“But the person would have to have Cree blood,” Yoofi added. “And be a strong believer.”
“We’ll need to ID the Cree’s sacred sites in the area,” I said.
“I can do a records search when we finish here,” Megha offered.
“That would be great. What does the database say about killing a Wendigo?”
“According to the legends, they can’t be killed,” she replied. “At least not while they’re in possession of their hosts. You mentioned an aversion to fire, which makes sense. In addition to famine and starvation, a Wendigo embodies winter and coldness. But fire won’t destroy it. The only way to stop a Wendigo is to wait for it to leave the host and then destroy the host.”
“Make it so the Wendigo can’t return to that particular body,” I said.
“That’s my read. It remains in the spirit world until someone else calls it.”
“Is there anything about driving a Wendigo from the host?” I asked.
“Ooh, if I only had my staff,” Yoofi lamented.
“Not according to the data,” Megha replied.
“All right,” I said, “see what you can learn about the sacred sites in the region.”
“I will.”
“Not bad, boss,” Rusty said as I ended the call. “Five minutes after laying out the situation, and we know what the thing is, an idea of where to find its lair, and how to kick its head in.”
“Wendigo,” Yoofi repeated in a mixture of wonder and dread.
“Recalling that exchange between Sarah and Nadie helped set off the avalanche of info,” I said to Rusty. “And Yoofi had the insight on the sacred spaces. Good job, guys.” For the first time since the Wendigo had taken Sarah and Nadie, I felt like we had at least a few finger holds on the situation. “I’m going to try Croft again. See if he can help us cut down the search time.”
But before I could dial him, Takara stepped forward.
“Don’t you want to hear what I found?”
19
I hadn’t forgotten that I had sent Takara to see what she could learn about the mayor. But when she hadn’t volunteered anything, I’d assumed the assignment had been a bust.
“Go ahead,” I said.
“The mayor and warden are involved in drug-trafficking—heroin, some meth. Grimes is the purchaser. Wabberson distributes the drugs in his bush chopper. It’s nothing huge, but it would explain why they didn’t want the Mounties up here.”
“How did you learn that?” I asked.
“I took up a position outside Grimes’s office and paired to their phones,” Takara replied. If she was still upset about how our earlier conversation had ended, she didn’t show it. “You were right. Your visit shook them up. They were speculating on the strength of our ties to the Canadian government. With the storm, they had to rearrange some logistics relating to pickups and deliveries. They might as well have mapped out their entire operation.”
“So they played down the attacks for personal reasons,” I said. “What about the mayor’s wife?”
“With Grimes at the office, I found her alone at their house. No security except for a kennel of hunting dogs. I put them to sleep and entered through the back door. Mrs. Grimes was sitting by a wood stove, listening to the radio. She had a revolver holstered at her waist.”
“Ooh, did she see you?” Yoofi asked.
“’Course not,” Rusty said. “T-cakes is a flipping ninja.”
Takara gave Rusty a withering look. “And Mrs. Grimes is legally blind.”
I grunted in surprise. The blindness had to be recent if she had been researching the area’s history.
“She was wearing tinted medical glasses,” Takara continued.
“Might explain her husband’s protectiveness,” I said.
“Her library was off the living room. Shelves of books, notebooks, journals. I had two choices: search through the library for something relevant to our mission or talk to Mrs. Grimes herself.”
“You didn’t,” Rusty said.
“I left the house and knocked on the door. When she answered, I told her I was researching the settlement’s history and that her husband had sent me to interview her. Mrs. Grimes tried to call him, but I had already scrambled her phone. She then said she wanted to wait for him. I told her that with the weather, I only had a narrow window.”
“Very tricky,” Yoofi said approvingly.
“She asked several times to make sure her husband had sent me before inviting me inside. Once we began talking, she relaxed. She even lit a joint. The history of the region had been her life before she’d lost her eyesight to glaucoma. After a couple of general questions, I told her I had heard a rumor of killings in the early days of the settlement. She asked again whether her husband had given me permission to talk to her. I assured her he had, that I wouldn’t have known who she was or how to find her otherwise. That convinced her.”
“Let’s hear the relevant info,” I said to speed her along. Sarah was still missing, along with Nadie and Ms. Welch, and the Wendigo’s appetite was only going to grow.
Takara narrowed her eyes at me. “It’s all relevant. In the settlement’s beginnings, fur traders did business with the Cree. There was a dispute, though, and the settlement captured a Cree chief and held him hostage. Some wanted to execute him to make their point. But the chief escaped under mysterious circumstances. His guards were found dead, savaged by a mysterious animal. Shortly after, settlers began to disappear. They blamed the Cree and war broke out. By the time the conflict ended, more than twenty settlers had gone missing.”
“Did she say what had taken them?” I asked.
“We didn’t get that far before I was called to the Wendigo attack. But she said that the Cree chief who escaped was later sacrificed by his tribe for unknown reasons. A new chief was appointed. I didn’t make the connection between that and what we were hunting until hearing what Megha told us.”
“The Cree chief could have escaped by calling the spirit of the Wendigo into him,” I said in understanding. “Then the chief confessed to what he’d done or the tribe found out. Either way, they sacrificed him to be rid of the creature.”
Takara nodded. “The difference between then and now is that the Cree knew who the host was.”
“But we have a lead,” I said.
Rusty’s head had been turning between me and Takara during the exchange as if he was watching a tennis match. Now he stopped so suddenly that his eyes jittered for a moment.
“We do?” he asked.
“Megha said the Wendigo ceremony requires the host to eat human flesh. In Takara’s account, the guards looked like they’d been savaged by an animal. But I bet if someone had taken a close look at the first guard, they would have found a human bite mark. That was the chief.”
“But how is that a lead in this case?” Yoofi asked.
On the map, I pointed to the photo of the young man with the military cut, Connor Tench. “We know who the first victim was.”
“So you think someone, what, snatched this guy and used him in a Wendigo ceremony?” Rusty asked.
“More likely the perp knew him,” I replied.
“Then we’re looking for someone with Cree blood, yes?” Yoofi asked.
“If that’s who you say is most likely to perform this kind of ceremony,” I replied. Yoofi nodded vigorously. “The mayor mentioned earlier that his older son was best friends with the vic. If Connor was close to any Cree, Austin would know. We need to talk to him.”
“I learned something else during my visit,” Takara said. We stopped and turned toward her. “Mrs. Grimes has First Nation features. When I asked, she told me she was half Cree.”
That meant Austin had Cree blood too. I thought about the books and notes in Mrs. Grimes’s library, some of them undoubtedly on Cree beliefs and ceremonies. Austin would have had access to them. I also remembered his hostility toward me and Sarah when we’d visited the office earlier. There was a good chance the perp had been standing right in front
of us.
“Let’s go,” I growled.
The mayor’s and warden’s trucks were still parked in front of the office when we pulled up. I had tried Prof Croft again en route. This was the second mission where I was having to lean on him—third if I counted the White Dragon—and a part of me didn’t like it, but we were dealing with another being beyond Centurion’s understanding. I reached his voicemail again.
“Are you sure Austin wasn’t here earlier?” I asked Takara.
“No,” she replied impatiently—I’d asked her already, but I wanted to make certain. Just because I couldn’t smell him didn’t mean anything. The whipping wind and driving snow were playing havoc with my senses. There was also my broken connection with Nadie to distract me.
I turned to the back of the van, where the rest of the team sat. “At least two men are inside. Both armed and edgy.”
“Stack and enter?” Rusty asked eagerly. With the system still down, I’d decided to bring him along. He was sufficiently trained in tactics, and I needed boots on the ground.
“I’ll breach,” I said. “Olaf and Rusty cover the room in sectors, left to right. I’ll come in behind. Takara will make sure no one escapes out back. And Yoofi…” I still didn’t like the idea of him using a gun instead of his staff. “Just hang back. You’ll be on rear watch.”
“Yes, Mr. Wolfe.”
We stepped out into the storm. While Takara went around to the rear of the building, the rest of us approached the front door in a column. When we were in position, I kicked the door open.
There was a mad shuffle inside, but Olaf and Rusty were already entering, covering Mayor Grimes and Wabberson. They had been sitting on opposite sides of a table, consulting a spreadsheet. Wabberson threw his arms up when he understood what was happening, but the mayor fumbled for his holstered sidearm.
“Show your hands!” I roared.
When the mayor didn’t comply, Olaf drove the stock end of his MP88 against his temple. The blow was just hard enough to daze him. Olaf then disarmed the mayor and secured his wrists with plastic cuffs. I moved past them to a back corridor. The two rooms and bathroom off it were empty, confirming what my nose had already told me.
“We’re clear,” I called.
I returned, ensured the two men were fully disarmed, and secured Wabberson’s wrists.
“You’re done here,” Grimes seethed at me from across the table. “You know that don’t you?”
“Where’s Austin?” I asked.
“None of your fucking business.”
“I’m going to ask you again, where is he?”
“You don’t have any authority here, and I’m ordering you out.”
I walked around, palmed his head, and brought it against the table. “We know about your operation, pal. You were wondering about our connection to the Canadian government?” I paused long enough for him to understand we’d been listening. “If you want to stay in business, you’re going to start answering questions. If not, we’ll clean you out and turn you over to the Mounties. We’re under no obligation to them, but we’ll do it for shits and grins.”
“Why do you want to know where Austin is?”
“He was friends with the first vic, and I have some questions.”
“He’s got nothing to do with the killings.”
I pressed down on his head. “Where is he?”
“The house, probably,” the mayor grunted. “Left here a few hours ago.”
But there had been no one else at the house when Takara had talked to Mrs. Grimes.
“He wasn’t there an hour ago,” I said.
The mayor struggled against his confinement. “You went to my house? You went to my house when I told you not to?” He thrashed some more, but I held him easily.
“Where else could he be?”
“Hell if I know. Kid does what he wants.”
Yeah, I bet, I thought. Especially lately.
“Mr. Wolfe!” Yoofi called from outside.
I left Grimes under Olaf’s watch and stepped out into the driving snow. A pickup had slowed like it was going to stop in front of the mayor’s office, but now it was trying to gun off again. I sprinted past Yoofi, who was shouting at the driver and aiming his Beretta with both hands.
“Hold fire,” I told him.
I caught up to the vehicle and threw a shoulder into its right flank, above the taillight. The tires skidded over the snow. Before the driver could correct, the truck went into a full spin. It jounced off the road and came to a rest at an angle, its headlights facing me. I raised my MP88 to the silhouette beyond the glass.
“Exit with your hands in view!” I shouted.
The door opened, and a tall, lanky figure stepped out showing his gloved hands. For a moment I didn’t recognize the man in the hunting cap. When I caught his scent, I realized it was the mayor’s younger son, Sean.
“Where’s your brother?” I asked him.
“I-I don’t know. He left the office earlier, and I ain’t seen him since.”
“Where are you coming from?”
“Fort Smith. My dad wanted me to get some more fuel before we were socked in.”
Sean had Cree blood too—and the same access to his mother’s research as his brother. But my nose was picking up the scent of propane from the covered truck bed. “Why did you try to drive off just now?”
“I saw that guy standing out front with a gun.” He nodded past me. “Sort of freaked me out.”
I looked over at Yoofi. Kid had a point.
“Do you know where Austin went?”
“I never know where he is half the time.”
“How’s he been lately? Acting any differently?”
“Differently? No, sir. Not that I’m aware of.” His eyes cut down and to the right—usually a sign someone was lying. Plus the scent coming off him had changed, grown sharper.
“I heard him hit you earlier. Is that normal?”
“He’s been acting more irritated, I guess. Keeps telling me not to go out into the woods by myself. Then he takes off on these hunting trips on his own, and without telling anyone where he’s going.”
“I understand he was friends with Connor Tench.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Were they together around the time of his disappearance?”
“Austin took him hunting sometimes. I don’t know about that night.”
There was no info in the file about what Connor had been doing on the night he’d disappeared. Home had been his father’s house. Drunk most of the time, his father had been no help in Centurion’s preliminary investigation. But a hunting outing would have been a good excuse for Austin to get Connor alone.
“I’m going to ask a question and I want an honest answer.” I stepped closer so I could smell him better. “Do you think your brother is involved in the recent disappearances?”
Sean’s eyes widened in alarm. “You think Austin’s got something to do with them?”
“I’m just asking.”
“I mean, I’ve never even thought about it. He’d have no reason to hurt Connor. They were best friends. He was all the time helping Connor after he came back from the war. He was in bad shape.” Sean’s scent remained sharp but that might have had more to do with the fact that someone seven feet tall and armed was interrogating him about his brother.
“Has he shown any interest in Cree beliefs?”
“He’s always thought that stuff was cool, yeah.” He stopped. “A couple weeks ago, I heard him and my mom arguing about a book. One was missing from her collection. My mom said something about hundreds of hours of interviews, so I knew it was the one about the Cree. That book was her life’s work before her eyes went bad. Is that important?”
The info was adding up, but I wanted to be as close to a hundred percent as possible before taking Austin out.
Right now we needed to talk to Mrs. Grimes. I still hadn’t heard back from Megha, and with Nadie captured, we had lost the Masked Wolf People as a source of intel on
the Cree. With Mrs. Grimes, we might not only be able to learn the location of sacred Cree sites in the area, but which one her son would use as a lair, assuming he was the Wendigo.
“Could be,” I replied.
20
I brought Sean to the mayor’s office. I zip-tied his wrists, though I hated doing it, and walked him to the table to join his father and the warden. With so much at stake, I couldn’t risk them interfering—especially with the trail to the Wendigo now leading through the mayor’s family.
“Did you send Sean out for something?” I asked the mayor.
“Yeah, propane. What’s he got to do with any of this?” he demanded.
I gave Sean’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze as I sat him down. He glanced nervously at his father, whose own eyes remained fixed on my visor. For his part, the warden looked down glumly, seeing the situation for what it was. Not much you could do against three heavily armed men.
“I asked you a question, Captain,” Grimes pressed.
“This is for everyone’s safety,” I replied. “We’re going over to interview Mrs. Grimes.”
“No you’re not!” he roared. He tried to thrust himself to his feet, but Olaf clamped a meaty hand on the back of his neck and pushed him back down. “Let go of me, you ugly sonofabitch. No one talks to her! Do you hear me?”
“It’s just an interview,” I said.
“She’s not well, goddammit!”
“She has information that could help us stop the killings. Isn’t that what you want? For everything to go back to normal around here?”
The mayor struggled until his face was beet red. Finally, he banged his forehead against the table three times and left it there. When his body began to hitch, I realized he was sobbing. The warden cocked an eyebrow, while Sean, who had probably never seen his father made powerless like this, didn’t seem to know where to look. I felt sorry for the young man.
Blue Howl (Blue Wolf Book 3) Page 16