Howl Deadly

by Linda O. Johnston

  Dante.

  Well, he wouldn’t know I’d disobeyed his direct orders and come here without him, would he? I didn’t imagine Warren Beell would have called about my visit. And unless he’d put some kind of tracking device in my Escape …

  Heck, that whole concept about any covert government stuff he might have done in his early days was getting to me.

  Even so, I decided to let him leave a message. That’s not like me. I hate not to respond to a call that is coming in.

  But at the moment, that simply seemed the best idea.

  I soon pulled into the parking lot at the sanctuary. The volunteer at the gate recognized me, and I assured her that I’d leave Lexie in the front office if I went wandering.

  But my real intent wasn’t to enjoy myself by watching the animal inhabitants.

  I intended to talk to Megan. Although, of course, I realized she might be unavailable. I purposely hadn’t called to arrange a meeting, partly because she might mention it to Dante.

  I also thought that making this conversation impromptu might be best. Responses to the topics I wanted to deal with would be less likely to be planned and more likely to be the truth.

  “Kendra, hi,” Megan said immediately as I walked through the door of the building where her office was located. “And Lexie. What brings you here?”

  “Wolf pups, for one thing,” I said. “And also I wanted to talk to you about a conversation I just had.” Bringing up Warren Beell and his single-handed saving of a few wild animals would be a good way to segue into any inquiries about Megan’s relationship with her staff … including Jon Doe. Or so I hoped.

  “Sure. I was just about to take my late-morning stroll around the place. Would you like to come?”

  I wanted to, as much to stay at Megan’s side as to see the animals. However … “I’d love to, if it’s okay to leave Lexie here.”

  “Of course. She can stay in my office, and I’ll make sure one of my assistants checks on her every few minutes.”

  Lexie didn’t seem to like the idea much, but we left her there anyway, after I gave her a reassuring hug and told her I’d be back soon.

  We headed first toward the infirmary, where we peeked in on the wolflets. They were sleeping behind the glass of their airy enclosure, and didn’t stir.

  I waited till we were outside again before my usual oohing and aahing, since I didn’t want to disturb the sleeping pups. “They’re so adorable,” I gushed, and Megan agreed. “It’s such a good thing that they’re here, so they can have constant care. I’m really glad that Warren didn’t try to handle the pregnant wolf himself.”

  “Yeah, I’ve looked into the guy a little more,” Megan said. “He visits here frequently, but I didn’t know at first that he also does his own rescues of some wild animals.” She sounded mightily displeased.

  “I just learned that, too,” I admitted. “I visited him at home to try to get a better feel for whether he might have taken back the mama and be hiding her.”

  We were outside the first outdoor habitat. Megan stopped dead in front of me and stared. Her golden brown eyes were huge, and she looked almost like a feral feline as she frowned. “You went to Warren Beell’s place alone? Kendra, I’d gotten the impression that you’re one smart and savvy lady. But you saw him here yelling at me. The guy’s got a temper. He could have hurt you—or worse.”

  I felt justifiably chastised. Yes, I’d thought of that, and I’d told Rachel where I was going, so if anything had happened to me, word would have gotten out. But that could, of course, have been after the fact, which might not have done me a hell of a lot of good.

  “You’re right,” I said solemnly. “It wasn’t my smartest move. But he seemed much milder on his home turf—most of the time. And he genuinely seems to care about animals. He may have been mad at you out of fear for the missing wolf.”

  “Which we all feel,” Megan said, out of my face and once more starting to stroll. “At least I’m fairly convinced Beell didn’t take her back. Right?”

  “I honestly don’t think so. There wasn’t room in his yard, and he convinced me pretty much of his concern for her.”

  “And what about … well, he was here the day Jon Doe was killed.” Megan’s tone was stony. “Did he know him?”

  “Hey, that’s exactly what I was going to ask you.

  He claimed he knew him mostly by sight, from his visits here. Do you recall anything that might suggest otherwise?”

  Megan seemed to hesitate just as we got to the liger enclosure. The wonderful mix-breed feline, lying on the ground beyond the moat, stopped grooming her huge paw. She stared back at us with eyes that, from this distance, sure enough suggested that Megan was a relation.

  The sanctuary director stared at her sort-of look-alike as she spoke. “I’ve thought long and hard about this, Kendra. I have some ideas about who might have hurt Jon, but they’re mostly niggles brought about by feelings instead of any actual evidence I could give to the authorities.”

  “Me, too,” I agreed. “Maybe we could share them and see if brainstorming helps solidify any suspicions.” Not that I’d be entirely honest. But I sure hoped she would.

  Especially since some of my suspicions centered on her.

  But she started playing my game even before I passed the ball to her. “Who do you think did it, Kendra?” she asked, leaning on the concrete wall topped by a chain-link fence that surrounded the enclosure, and looking at me.

  “I’m not really ready to point to any one person,” I said cautiously. “For example, I haven’t eliminated Warren Beell from the killing, only from the wolfnapping. How about you?”

  “No, but I think you’d have a better idea than I do. How likely do you think it is that he did it, compared with anyone else?”

  Was she fishing to see where she sat on my suspect list? I wasn’t about to divulge that—especially since I wasn’t exactly certain.

  I shrugged. “I really haven’t narrowed things down enough to determine who I think is the most likely culprit. Warren’s not as high in my suspicions now as he was when I headed here this morning, though. So tell me something about your niggles. Who’s your number-one suspect?”

  Megan laughed, and we once more started walking through the sanctuary. The late September day was delightful, although the sun beating down could grow uncomfortable if we were outside too long. Our next stop was coyote heaven—with three pacing inhabitants. Once again, the enclosure had a concrete wall around it topped with a tall wire fence. The animals were also safely ensconced behind a moat that kept them separated from visitors.

  “I honestly don’t have one person in mind, Kendra,” Megan finally said. “And I have a feeling that what you’re really trying to get from me is a sense of whether I might be the guilty party. The answer’s no—although my saying so won’t necessarily make you believe it.”

  My turn to laugh. “You’re right, but your sense of humor just moved you a lot farther down on my little list.”

  She again turned to look at the closest animals who were her charges. Two coyotes ignored us, and the third didn’t seem impressed by our presence. He looked in our direction, then snootily stared the other way.

  “I hate that Jon was killed here, Kendra,” Megan said seriously. “I hate that he was killed at all, in fact. He was fairly quiet, but he always did his job well and seemed to care a great deal about the animals. Only—”

  “Only what?” I prompted, somehow seeing, in the wild and carnivorous coyotes, the specters of Dante, Brody, and whatever name Jon Doe went by in the old days working together, yet ready to tear each other apart if it suited them.

  “I don’t know,” she finally said with a sigh. “There was something about him—watchful, I guess. He was so silent at times that I had a sense he was absorbing everything he saw and heard, to use it all later for some purpose of his own. But that’s just pure fantasy on my part, I’m sure.”

  I wasn’t so sure, though, and thought more highly of Megan for her appar
ently excellent perception.

  I had to assume that what little Dante had revealed to me was right. Jon Doe could have been here seeking revenge. He might have been attempting to learn all he could from this place Dante funded so he could use it against the place’s benefactor, who was less than his friend. He wouldn’t learn much, if anything, about Brody here, but maybe that was next on his list.

  “Anyway,” Megan continued, “he never argued with me. If he seemed put out by any instructions, he sort of shot me a momentary glare, but it went away as quickly as it came, and he always did as I requested.”

  I wondered if that kind of response had been learned in the federal penitentiary …

  “And though he occasionally criticized other people, I never really saw him arguing with anyone else,” she finished, saving me from asking her that question.

  “So no other ideas about what happened to him?” I asked somewhat sadly. I hadn’t gotten much from Megan, and was unlikely to get any more.

  “Unfortunately, no. But I’m still thinking about it. I told Sergeant Hura I’d let him know if anything else came to mind, and I’ll do the same with you. I Googled you, Kendra.”

  We were now closest to the mountain lion’s den—a real cougar, not like my senior client Alice Corcorian. I’d been staring into her lair, but now looked back at Megan’s somewhat smug face.

  “I’d heard a lot about you from Dante,” she continued, “but it was even more interesting reading online about how you stick your nose into so many murders. That reporter Corina Carey—she’s on the TV a lot, and they pick up her stories on various Web sites as well. She seems very impressed by your murder-solving prowess. So … well, I figure you have some ideas by now of who killed Jon, but you’re not ready to share them with someone you’ve barely met who’s not in law enforcement. I get it. But once the culprit has been arrested, I’d love to hear your thought processes.”

  I was definitely taken aback by this, but didn’t let it show—I hoped. With what aplomb I could muster, I said, “Let’s see how it goes. If I actually do solve this case, of course. There are never any guarantees.” But I certainly aspired to do it this time as well. And I also realized that it was entirely possible that Megan was indeed the killer, and had taken this tack to throw me off her track.

  I considered asking for her opinion of Dante and how he appeared to get along with Jon Doe when I hadn’t been around, but didn’t want her to know that Dante remained on my list alongside her. And I’d seen Dante, Doe, and Brody all here together, so I could probably gauge that myself—all utterly calm on the surface, but I’d seen something boiling beneath. Something, at the time, that had seemed somewhat inexplicable, but now I at least had some teensy yet undetailed understanding of why it might have existed.

  We walked for a while more, and I again just soaked in all the sights and scents of the sanctuary. More visitors appeared and sauntered around us as well. I saw volunteers Anthony and Krissy leading tours, as well as others I’d come to recognize. Even Irwin Overland, who’d previously been a visitor himself, was now heading a tour group.

  A few of the visitors seemed to be there more to walk than to see the inhabitants. A group of nicely dressed men just strolled slowly along the path, conversing quietly. There were also a couple of large guys in jeans who seemed more interested in roughhousing than in viewing animals, and Megan went over to ask them to save it for outside.

  Eventually, I had to ask Megan, who absolutely agreed: I could once again cradle and feed a baby wolf. We headed in that direction. “I’m about to publicize the pup-naming contest,” she said. “People will need to donate a couple of dollars for each name they submit. I’ll send the information to our members and donors, and give them a short while to try, until someone submits names I can’t resist.”

  “Sounds good,” I said. “I’d rather call them by name than by ‘hey, you wolf!’”

  I soon checked to ensure Lexie was still doing okay without my ongoing presence.

  I pondered possible names as I helped to feed the wolf pups. Krissy joined Megan and me, and the three of us smiled silently as the little ones took their formula from the bottles we held.

  When they were done, so was I. “Thanks for letting me do this again,” I told Megan. “And I’ll be in touch.” I aimed a pleasant glance her way, as if assuring her that I’d keep her informed about my investigation, which I of course wouldn’t do.

  Lexie and I soon headed out of the sanctuary toward where I’d parked the Escape. Time to head back to L.A.

  Only … there was a piece of paper stuck into the well where my windshield wipers lay. I pulled it out before opening the car doors—and stared.

  Damned if it wasn’t a computer-generated warning: “Stay out of HotWildlife, and don’t worry about who killed Jon Doe unless you want to join him.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  OKAY, THIS HAD happened to me before. Was I becoming a threat-left-on-windshield woman?

  The other time had been in a store’s parking lot, and Lexie had been inside the car. Since I didn’t speak Barklish, she hadn’t been able to tell me who’d left it. I’d learned later that it was the killer.

  Had the same happened this time? I held the piece of paper by the edges and carefully slipped it onto my Escape’s floor on the passenger side. That way, no one could steal it back easily after I locked the door, and its evidence value wouldn’t become more tainted, as it would if I folded it to slip into my purse.

  “Come on, girl,” I told Lexie, and we headed to the entrance booth. But the volunteer who staffed it only shook her head when I asked if she’d happened to notice who’d left something on my windshield. “Sorry, but it’s been really busy here.” I noticed a fashion magazine on the floor beside her, and figured what besides visitors might be keeping her busy.

  I could ask others who’d come to the sanctuary within the past hour or so, if I happened to know who they were, but the only log they kept at the entry was of people who were either members or wanted membership info. The young lady didn’t hand me the list, but she waved it so I could see that she at least appeared diligent in ensuring it was kept up to date.

  Next thing I knew I should do was call Sergeant Frank Hura. And I would call him … soon.

  But there was someone I wanted to talk to first. I knew I’d get completely chewed out, but at least I might also be sent some sympathy over the cell phone connection. Standing just inside the sanctuary gate, not far from the building housing Megan’s office, I pressed in the number I’d programmed in for Dante. Lexie lay at my feet, looking up as if in concern. I could see through the chain-link fence toward the parking lot and my car, in the unlikely event whoever left the note attempted to retrieve it. But none of the few people around even glanced in the direction of my Escape.

  “Hi, Kendra.” Dante’s deep voice was warm, sexy, and welcoming. I mustn’t have caught him in the middle of a meeting. “I assume you’re returning my call from earlier.” Oops. I’d forgotten about his message. Oh, well. “So how are your plans coming along for our … meeting next week?”

  Meaning our trip to the area where I now was. “Well, that’s one thing I called about. I had an idea and decided to follow through on it today.” I inhaled the air from the near-mountain environment, getting only a faint whiff of animal aromas. “I’m standing in the parking lot at HotWildlife right now, and—”

  “What! I thought I told you not to do anything on … this matter without my being with you.”

  “Yes, that’s what you told me.” Unlike him, I remained calm. “Only, I’m not one of your employees or in any other position where I have to follow your directions.”

  “Excuse me.” That was muffled, so I figured he had his hand over his phone and was talking to whoever else was with him. And then he must have gone off by himself, since the next thing I heard was his angry voice in my ear. “I wasn’t trying to control you, Kendra. Like I said, I’m concerned about your safety. I figured I could protect you when y
ou dug into whoever killed Jon Doe if I was with you, and I knew I couldn’t convince you to keep your nose out of it. Knowing something about Doe’s background—well, that pretty nose of yours could be in real danger.”

  Gee. Despite his temper, he’d complimented me.

  And … “In a way, that’s why I called,” I said, my tone subdued.

  A silence. Then, “What happened, Kendra?” He spoke so softly now that I barely heard him, and all kinds of concern seemed to radiate from his voice.

  I told him.

  “Damn!” he whispered. And then, “Okay. Wait right there. My first meeting is about to start, but I’ll reschedule. For now, stay with Megan. And make sure other people are around, too, in case she—no, I don’t think it’s her. Even so—”

  “No, don’t reschedule your meeting. I’m going to call the sheriff’s department, and once they’re through with me, I’ll head back to L.A.”

  “Then I’ll see you tonight,” he said. “Call as soon as you’re back. And drive carefully. Watch everyone around, and if you see anything that makes you uncomfortable—”

  “I’ll call 911 first, and then you,” I assured him. And then we said our goodbyes and I hung up, a smile on my face.

  Temporarily, since the next thing I did was call Sergeant Hura. “Hi, Frank.” I attempted to sound friendly and at ease. “I’m at HotWildlife right now. Guess what happened to me here this afternoon.”

  “Twenty questions?” His sarcasm made me wince. Although we’d started out on affable terms thanks to our mutual friend Ned Noralles, that had obviously deteriorated, at least to some extent. “I assume,” he continued, “that you weren’t stabbed, like our victim.”

  I was becoming tired of irritable phone conversations, so I immediately told him what had happened.

  “Stay right there,” he commanded. I was receiving a lot of orders today, and I didn’t like his any better than Dante’s—although it made more sense. “I’ll have someone there in a few minutes to check things out.”

  Megan came out to ask if everything was okay. I told her I’d had some car trouble and was waiting for someone to take a look—only partly a lie, since I was waiting for someone from the sheriff’s department instead of the auto club. She went back inside the sanctuary.