The Wolf

by Alex Grecian

  “Maddy, get down!”

  She started to turn toward the sound of her father’s voice, but there was a bright flash of light and the deafening roar of a gunshot next to her ear. She staggered sideways and fell, but her father caught her and scooped her up before she hit the ground.

  “Bear,” she said.

  “Oh, honey,” her father said. “Was that the dog?”

  10

  Before she did anything else, Skottie fetched her handcuffs and secured Christian. Then she put Emmaline in charge of watching him, pulled on a pair of boots, and left the house.

  She dialed 911 as she walked along the street, scanning every shadow, every hedge and tree and patch of black ice, looking for some sign of Maddy. The emergency dispatcher put her on hold before Skottie could say anything, so she hung up and called Lieutenant Johnson on his cell.

  He picked up after two rings. “Skottie? You know what time it is?” He didn’t sound like he’d been asleep.

  “Yes, sir,” Skottie said. She was slightly out of breath, jogging fast, keeping her eyes peeled. “I’ve got trouble here.”

  “Yeah, listen, can we talk about this Monday?”

  “No, sir. Three men, at least three, just broke into my house.”

  “Oh, damn.” She could hear him sit up straighter, his voice suddenly alert. “I thought you were talking about the other thing again.”

  “No, sir, that can wait.” Skottie reached the end of her block and turned the corner. Something glinted in the middle of the next street, and Skottie hurried across, squatted down to see it more closely.

  “Skottie? You there?”

  “Just a minute,” she said.

  The shiny thing in the street was a phone, crushed and deformed into a rough parallelogram. The screen was cracked, but when Skottie pushed the home button it displayed a faint green bar indicating that a call was in progress. She touched it but it didn’t respond. She picked it up and turned it over, recognized Maddy’s Adventure Time phone case.

  “Skottie?” The lieutenant’s distant voice reminded her that she was still on a call of her own. She stood up and stuck Maddy’s phone in her jacket pocket, then started walking again and put her own phone back up to her ear.

  “Sir, my daughter’s missing right now.”

  “Skottie, you need to hang up and call 911.”

  “I did. They put me on hold. I was hoping you could—”

  “Right. Hold tight and let me make a couple of calls, okay?”

  Skottie turned the corner again. Her vague plan was to search the block around Emmaline’s house, then expand out another block, keep spiraling outward.

  “One of the men was Sheriff Goodman’s deputy,” she said.

  “The black kid? Quincy?”

  “No, sir, one of the other ones.”

  “Skottie, don’t do anything until I call you back.”

  “I’m looking for Maddy right now. I’m gonna keep doing that.”

  “Of course.”

  She hung up without saying good-bye and dialed Brandon’s number. She had deleted it from her speed dial weeks before and was surprised to find that she still remembered it. He picked up right away, sounding like he hadn’t been sleeping, either.

  “What’s going on over there?” he said.

  “Maddy’s missing. How fast can you—”

  “I’ve got her, Skottie. She’s here.”

  Skottie stopped walking. She went over to the curb and sat on it, took a deep breath. “Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine,” Brandon said. “Just cold. I was about to call you. Skottie, what’s she doing out in the middle of the night? For God’s sake, she doesn’t have any shoes. Her feet are practically frozen.”

  “You think I let her wander the streets?”

  “No, I don’t … Hey, I think I’ve got a legitimate right to be concerned here.”

  Of course he did. Skottie realized her relief had somehow turned immediately to irritation at the sound of her husband’s voice. “Sorry,” she said.

  “Maddy won’t talk to me, just keeps crying about that dog.”

  “Dog?”

  “I didn’t realize it was the same one. It startled me, is all.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I shot at it. That dog you brought home was following her. I mean, it came out of the fog like some kind of … I don’t know if I hit it. It didn’t make any noise.”

  “He wouldn’t. He’s mute.”

  “Huh.”

  “You really shot Bear?”

  “I don’t know. You can’t see anything out there, so much fog.”

  “Jesus, Brandon.”

  “What happened over there?”

  “We had a break-in. Maddy must’ve made a run for it.”

  “A break-in? You okay?”

  “I’m fine. Mom’s fine.”

  “Skottie, you need to come home where I can—”

  “Not the time. I’m just glad Maddy’s all right.”

  “Yeah, she’ll be good. They’re putting a rollaway in my room.”

  “You’re keeping her?”

  “I thought …”

  Skottie nodded to herself. It wasn’t a bad idea to let him hold on to her for the night. She had crossed her legs under her, and there was a pebble digging into her ankle. She stood back up and stepped over to the sidewalk. The adrenaline was leaving her system, and her muscles felt like jelly.

  “You’re right,” she said. “Keep her there, let her sleep. Things might be hectic around here for a while.”

  “You want me to come over there?”

  “No, I got it under control.” She waited for him to scoff or contradict her. She was grateful when he didn’t.

  “Sure,” he said, and he sounded like he meant it. “But if you need anything, you know—”

  “Yeah, thanks. And you need to find that dog. His name’s Bear. You can’t leave him out there tonight. Maddy knows how to talk to him when you track him down.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Brandon said. “And if, you know, if you wanna come over here, there’s room.”

  She almost smiled. “Thanks, I’m okay.”

  She ended the call and let her arm drop to her side. Her fingers were tingling. She walked through the fog to the corner and turned onto her own street, completing the square block. A light came on over the porch next to where Skottie was standing, and a woman opened the screen door. She was white, wearing a pink terry-cloth bathrobe and her orange hair in a net. She was holding a flip phone.

  “Is that you, Officer Foster?”

  Skottie stopped, one eye on the car idling halfway down the street. “Yes, ma’am. It’s me.”

  “Did you hear a commotion earlier?”

  “Commotion?”

  “I told Henry to get up and go look, but he went back to sleep. Anyway, I was thinking I should call the police.” She held the phone up as if to show her intentions. “But I saw you patrolling out here and I just want you to know that it makes us all feel safe having a police officer right here on the block.”

  “Who’s ‘us all’?”

  The woman shrugged. “Everybody here. Thank you.”

  Skottie felt herself softening. She was tired and worried and nearly certain that this same woman had snubbed her just days before at Dollar General, but it was good to feel needed. “I think it was just some rowdy kids,” she said. “But I checked it out just in case.”

  The woman nodded and clutched her phone between her hands. She turned and went inside without another word and turned off her porch light, leaving Skottie in the dark.

  11

  “We have to check on him!”

  “Maddy, honey, calm down.” Brandon was standing with one foot on the rollaway bed, pushing against the upright half, trying to open it up.

  “If he’s hurt …” Maddy was wearing the oversize slippers and robe from the closet. She looked ridiculous and charming, a tiny head sitting atop a shapeless mass of fluff.

  �
��If he’s hurt, he might be dangerous.” The rollaway tipped over and Brandon caught his balance before he fell. He took a step away from the bed and glared at it. “Anyway,” he said, “I don’t know if I hit him or not, but either way I’m not gonna be able to find him in the fog. We’ll get some sleep and I promise we’ll look for him in the morning.”

  “You told Mom you were gonna look for him right now.”

  “I never said that. I told her I’d look for him, and I will. It just makes more sense to wait till morning.”

  “No.”

  “What?”

  “No. If you won’t look for him now, I’ll do it by myself.”

  Brandon gave Maddy a look she’d seen a million times before. He was trying not to lose his patience and she knew it, but she also knew that Bear might be long gone by morning. Or he might need a veterinarian right away. Brandon shook his head and attacked the bed again and finally opened it up, but it was too close to the wall and there was a loud thump as the corner of the frame punched a triangular hole through the drywall. He hopped back and looked at Maddy, his eyes wide. There was an answering thump from the other side of the wall, someone pounding at them to be quiet. She almost laughed, would have if she weren’t so worried about Bear.

  “Fine,” Brandon said. “I’ll look.”

  “Me too,” Maddy said. “I’m helping.”

  “Absolutely not. You stay right here where I know you’re safe.”

  “Dad!”

  “I’m not kidding.”

  “If he’s hurt, he won’t come to you. He won’t come to you, anyway. You don’t know his secret language, and he doesn’t know you.”

  “Well, what am I supposed to say to him then?”

  “Let me help,” she said. “I’m gonna be all worried anyway. It’s not like I’ll be able to sleep.”

  Brandon had always been a pushover when it came to his daughter. “Fifteen minutes we’ll look, but if we don’t find your dog in fifteen minutes, that’s it, okay?”

  “Okay.” She had no intention of quitting before they found Bear, but she was willing to say whatever she needed to in order to get her dad moving.

  Brandon took another look at the rollaway and sniffed, then led the way out of the room to the elevator. On the ride down he looked her over and frowned.

  “Wish we had something better for you to wear. We get down there, you stay in the lobby where it’s warm. I’ll scout around a bit and see if I can spot your dog.”

  “I’ll just go right outside, under that arch, okay?”

  “Maddy, could you just do what I say without all the argument?”

  “Probably not, Dad.”

  “Stay in the lobby. And tell me what I need to say if I see the dog.”

  “His name’s Bear.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell him this, say amiko. It means friend. That way he’ll trust you.”

  “Amiko?”

  “Right.”

  “Not sure that’s gonna help, since I shot at him already.”

  “Yeah,” Maddy said, “there’s a pretty good chance he’s gonna eat you.”

  The elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the lobby. Without saying a word, Brandon pointed at the couch next to the registration counter, ordering her to sit, and she veered off in that direction. Brandon walked to the revolving door and out. The hipster came out of his back room and smiled at her.

  “How’s that rollaway working for you? Not too lumpy, I hope.”

  She put a finger to her lips, motioning for him to be quiet, and she went to the emergency door, pushed the bar as slowly and quietly as she could, and slipped outside. The fog seemed like it was lifting, but she thought the air felt colder and wetter than it had before. She went to the fountain where she had told Bear to stay and walked around it, bent low, looking for tracks in the snow. She saw the dog’s big paw prints and followed them around the fountain, back toward the doors, then away again. There was a black smudge in the snow, and she scowled at it, kept walking slowly with her head down and saw another dark spot, then more. She knelt, her knees immediately freezing cold, and poked one of the spots, brought her hand up to her face. Her fingers were wet and red.

  “Dad!”

  Brandon came running, slipping and sliding past the big window. “I told you to stay in—”

  “Dad, it’s blood. He’s hurt.”

  “Let me—”

  Brandon started to bend down, and Maddy saw someone move behind him, coming around the other side of the fountain. The fog made her think it was the hipster at first, but when the person got closer she recognized the man who had broken into her house. He was holding something that looked like a length of metal pipe.

  “Dad!”

  Her father looked up at her and started to turn around just as the other man brought the pipe down hard on Brandon’s head. Brandon fell forward into the snow. The man pointed at Maddy with the pipe.

  “You’re a real pain in the ass, kid, you know that?”

  12

  Skottie took a helpless look around her. The house was a shambles. Curtains blew into the living room in the breeze through the broken picture window, the TV was turned onto its screen on the floor, and Emmaline’s best armchair was upended. Also there was a white man on the kitchen floor with his wrists handcuffed and his ankles bound together with duct tape. Christian Puckett was sitting upright with his back against the dishwasher, his head hanging down and his legs sticking straight out in front of him at an awkward angle. Emmaline leaned against the kitchen counter across from him. She looked up when Skottie entered, her eyes wide with worry.

  “Maddy?”

  “She’s okay,” Skottie said.

  “Oh, thank God,” Emmaline said. “You found her?”

  “She’s with Brandon.”

  Emmaline shook her head. “That don’t mean she’s okay.”

  “C’mon, Mom.”

  “This ain’t legal,” Christian said. “I got rights.”

  “You want me to call the police?” Skottie said.

  Christian looked away and sniffed. His nose was running, and Skottie could see damp traces of tears on his cheeks.

  “’Cause if I call the police, they’re probably gonna ask you what you were doing here in the first place,” Skottie said.

  “Just let me go, man.”

  “Maybe after you tell me what you were after.”

  “Ain’t telling you shit.”

  Emmaline kicked him.

  “Mom,” Skottie said. “Be careful you don’t leave any bruises.”

  Skottie went back to the living room and picked up her mother’s chair. She moved it out of the breeze from the window and tipped the television upright. She pulled both her own phone and Maddy’s from her pocket and set the broken phone on an end table. At least Maddy was safe with Brandon. She felt a delayed wave of relief and gratitude toward her husband. He had definitely earned an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner, provided Emmaline could be talked into letting him in the house. The thought of Thanksgiving dinner made Skottie feel how tired she was, and suddenly she wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with a glass of wine and sleep for two or three days.

  Her phone rang.

  “Skottie here.”

  “Skottie, this is Keith.”

  “Keith?”

  “Your boss. This is my landline.”

  “Right. Yeah, I was expecting …” She switched the phone to her other ear and went to the kitchen door. “I’m sorry, Lieutenant, I forgot to call you back. A lot’s going on here. Maddy … My daughter’s okay. She’s with her father.”

  “Did he take her? This a domestic kidnapping?”

  “No, she ran off and he found her.”

  “She … Great, okay.” He didn’t sound happy. “I better call some people back, let everybody know the situation’s resolved itself there. Except you had a break-in, right?”

  “Right.”

  “So you need to get hold of the local cops so they can get
a report from you. Go ahead and tell them about one of their guys working for the Burden County sheriff. You have any idea what they wanted?”

  “I don’t know what they were after, sir.”

  Emmaline gestured to her.

  “Hang on a second, sir.” Skottie lowered the phone. “What, Mom?”

  Emmaline pointed at the deputy on the floor. “They thought they could scare you.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I stepped on his knees.”

  “Mom!”

  Emmaline waved her off. “He’ll be all right.”

  “Did he say what it’s all about?”

  “No, but I could step on him again.”

  “Never mind, I think I have a pretty good idea.” She put the phone back up to her ear. “Sir? Sorry about that.”

  “This related to the Nazi hunter thing, Skottie?”

  “Yes, sir. I think it is. They’re trying to scare me off the investigation.”

  “There is no investigation. Not officially. And if there were, threatening you wouldn’t help them.”

  “I think these guys have a long history of getting away with things. I don’t think they ever considered they might get tripped up, and they’re panicking now.”

  Keith grunted. “Damn, Skottie.”

  “I know, sir. You told me to stay out of all this, but things were already in motion.”

  “Look.” He paused, and Skottie had begun to think the connection had dropped when he spoke again. “Take the morning off. Take a few days off, okay? I’m gonna get someone to cover for you.”

  “I can work, sir.”

  “No, you can’t. I’m serious. You’re on vacation until I tell you otherwise. Got it?”

  “I don’t have vacation days yet.”

  “So it’s unofficial.”

  “Sir—”

  “I’ll call you back after the holiday. We’ll sort this out.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  She hung up and stared at her phone, feeling slightly dizzy and nauseated. A text had come in from Travis while she was talking to the lieutenant.

  NEW INFO. ON MY WAY TO YOU.

  She didn’t bother to text back. The dizzy feeling was being rapidly replaced by anger and frustration. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she was dangerously close to losing her job. She needed to take control of her situation, find the man pulling the strings, and put him down before he could cause more trouble for her.