselves, so they'll take any chance they can get at woohoo.
LifesABeach: Okay, first of all, that’s just sick if that’s what Logan thought. Second of all, you are NOT fat, and you have no reason to feel down on yourself. You’re pretty, you’re smart, you’ve got your dream job, you’re funny, and you’re a very good person. Logan didn’t deserve you. I don’t want to meet him now, and I know your parents won’t either.
Kenzie suppressed a cry. Her parents! What would they say when they found out about the debacle with Logan? Knowing her mother with her midlife crisis, she’d hit the ceiling. And her father would have to pick up the pieces.
Kenzie typed this consternation to Jillian, tears threatening to burst again.
LifesABeach: Kenzie, if you tell your parents what a jerk he was, they’ll understand. I’m sure they’d rather have you be alone than with someone who treats you like dirt.
WolfKen: He didn’t treat me like dirt in the beginning. And I do miss a lot of the good times we had. We stargazed in Twinbrook, he brought me back to his house in the pouring rain…
LifesABeach: He brought you back to his house because he only had one thing on his mind, Kenzie. He could have taken you back to your hotel. But no, he came up with some excuse to take you back to his house, hoping you’d have woohoo.
Kenzie smacked her forehead, as if to say “Duh!” How could she not have realized that? Had Logan really been using her all along? His compliments of how he liked girls with meat on their bones, how she was beautiful, and acting like a gentleman…had it really all been an act? Did he have ulterior motives from the beginning? And had she truly been that starved for male affection?
She hated to admit it, but that did seem entirely probable.
What was with Kenzie and guys? The only one who’d never hurt her was Austin. Bryce had cheated on her in college, Logan was a controlling user, and Austin…their parting had been a mutual agreement.
But no, Austin had hurt her. He’d hurt her by lying to her about the animals in Appaloosa Plains, confidentiality or not. He was responsible for the abduction of the innocent critters, and she’d turned a blind eye to him as a potential suspect, just like what someone investigating a case where a conflict of interest was involved would do.
LifesABeach: Kenzie? Are you still there?
WolfKen: Physically yes, but I don’t know about mentally.
LifesABeach: Calm down. You’ll be fine. You’re strong, a lot stronger than me. You’ll get through this.
WolfKen: I hope so. But now I have to call Elliott and tell him I can’t do this case anymore. If Austin’s a suspect, that makes this a major conflict of interest. Of course, it kind of was before since it involved animals, but that wasn’t a big enough issue to keep me from working on this case. But now…I can’t.
Kenzie felt regret build up inside her. Even if this case was a conflict of interest, she still wanted to solve it. She owed it to the animals who’d been abducted by the guy she’d trusted too much.
But she didn’t mention any of that to Jillian. She just explained that she had to go and signed off. She did pick up her cell phone from its charger nearby, gaped at it, and almost dialed Elliott. But she just couldn’t do it. Not telling him could put her job on the line, but only if he found out about Austin. If he didn’t know about their past, he wouldn’t know about the conflict of interest.
With a determined sigh, Kenzie scooped up her evidence kit, furrowed her brow, and headed to her car. She knew what she had to do now. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but it was time for the truth.
********************
Austin’s house wasn’t very close to the hotel, but Kenzie thought it appeared in the distance all too soon. When she parked in the street, she almost cried all over again, anticipating what was about to transpire.
Stepping out of the car, Kenzie trudged up the front porch steps and rang the doorbell. She heard Rascal barking inside, alerting his owner of his visitor.
When Austin opened the door, Kenzie saw that he’d changed his clothes and wasn’t looking too happy. Kenzie knew the feeling.
“Kenzie, are you okay?” he asked by way of greeting. “You look like you’ve been crying.”
Oh lovely. The makeup she’d applied before leaving hadn’t helped to conceal her swollen eyes.
“We need to talk,” she said in a miserable voice.
Austin looked skeptical, but he held the door open to let Kenzie inside. She stepped into the familiar surroundings and Rascal trotted up to her, sniffing her shoes.
“I know about Project Metamorphosis,” Kenzie began, cutting to the chase.
Austin’s eyebrows went up and he actually took a step backward.
“I also know that you’re in charge of it, and I saw the files on the missing pets in town.”
“Whoa, Kenzie, hold on. First of all, how did you even find out about that? And second, I’m not in charge of it anymore.”
“I’m a computer whiz, Austin. Hacking is easy for me. All I had to do was check out Wolfson's Hospital and Research Facility. I was looking for information on unicorns, but I came across your little brain transplant project instead. No wonder you’re on hiatus.”
“It’s not like that,” Austin insisted, his voice going unusually high. “I was the leader of that project, and I did come up with it, but it didn’t work out. It was a failure, and some people got hurt. We managed to reverse the process, but the project was shut down. Or at least, it was supposed to be.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The research facility is inside the hospital. It’s got its own area of the building. But there’s also an underground area. No one knows about that except the top scientists at Wolfson’s. It’s only supposed to be used for top-secret experiments, usually of the very dangerous variety. No one even knew about Project Metamorphosis except a few colleagues of mine and my boss.”
“What’s your point?”
“The project is still going on, but secretly. I’m not in charge of it anymore. I quit, but some of my colleagues were really intrigued by it. But they decided to change its purpose. They got the idea of putting an animal’s brain in a human body, and vice versa, so we can actually hear animals talk to us. So we could know what they’re saying and thinking. I didn’t want anything to do with that, so I left. I told my boss something had come up and that I’d be on hiatus until the issue was resolved. But I need proof of what they’re doing so it can get shut down permanently. Snitching to the boss wouldn't accomplish that. I swear, I didn’t take those animals, and I didn’t hurt them.”
“It’s so easy for you to lie to me, isn’t it? You’ll say anything to keep me away from this case. Like you’ve been distracting me the whole time I’ve been here.”
“It’s not like that! I did try to keep your mind away from Wolfson’s, but it was to protect you. I don’t want you getting involved with that. It’s dangerous. I haven’t lied to you at all.”
“What about your pets? Funny that yours are the only ones that haven’t been reported missing. I’m surprised no one else in town has picked up on that.”
“Isn’t that part obvious? They’re trying to frame me by leaving my pets behind.”
Kenzie just held up her hand and shook her head in agitation. “Stop. I’m done. I’m tired of being lied to. Everyone keeps lying to me about everything! I am so sick of it, I could vomit!”
“Kenzie, I’m telling you the truth, I swear. I found out about all this and I’ve been trying to find a way to prove it. I’ve also been working on finding a cure. When you found me in the garage, what you saw me working on at the chemistry table was a cure. I didn’t tell you anything because I didn’t want you to get too involved. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“Cure? What are you talking about?”
“The project was a failure because the effects of the brain transfer couldn’t be reversed. Not at first, anyway. I did manage to change that, but there hasn’t been a cure for the humans whose minds are in animal bodies, and vice versa. I was trying to create one.”
“Uh huh. Why didn’t you just tell your boss what was going on? If he’s the boss, he should be able to see what’s happening down there, even without you telling him.”
“That’s not what I meant by proof. My boss is fascinated by the concept. I need proof for the police. But like I said, it’s a secret underground lab that only the top scientists know about. Proof will be hard to acquire. There aren’t even any surveillance cameras down there, so I can’t hack into the system and get that footage.”
Kenzie just shook her head in disdain. She’d show Austin that she wasn’t as gullible as he thought she was.
“I have a case to solve,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’ll find out the truth for myself.”
“Kenzie, no. Don’t go there. It’s too dangerous.”
“I don’t care. I will not stand idly by while animals are being hurt. You, of all people, should know that. And don’t follow me. I don’t need another distraction.”
Kenzie shoved past an open-mouthed, ready-to-protest Austin and bolted for her car. She’d show him that she was through being lied to. She’d find out the truth, get the evidence she needed to bust all the monsters behind these experiments, and go home. Things would be back to normal then. She had a good feeling about that.
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