Call of the Cougar

by Terry Spear

  "And never told anyone about it."

  "No. They would have killed me and Ricky. Or the police would have crucified me."

  "So why would you have had ivory at your place?"

  "A damn plant? If I had gotten out of line, they could have said I was conducting the business they were doing. I didn't know what they were up to, until I saw the news report about Tracey Whittington having lost her partner on New Year's Day. They showed both stories side by side. I'd just been working at the grocery store, and trying to talk Ricky out of helping the agent. I was afraid he was going to get himself killed. When I heard about him at the shootout at the gold mine, I got all the cash together that I could, ransacked my place, and headed out to meet with Ricky. I had called Tracey to ensure she didn't end up in Anderson investigating it again when I went to see Ricky. But Benny must have been watching me."

  "Okay, what's the deal with Benny?"

  "I knew him in high school. He's older than me, but held back a couple of years. We used to hang out. Then I lost track of him. He popped into the grocery store one day and saw me stocking shelves. He asked me if I wanted to go hunting with him. That he was hunting with some guy who was a hunting guide and it paid better than working at a crap job like I had. I said no. After my dad was killed in a hunting accident, the whole notion makes me nauseous. Literally." Kolby frowned. "He's not illegally hunting too, is he?"

  "That's what we're trying to learn. Do you know anything about a man named Mooney?"

  "That's the hunting guide's name." Kolby leaned heavily against his pillow. "How much ivory did they leave at my place? Enough to put me away for life?"

  "A fragment."

  "Hell, because they didn't want to leave enough evidence that would mean money to them."

  "Could be." Or it could be Kolby was lying.

  "Is Ricky going to be all right? He…he said a cougar bit him, and he killed it and Teagan before Teagan shot him. He…he said I could stay at your ranch."

  "Is that why you were there?"

  "Benny dumped me on the side of the road. I saw smoke off in the distance and made my way to the old bunkhouse. And then I heard a vehicle coming. I was afraid it was Benny. That he came back to finish me off and realized I'd gotten away. That I hadn't just died on him. Though I had passed out. I guess he thought I had died. Then I recognized the agent from the news reports. From what Ricky had said, she was staying with you at a horse ranch."

  "For now, you have to be in protective custody. If Benny learns you survived and could testify that he attempted to kill you, he's going to want to finish the job. Is there anyone else working with him?"

  "Just Teagan that I knew of. But then, I wasn't working for them or with them. I just did that one call. God, I'm so sorry. I want the agents to know that."

  "All right. We'll talk later."

  "Can…can Ricky stay with me here? I thought what he said made sense. That you would only have to post one guard on the door."

  "Maybe later."

  "How long am I going to be in here?"

  "Until the doc says you're ready to go."

  Hal stood and was ready to check on Ricky when he saw blood on the sleeve of Kolby's hospital gown.

  Kolby immediately glanced at his sleeve. "It's nothing. Picked at a pimple. Bad habit of mine."

  Kolby was too worried for it to be something so insignificant. Hal strode around the bed and took hold of Kolby's arm and yanked up the sleeve. A sharp clean bite mark—like a cougar would make.

  "Damn it to hell." His gaze shot up to Kolby's. "What happened?" He didn't want to assume Ricky had come in here, told him that he had become a cougar, and bitten his brother so that he could become one of them.

  "I was sleeping."

  "Don't bullshit me. Did Ricky bite you?" Hal still wasn't saying as what.

  Kolby stiffened and Hal released his arm.

  "I'm asking him next, but if you want anyone backing you on this, I need for you to tell me the truth."

  Kolby snorted. "It sounds crazy."

  "Talk. Now."

  "Ricky was worried about me. Okay? He came in here to check on me. He was nervous, hiding something from me. I know him. I know when my kid brother has a secret he wants to tell me but is too scared to do so. I figured he'd done something wrong. Something that would get him into trouble with you. I wanted to help him like I've always done. To get him out of the fix he was in. So he finally tells me. And, of course, I don't believe him. I mean, how crazy is it? That you're all a bunch of cougar shifters? And he's one now? That Teagan had been one? Then Ricky starts yanking off his clothes, and I told him probably whatever drugs he was on for the pain was making him crazy. Even having been bitten by the cougar was making him have weird visions or something. No frigging way did I believe him. One minute he was standing there naked, and I was telling him to put his damn clothes back on before they locked his ass away for being a mental case and the next thing I knew, he was a cougar. Scared the shit out of me.

  "He didn't even give me a chance to react. He stood against my bed, big clawed paws resting next to my body, and licked my cheek with his hot tongue. Then he shifted, quickly told me he had to turn me so I could heal quicker and work with you or you would send me away, and I never could see him again." Kolby's eyes filled with tears and he looked down at the bed. "He said you couldn't lock me away if I was a cougar shifter. That we had to do it." He looked at Hal again. "We've been fending for ourselves since I was sixteen. I've done the best I could in keeping Ricky out of trouble. This was his way of payback."

  Hal shook his head. "Hell."

  When Hal left Kolby's room to speak with Ricky, he got a call and he shook his head, then took it. "Mom?"

  "You're getting married? And we haven't even met the girl? Come tonight. For dinner. No excuses. We'll see you at six." His mom hung up on him.

  "Great." Not that he didn't want them to meet her or vice versa. He did. But things were getting way too complicated with this situation with Ricky and his brother and the rest of the case Tracey was working on. He met up with Tracey in Ricky's room. He gave Ricky a stern look, arms crossed against his chest. "Want to tell me why you bit your brother?"

  ***

  Tracey gaped at Ricky as he explained why he had bitten Kolby. She was glad Hal wasn't furious with the boys. But she could see he wasn't happy with them or the situation. Now they had to see if Kolby turned.

  Then Hal said to Tracey, "We'll have them stay together, but I've got to discuss something else with you."

  She thought it was bad news, but once they had Ricky situated in the same room with Kolby, and she and Hal walked outside the clinic, he said, “We’ve got to meet my parents—Roger and Milly Haverton. They’re upset that we're getting married, and I haven't even taken you over to meet them. Would you mind seeing them now for dinner?”

  “I’d love to.” Even though she knew she wasn't marrying Hal's family, she did want to be friends with them, and so she had every intention of putting on her best face.

  That evening, Tracey met Hal’s parents. Roger began with questioning her all about herself, and she felt she was talking to a law enforcement officer. Then she remembered he was a newspaper reporter.

  So she began to question him all about himself—as though she was conducting a Special Agent mission.

  From the dining room where Hal and his mother were setting the table, they surreptitiously watched his father and Tracey talking in the living room.

  “She’s perfect for you,” his mother said. She hadn’t liked one woman he’d ever brought home for his parents to meet. He thought the world of Tracey, so he worried she wouldn’t measure up to their high expectations either. Not that it would make any difference as far as his marrying her.

  “She is.”

  “When are we going to expect grandkids?”

  “We have work to do for now. Getting to know each other time. We’ll have kids later.”

  His mother smiled. It was the expression that said that
they’d have kids sooner than later.

  “I’ve never seen anyone question your dad like that. It’s great. He’ll be talking about how she turned the tables on him forever. Are you sure you want to become a Special Agent like she is though? I thought you loved the ranch.” His mother held up her hand. “No. Don’t answer that. I know you want to work with her, and I want the best for you. I heard her say her sister is a professional photographer and writing a book. If she ever wants to be featured in the paper, we’d love to do a special interest story on her. I’d offer to do one on Tracey, but she’s in the paper quite a lot already.”

  “Hopefully, future assignments won’t be so harrowing.”

  His mother waved her hand in dismissal. “The two of you can handle it. I hear you’re getting a couple of puppies. That’s good. It’s a great way to learn how to be parents before the babies come.”

  Hal smiled. He hadn’t realized his mom wanted grandbabies so much.

  Hal’s dad announced, “It’s time to eat.” He and Tracey joined Hal and his mother and he said, “You’ve got a damn fine she-cat, Son. If she ever wants to be a reporter, I’m sure your mom would give her a job in a heartbeat.”

  Tracey smiled and Hal put his arm over her shoulders.

  “That’s good to know.” But Hal figured Tracey’s calling was saving and protecting wildlife, and he loved her just the way she was.

  ***

  Later that evening, Dan had assigned other men to watch over Ricky and his brother, though they put Ricky in Kolby's room so they could stay together. Ricky was glad to be in the room with Kolby, talking with him about what had happened with regard to Benny when his brother wasn't sleeping, ready for him in case he shifted into a cougar and got shook up, like Ricky had been when it had first happened to him.

  Even though Ricky thought he was prepared to see his brother shift, he wasn't. For one thing, Kolby suddenly transformed in his sleep and it took a minute for both Ricky and Kolby to register that he'd shifted. Kolby panicked and got tangled up in his hospital gown and sheets, pulled out his I.V. accidentally, and knocked over stuff on the tray next to his bed. It crashed on the floor before Ricky could get out of bed to help him.

  A nurse poked her head into the room. "What in the world are you doing?"

  Ricky stared at her for a moment, afraid the nurse would run out of their screaming. He still couldn't believe that a lot of the people living in the town were cougar shifters.

  "He shifted while he was sleeping."

  "I'll go get something for him to help him sleep. He doesn’t need to be shifting right now. He needs rest." She closed the door and Ricky untied Kolby's hospital gown, then helped him out of it. Then he smiled. "I'm shifting, too." Mainly, because he wanted to get used to shifting so he wouldn't do it by accident. As soon as he was in his cougar form, he jumped from his bed to Kolby's. Kolby snarled at him.

  Ricky snarled right back. He had no idea what they had just said to each other, but he had tried to say how cool this was.

  Kolby leapt for Ricky's bed. That was one of the things Ricky loved—was the ability to leap such long distances. When Tracey and Hal had left him alone, he had shifted and jumped from his bed to Tracey's, practicing how far the jump would take him.

  Maybe because of his injury, Kolby didn't quite make it and with claws extended, he tore Ricky's hospital sheets and blanket as he slipped off the bed. Uh-oh.

  The nurse came in the room and started screaming at them. "The two of you, get back into bed at once!"

  Kolby and Ricky exchanges glances, showed off their big teeth in a wicked grin, and chased the nurse out of the room, only they quickly stopped when they saw Sheriff Dan and the doctor headed for the room. They were in trouble now.

  ***

  "You would have done the same if you'd had a brother and you were close to him," Tracey said, as she and Ted and Hal sat down to eat dinner outside on the deck that night at the ranch. “How does Kolby feel about Ricky turning him? If he was turned?”

  “He was fine with it, I guess. I didn’t ask.”

  Despite that Ted would be the main person who would have to deal with it, he was smiling when he shook his head. "I thought I was going to be ranching, not taking care of two brand new cougar shifters to boot."

  "Can you manage? I'm certain someone else will offer to take Kolby in. Even the owner of the grocery store," Hal said, “since he was stocking shelves at another.”

  "Nah. I'll keep the two of them busy. And we'll have fun too." Ted smiled at Tracey. "I hear we're getting some puppies we’ll be raising on account of you."

  She looked at Hal. "Does Stryker know?"

  Hal chuckled, took a swig of beer, and smiled. "Yeah. He gave me hell for having a foal and buying not only one puppy, but two. Well, three, but one's for Stryker. I haven't let him in on the secret yet."

  She smiled. "Are you sure he really wants one?"

  "Sure. The puppy will make him even more popular with the she-cats."

  "I can't wait to bring them home."

  "Two more weeks. We can go see them tomorrow, if you'd like."

  "I'd love to. If you all don't mind, I'm going to call my sister. I had a thought about the mines."

  "I'm coming with you." Hal said good night to Ted, left his dish in the kitchen with hers, and walked with her into the living room.

  She took a seat on the couch and called her sister. "Jessie, were you ever in the silver mines in Anderson?"

  "Sure, the one directly across from the schoolhouse. Have you got a computer handy so you can blow these pictures up and see them more clearly?"

  "Do you have a computer I can use?" Tracey asked Hal.

  "Yeah. In my office."

  She followed him in there and he turned it on.

  "Okay, send the pictures to my email," she told her sister and sat down at the desk to access her email.

  After Tracey downloaded them, she opened them up in a photo enhancement program Hal had and lightened them up a bit.

  "Was this silver mine boarded up?"

  "Yeah, but we got permission to go down into the one to take pictures for the book. Of course, we had to at our own risk."

  "No one bothered you? And Mrs. Blasdell didn't call the cops on you?"

  "She wasn't home. Just from habit, I always look to see if her car is sitting in front of the garage or if she's peeking out her window. But her car was gone and there was no sign of her. I figured she had gone into town for groceries."

  "But the mine was safe?"

  '"Of course not. It was downright scary down there. But that one didn't collapse. The cave-in was at the other mine. Did they ever find ivory in the one where you found the fragment and the cave-in had occurred?"

  "They're still working on it. It's dangerous work. But it's not just ivory that they're looking for but bodies if anyone got caught down there during the cave-in."

  "So are you looking through the photos? Do you see anything?"

  "Rock walls, rock ceilings, rock floors."

  "If they know you're on to them, why would they continue to store the ivory there?"

  "Maybe they have them there and haven't been able to get it out without us catching them at it. And investigators have kept them from getting to it. We thought they might be bringing it out somewhere else because otherwise they'd have to get it past Mrs. Blasdell and she'd report them."

  "Yeah. No one gets anything by her unless she's not there."

  "Okay, thanks, Jessie. Everything all right with you and mom and dad?"

  "Yeah, but you be careful."

  "I will."

  "And congratulations, sis. You couldn't have picked out a hotter cat than Hal."

  Tracey smiled, said good night, and turned to Hal. "We need to go spelunking. We could call Mick up, but no way is anyone going to send a team to check out the mine unless we find some evidence. And I don't see any in this mine in the pictures. But what if it's a different mine?"

  "They're dangerous."

  "Hav
e you been in them?"

  "Yeah. We were reckless teens in our youth."

  "All of them?"

  "A few. We used to look for nuggets of silver. Took pickaxes and chopped away at the rock."

  "Are you game? If we can find the evidence to put these men away, when we capture them, that will be the end of this."

  "Until the next case." He wrapped his arms around her. "You don't really want to wait to check them out, do you?"

  "Nope."

  "All right. Get changed into what you want to wear. Contact your boss to let him know you're going to try and find some silver in the mines in Anderson so you can retire from this dangerous job. I'll let Dan know what we're up to. Not sure we'll get any backup at this time of night."

  "What are the odds we'd have any trouble with anyone—“ She didn't finish what she was saying as Hal raised his brows, shook his head, and stalked off for his bedroom.

  Chapter 19

  Hal approached the wagon trail leading to Anderson, but to Tracey's surprise, he parked off the road between some trees at another spot. "Why are you parking here instead of on the wagon trail?" It would have been a lot faster, and this way necessitated climbing the rock face.

  "Just in case Mooney or Benny or someone else is watching the trail, I figured we'd slip in through the woods. We can see with our cat's sight, so we should be good."

  “Great idea.” Why hadn’t she thought of it?

  They climbed out of Hal's truck and started to hike through the woods as quietly as they could as crickets chirped away and the wind shook the tree branches, the cool night air surrounding them with the scent of pine.

  Hal touched her arm when they neared the base of the cliffs and motioned to go up, rather than around them and into the town. She would have much preferred leaping around on the cliffs as a cougar rather than managing as a human. Then she frowned at the cliffs, thinking she’d heard some movement in the rocks up above and said in a hushed voice, "Did you see or hear something?"