by Geonn Cannon
“Forget it. Go, scram.”
Ari hurried off the ramp and went back into the bleachers. Kimmie was watching her with wide eyes, hands on hips.
“Where did that come from?”
“What?”
“You blew off like a shot, and then jumping over the partition?” She whistled. “I was going to tell you that sometimes we have to do a little crowd control. People getting drunk and rowdy, you have to take care of ‘em until security can get there. But I think we can probably skip that lesson.”
Ari smiled. It was strange to be proud of doing well at a job she didn’t plan to keep, but praise was praise. She reached up to massage her shoulder, ready for whatever hellish training scenario Kimmie had for her next.
At the end of the day, sore and exhausted, Ari carried the costume back to her car. The sun was almost touching the horizon and long shadows stretched across the parking lot. The security lights had flickered to life as she was going out. The players’ cars were huddled near the entrance. She walked past them to where she’d parked and listened to the sound of rushed footsteps coming up from behind her. She waited until he was within arm’s reach before she ducked and shifted her weight to the right. She kicked her leg out and caught Dubov on his hip.
“Oh, shit. Sorry.”
“Ow! God!” He pressed a hand against his hip. “I guess I should have said ‘psst’ or ‘the condor flies at midnight’ so you would know it was me.”
Ari said, “After what happened in the locker room, it would have been appreciated.”
Dubov moved around to the passenger side of her car. When both doors were closed, he said, “I don’t know much since they didn’t really spell it out for me, but combine with what I overheard and what I know from you, Aulie’s looking for the pill you took.”
“I didn’t know how expensive it was when I took it. I guess it was pretty obvious when one went missing. Damn.”
“The bright side is no one suspects the weird new mascot chick.” He chuckled. “Where’d you come up with that anyway?”
Ari shrugged. “I figured it was the only way I could get close to the team without drawing attention to myself.”
“Good job on that.”
She chuckled. “Yeah. Instinct, I guess.”
“Anyway, I thought you’d want to know why you almost got knocked around. Coach is pissed at Aulie for being sloppy with his supply. Threatening to cut him off if he doesn’t find out what happened to it. Says he threatened the whole group. I assume that meant their little drug group, not the Totems.”
Ari nodded. “I’ve gotten everything I can from it. Maybe I could leave it somewhere so Aulie can find it so he’ll stop beating up his teammates.”
Dubov said, “I say keep it. If it means he can’t get anything else from Muldoon, then the guys can take a few licks. Just try to stay out of their line of sight.”
“I’ll do that.”
He opened the car door and started to lean out, then turned to look at her. “You look cute in that Totem outfit.”
“Hey, watch it. My girlfriend will kick your ass if she finds out you’ve been flirting with me.”
He smiled. “Not if Bryan beats her to the punch. Be safe, Miss… Fletcher.”
“Same to you.”
She watched him jog back to the rink. Stadium? Was the ice also called the arena? She would have to ask Dale again. She agreed with Dubov that it would be best to keep the pill away from Aulie, but she didn’t want to risk having him go through withdrawals. Cyn could be a nasty bastard and she had a feeling Aulie would be just as nasty when he started the downward spiral. The scuffle in the locker room might just be the tip of the iceberg. She didn’t want to see him at his most desperate.
Chapter Sixteen
Ari loved being Tony the Totem. She didn’t expect that; she hadn’t foreseen how much fun it would be to put on the costume and run around the bleachers, but she was having an absolute blast. She was actually disappointed that she wouldn’t get to play the role with a crowd. Aulie, meanwhile, was becoming progressively more desperate to find his missing pill. He was missing practices, not that Muldoon actually let him play on the occasions he did show up. Dubov continued acting as her informant, letting her know what he overheard and what was said in the locker room.
The most important thing that happened during that stretch of days was the doctor officially took away Dale’s crutch. She still needed to go easy on her left foot, but she was back to normal save for a slight limp. They celebrated by going out for a nice dinner, after which Dale proceeded to take full advantage of the fact she could once again take a dominant position in the bedroom. She might not have been fully healed, but she was definitely on the road to recovery.
The day after Dale was taken off the disabled list was the same day of the week she’d seen Muldoon and the players at Newton Ice Rink. She wanted to stake it out in case they came back so she could confirm they were using it as a drop. The only flaw in that plan was that she’d have to use another disguise, so Muldoon wouldn’t recognize her or “Tule Fletcher” hanging around. Under ordinary circumstances she might have used the wolf, but she needed to be inside and take pictures if she could.
“You know… actually, no. Never mind.”
“What?”
“You already have a lot on your plate pretending to be Tule. You shouldn’t have to add a whole other complexity on top of it.”
Ari said, “I can at least hear you out. What are you thinking?”
Dale got off the bed. She favored her right foot before she remembered her left was back in service, giving her movement an awkward sideways hop. She joined Ari at the drawer and dug around.
“This T-shirt under a baggy unbuttoned flannel. These jeans. Put on those boots you have that make you a whole foot taller—”
“An inch, at most.”
Dale ignored her. “Hair in a ponytail or tucked up under the hat. You could pretend to be a guy.”
Ari laughed. “I don’t think I could pull that off. I know I’m not exactly buxom, but…”
“So you wear two T-shirts. Don’t wear makeup.”
“I don’t wear enough makeup so that not wearing any will make a difference.”
Dale shrugged. “Like I said, never mind. I just thought it would be a good disguise. No one would think twice about it.”
“I think you just wanted to see what I’d look like as a boy.”
“You’d be a sexy boy.” Dale stretched out on the bed and rolled over to face her. “Just the kind of boy I like: tall and girly.”
Ari laughed and swaggered over to the bed. “I’ll be a boy for you.”
“Mm, c’mere, boy.”
Ari climbed on top of her. Dale gathered the hair that had fallen on either side of Ari’s face and held it up, gathering it on the back of her head. She tilted her head to examine her features, which were shiny and scrubbed clean after her shower.
“Yeah, you’re right. You’re much too pretty to be a boy.”
“Good thing, too. I only transform into one kind of mindless beast.”
Dale laughed and used Ari’s hair to pull her down into a kiss.
#
In the morning, Ari dressed in “grunge.” She chose a baggy T-shirt, hoodie, cap, low-hanging jeans, and the boots Dale hated. She didn’t shower and let her unwashed hair hang in front of her face like widow’s weeds. Anywhere else in the country it would looked outdated, but hometown pride still kept Kurt’s star shining brightly. The lockers were in an open area where she could see them from the lobby, so she took a seat and settled in. Whenever an employee approached her, she claimed to be waiting for a friend. She checked her phone frequently and with increasing irritation, giving her a reason to watch the parking lot for signs of Totem players or their coach.
She had been there for an hour when her phone actually rang, startling her enough that she nearly dropped it. The screen said it was Lucy Macallan, so she dropped character before answering.
“Lu
cy? Hey. What’s going on?”
“Ariadne. Were you serious about giving me a ride if I needed one?”
“Absolutely.” She scanned the parking lot again.
Lucy said, “I’m at Virginia Mason. I was supposed to get treatment today, but the numbers weren’t right so they’re sending me home. I made a big deal about sending Diana to work. I know she would come in a heartbeat if I asked…”
“No, it’s no trouble. I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
They arranged to meet at a Vietnamese restaurant near the hospital where Lucy would buy Ari lunch for her trouble. Ari cast a final look around the rink for signs of her quarry, but they remained stubbornly absent. Traffic was kind to her so, ten minutes later, she arrived outside the restaurant at the same time Lucy was coming around the corner. They both ordered the pho and took a table near the window. Lucy waited until they were seated before she asked.
“Laundry day?”
Ari smiled. “I was doing a stakeout for people who might know what I look like. They’ve also seen me in my usual disguise, so that wasn’t an option. I had to step it up.”
“I see. Teenage me probably would’ve been wild for you. I went through a whole Nirvana thing.”
Ari said, “I never really liked their music.”
“It wasn’t the music. It was the string-bean with the long blonde hair playing guitar that got my interest. Of course, it didn’t take me long to realize I was looking for something extra under the dirty sweater.”
Ari chuckled. “I can understand that. Back when the Femme Reapers first showed up, I had a huge crush on one of the sisters. The one who wears blue all the time.”
“I can never remember,” Lucy said.
“So… is everything okay? Are you…?”
Lucy nodded. “I’m fine. It’s just my platelet count isn’t where they wanted it to be, so I skipped the treatment today. It actually means I feel better than I would otherwise.”
“Ah.” Ari stirred the noodles around in her bowl. “Sorry, I’m not sure how to talk about this. I don’t know if I should be consoling or—”
“Just talk to me like normal.”
“I think I can do that.”
Lucy said, “What are you and my wife hiding?”
Ari blinked and leaned back. “Wh-what?”
“Come on, Ariadne. I’m not stupid. And I also know neither one of you would have an affair. You love Dale too much and Diana is, like, crazy in love with me.” Ari had to smile at that. “But I know there’s something going on. You come by in the middle of the night and she walks to the corner just so I won’t overhear anything? I know she didn’t want to wake me up, but you could’ve just stayed on the porch if that was all she was worried about. She didn’t want me walking in on the middle of whatever conversation you were having. It’s not the first time she’s done something like that, either. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”
Ari said, “It could be… a sensitive case…”
Lucy repeated, “We don’t keep secrets from each other, Ariadne. When I say that, I mean she told me she thought about leaving me when I was diagnosed with cancer.”
“She what?”
“Briefly. I was being a dark, depressing bitch and feeling sorry for myself every day. I would have wanted to leave me, too. Diana kept a brave face the whole time, but when it passed, she admitted there were moments of weakness. But she loved me too much to let one dark cloud ruin everything we’ve built, so we stuck in there. But the point is, if the secret was hers to tell, she would tell me. So it’s your secret. I don’t want Diana keeping secrets from me. If you can trust her, you can trust me.”
Ari tapped her fingernail on the table. “You’re right about everything. I’ll just put that out there right away.” Lucy nodded slowly but didn’t take her eyes off Ari. “It’s a hell of a secret, Lucy. And it’s not something you’ll believe without evidence.”
“I’m willing to suspend my disbelief.”
Ari handed her phone across the table.
“Call Dale. Tell her what you just told me.”
“What…”
“She’ll tell you my secret. Tell her I said it’s okay and to just tell the truth. It’s time that you knew. I should’ve told you when I told Diana. I’ll write down what she’s going to say, so you’ll know we’re not making it up on the spot.”
Lucy looked at the phone. She sighed when she took it. “This better be a hell of a secret,” she said as she dialed. Ari took out a pad and began writing where Lucy couldn’t see.
“Trust me, it’s a doozy.”
“Hello, Dale? It’s Lucy Macallan.” She explained again, her eyes on Ari the entire time. “Ari told me to ask you what the secret is. She said it’s time, and she should’ve told me when she told Diana.” She listened to the low murmur of Dale’s voice. A line appeared between her eyebrows.
Ari slipped her notepad across the table. She’d written, “She just told you I’m a werewolf.”
Lucy read the note, looked at Ari, and then blinked. “Yes. Dale, I need to talk to your girlfriend. Thank you for telling me. I will. Goodbye.” She hung up and carefully placed the phone on top of the notepad.
“I know it’s hard to accept, but I promise you—”
“You’re canidae?”
It was Ari’s turn to frown. “Did Dale use that word?”
“No, she said werewolf. But if you want to be accurate…”
“Canidae. Right. How do you know that term?”
Lucy said, “I knew one. After college but before Diana. She was a model I used in my earliest graphic novels. She would come to my studio to pose. She could contort herself into these amazing shapes. It was perfect for me. One night she was there late, we got drunk, one thing led to another…” Her voice drifted off. “The second time we slept together, she said she had to tell me something if we were going to have an actual relationship. She told me everything about being canidae, about… she called it ‘wolf-shifting.’ I’m ashamed to admit that since she was Native American, I just assumed she was talking about some kind of ritual. Then she showed me.”
She looked up at Ari, a mixture of awe and fear in her eyes.
“So. You can… you do that?”
Ari nodded. “Yeah. I can’t believe you know about us. You’ve never told Diana? What about not keeping secrets?”
“That’s… that’s a lie of omission, I guess. At what point in the marriage do you bring up the fact you once fucked a werewolf?”
Ari had to laugh at that. “Good point. I’m sure Diana will understand.”
“And I can’t be too mad that she was keeping it secret from me.” She chuckled. “We were both holding werewolf secrets. What are the odds of that?”
“This is Seattle,” Ari said. “The odds are actually pretty good.”
They finished their lunch and Ari drove Lucy home. Lucy thanked her again for the ride. “I’m sure it’s more of an inconvenience than you’re letting on. Are you in the middle of a case?”
“Actually I am, yeah. How’d you know?”
“You’ve got this look on your face. It’s like you’re wrestling with something right behind your eyes. You’re trying not to let it through, but it’s still seeping out.”
Ari said, “You’re good.”
“I’m an artist. I draw faces for a living. You learn tricks.”
“Well, you’re wrong about one thing. It’s not a case I’m conflicted by. It’s a job offer. And I’m not really conflicted by it. I’m not going to take it. I’ve talked to everyone and I’m… I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’m not going to take it.” She explained about GG&M again as they drove north.
Lucy listened. When Ari was finished, she said, “So basically it’s like if someone offered me a job at one of the big comic companies. I’d still be doing what I love, and I’d be doing it for more money, but my hands would be tied in terms of content and editorial issues.”
“Exactly. Everything inside me says I can’t ta
ke the job. And I’ve decided I’m going to turn it down when the offer is made. But it’s money and security. Am I being completely idiotic to turn it down for sentimental reasons? What would you do?”
“I honestly don’t know.” She looked out the window. “GG&M is a big firm, right? Their clients are extremely wealthy.”
Ari nodded. “That’s why they can afford to pay me to just sit around until they need me.”
“But the people who hire you now… they can’t afford GG&M. They can barely afford you, if I’m guessing right. So if you take the job at GG&M, who is going to look out for them?”
Ari was stunned into silence. “You know, Dale said the exact same thing.”
“I knew I liked that lady.”
“Thank you, Lucy.”
When they arrived, Ari offered to stay and keep Lucy company. “Thanks, but I want to take a nap so I’ll be rested when Diana gets off work. I have a feeling we’re going to have a long talk tonight.”
“Good luck.”
She watched to make sure Lucy got into the house without trouble, then headed back to the ice rink. She hoped she hadn’t missed her chance to catch Muldoon in the act, but she didn’t like her odds.
Her luck was middling: Muldoon and three of the players were already there, having one of their conferences on the ice. She got close enough to see that Anton Oesterle was the one missing player. She took a seat where she could see the lockers again and took out her phone. She held it like she was typing texts, the camera’s lens aimed where she could catch Oesterle when he arrived.
Ari had learned the secret to blending into a crowd was to simply be in a crowd. People were self-centered, focused on their own path, tunnel-visioned. The costume helped her avoid notice, but everything else was just settling in and looking like anyone else in the building. She planted her feet apart and slouched so she would appear to be just one of the half-dozen people milling around the public area of the skating rink.
Oesterle showed up fifteen minutes after she returned, and she whispered a small thank-you to the patron saint of private detectives and wolves. He looked hungover, carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder. As expected, he didn’t even look her way as he rushed past her to the lockers. He sat on a bench, placed the duffel between his feet, and opened the locker. Ari angled her phone and opened the camera. She switched to video rather than taking still shots and filmed as Oesterle took a small white bag out of the locker and dumped it into his duffel.