The Mountain's Shadow (18 page)

“What was all that about?” I asked. Leo gave me a “tell you later” look.

“Morning, guys,” Lonna chirped. “The muffins smell good, Gabriel.”

“I’ll bring out some in a moment, Madam. Would you like coffee?”

“Yes, thank you.”

Ron smiled shyly at Lonna. “How are you today, Ms. Marconi?”

“So anyway.” Leo picked the story up. “He told us, ‘I guess the two of you don’t know anything about what happened last night?’ We didn’t want to tell him about the strange wolf, not yet, in case the townspeople decided to hit the woods and hunt down all of them, maybe even us.”

Lonna raised an eyebrow at me, and it was my turn to give her an “I’ll explain later” look. Leo must be tired to be so careless, I thought.

“He accused us of sneaking down to Mountain View and living it up there or at the club at the time-share resort at night and neglecting our duties to watch over Lance. Can you believe that?” Ron spread his hands and gave us a rueful grin. “As if we have the energy to do that after working all day.”

“It was a full moon that night, so it was time for our change,” added Leo. “We couldn’t go party if we wanted to.”

“So he kicked us out. Said if we wanted to run around all night, we wouldn’t be doing it on his dime. He has enough on his plate, and now his kid’s missing.”

“Something about all of this doesn’t make sense,” Lonna said, her fingers wrapped around her cobalt coffee mug. I noticed her nails were ragged, something she never allowed to happen, as though she had been chewing them. I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t ask about “the change” or why the townspeople would hunt the two young doctors along with the wolves.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t just kick people out unless there’s another compelling reason.”

“Such as…”

“You want them to be away from whatever you’re doing.”
 

I watched Leo drink his coffee, the muscles in his forearm tensing as he held the cup. He took his time with it, almost like he knew I watched him.

Lonna took a deep breath. “So, is someone going to tell me what’s going on here? You’ve mentioned a strange wolf twice, and you just said something about a ‘change’?”

I looked down at my coffee as though something in the light brown liquid would guide me to the right answer.

“I’m not stupid, you know.” She fixed Ron with her gaze, and he turned away. “I need to know what you boys have been up to. There are children missing.”

“I’m well aware of that, Ms. Marconi.” Leo’s nostrils flared. “One of them is my nephew, remember?”

“I do remember. And I also remember there was something about a strange wolf. Since when do two former medical residents track large predators?”

Ron looked up. “How did you know about our jobs?”

“I know people who know people. You’re evading my question.” She sat back and crossed her legs. “And no one is going anywhere until I have an answer.”

“Ron and Leo have CLS,” I said. “But their CLS is different from anything I’ve ever seen or heard of.”

“Oh?”

“Right,” agreed Leo. “You see, we actually turn into wolves.”

“You turn into wolves?”

“We’re werewolves. So is Gabriel.”

For a moment, Lonna was speechless. Then she burst out laughing.

“Oh, Joanie, I cannot believe you. How did you get them to play along?”

“What do you mean?”

“Werewolves? Come on, you knew about the full-moon connection. Now you’re just playing me.”

“She’s doing nothing of the sort, Ms. Marconi.” Gabriel set the muffins in their basket on the table. “She’s serious.” He kept his facial expression neutral as he turned and walked back into the kitchen.

The color drained from Lonna’s face. “Oh my God. You’re not kidding, are you? You’re all insane.”

“No.” I spoke as gently as I could, not sure of her reaction. “I didn’t tell you before now. I didn’t know how you’d take it. It’s hard to believe, and I’ve seen them.”

“You’ve seen them…” She made a hand motion. “Change?”

“Only Gabriel.”

Now it was Leo’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Oh, have you, now?”

“Yesterday morning.”

“And now you’re here,” Lonna said, her eyes wide. “And there are children missing. And there was a strange wolf. How do you know?”

“His scent was different. He wasn’t part of our pack.”

“How many are in the pack?”

Ron bit his lip, but Leo answered. “Four.”

“Can you tell me who they are? For my investigation, of course.”

“Well, you already know two of us, and I’m sure you’ve guessed the third.”

“Kyra?” I asked.
 

“Correct,” said Ron. “The fourth may come as a surprise.”

“Who is it?” asked Lonna. “Peter?”

Leo laughed. “No, even if he had CLS, he wouldn’t deign to hunt with us. No, the fourth is someone from in town, one of the original Piney Mountain residents.”

“Who?”

“Matthew Grunden, the social worker.”

Lonna coughed. “Impossible.”

“Matt?” I took another sip of coffee. “That certainly puts a new spin on things.”

Lonna, meanwhile, appeared as though she’d just had the rug pulled out from under her, which I guessed she had. It’s not easy to find out the shadows that haunt your dreams are real, and besides, who had ever heard of a werewolf social worker? She stared into her coffee cup.

“He lied to me,” she said in a small voice. ”He told me it was just for the kids that he called me up here.”

“The kid disappearances aren’t the only thing, apparently.” My mind worked, drawing connections from thread to thread of this twisted web. Matt to the kids. The kids to the new development. The subdivision to the lawyer. The lawyer to the two recently infected doctors. The doctors to the social worker. And Matt to Lonna and to me.
 

“It’s all connected through CLS, but there’s something I’m still missing. Like, what happened to Louise? If it wasn’t an accident, then why did someone kill her?”

“We need to figure out what happened the day of the accident.” Lonna stood, her expression determined, and she smoothed her hands on her skirt. “And I need to talk to Matt.”

“Louise had a daughter, right? Mom of one of the missing kids.”

“Yep, and she’s more likely to talk to you than to me.”

“It sounds like we have our tasks cut out for us, then.” I looked at the guys. “And what are you going to do?”

Leo yawned. “Sleep.”

“Good hunting last night?” asked Lonna with a wry grin. She almost sounded sarcastic. I knew that look and guessed she was still trying to puzzle out if we were playing a joke on her.

“So-so.” Leo popped the last bit of his muffin in his mouth. “The prey has been driven away lately by the screams. They were just once a month or so. Now they happen every week. It sets everyone on edge and makes the prey skittish.”

The memory of the noise made my hands shake. “I can imagine. We’ve heard it.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“No. Do you?”

“No. But it scares the shit out of me every time.”

Ron yawned. “Can’t we talk about this after we get some sleep?”

“You can bum a couple of the rooms upstairs. I’ll tell Gabriel not to disturb you.”

After they left, I looked at Lonna, who stared into the hall after them with a frown.

“You’re taking this better than I expected,” I said.

She shook her head. “I’m still not sure whether to believe you, but I’ll acknowledge something strange is going on. Whatever the case, if it’s connected to the missing kids, I have to work around it.”

She went upstairs to get her purse and left me standing openmouthed.
Well, at least she’s not freaking out. Maybe she just needs to see one change to believe it.
But I had to admit part of me didn’t want to share them.

Honey Jorgens lived in an apartment in the new buildings on the other side of town. That little wisp of guilt curled in my stomach again as I knocked on the door. I’m sure I was the last person she wanted to see.

The door opened, and a woman who looked like a younger version of Louise peered at me from behind the chain.

“Who’re you?”

“I’m Joanie Fisher. My grandfather—” I choked on the words, the woman’s grief tugging my own out.

“You’re the old man’s granddaughter. He’d’ve come with condolences, too.” The door closed, and I heard the scrape of the chain as she unbolted it. “Please come in.”

She let me in to the apartment, which was furnished cheaply but neat. “I’m Honey. My boyfriend is at work today. He’s upset about my mama too, but the foreman won’t let him off ’til the funeral.”

“That’s not very understanding. Do you know when the funeral will be?”

“No, not yet. The sheriff says since she died under ‘suspicious circumstances’, it may be a while.”

“Are you here all by yourself?”

“Nope. My youngest…” She shook her head. “My daughter is asleep in the bedroom. She’s three.”

“You’ve been hit hard this year.”

She smeared a tear back up her cheek with the heel of her hand. “First Johnny and now Mama. I told Rich it was because he sold out and is helping to build the new houses, the ones on the land they kicked us off of. We were gonna use the money for Johnny’s and Julie’s college so they can get out of here. I just hope Julie’s smart enough to want to go to a good school.”

“I bet she is.”
 

The woman rewarded me with a small smile. “I’m surprised you came on your own.” She wiped her hands on her jeans and motioned for me to sit on the corduroy sofa. “I’d heard you brought a friend with you.”

“Lonna came up here with me to help me get settled and also because her friend Matt wanted her help investigating the children’s disappearances. She’s in town talking to him right now.”

“Matt’s a right good man. He’s done more for us than that sheriff has.”

More than you could know.
“Is Sheriff Knowles a native of Piney Mountain?”

“Oh, no. He came with the developers. He mighta grown up nearby, but he spent a lot of time in the city before coming back.”

“Which city?”

“Little Rock. He was a cop down there while it was bad.”

I had a hard time picturing Bud Knowles battling gangs in mall parking lots. Maybe he came up here like so many did for less money but more peace. Until now, of course.

“What has he told you about the kids?”

“That they’re running away, upset at their houses getting torn down, and they’re headin’ for the city or upstate toward Missouri to work in the tourist towns.” The frustration built in her voice like gathering thunderheads. “But they’re too young for that. And I know my son. He’s a good boy and wouldn’t run off. He wouldn’t’ve left his sister!”

I noted Honey’s use of the present tense. “Do you believe your son is still alive?”

She set her jaw. “A mother knows. All of us who’s lost kids in the past year, we know they’re still alive, it’s just gonna take the right person to find them.”

“What do you think happened to him?”

“I think there’s an evil spirit out there. I’ve heard it screaming in the night. I think it’s taken them and hidden them. Men won’t be able to find them—it’s gonna take somethin’ more.”

“Like what?”

This time she met my eyes. “Someone with a connection to the land like your granddad had.”

My heart flip-flopped in my chest. Did she mean me? “And what about Lou—er, your mother? Can you tell us anything about her last day?”

Honey’s eyes welled with tears. “She left that morning to go to her job at the café. I didn’t know anything had happened ’til they called looking for her a couple hours later.”

“Did she say anything before she left? Was there anything different about her?”

“She was all excited because she was going to be seeing you, Doctor Fisher. She and your grandfather had become kind of close before he disappeared. She was awful upset when he went missing. She wanted to talk to you to see if you might know what happened to him. And she’d helped him redo the kitchen because he’d told her you might be visiting soon.”

Again, a hint he had known I would come. I hadn’t heard from him in years and certainly hadn’t been planning a visit. It seemed the more I learned about the eccentric old man, the more the mystery deepened.

“What did you mean about my grandfather having a connection to the land?”

“I know he didn’t grow up here—we all did—but he and that house, it’s like they just belonged here, like they grew there.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “There’s some who say he’s responsible for all that’s gone bad here, but I know better. Mama said he’d even offered some of his money to keep the developers out of the town, to give scholarships to kids, but Mayor Franz didn’t want to hear him. I think he wanted a big, shiny house of his own, and then that lawyer appeared.”