Wolfe in Shepherd's Clothing

by David Gane

  Mom and Dad aren’t done with us, though.

  One day, when we come home from school, we find a bunch of wireless security cameras installed around the place to keep track of any movement in the house—which I’m sure includes Charlie and me. And we all start going to weekly family therapy, despite the fact that our shrink tells us repeatedly that we would have been fine with once-a-month visits.

  My parents also make Charlie and me take a course with Victim Services at the police station—something I think Gekas recommended. These are group sessions that are a combination of sitting around in a circle and discussing our situations, as well as one-on-one and classroom talks. I hate sharing the events that led us into Harriet’s farmhouse—it sounds like I was pretending to play hero—but Charlie always seems energized after his private sessions.

  Despite all this, I regret nothing. I know that I’d go out to the farmhouse again, and sit in those therapy sessions again, listening to the stories of other victims.

  I know there are a lot more people out there waiting to be helped.

  chapter 141

  One day, Mom takes me to the graveyard.

  I visit Sheri’s grave first and leave flowers. It’s been so long since she’s been gone that her absence has become part of my norm.

  But when I visit Mike, the dirt is still fresh and piled high.

  I’m past feeling numb and crying, but some days I catch myself thinking of calling him for a game of basketball or for a ride to school, until I realize it can never happen.

  He’s dead and there’s a hole in my life.

  I miss my friend.

  chapter 142

  We don’t see Gekas for a long while after, so when she shows up on our doorstep on a Saturday morning almost a month after our encounter at the house, I’m a little surprised.

  “Hello, Detective Gekas.”

  “Please, Anthony. Just call me Maggie.”

  “You and I both know I’ll never be able to call you that.”

  “Fair enough,” she smiles. “I just wanted to drop off—”

  “Maggie?” Mom calls from the living room before appearing at the door beside me.“I thought I heard you! What are doing out here?” She pushes past me to pull Gekas into a hug. “It’s so good to see you! You’re staying for breakfast.” Mom’s insistent and Gekas doesn’t even get a chance to argue before she’s pulled inside. “Ben’s just finishing up the cooking.”

  “Ackee and saltfish with fried dumplings, and cinnamon banana pancakes,” Dad hollers out from the kitchen as Gekas is ushered down the hallway.

  Mom calls to Charlie, “Please pour Maggie some coffee.”

  “For sure, Mrs. S.! Hope you don’t mind flavour, Mags,” He gets a glare from the adults in the room. “Okay, okay! Gekas, it is!” Then, without a pause, he looks at her conspiratorially and adds, “You wouldn’t believe the swill they drank around here before I came along.”

  “Hey, careful there, Charlie-boy. That was my swill,” Dad cautions.

  As soon as he’s done filling Gekas’s cup, Charlie rushes back to the stove. “Gah! Mr. S., you’re burning my pancakes!”

  Gekas smiles at the orchestrated chaos of our household.

  The food is served, and my family and Gekas sit at the table together. Ollie comes from his spot in the living room to set himself on Gekas’s feet, and it’s clear she’s one of us.

  “You’re almost finished with your time off,” Mom says like she knows, even though this is the first I’ve heard of it.

  “Yes,” Gekas nods. “Back to work Monday.”

  “Aren’t you going to miss it?” Dad asks.

  She shakes her head. “Group counselling and therapy work? No thank you!”

  I laugh at our similarities. “Did your parents install a half-dozen nanny cams too?”

  She smiles. “No, but considering the trouble the two of you get into, I’d’ve installed two dozen.”

  Dad raises his cup to her.

  She turns to me. “Actually, you’re the reason I’m here.”

  “Not my cooking?” Dad teases.

  “Or my coffee?” Charlie adds.

  She laughs. “Well, not before, but after tasting all this, you may need to keep an extra plate ready for me!” She pulls out two envelopes from the inside pocket of her leather jacket and lays them on the table. One is thin and the other is thick, bursting at the seams.

  “Who are the envelopes for? Are they full pardons for our sins?” Charlie asks, grinning.

  Gekas laughs again. “With your history? I’d have to get the prime minister on the line to get your record wiped clean.”

  Charlie pulls away her plate and she shoots him a look. He puts his arms up in surrender.

  She hands the thick envelope to him. “I went through the files we have,” she glances quickly at the rest of us then meets Charlie’s eyes. “I gathered some information you might find meaningful.”

  “Thank you,” he says, but he doesn’t open it, opting instead to slip it under his butt and pick up another forkful of pancake.

  Gekas looks at me. “Your mom and dad told me about your career plans. I’ve checked into it and you’re way past the registration due date.”

  “But I thought I could apply for training any time?”

  “Not if you’re going for a university degree in police studies,” Mom says.

  “Wait? What?”

  Dad steps in. “You’re not going straight into training. You’re going into justice and specializing in police studies—”

  “But that’s a four-year program!” I sputter.

  “Yes, but it will build your skills in critical thinking—” says Mom.

  “And theory—” Dad adds.

  “And ethics,” Gekas finishes.

  “Why do I feel like the three of you have been conspiring against me?”

  Now they’re all grinning at me, and Gekas pushes the thin envelope forward. “Your parents have shown me your marks. You’re a little low on some of them.”

  I’d tell her it’s been a tough semester, but everyone at this table already knows it.

  “However, I did a little work behind your back—you should be used to that sort of thing by now,” Gekas says with a wink. “I spoke to the dean, and after submitting recommendation letters from me and my boss, you’ve got a spot for the fall.”

  I open the envelope and find an acceptance letter to the local university. I’m at a loss for words, but manage to croak out a thank you.

  “Aww, Shepherd, don’t start with the tears,” Charlie says, looking at Mom and Dad. “I don’t know how you raised him, but he’s a sensitive waif.”

  I suck in a breath, always thankful for his ability to get me out of a tight spot, whether it’s physically or emotionally—though I’m not about to show it. “I’m just crying because I won’t be moving out on my own, far away from all of you.”

  “Pfft.” Charlie’s dismissive. “You’d miss us!”

  And we all laugh because it’s true.

  chapter 143

  After that meal and a good visit, I feel bad about what I’m about to do.

  “Detective Gekas?” I call out, catching her at her car before she leaves.

  She waits, one hand on the door latch, and her head drops. She straightens, then turns to me. “Anthony.”

  I walk down the steps toward her. “I was wondering if you could tell me …” I don’t know how to finish the sentence.

  “You want to know why it all happened,” she says, voice cracking. There’s still heartbreak in her soul that a month of counselling won’t ever erase.

  I nod. “Who was it Charlie and I were chasing?”

  She shakes her head. She’s still not happy about the two of us taking the law into our own hands.

  She comes to sit on the step.

&
nbsp; I feel like I’m looming over her, so I drop down beside her.

  “Spencer seems like a ghost to me now. Full of lies and deception. Floating through life, stealing the identities of the people he’d killed …,” she trails off, not looking at me, staring at the quiet street.

  “But I thought he was the love of my life,” she says finally, point blank, making her voice solid. “We met about two years ago, not long before I crossed paths with you. I went south for a holiday and met him on an island in a bar. We hit it off right away.”

  Gekas repositions herself on the cold, hard steps.

  “It was nice that he was from the States. I was always working, so we could schedule visits and not play the usual couples’ games. I never worried about other women; I trusted him. My instinct was to trust him. He was convincing. I never thought—” She closes her eyes, and her body deflates a bit.

  I couldn’t imagine believing that the love of your life was a decent, faithful man—only to discover he is a serial killer.

  “What I didn’t know was that he was actually from here.” She sits up, rigid, and I can almost see her step into full cop mode. “After his parents adopted his brother, he became jealous, and eventually left. After that, all we have are pieces of his life, hints of where he went and what he did, though we’re pretty certain he started killing at about the time he met me.”

  “You never suspected him?”

  “No. Well, not until you boys went to the condo.”

  I glance at her. She’d told us the condo was a bust.

  “He’s the one who told me that it’s easier to fake an ID than it is a passport,” she says. “But that wasn’t what made me start questioning him.” Before I can ask, she goes on. “One of the shirts,” she says. “A handmade brand from Italy.”

  This time her voice doesn’t crack, but it’s as cold and hard as the steps. “Something about that detail stuck with me for days. I couldn’t shake it. Until I figured it out. It was the same as his.”

  “Did he leave it for you?”

  She shakes her head. “I don’t know if it was intentional. But it was enough for me to start looking more carefully into his history. Of course, he had no connections to his family. But he also had no friends, no other life. It was just him and the law firm.”

  “He was a ghost.”

  She nods. “And he’s been killing for a long time, crossing provincial borders and state lines. The investigation has escalated to a federal, inter-agency level.”

  “So that’s what you were doing when you weren’t answering your phone?”

  She nods again.

  I ask the question I can’t let go of. “Why Mike?”

  She contemplates her answer. “When he came back here with me, he turned his hatred on his brother. At first, it was about destroying Harriet’s life.”

  “Was Spencer responsible for ruining his marriage?”

  “Well, Harriet was hardly perfect. And Autumn was a temptation.”

  “But did he cheat on his wife?” I really don’t want to know about Harriet’s sex life but I do want to understand what happened.

  “No. He wised up before he did something too stupid. But Spencer caught scent of it and used it against him. He was responsible for laying out all the digital breadcrumbs to point the finger at his brother.”

  I think about all the naughty texts and pictures that were sent between Autumn and Spencer. Gekas can’t be happy.

  “He kept at it. Stole his identity, put him into financial ruin with debt, sabotaged every relationship he had.”

  “And then kidnapped him.”

  “Yes.” She’s staring at the ground.

  The papers had been following her investigation at Harriet’s house in the city and the basement of the farmhouse. I know what she’s seen.

  “After his wife left, Spencer arrived at his door.” Her eyes are fiery, she’s wrestling with a stewing anger, and she closes them to continue. “Harriet was thrilled to see his brother. At first. Then Spencer drugged him and chained him up in the attic.”

  She laughs and it isn’t until she wipes away a tear that I realize she’s crying. “Harriet almost got away once—and that’s when Spencer took him out of the city, made it harder for him to escape.”

  “That means he’s been held hostage for—”

  “Months. Harriet had lost everyone, so no one knew he was missing.”

  The utter terror and hopelessness he must have suffered!

  But she still hasn’t answered my question.

  “But why Mike?” I ask again, and she looks at me, frustrated.

  “Last summer,” she says finally.

  I stare at her, trying to figure out what she’s getting at.

  She sighs. “After the attack at the lake, I wasn’t myself. Like I said, lots of physical therapy, then they stuck me at a desk. But I wasn’t rushing back. I was—”

  She doesn’t finish the sentence, but I know exactly what she was. She was scared of the consequences of going back into the field and chasing bad guys. Just like Charlie was. Just like Ollie. And why shouldn’t she be nervous?

  “He thought he could fix me by doing what he was good at. It was—his gift to me.”

  “He even wrapped them with a bow …” I trail off.

  She nods.

  “But if you had figured it out—?”

  “We think he planned to frame Harriet for the murders.” She pauses. “Personally, I think he was willing to be caught. He thought of it all as an act of love. But I don’t think he knows love. I think it was just his way of trying to control love.”

  “And Mike was just someone else who got in his way—

  because of Autumn?”

  She nods, but I can tell she’s avoiding something.

  I have to say it. “He blames us for what happened to you, doesn’t he? If it weren’t for us, you wouldn’t have been wounded. He held a grudge, and when we found his condo, he turned all his hate and anger on Mike—”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Anthony.”

  “I don’t.”

  She studies me, seeing that I mean it. “The farmhouse was his end-game,” she says. “The plan was to kill you and Charlie, blame it on Harriet, and burn the evidence to the ground.”

  “He just didn’t expect Charlie to show up with his big stick,” I say, trying to lighten the mood.

  Gekas doesn’t crack a smile, though; she only searches my eyes. “I’ve talked with Charles. This was all you, Anthony. You went after this case, despite the fact that I said no.”

  I try to disagree, but she interrupts. “Quit arguing. If it weren’t for you, we’d never have found him. Your persistence tracked him down. And you saved your friend and Harriet and yourself from that slaughterhouse by being smart and resourceful. We stopped him, and you and Charlie survived because of your determination, quick wit, and inner strength.”

  She stands, stuffs her hands in her pockets, takes a deep breath, then smiles down at me. “I’m glad you’ve chosen

  law enforcement. Knowing that you’ll be out there, fighting the good fight, and helping others. I’ll be proud to work beside you.”

  With that, she turns and heads to her car, not turning back.

  And I can’t help but smile.

  chapter 144

  Graduation arrives. Since I’m still grounded, I don’t get to participate in most of the pre-grad activities. But Mom and Dad let us out early on good behaviour, and we get to attend the last big bash. I don’t expect Charlie cares much for this sort of thing, but I think he’s happy just to get outside the house.

  Despite Mom’s persistent pestering, I choose to attend the ceremony on my own, without a date. Although I was asked by a few girls in my class and heard rumours of a few others too shy to approach me, I felt it was only right. But I’ve promised myself that once this yea
r is done, it’s time to move on. As Charlie has reminded me countless times, Sheri wouldn’t want me to mourn her forever.

  Although Charlie doesn’t have enough classes to graduate this year, Elaina takes him along as her date. Nothing surprising about that since she’s been bringing take-out or appetizers over to our place on a regular basis, and watching movies with Charlie and my family. The two of them have grown quite close, and it’s still weird to see Charlie acting so normal and un-Charlie-like.

  Mom and Dad rent a limo so that Charlie and Elaina, Laura, Maxine, Gretchen, and their dates, and me, the third-wheel, have a ride to the ceremony. At first I protest—it seems a little too much hype—but once we’re on our way, it feels good to be surrounded by all these people.

  We pull up to the Centre of the Arts, where the ceremony is being held, and pile out. Everyone looks fantastic, and we take plenty of selfies together before heading in. We’re sorting out where we have to be and Charlie’s telling Elaina where he’ll meet her after the ceremony since he’s got to go sit in the audience with my parents, when his phone rings.

  He checks the number but doesn’t answer. He pulls me aside. “Hey, Shepherd, do you mind helping Elaina inside? I just need to take this.”

  “Everything all right?” I ask as the phone rings again.

  “Yup, totally fine. I’ve just been trying to track down my mom and I think this might be her.” He grins. “Wouldn’t surprise me. Her timing has always sucked.”

  His mom’s calling?!

  “You sure everything’s cool?” I double-check.

  “Yeah, yeah, go on in before they decide to renege on your diploma.”

  He pushes me along, and I look back and see him take the call, stepping back outside.

  I catch up to Elaina. She asks where Charlie is and I tell her. She gives me a funny look, and it’s exactly the way I feel, but people are herding us into a big room so we don’t get to discuss it further.

  There are long aisles cordoned off, and I feel like a cow being led to graduation slaughter. At one point they hustle us into caps and gowns, and at another, they hand us a program for the evening and a little graduation pin with the school’s emblem. Another stop, and this time they tell us they don’t want our phones going off during the ceremony, and make us put them into envelopes with our names written on them and hand them over.