by C. T. Adams
“LUCAS. TONY. Are you out there?” There was concern, but not quite panic, in Bobby’s voice. It sounded from up above
“This way, Bobbo,” I called. Lucas turned to watch as Bobby the python dropped his narrow head down from the first branch of a spruce, which always freaks me out a little.
“Did you find a deer?” asked Lucas.
“Not exactly.”
He was leaving something out. I had finished my second rabbit in as many minutes and was ready for a new adventure. I huffed out a frosty breath. “What’s up? You’re not saying something.”
“Probably because I don’t know what to say. Asri says she’s found a body.”
Lucas and I both looked at each other warily. “Live or dead?”
“Dead and buried. But I can’t smell it. She says it’s down over twenty feet. Can she smell that deep?”
Lucas nodded his head. “Oh, easily. Even a regular Komodo can smell over thirty feet down. God only knows how deep a Sazi can scent meat.”
“It’s this way,” he said and slithered down the trunk. He didn’t move as quickly across the snow. His bulk made a wide, deep path that we’d have to cover later or some human was going to call a zoo when they found it.
Lucas stepped in front of me to stop me. “If you don’t mind, Tony, I’d like to cut you off from Sue for a bit.”
I felt my front legs lower into an aggressive stance. “Why?”
“Two reasons. First, it’s a Wolven matter, and she’s a civilian…”
I lowered my head just a bit farther. “Yeah? So am I. Your point?”
His power burned just a bit brighter and I could smell his annoyance. “You agreed to help find Barbara Herrera. That puts you in my ballpark. Until she’s found, you’re Wolven.”
I growled angrily. So, Bobby’s been checking in with his boss. These power plays and conspiracies were getting old. “Okay, let’s make this really clear, Lucas, or whoever you are—Carmine told Bobby that I was in charge of the hunt for Babs. I agreed to help with the understanding that I did not answer to Bobby. Hence, I don’t answer to you.”
Lucas stared at me for a moment, and I could see the burning blue light behind his eyes. He ignored my statement. “Reason two—if there is a dead body, Sue doesn’t need to see it. She also doesn’t need to feel what you will want to do to it. Think about it, Tony…I can’t even guarantee my own reaction after so little meat.”
Shit. I hadn’t considered that. I’d only had a pair of rabbits for dinner. What would I do if I came upon a dead body? I’d studiously avoided any Family raids since I became a wolf for just this reason. It was how I’d gotten the whole “I vant to be alone” reputation. Before the wolf stuff, I did hits alone, but spent most of my time with the gang at Carmine’s place.
I felt Sue in the back of my mind steeling herself. I’d told her once about a time when I’d killed a person in a mindless blur of blood and screams. I never did find all the pieces. It had given me nightmares for weeks. I wasn’t sure she would be able to handle it.
I didn’t even check with her. “Do it.”
Tony you don’t have to pro—
I felt her objection cut off as a solid shield of power severed our tie. The first thing I noticed is that I couldn’t see Lucas’s glow as well anymore. My nose wasn’t as good, either. I was back to having to work to catch a person’s emotions.
“Okay, Bobby. Lead the way.”
Asri was standing in a small clearing near a massive red oak with a few hardy leaves still clinging to its branches.
“Tell them what you told me, Asri,” Bobby said when he was close enough.
“There’s little to tell. We were hunting and reached this spot. I told Bobby that there was a body buried under here, and I thought it was a Sazi.”
Lucas looked a little startled. “You can tell it’s one of us?”
“I think it’s one of us. My tongue is very cold. I’m not certain of much other than it’s down about twenty or twenty-five feet.”
“Is it a recent death?” Lucas’s face took on a wary look, even in wolf form.
Asri cocked her head and slid a forked tongue between her lips. “It’s odd you should ask that. I should be able to tell you, but I can’t. It’s as though it smells both of fresh meat and old bones. I am loathe to open a grave, but…I am curious.”
Lucas lowered his nose to the snow and sniffed around for a few seconds. “Nope. My nose isn’t up to the task, so we’ll have to take Asri’s word for it. Well, Bobby…Tony. We’re all here because of a missing person. I hope it’s not, but this might be our girl. With the ground frozen, I guess we’ll have to go back to town for shovels. It would take us all night with our claws. Unless…Asri?”
He looked at her in such a way that it made her shudder. “As I said, I am loathe to open a grave, Alpha Santiago.”
Blue eyes stared into slitted amber ones for a moment. Lucas’s scent was a mix of frustration and a healthy dose of curiosity. Asri was determined and afraid. Bobby? Well, Bobby was just flat nervous all around. I personally didn’t care whether we unburied the body or not. I was afraid it might be Babs. I wasn’t sure what I would tell Carmine.
I guess Lucas decided that discretion was the better part of valor. “Could you dig down to within three or four feet of the body? I don’t believe that the evil spirits could infect you at that distance. Tony and I can then open the grave.”
Asri started slightly at his words, and so did the rest of us. Ah. It hadn’t occurred to me that Asri might have much older beliefs than held by modern society—of spirits that follow the living to infect and turn them evil. Forcing her to dig all the way would be the equivalent of rape.
Her voice was soft and grateful. Ozone and warm musty air, like from a dryer vent, filled the space around her. She bowed her head slightly. “I will take you as far as I feel I can safely go. I thank you for your tolerance, Alpha Santiago.” She turned before he could reply and flicked her tongue over the ground carefully. She nodded once as she found her spot and started to dig with amazing speed and strength. We moved back from the quickly growing hole that only moments before was clean white snow. Soon she was lost from sight. Only a tall plume of dirt told us of her progress.
I felt a warm flush race through me and Sue appeared in my head briefly. The steak had satisfied her and made her think of the perfect gift. Bright colors danced in my head and stained the darkness as she laughed with her friend. I never wanted to be without this connection ever again.
When Asri finally crawled out of the diagonal burrow, she was covered with a fine coating of rich brown earth. We all chuckled when she said, “Well, at least I’m finally warm—not as good as a long swim, but it will do.”
I glanced into the dark hole as Lucas asked, “How much farther?”
Asri shook her body to remove some of dust, but then nestled into the large pile of warm earth when the wind started to howl. “The bones smell very decayed. There is little threat of spirits, so I was able to get you within a foot or two. The body will be straight ahead, so dig cautiously. Perhaps you won’t have to completely disturb the person’s final rest.”
Lucas and I descended single file into the black pit. The path was an easy slope, and tall enough for our wolf bodies to stand upright.
“A light would be nice,” I commented as we were swallowed by blackness.
“That’s what you have a nose for. You need to learn to use it. But, if you think it will help…” He turn up his power until blue-white light chased away the black. There wasn’t much to see, but I felt a little less claustrophobic.
“Much better,” I said.
“We’re close. Even I can smell it now.” When he said it, I sniffed the air. I understood what he meant. There was a smell of death in the air. Asri had been correct. There was no meat, decayed or otherwise. Only the scent of bones remained. It didn’t even make me salivate.
“So, I guess it’s not Babs.”
“Probably not,” he acknowledged. �
��But it’s a Sazi, so we still need to find out why he or she is here.”
“How can you tell it’s a Sazi? All I can smell is bones.”
“As I said earlier, Tony, you need to start using your nose. Close your eyes and tell me what you smell.”
I did as instructed. I’d been avoiding learning how to use my animal senses. It’s always been a reminder that I’m not human anymore. But if I was going to be living here, with a pack, I suppose I need to start to use my nose and ears to keep myself out of trouble.
I closed my eyes and took a deep, slow breath. Then another set of short inhales as I moved my head from side to side. Lucas waited tolerantly while I oriented myself.
“Well, the bones seem…”
The big white wolf shook his head. “Don’t focus on the body, Tony. Just tell me everything you smell. There’s soil, isn’t there? Rotting leaves?”
Oh. Maybe that’s been my problem all along—I’m trying to focus and keep missing things. “Okay. Well, there’s soil—but it’s not just dirt.” I opened my eyes and tried to concentrate on the individual wisps of color that rose from a thousand tiny points. It was a kaleidoscope of watercolors in the blackness.
“Go on,” urged Lucas.
“Asri ate some bugs and worms along the way. I can tell where there was an insect that was removed as she dug. I can smell her spit.”
“Good. Keep going.”
I closed my eyes again. It was harder to scent things without Sue in my head. I hadn’t realized how much being connected with her had helped my nose. “There are tree roots all around us—lots of pine and oak. There’s…”
“Can you smell me or you?” Lucas interrupted.
“Well, of course,” I snarled.
His shoulder moved in a version of a shrug. “You didn’t say so.”
I shook my head in exasperation. “Fine, you smell like watermelon and grass…”
His teeth appeared in a burst of white in the darkness. “Close, but no cigar. Not watermelon and not just grass. My scent is cactus tunas and buffalo grass.”
“Cactus what?”
“Tunas. The fruit of a prickly pear cactus is called a tuna. They do smell a lot like watermelon, I admit, but it’s the fine distinctions that are important in our world, Tony. If you need to compare scents to something your human mind can grasp, that’s fine—for awhile. But if that’s how you want to cope, then you need to get a better range of scents in your head for comparison. It might be important someday when you least expect it. You’ll find that many females smell like flowers, and males like grasses or trees.”
I huffed a bit of breath in a chuckle. “And then there are the three hundred pound bald guys with Uzis that smell like cherry limeade.”
Lucas gave a short bark, and his tailed wagged for a moment. “There are those. But really, Tony, as you live years, or decades, longer than humans, you’ll need to start to recognize scents before faces. We Sazi change faces all the time to avoid discovery. But if you can’t tell the difference between watermelon and cactus tunas, you’ll be easy prey for your enemies. Trust me when I say that you will have enemies. It’s inevitable. Now, what can you smell about the body, without digging any closer?”
I closed my eyes once more and followed the scent of bones. I dismissed from my mind the trees, the bugs, the rich black humus and found the thin thread of scent to the bones of…”
“Wait. Those are animal bones.” I took another sniff. “No, then again…”
“Ah, you got it at last,” Lucas said with a satisfied nod of his head. “That’s how you know it’s a Sazi. We smell of both animal and human after we die. This is why the depth of the burial is important. Someone knew they were burying a Sazi and put it at a depth that most other Sazi couldn’t scent the very obvious difference. Which leaves the question—why bury someone this deep unless you don’t want it found? Without Asri’s tongue, we wouldn’t have found it. That makes me suspicious enough to keep digging. You’re learning one of the primary tools of an investigator.”
I started at his phrasing because it was something that was nibbling at the back of my mind. Why would he care if I learned these things? I had no plans to become an investigator.
“But just because it’s a Sazi doesn’t mean that it’s something recent or has anything to do with Babs.”
“Could have been here for centuries.” Bobby’s voice surprised me enough that I banged my head on the roof of the cave. I was concentrating on the bones so I hadn’t noticed him slip down the hole. He noticed us both jump and flicked his tongue. “I got tired of waiting for you guys out in the snow. At least it’s warm down here.”
I could see Lucas shake his head. “Not centuries. It’s not that old.”
“And I suppose you’ve smelled centuries-dead Sazis before?”
This time, both Lucas and Bobby laughed—a staccato bark and a rich, throaty hiss. “Hell, I’ve danced on the graves of centuries-dead Sazi, Tony.” Lucas exclaimed. “I’ve outlived an awful lot of our kind. Yeah, I know the difference. Someday you will too.”
I decided not to dwell on that bit of knowledge. “I would think that it would have to be hand buried. Heavy equipment would be too noticeable in the park. How many people would it take? Or are there other good diggers, like Asri, among the Sazi?”
Bobby’s voice was thoughtful. The laughter and citrus in the air was suddenly gone, replaced by determination’s hot metal. “Wolves could—but it would take a pack a day or more to dig and then cover it. Again, too noticeable.”
“Asri’s the only monitor lizard, to my knowledge,” said Lucas, who also now smelled serious and determined. “There are the badgers, but Nigel’s the last, and he’s never been to America. I’ve never forgiven the colonies for their treachery, old boy. I am and will remain a loyal subject.” He did a great impression of a snooty British royalist.
Bobby laughed. “That’s Nigel, all right. No, he’d never sully his honor by digging on American soil.”
I stared at the wall of dirt and roots in front of us. “Bears? Do they dig?”
“They can.” Lucas mused. “But Nikoli would know if there was a bear in his territory. I don’t suppose he mentioned any visitors to you, Bobby?”
I think the hiss behind me was supposed to be laughter. His scent was bitter oranges. “Hardly. You know Nikoli—cards always close to his ever-present vest. But I haven’t smelled any since I’ve been here.”
I stepped forward, squeezing my way past Lucas. I started to dig sideways to open the space more so that all of us could stand, albeit closely. “Okay, for the moment, let’s leave the how alone. Maybe uncovering the body will give us the who and the why.”
Lucas nodded and likewise starting his front feet moving to open more territory. Dirt flew between our legs to disappear behind.
“Watch it, people.” exclaimed Bobby. I heard him spitting. “Some of us are at ground level here.”
“Maybe you should wait outside until we clear more space.”
“Nah, I’ve got a better idea.” I saw a flash of green from the corner of my eye. I turned my head to see that Bobby was back in human form. His dark skin blended almost perfectly with the rich earth. He moved his upper body forward so that he was between me and Lucas. He was very careful not to touch me at all, which made him crowd the big white wolf. “I’ll start to uncover the body. It’ll be faster.”
By working together, we opened a much larger space. Bobby could now kneel easily without touching us. He had succeeded in carefully removing dirt around the body. Actually, it was a skeleton, and badly desiccated.
Bobby’s eyes worked really well in the dark. “Look at these bones. They’re almost dust. It’s got to have been here a couple of centuries, at least, I think your nose needs a tune-up, Boss.” He reached forward and pressed on a portion of the skull. It cracked easily and a few small pieces fell to the dirt underfoot.
I eased forward and used the light radiating from he and Lucas to look more closely. “Nope. I h
ave to agree with Lucas.” I knew they wouldn’t be able to see it, but I could. “The dirt is still loose and fluffy inside the rib cage. It’s not compacted as though it’s been here years. And feel how easy it’s been to open this hole? It should be tearing up your fingernails. This has been dug up recently. I won’t say that the skeleton’s not old, though.”
“Hey! I just found something.” Bobby said. His finger pulled back sharply. Lucas stopped digging and we both came over to watch.
“I can’t see a damn thing down here. It smells like silver, though.” Lucas complained. “Tony, what is it?”
I reached my nose forward and stared at the object Bobby had uncovered. It was a small medallion on a chain. It was around the skeleton’s neck and was buried slightly in the soil between the ribs. I nudged it with my nose and jerked back when the metal burned. It must be why Bobby pulled back, too.
“Ow. It is silver. Bobby, if you reach forward and down, you can unhook the chain without touching the medallion. The chain’s just regular steel. Let’s get a better look at it. It looks like there’s a symbol or letter on it. I’m not up on Russian, but it looks Cyrillic.”
Bobby hesitated. He smelled nervous. “I don’t like this, guys. Grave robbing isn’t a very reputable activity in my culture, either.”
“This is a murder investigation, gentlemen.” Lucas’s voice was firm. “Let’s just do our job and try to be as respectful as possible.”
He was right. I moved closer. “We’ll have to get the body fully out if we’re going to see what it died of. We can’t even tell if it’s male or female yet. There might be other clues, as well. Look, Bobby, if you don’t want to, I’ll do it. I don’t have any particular religious convictions. Someone will have to turn me back human, though, if that’s possible.”
Lucas shook his head. “I don’t recommend the process. You’d be regretting it for days. No, I think that we should get the medallion out for Asri to look at. She might be able to get a scent from the chain or metal. She’s been with Nikoli over fifty years. She should recognize a scent if the person was a local.”