“What’s wrong with you?” Ms. Wankenfurter hissed.
But Titus was already moving off the road into the trees. He made no noise. Perhaps he should have been pushing and shoving in the brush and trying to make it seem like he was any other regular human. But that behavior would not get him what he wanted. He was almost certain he knew what was in the trees. He could smell it. The sickly sweet odor of infection. He’d smelled it just a short time ago when he had been walking out of the dentist’s office. He had come face to face with someone. And now he suspected that someone was standing just a few short yards away.
Yes! There she was. As Titus shifted between two trees, he spotted a figure dressed all in black. Black pants and shoes, a black long-sleeved shirt, even in the muggy summer heat, and her bright hair pulled up into a stocking hat too. The hair that should have been tangled and crackly and red.
“What are you doing?” Titus called out to Hilary Allenwood.
The Branson Register reporter leaped so far into the air that she dropped her phone, which she had presumably been using as a camera, and it fell against a cluster of rocks and stumps at her feet. The phone gave a clattering sound that sounded deafening in the closeness of the woods and finally Pugsley noticed there was something in the woods watching them.
The little dog began to bark so furiously that he bounced up and down on the pavement. Hilary Allenwood gave a frantic look around and then her gaze settled on Titus. “You! What are you doing here?”
“Ironically,” Titus said with no small amount of amusement, “I’m with the neighborhood watch. We’re doing a patrol and you’re looking rather like an intruder. Don’t you think?”
“I’m no such thing!”
Hilary Allenwood blundered her way through the woods in his direction. Ducking and tripping her way across the rocky landscape, she managed to catch her hat on a tree branch. The black knit skull cap was pulled right off her head and a tumble of knotted, brittle red hair spilled out and fell around her shoulders.
“What’s going on over there, Titus?” Ms. Wankenfurter called out. “Have you found something? Should we go to the police? Is it the intruder? What about a raccoon? Is it a raccoon?”
“Look at that,” Titus said sarcastically. He gazed at Hilary and wondered what in the world she was up to. The woman was no end of trouble and that was the long and short of it. “You’ve completely blown your cover. I think you’ve managed to out yourself. I’ve seen you in these woods before. You’ve been prowling around and I want to know why.”
“I haven’t been prowling!” Hilary protested.
Titus wasn’t shy about staring at her clothes. “Really? You want to try to convince me of that again maybe? Tell me again how you are not prowling about in the woods in black clothing with a cap over your hair?”
“Oh shut up!” Hilary went pushing past Titus and he let her go. She shoved at his shoulder as he walked by. “You are such a bastard, Titus Holbrook! I’m going to make sure that everyone finds out about you and your little clique of investigators and what you’re trying to do to the local police department in Branson.”
Titus felt a wave of concern. Not alarm, just concern. He reached out and snagged her arm as she was barreling past. Hanging onto her took no effort at all, as she weighed no more than a twig. “What are you talking about? What are you trying to insinuate?”
“I don’t have to insinuate anything! You and your agents are trying to take over the police department in Branson.” She said this as though she was honestly convinced it was true.
Titus frowned. How odd. “You’ve certainly got your wires crossed, haven’t you?”
“What?” She yanked her arm out of his grip and kept walking. “You’re such an ass. You know that? But you’re not going to intimidate me the way you intimidated that lump-headed weakling Detective Lowell.”
“Oh,” Titus said sarcastically. “You mean I must have intimidated Detective Lowell because he never fell prey to your machinations and attempts to yank his chain? That’s really classic, Hilary. He wouldn’t go on your payroll, so he must be on mine!”
“My payroll?” Hilary blustered. She was still backing away from him, stumbling every other step as she pushed her way through thick weeds and brush. “Oh, that’s rich! My payroll is the people. Remember? I’m a reporter. I report the news. And that’s what people want to hear about. Corruption in their government! And you’ve just given me a great reason to go to the police chief! I’ll tell him what you’ve been up to, Titus Holbrook! I’ll tell everyone!”
And then she was suddenly running. Titus let her go. She was struggling to get away from him. Spinning and dashing through the woods only to half fall into a tree before bouncing off of that one and nearly faceplanting against another.
Titus let her go. Then he sighed and returned to the road and his unfortunate patrol companion. Ms. Wankenfurter was spitting, snorting mad. She huffed and puffed as she yelled at him all the way up the next block. The incline didn’t even seem to slow her down. Titus was rather impressed. Finally, at the next block, they met another patrol pair out for their evening walk too.
“Kylie Overton and Selma Peters, just you wait until I tell you what Titus Holbrook did!” Ms. Wankenfurter launched into her explanation of what had occurred at the previous intersection of Hawthorne and Pine. At that point, Titus was surprised to hear he had deserted Ms. Wankenfurter for a full thirty minutes, had most likely gone home, and could not keep up with the pace she had set. “I just don’t think Titus Holbrook and I are a good match for patrol,” Ms. Wankenfurter announced. “I believe Kylie would do much better as a patrol partner for me!”
Titus could not stop the grin from splitting his face wide open when he heard the old lady’s announcement. Kylie’s expression sort of froze on her face. Selma and Ursuline fell into step, both leaving Kylie and Titus to walk together down the next block.
“That’s not cool,” Kylie growled at him.
Titus shrugged. “Sorry. It didn’t happen quite that way. You might be interested to know that I discovered Hilary Allenwood hiding out and taking pictures with her phone. I don’t know what she was doing, but I confronted her. I smelled her in the woods,” Titus said without thinking. Then he had to backpedal. “It was the infection, from that toothache? You know. That dental smell. The breeze must have picked it up just right.”
Kylie looked mystified. “Ohmigod, do you know how bad her teeth must be if she smells bad enough for you to smell her in the woods?”
Actually, not bad at all for a werewolf to smell her. After all, Titus could tell Kylie had been eating strawberries at some point during the day; the scent was still on her breath. No doubt it had come from the hospitality room at the winery where she worked. He could smell the wine on her, too.
“Wait a second,” Kylie muttered. She turned to Titus with a look of concern. She was so disturbed that she actually touched his arm. He nearly froze when she did. The gentle contact was so unexpected. He didn’t really know how to react, so he did nothing. “Are you telling me Hilary Allenwood was lurking around our neighborhood?”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Titus couldn’t tell Kylie he had seen Hilary before. That had been during the incident when Kylie had accidentally seen Titus in his wolf form and Titus didn’t want to jog her memory of that night. It had only been after smelling the woman in the dentist office that Titus had realized it was her that night so many weeks ago.
“I’m not sure why she was taking pictures with her little phone camera, but she did go off on a rant about how she thinks my security company is trying to take over the Branson Police Department.” Titus intentionally threw that out there to see what reaction he got.
“Good Lord, really?” Kylie started to laugh. “She’s just pissed off because you and Detective Lowell have actually started to investigate the way little miss sassy pants reporter thinks she can run the department as her personal drama service. A crime happens and the press get
s to decide how to proceed. A pretty unique way to run a department in my opinion.”
Titus smiled. He liked the way that Kylie spun things. She was funny and actually quite pretty in her own way. She wasn’t beautiful. Not in the traditional sense. She was more of your girl-next-door type. Her build was athletic, but still above average from the current fashion dictated. She wore her brunette hair long and kept it piled atop her head in a messy kind of bun that rather defined everything else about her. Kylie’s entire manner was careless, as though she could not be bothered to put any more effort into her appearance or manner than absolutely necessary for politeness. And lately, that was what Titus had started to respect the most.
Chapter Two
The Branson Landing Fountain Show was just wrapping up for the night. There had been half a dozen shows already that day. A regular summer day on the landing where tourists could shop everything from high-end outlets to sporting goods to stores full of products you could usually only buy on infomercials. But that was Branson. At least that was what Branson meant to Laurie Talcott. Tourists. Money. More tourists. Retail Shops. More money. It was all an endless parade.
Laurie smiled warmly at a family pushing their tired toddlers back toward the parking lot. The parents looked about as fatigued as the kids. Laurie often wondered if parents ever considered the unfairness of pushing a kid when the kid was the one who had all the energy and the parents were worn to hell. As Laurie passed the young family, she reminded herself that seeing this sort of thing was really good for her personal commitment to never have a family. She wasn’t close to her family and never really had been. Laurie was the black sheep and she liked it that way. As far as she was concerned, that meant the pressure was off. No stress to find a man, or start a family. End of story.
A very loud group of older ladies pushed their way out of a candle store a few feet ahead of Laurie. They brought with them a huge gust of cold air smelling of a dozen or more heavy fragrances. Laurie smiled and nodded to them as well. They were chattering as they headed for the parking lot. It was nine o’clock and time for most of the stores to close. Some restaurants would stay open another hour, but it was a weeknight and nearly time for manager Laurie to go home.
Laurie could not be sure what first alerted her to the skateboarders. Maybe it was the sound of the tracks on the pavement. That distinctive, almost scraping sound. Or it might have been the raucous calls of the teenaged hooligans as they whipped past Laurie and headed straight for the old ladies.
“What smells?” one boy called out as he steered his skateboard in a circle around the group of four older women. “Is it your old bag?”
Laughs from the rest as they taunted the older ladies and called out to each other. Laurie spun about and lifted her two-way radio to her lips. “Josh, I’ve got another skateboarder issue! Come quick, please!”
“Get away from me you lowlife!” A woman screamed and swiped at the young man with her heavy bag full of candles.
A few yards ahead, the father of the tired family turned around and frowned. Laurie didn’t have time to wait for her security guy. She needed to intervene immediately. The teenaged jackass was grabbing hold of the old lady’s shopping bag. He had one foot on his board and the other on the cement. Other shoppers were turning to stare.
This needed to stop before someone got hurt. “Hey!” Laurie shouted. “Landing Security! Cease and desist right now! Stop. I mean it!”
Laurie was running now. Her tennis shoes slapped the pavement for perhaps maybe two more strides before she was enveloped by the young people on their skateboards. They wore helmets and pads and snarky expressions as they mocked her to her face and picked at her road guard vest.
This was no time for passivity. The old woman’s bag finally connected with a young man whipping past. The kid toppled off his skateboard and hit the cement hard. The board slammed into a large trashcan and bounced onto its side. The plastic shopping bag split and a hail of heavy glass jar candles hit the ground. They were wrapped in paper, but that did not stop them from clattering together and obviously breaking as they hit the ground.
The whole scene seemed to freeze when the kid hit dirt. But that wasn’t the end of it. As quickly as he was down, the little bastard was up. He reached for the old woman’s purse and tried to grab it. She shrieked and suddenly the dad intervened.
Leaving his kids in the care of his wife, the young man with the broad shoulders and flipflops roared onto the scene with a loud shout that had no doubt silenced more than one evil child in its time. He grabbed the hoodlum and collared him. Then he pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.
It was like kicking a hornet’s nest. All of a sudden, the skateboarders were zooming about the scene like bugs to a zapper. They pelted the young father with trash pilfered from the nearby bin until the man had no choice but to let go of the kid that he was holding by the shirt.
“Come on, let’s go!” The tallest one seemed to be the leader. He had a skull sticker on his black helmet. “Go. Go. Go!”
They hightailed it away from the scene of the crime and Laurie let them. She would be talking to Josh soon about why he had failed to respond with any of the Landing security crew. For now, Laurie’s main concern was for her customer. The woman was crying as she and her friends struggled to pick up the broken pieces of her candles.
“It’s all right,” Laurie murmured. “Tell me what they were and I’m going to replace them. I’ll have the manager reopen the store so we can set things right for you.”
“He just came out of nowhere!” the woman sniffled. She was wearing a big floral dress that puffed out around her round body like a tent. “I just swung at him to keep him away from my purse. If this young man hadn’t intervened, I don’t know what I would have done.”
“Sir, thank you so much for your help.” Laurie pumped the young father’s hand up and down. She reached into the cargo pocket of her work trousers and pulled out a gift certificate. “I hope you’ll accept a gift certificate to Hank’s Custard here on the Landing for you and your family. I cannot tell you how glad I am to know there are still Good Samaritans in the world.”
The man stared after the kids, ignoring the gift certificate for a moment. His wife didn’t. She plucked that gift certificate from Laurie’s hand and shoved it into her purse before putting her arm around her husband and tugging.
“What is wrong with kids these days?” the man growled. He looked at his wife. “If our boys ever behave that way, I will tan their hides. You know I will!”
“Yes, honey, I know,” the woman assured her husband. “Hopefully, we can raise some decent kids even though it doesn’t seem like other parents are bothering to do the same.”
The man hugged his wife and grabbed hold of the stroller handles again. He passed one more look at the woman still sitting on the ground. “Can I help you to your feet, ma’am?”
“Oh no,” the woman said hastily. “I’ll stay here a few more minutes to get my bearings, I think. I’m just glad I could smack him hard enough to knock him down too!”
At some point, a crowd of onlookers had gathered. Laurie now whisked them away with her hands. “Let’s move along, folks. Nothing to see here! You all want to head back to your cars now I think. Or you can stay and have a fine dinner in one of our restaurants.”
The outdoor mall known as Branson Landing was one of the most popular destinations in Branson. Laurie was the manager but right then, she wished she was managing something else. Anything else. A nice coffee shop would be wonderful. She had always wanted to run a coffee shop but it just didn’t pay much.
Finally, the woman on the ground got up. Laurie walked to the candle shop and knocked on the door. The manager opened up right away; she witnessed what happened. Leaning in toward Laurie, the manager whispered in her ear. “I’ll have to have some compensation for this. I can only do so much with damaged merchandise.”
“I know.” Laurie gritted her teeth. Talk about paying a pretty penny for customer servi
ce. “Just replace whatever is broken and give me an invoice tomorrow,” Laurie suggested. “You saw the little bastards I suppose?”
The store manager nodded. “Yeah. Those are the same kids I’ve been telling you about. This is getting ridiculous, Laurie. We have to do something about it.”
“I know.” Laurie turned and made a sweeping gesture to the old woman and her friends. “Let’s come on inside into the cool air and get your order redone. All right”
Good, that was taken care of. The old women were safely in the store and now Laurie just needed two hulking security guys to escort them to their cars, preferably on a golf cart. Speaking of golf carts. Laurie saw one coming toward her with its little lights flashing brightly. Finally. Security. It was just too late to really do any good.
“Where have you been?” Laurie burst out when Josh stopped the cart.
Josh was a man in his sixties who had retired as an army colonel and moved to Branson. He only moonlighted as a rent-a-cop because he was bored at home with nothing to do. He had two other guys in the cart with him. Both younger men moonlighted as security guards and bouncers all over Branson. But tonight they were on duty at the Landing and they’d failed in their duty. At least that was how Laurie saw it.
Josh’s expression was a bit mixed however. “There was another attack at each end of the Landing,” he told her in a terse voice filled with strain. “I really think these are planned, Laurie. There was a group of the little shits down by the sporting goods store. They tried to use bolt cutters on the boats parked out front. I swear the plan was to push them into Lake Taneycomo!”
“What?” Laurie felt her mouth pop open. This was new. This whole concept of planning and such was not what they’d experienced before.
But apparently Josh was not done shocking her. “And that’s not all, Laurie. There was another group of them down by the Black Oak Grill. They were attempting to overturn the trash cans and roll them down the stairs!”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 49