P.A.W.S.

by Debbie Manber Kupfer

“We, um, don’t have any room.”

  “Nonsense,” said Nora, enjoying Cynthia’s discomfort. “Seems to me that you have plenty of spare room, considering you don’t have any children of your own. Is that right?”

  Cynthia nodded mutely.

  “Me, see, I have a daughter, right. Haven’t seen her for a while, of course, seeing as I was traveling and all, but I sure would like to catch up with her now. Get her to know her, like.”

  “She’s not here,” Cynthia blurted out. “We... er... sent her away to boarding school.”

  “Hmmm... that would be the Saul Emmanuel Academy, right?”

  “Correct. So, as you see, there’s no point staying here. If you want to see your daughter, you should contact them. I can give you the number.”

  “Funny thing, that,” continued Nora, taking a drag off her cigarette and blowing a smoke ring. “See, I went to visit that school yesterday. Walked right into the principal’s office, you know, that Ernie Schroder? Old guy, balding? Well, me and Ernie had a chat, and you know what he told me? He told me that she’s gone missing, my daughter has. Told me your husband had been by all worried-like, looking for her. Told me he’d offered to call the police but that Davie hadn’t wanted to draw attention. Now, that’s odd, don’t you think? Why wouldn’t he want the police involved in the search? Seems like your dear husband might not have been entirely straight with you, Cynthia.”

  At that moment, the front door opened, and David Katz walked in. He carefully removed his sable fur jacket, hung it on the ornamental coat rack, and wiped his shoes meticulously on the mat. He took a few steps into the living room and then stopped still when he noticed Nora sitting on the sofa, drinking her beer. His mouth opened and shut like a distressed goldfish with no sound coming out.

  “Davie!” Nora got up and rushed over to her brother, who backed away. “Now, that’s not nice, Davie. Surely you can give your little sister a hug after all these years.” She reached out to him and he pushed her away carefully as if she was a bomb that might explode at any moment.

  “What are you doing here, Nora?” he asked, taking in her startling appearance. It had been over twenty years since he had last seen Nora, and he had thought (and hoped) that he would never see her again.

  “I want to know what happened to my daughter,” said Nora, serious now.

  “Why do you care?” asked David. Good God, she knows, he thought. How could she possibly... “You left her with Mama for all those years. And then when Mama died, we were saddled with her. We sent her to one of the best schools in the country. You should be grateful.”

  “Oh, I know, I know,” said Nora. “The problem is that she ain’t there no more. So my question is, where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” David admitted, and a change came over his face. “I think you’d better go now, Nora.” I’ve got to get her out of here, before...

  “Whatever you say, Bro!” Nora stubbed out her cigarette in the aspidistra pot and walked to the door. As she did so, she noticed her brother instinctively reach for his collar.

  Hmm, she thought. Interesting. He’s hiding something. I wonder what?

  ***

  Nora walked out onto the rainy street. The area was quiet, and Nora looked nervously back and forth as she walked. Where is he? she thought. He said he would be waiting for me. When she got to the main road, a car pulled up. It was an expensive foreign model she could not identify but was gray and nondescript as if it was trying to blend in with the surroundings. Nora got into the passenger seat. The driver turned to her and smiled, his canines glittering in the light from the half moon. He pulled her in to him and kissed her roughly in a way that both excited and terrified her. While he probed her mouth with his tongue, he gripped her shoulders with his long, pale fingers and reached deep into her mind, hungrily ingesting her thoughts.

  “So,” said Alistair, as he broke away from the kiss and Nora tried to get her breath back, “it appears your visit with your dear brother went well.”

  “He’s definitely nervous,” said Nora, “like he’s hiding something. I wonder if he really does know what happened to Miri. You are sure both of my parents were shapeshifters?”

  “Yes, Nora. You remember when I first tracked you down in New York?”

  Nora nodded.

  “I had spent months researching Celia and Max Katz,” continued Alistair. “They claimed to have come on a refugee ship from Europe in 1942, but there was no trace of their names on the passenger manifest of any such ship.

  “I did, however, manage to talk to an old man who had worked on Ellis Island at the time. He remembered two cats, a gray female and a brown tabby male, that leapt off one of the ships in dock one day. They were thin and undernourished, and he took pity on them and took them back to his home on the mainland.

  “They stayed with him for several weeks while they grew stronger, and then one day when he came home from work, they were gone. He searched for them but never found them. Occasionally, he thought he saw them on the streets of the Lower East Side, where he lived, but there were so many stray cats on the streets in those days that he could never be sure.

  “But his story gave me hope. I was sure Celia and Max were still in New York. And then, as luck would have it, I met you.”

  ***

  How could she forget? Nora had been just 14 years old at the time. Most of the boys of her age had seemed silly and immature. She had met Alistair at a party. He was gorgeous, dark brown hair and beautiful blue eyes that seemed to be able to pierce right through into her soul. He wore tight blue jeans, a sleeveless T-shirt, and a black leather jacket. She guessed he was about 17 or 18, but truly it was hard to tell his age from his face, and he certainly didn’t act like any kind of teenager she was used to.

  He had asked her politely if she would like to go for a walk. He had a slight European accent, maybe German? She couldn’t really identify it. They had walked and talked for hours, or rather, she had talked, rattling on about her life, her friends, her school, her parents. He had said very little; just listened. Eventually he had walked her home, and there, on the doorstep of her apartment building, she had received her first kiss.

  She went up to her apartment in a dreamy haze and lay in bed that night thinking about Alistair, reliving the events of that evening over and over in her head. The next afternoon on her way home from school, he was waiting for her. Every afternoon they would walk and talk. He would ask her questions about her parents, her brother, her friends, and she would share all her thoughts and troubles. She supposed it should have bothered her that he never really told her anything about himself. He was vague when she asked him where he came from. “Oh, I’ve lived in a lot of different places.” He didn’t seem to have any family in New York, and he never told her where he lived.

  Then one day, shortly after her 15th birthday, she had a huge argument with her parents. Her school grades had been falling, as she wasn’t keeping up with her homework, and her math teacher had called her mother that day. The argument escalated when her father came home from work, tired from his long day shift at the matzo factory. Eventually she’d had enough and ran out of the building, screaming at her parents that she wasn’t coming back.

  Alistair found her on the steps, sobbing. She had expected him to take her parents’ side and tell her she needed to go back and talk to them. He’d always seemed so sensible and old-fashioned up until that point, holding back when they were alone, even though she had hinted that she was more than willing to go further. He was the reasonable one, the mature one. So it took her by immense surprise when he did not encourage her to make up with her parents, but rather, took her into his arms and kissed her with an intensity he never had before.

  “Come away with me, Nora,” he whispered. That was all the encouragement she needed. And so on that day, Nora left her family home, not to reappear for four years.

  Chapter 14

  The odd thing was that the St. Louis Zoo had no wolves. Yet every evening at dusk, zookeep
er Allan Roberts, in charge of the River’s Edge section, swore he could hear wolves howling. Time and time again he searched, but the closest he could find to a wolf was Marcia, the hyena, and she most definitely did not howl. Finally, he would give up and lock the gates and go home, muttering to himself.

  Josh watched the zookeeper leave the park and cross the road to the bus stop. He wished those pesky wolves would shut up, but he knew they couldn’t resist a good howl at dusk and that they thought it was funny spooking Allan each night.

  When he was certain that no one was watching him, Josh changed into wolf form and easily slipped through the gates of the River’s Edge. He walked down the now-deserted paths of the exhibit, passing several dozing rhinos and a snoring capybara.

  As he walked past her enclosure, Marcia, the hyena, called out to him:

  “Hey, pretty boy! You wanna come in here and play? I’m lonely tonight. I could do with some company.”

  “Sorry, Marcia. I would love to stop, but I’ve got to go see the pack,” replied Josh.

  “Aw, come on... those wolf boys can wait.”

  “Another time. Bye, Marcia.”

  Josh continued along the path past Marcia’s enclosure and took a side path away from the main exhibit, a side path that to Allan Roberts seemed to go nowhere but for Josh opened up into a wide enclosure populated by a pack of seven wolves. They were a mix of werewolves and regular wolves who worked together for P.A.W.S.

  As Josh learned when he first came to P.A.W.S., all wolves (not just the werewolves) had a little magic, which allowed them to communicate fluently with werewolves and, more impressively, travel unseen around a large area, enabling them to be the perfect spies for P.A.W.S.

  Of course, some wolves worked for Alistair too, but the pack here at the zoo were loyal to P.A.W.S.

  Josh was greeted by Cal, a small wolf with light brown fur and speckled markings. Cal was one of the two other werewolves that were rescued from Alistair at the same time as Josh. At the beginning, Cal tried to live at the P.A.W.S. Institute, but years of being part of Alistair’s pack had left Cal nervous about living among humans again, and he found he felt more comfortable here, living among fellow wolves. Cal rarely turned into his human form anymore, and Josh suspected that someday he would decide to stay a wolf forever.

  “Hi, Josh,” said Cal. “I see Ian gave you the message.”

  “Yes, what’s been going on?”

  “Well, Jonas was out tracking last night,” said Cal, indicating Jonas, a large black wolf, “when he smelled blood up by the Turtle Playground. He went to investigate. The blood was definitely human, and there was a stench of wolf all around it.”

  “You think it was Alistair’s pack?” asked Josh, concerned.

  “I think so. I didn’t recognize all of the scents, but Alistair has recruited a lot of new wolves since we left his pack,” explained Cal.

  “Jessamyn sent me and Danny out tracking for Alistair’s new lair last week.” said Josh. “Tessa had flown out to West County and thought she’d seen a wolf; it turned out to be a pet husky. On our way back, though, something attacked me; pounced at me from a bush at the side of the road and ran away. Danny tried to chase after it, but it escaped. Don’t even know what kind of creature it was. Not a smell I’ve encountered before.”

  “Yes,” said Cal, “there have been quite a few attacks like that on our pack recently too. Each time, just one swipe and then they run away, and they don’t seem to leave any scent.”

  “Danny thinks that Alistair may have a magician working for him. That would explain why we can’t locate his new den, if he’s had a magician put wards around it. It’s also possible that a magician might be able to disguise the auras of the wolves so that they can’t be identified.”

  “That’s possible,” replied Cal thoughtfully.

  “Would you and Jonas like to go down to the Turtle Playground with me now?” asked Josh. “I’d like to scout around there and see if we can pick up any more clues.”

  “Sure,” answered Cal. He howled over to the big black wolf: “Jonas!”

  “Coming,” said Jonas, and padded over.

  The three of them made their way out into the park and over to the playground. The Turtle Playground was so named because it consisted of several large stone turtles. During the day, the place was filled with kids climbing all over their backs. At night the playground was deserted, but even from a distance, Josh could smell a strong stench of human blood mixed with the scent of wolf.

  There appeared to be several different wolf odors around the playground. Josh sniffed around, his sensitive nose picking up a trace of at least three different wolves – and two humans. He also found two scraps of cloth. The first looked like it may have come from a blazer. It was a torn-off insignia bearing the letters S.E.A. The second was a piece of soft sky-blue material. The blazer piece was splattered with the same blood that was on the ground by the turtles. The blue fabric, however, bore a different smell, a familiar smell to Josh.

  Josh changed back into human form and placed both cloth pieces in his pocket. He then thanked Cal and Jonas for their help and headed back to P.A.W.S.

  He found Miri in her room, lying on her bunk reading a book called “Unlocking Your Inner Feline” that she had picked up from Cedric in the library. She looked up when Josh entered.

  “Oh, hi, Josh,” she said. “How did your wolf meeting go?”

  As an answer, Josh brought out the two scraps of cloth he had taken from the playground.

  “Do you recognize these?” he asked, and handed them to Miri.

  Miri looked at the cloth pieces in surprise.

  “Yes,” she replied. “The blue piece is mine, or rather, it comes from a shawl I left behind in my room at the academy. Actually, I was rather sad that I left it behind. I’d had it ever since I was a baby. Omama said my mother had brought me to her wrapped up in that blue shawl. When Jessamyn summoned me to her chamber yesterday, she showed me in her scrying bowl my uncle taking the shawl from my room at the school. How in the world did you get ahold of this?”

  “I found these scraps in the Turtle Playground in the park, next to some human blood stains and wolf smells, including one that smelled awfully like Alistair,” replied

  Josh. “Do you recognize the other scrap at all?”

  “Yes, I do,” answered Miri. “It’s the insignia from Saul Emmanuel. They were on the school uniform that we all had to wear.”

  “I don’t like it,” said Josh. “Alistair is usually very careful. It’s not his style to leave evidence after his attacks. He has also never ventured this close to P.A.W.S. before. Though he doesn’t know the exact location of the institute, we’ve suspected for a long time that he knows it’s somewhere around Forest Park. But up until now, he’s given the whole area a wide berth.”

  At that moment, Lilith sauntered into the room.

  “Oh, hello, Josh. Am I interrupting something?” she asked, smiling sweetly.

  “No, I’m just leaving, Lilith,” replied Josh. “Good night,

  Miri. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Good night, Josh.”

  Chapter 15

  It was Monday morning. Ernest Schroeder knew he was supposed to be back at the school, but somehow he couldn’t motivate himself to get out of bed. It was nice here in his sister’s spare bedroom in Springfield. He looked around the clean, well-ordered room, decorated in pastel shades. His cell phone lying on the bedside table seemed to be looking at him in an accusatory way. He had done something this weekend he had never done before, not since he’d had a cell phone. He had turned it off. He was sure Eudora was frantically trying to call him, but he didn’t care. What could she do? Put him in detention when he finally returned, like a naughty child?

  Maybe he wouldn’t return. Maybe he’d retire, stay here with his sister; or maybe, he thought excitedly, he would travel the world, visit all those places he’d always wanted to go but never could while he was trapped in that school. Yes, this weekend
away had been a good thing, and he’d almost not come here, almost changed his plans at the last minute.

  ***

  Late Friday afternoon, he had been sitting in his office finishing off a few memos before he left for the weekend. He was working quickly, efficiently. He hadn’t even bothered solving the crossword yet today. He was saving that for later after dinner at his sister’s place. He badly needed this trip to Springfield this weekend, a much-needed rest after a hectic school week.

  There was a knock at his door. Who is that? Can’t they just leave me be?

  “Come in,” he said, hoping that whoever was there just had a report for him to sign or something of that nature, and then he could be on his way.

  A man and a woman entered. The man was tall and impeccably dressed in a dark business suit. The woman was a train wreck. She had purple spiked hair, torn clothes, and several visible tattoos and (shudder) piercings. Mr. Schroeder had never understood the current fashion among the young to mutilate themselves, though on closer look, he realized that the woman sitting in front of him must be at least thirty, surely old enough to know better.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, sir, so late in the day,” began the man. His voice sounded smooth, like an insurance salesman or something similar, with just a trace of a European accent. “My name is Alistair Wolfe. I am a private detective and have been hired by this young lady, Ms. Nora Katz, to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, Miriam.”

  At the name Katz, Mr. Schroeder’s ears pricked up, and he gazed once again at the unappealing appearance of Nora. Could this creature really be Miri Katz’s mother? He had always believed her mother to be dead and David and Cynthia Katz (such important donors to the school) to be her only relatives. He had found it odd that David had not wanted to involve the police in the search for his niece, but he had agreed readily. Police would lead to publicity for the school, and publicity was the last thing the wealthy families of the students in this exclusive academy would want.