The Bear Truth

by Ivy Sinclair

  "Shit storm since everybody found out about the sheriff. Your dad’s been in here already causing a ruckus about wanting an official statement. Lukas sent him packing." I could just imagine that exchange. I gave her a serene smile and turned to find out what Lukas and Billy were up to.

  They moved almost in unison toward the sheriff's office. I was one step behind them, but Lukas turned and shook his head. "Can you give me and Billy a minute, Maren?"

  I crossed my arms. I knew I had a pissed off look on my face, and he should know why. This wasn't the time for secrets. "Actually, I do mind."

  The look on his face was priceless.

  "I'm here because you want me here, yes. But I'm also here because I'm still a reporter. Something is going on, and I see things that you and Billy might miss. You can trust me. I can help." I had value, and he had to see that.

  Lukas sighed. For a minute, I thought that he was going to still tell me to stay put. Then he motioned his head and indicated that I should join him and Billy in the office. I stepped inside before he could change his mind. Billy was already sitting behind the sheriff's desk, looking at the desktop as if in search of something.

  "So are you going to let me in on the big secret?" I asked as soon as Lukas closed the door behind me.

  "It isn't a secret, Maren. You know that I think that there was something about Markus's death that suspicious. I am pretty sure I saw Joshua at the hospital right before the sheriff passed away. I don’t believe in coincidences. We need to get to the bottom of all of this as soon as possible.”

  Billy held up a vanilla file folder. Even across the room, I could read the name on the tab. Markus Kasper. I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach. This had all started because of Markus's death. It had been the event that had brought Lukas home to me. I hoped that was that whatever was inside the file was not something that would rip Lukas apart. He wanted to know the truth so badly, and he believed there was something more to Markus’s death than had been reported. What would it do to him if he found out that it wasn't true, that it was an accident after all?

  I sat down heavily in the chair across the desk from Billy. Lukas paced the floor behind me. I could tell that he was anxious, and I didn't blame him. I felt as if we were on the cusp of something big.

  Billy set the folder back down on the desk. He flipped it open. As he began to spread the documents out on the desk, I saw the pictures from the crime scene. Even though I was a fairly hardened reporter these days, I didn't think I was prepared to see anything around Markus's death. He had been someone I’d known almost my whole life. It would make it too real.

  I felt Lukas pause behind me. Billy looked up at him. "Are you sure you want to do this? I can look over the files alone and let you know if I find anything suspicious."

  "No way in hell. I need to see this. If nothing else to prove my suspicion. This is what I've been waiting to see since I got back. It’s the whole reason that I'm here. Sheriff Monroe should've showed me this file on day one. I deserve to know the truth," Lukas said. His tone let me know that there was not going to be any argument about the matter.

  Billy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "I looked over parts of this file already. Several times actually. There wasn't anything suspicious. Remember, I'm the one who found his body. Although, of course, he wasn't quite dead yet." Billy grimaced realizing the impact of what he had just said.

  "You said you've only reviewed some of it," I said, catching the nuance in Billy’s words. "What about the rest?"

  "The sheriff was the one who was going to put the finishing remarks on the report. I gave him what I had written up as my statement. I know he spoke to the ambulance drivers as well as the hospital staff and coroner. So it was just a matter of typing those things up and closing the file," Billy said. He picked up different pieces of paper and pictures, looked at them, and then set them down again. I sensed he didn’t know what he was looking for.

  "Walk me through what happened that night. Maybe something will shake your memory and give us a clue,” Lukas said.

  Billy sighed. "It was pretty straightforward. I was patrolling out on Shulman’s Trail, and I thought I saw something in the headlights of the car. So I pulled off to the side of the road. As I got out of the squad car, I heard the moans of pain. I knew that someone or something was hurt pretty badly. Of course, my first thought was that it was someone or something from one of the neighboring clans. You know that trail borders three different territories, including the Loper territory. It wasn't uncommon to pick that as a spot to settle disputes away from the eyes and ears of the clans. So I expected to find somebody bloody and beat up. It wouldn’t have been the first time."

  Lukas slowly approached the desk. He picked up one of the pictures. I saw him study it. His face was passive, but I knew that his mind was whirling at a million miles a minute. I wasn't sure how he could be so calm.

  "You have to have known it was Markus once you found him," Lukas said.

  That made me think of something that I remembered from that night. "I heard you make the call to Magna on the radio. You said you weren't sure, but you thought it might be Markus Kasper." As I saw Billy's eyes raised toward me, I thought about what I just said. Then the realization dawned in my mind. "You did know that it was Markus. But you didn't say that because no one here knows that you're part of the clan. Nobody knows you’re a shifter."

  "Markus thought that it was best, and the sheriff agreed. They needed eyes and ears inside the department, so he gave me the task."

  "Why would the sheriff think that he needed someone on the inside that nobody knew about?" Lukas asked.

  "Apparently a couple years ago there were some things that were leaked from the department to the press," Billy said. "I didn't really ask a lot about it. To be honest, I was looking to get out of my clan. This seemed like the right fit."

  Lukas seemed satisfied with Billy’s response. "Okay, so tell me the rest," Lukas said.

  Billy hesitated. "I went around to the front of the car, and I saw Markus lying there on the side of the road. Somehow he had managed to drag himself from wherever he got caught in the trap to the road. I don't know how I didn't feel him there to be honest. It was as if he was so close to death that he couldn't make the connection anymore. He should've been able to call out for someone. He should've been able to let someone know where he was. But all of that was gone. It could have been because he hit his head when he went down, or because he had almost bled out by that point. In any case, I could tell that he was in a lot of pain. I didn't try to move him, and so I put the call for help."

  "Did he recognize you? Did he say anything?" I could tell that Lukas had a million questions, but he wasn't asking the right ones. At least, those weren’t the right ones yet. Asking questions was part of my job.

  "What else did you see? Are you sure there wasn't anyone else out there in the dark?" I asked.

  "I had my gun drawn, but there wasn't anyone else nearby. I let my senses search the air for another’s scent, and I listened for any sounds of movement in the woods. Honestly, though, all I could think about was Markus. I knelt down beside him, and all I could see was blood. I knew it was bad, real bad. I just kept thinking that the ambulance had to get there. It was right before the Summit, and we couldn't afford to lose Markus. Everything rested on him being able to close this peace treaty with Lopers. It was a freak accident at the worst time. I couldn’t help but be a little pissed at him too. Going out running alone seemed reckless and stupid."

  "There is no way that Markus would've been out there if he didn’t have a reason," Lukas said venomously. "You're missing something. There has to be something in that file. The sheriff would have known why Markus was out there." He started to push the papers around looking for something, even though I was sure he had no idea what he was looking for either.

  Billy pushed his seat back from the desk. He seemed to be at a loss. "You can look through the paperwork as much as you want to, Lukas. Whatever you're looking f
or isn't there. There was nothing about this that was suspicious. It was a freak accident. It could've happened to any one of us."

  Lukas's fist slammed down on the desk. "But it didn't! It happened to Markus!” His hand landed on one of the pictures. He pulled it closer to him. I saw his forehead wrinkle as he looked at the picture. He pointed. "What's that?"

  Billy and I pushed forward in our chairs to take a closer look at whatever Lukas was pointing at. I couldn't see anything in the picture other than darkness. Then as I studied it, I could see the reflection of what appeared to be a shiny symbol etched in the rust of the trap.

  "It's the bear trap. You know that. It snapped shut around Markus's ankle and nearly tore it off clean. That thing had the grip of death. I'm amazed that he managed to move at all," Billy said with a shudder.

  "I know what it is," Lukas said sarcastically. "What's on it?"

  "What do you mean what's on it?" Billy leaned in closer to try and see what it was that Lukas was pointing at. Lukas shoved around the pictures, and he grabbed another one. This one had a closer view of the trap that was locked around Markus’s foot.

  "This," he said emphatically.

  "What the hell?" Billy stood up. He walked over to a large metal cabinet that stood next to the desk. I assumed that it contained guns and ammunition and whatever else the deputies would need in the course of doing their jobs. Billy used a key from his key ring to open the doors. He reached in pulled out something that gave me the chills. It was a large cardboard box that had ‘EVIDENCE’ marked across the side in bold red letters. He carried it with obvious effort, and set it on the desk. Then he took the top off. I didn’t have to look inside to know what it was.

  "This is the trap," Billy said. Lukas approached the box carefully. I didn't blame him. It was a symbol of everything of the thing that took his brother away from him. I stood up and stood next to Lukas as we both peered into the box. Billy reached in and pulled the rusted piece of large metal out.

  Lukas grabbed the picture off the desk and then looked at the trap in Billy’s hands. "It's not the same one," he said.

  "You can see the blood on the blades," Billy said slowly. "I think what you're seeing in the picture is just a shadow of the light reflecting on the trap."

  I finally was starting to see what it was in the photo that had caught Lukas's attention. It was so subtle that anyone could easily miss it. It was a very crude etching of a symbol. A symbol that I knew well. It was a symbol that Billy should've known too. "It's the symbol of the Rally Against Claws." I let the words hang in the air. "I saw it. Twice actually. It was tattooed on the assholes who kidnapped me."

  Lukas looked at Billy. "You've got those two assholes still in custody?" Billy nodded "Then I think it's about time we question those boys."

  CHAPTER SEVEN – Lukas

  My senses were on full alert. There was something in those pictures that had been missed. Or maybe it wasn't that it had been missed, but it had been seen. When Billy pulled out the bear trap that didn't have the symbol etched into it, I knew something was wrong. Someone was concealing the evidence of who was involved with Markus’s death. I wasn't going to stand for that. Maren trailed behind us as Billy and I approached the cells.

  "I want to know where Joshua is," I said. I didn't even give the scumbags a chance to stand up and come to the bars.

  "We need to be a bit more subtle about this, Lukas," Billy said. Maren had given me the clue I needed to push forward. I was glad that she convinced me to let her help. She might have her own questions for her kidnappers. But right now, I just needed to know a couple of things. Why were they in town? What kind of trouble were they up to? Were there more than the two of them and Joshua?

  "Patience, Lukas," Maren said softly. I knew she was trying to keep me calm. It wasn't my strong suit, but I knew that she was right. For once, I had to think first. I couldn't go barging into the cells demanding answers as much as I wanted to. I had to start with a bit more of a subtle hand. It was an approach more like Billy’s, even though I hated to admit it. I decided to hang back and let Billy take the lead.

  There was one man in each one of the cells in front of us. It might have been hard for people who knew me before to believe, but I hadn't spent a lot of time in the cell block of the Greyelf Police Department contrary to popular belief. Greyelf was a small town, and there wasn't a lot of trouble on most days. So it looked odd to even have two of the five cells occupied. Neither one of the men stood up when they saw us standing there.

  I finally had a good look at them. The details of their physical appearances hadn’t registered in my mind the night before. I have been only concerned with getting Maren away from them and off to safety. Now that I could see them up close, they looked rather… ordinary.

  They couldn’t have been more than kids, in their early twenties at most. But the thing that gave them the initial appearance of being older than their age was their size. I was tall. But even sitting down I could tell that these two were almost as tall as me. I could see why they would have been able to easily keep Maren in line.

  They looked at me, and I looked them. It was obvious that the feeling of contempt was mutual based on the expressions on their faces.

  "Tell you what guys, you'll get out of here a lot faster if you cooperate and answer the man’s question," Billy said. He looked back and forth between the cells. Neither of the men moved. Instead, they simply glared at the three of us from behind the bars. It was almost a little eerie. If I didn't know better, I would almost have thought that we were the ones inside the cells.

  "Go to hell, pig," one of the men said.

  Billy flipped open the file folder that he had been carrying. I hadn't even noticed. He thumbed through it. He didn't look up as he started to rattle off a list of offenses. "Burglary. Resisting arrest. Possession. And various other misdemeanors going back to when you were twelve. Looks like you decided to step up to the big time by adding kidnapping to the list now, Joe. Can I call you Joe?" Billy looked up at the big man on the other side of the bars.

  Joe shrugged and seemed unimpressed. “I was out there taking a walk. You can't prove I had anything to do with any kidnapping."

  "We want to talk to our lawyer," said the other man from the cell.

  Billy looked at his file folder again. "Yeah, sorry I didn't mean to forget you there, Craig. So for you, we've got grand theft and a charge of kidnapping already. You also spent some time in juvy for selling pot to your friends. Says there you were accused of murder just six months ago."

  My ears perked up this time. Now we were getting somewhere.

  "Those charges were dropped. There was no proof I was involved. When our lawyer gets here, you're gonna let us out. Until then, we’re not talking," Craig said.

  I felt the heat of anger building inside of me. I hated their cocky attitudes acting as if they had done nothing wrong. They honestly thought they were going to get out of this town without anything else happening to them. I don't think they fully appreciated where they were right now. I was gonna make sure that they did. I stepped forward and put my face right next to the bars. I glared at Joe.

  Now we were going to have some fun. As I moved my face closer to the bars, I let the bear ride to the surface. I knew what they were seeing. I'd watched it in the mirror a million times after my first phase. It was baffling the way that you can control the transition when you knew how.

  But, of course, the bear was always slightly out of control in my world. That was part of the reason that Markus said he had to send me away. The impulsiveness and anger could spin out of control all came from my bear. It just wanted to run free the majority of the time. My nose slowly elongated and pushed through the middle of the bars. Even a hard ass like Joe wouldn't be able to contain his fear at the controlled shift that was happening in front of his eyes.

  As I expected, the big man started to scoot back in his bunk. It didn't matter if it was involuntary or not. I had send him to the edge of reality. Now I was just
going to push. I let my bear’s teeth show. Then a growl ripped from my chest and out into the room. The threat came through loud and clear. Then I pulled back and let my face returned to that of a normal man. It nothing else, it was a reminder that they were dealing with someone who wasn’t ordinary. They were dealing with a bear.

  "You're a freak,” Joe said, but I could tell by the quiver in his voice that I had stunned him.

  "This is my town," I said. "Anybody who thinks they're gonna come in here and cause trouble has got another thing coming. I may be new, and I may not have been the alpha for very long, but I know how to deal with guys like you. Where's your boss? Where’s Joshua?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about. It was just me and Craig here," Joe said, but his voice lacked conviction.

  So they were going to play hardball. That was okay. I didn’t mind. "Open the cell, Billy," I said.

  I felt Maren's hand on my arm. "What are you doing, Lukas?"

  It bothered me that I had to do this in front of her. But the time for subtlety was running out. I had a feeling everything hinged on the beginning of the Summit. What happened last night was just the opening act. If they were willing to come at me through Maren and potentially even take out the sheriff, I suspected there was little that they wouldn't do. It was time for action. The time for words was over.

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Billy said.

  "I don't recall asking for your opinion," I countered. Both of us knew that in the end I would win. Billy was part of my clan. That meant that when push came to shove, I was always the one that would win unless he chose exile instead. I didn’t want to have to use that threat on him. He had to understand that this wasn't the time for proper police procedure. This was clan business, and that meant that it fell under my jurisdiction, not the law.