The Wolf at Bay (Big Bad Wolf)

by Charlie Adhara

  “Look, thanks,” Cooper said. He extended his hand, and Stephen eyed it for a moment quizzically before shaking it. “This helped, more than you know, but I need to go. I forgot I’m supposed to be somewhere right now.”

  Stephen’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re kidding. We’re right in the middle of something. Where are you going?”

  Cooper started the car and smiled at Stephen. “To face the music.”

  * * *

  The marina was packed, and Cooper pulled into the overflow parking lot across the street. Before getting out he left a message on Park’s phone, surprised and, after his conversation with Stephen, worried that he didn’t pick up on the first ring.

  “It’s done. We have a lot to talk about,” he said. Then, realizing he sounded like Santiago, added, “I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Just meet me at Eliza Bell’s fund-raiser as soon as you can. I—”

  He realized he had no idea how to end a voicemail with Park.

  You’re everything to me! You’ve changed my life! I love you!

  “Okay. Bye. Hope to see you soon.” He winced—Hope to see you soon?—and quickly punched end.

  The marina looked like some kind of carnival. At one end they’d installed a stage where a sort of bluegrass band wailed away on banjos and tambourines. Along the boardwalk, tents and tables had been set up hosting games, food, and lots of places to learn more about her platform, register to vote, or most importantly, donate. Cooper slipped through the crowd searching the tables for Eliza.

  “Have you gotten a button yet?”

  “Please, help yourself to a pen.”

  “Vote Bell!”

  The volunteers were excellent at unloading all the personalized crap they had, but no one had actually seen the woman of the hour recently.

  “I think she’s talking to the council.”

  “I think she’s taking a moment to go over her speech.”

  “I think she’s supervising the dunk tank.”

  Cooper was heading toward the podium, determining that was the only place he knew for sure she’d have to be, when he saw Gabriel coming down the dock in his direction.

  Shit. He didn’t want to deal with him now. Not right now and certainly not here, thirty feet away from the boathouse where Gabriel and his friends had...

  But the crowd wasn’t quite big enough that they could slip past each other unnoticed and frankly, he was tired of running from this.

  “Cooper!” Gabriel waved and Cooper steeled himself as he watched his childhood crush, bully, and heartache approach.

  But he felt...nothing. Not the old fluttering of excitement and anticipation, not the belly-cramping anxiety and embarrassment, not even the anger that had burned through him yesterday like a brushfire. It was as if every last knot of emotion tangling him to Gabriel had relaxed and unraveled. Suddenly this was just a man he used to know.

  Cooper could guess the reason why. Or rather the whom. Despite everything, there at the marina he couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips, remembering the warmth of Park’s body beneath his own, the feel of him gradually relaxing in his arms. That was what real trust felt like.

  Gabriel smiled back at him. “After last night I wasn’t sure I’d see you here,” he said once he neared, the noise of the crowd forcing them to stand closer than normal. He squeezed Cooper’s arm above the elbow, interrupting his reminiscing. “But I’m glad you made it. Your support really means a lot to me.”

  “I’m not here for you,” Cooper said, pulling away calmly but firmly, and enjoyed the look of surprise and annoyance that soured Gabriel’s face. Okay, so newfound Zen notwithstanding, he was still a tiny bit petty. Growth was a process. And he hadn’t come here to grow. He impatiently scanned the crowd over Gabriel’s shoulder for Eliza.

  “If you’re looking for your guard dog, he’s not here yet.”

  Cooper stilled. “What did you just say?”

  “You know, your overprotective colleague.” Gabriel smiled, but his staple Mr. Charming expression was wearing thin.

  “How do you know he’s not here?”

  “I drove past him walking over this way. He’s a...noticeable guy.” That was an understatement, and it obviously pained Gabriel to admit it. “I would have offered him a ride but”—he shrugged—“he was arguing with Agent Joon and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “Arguing with—?” Cooper whipped out his phone, but there was still no word from Park, and no wonder. God damn it. He should have anticipated one of the agents would be tailing them. What if they’d brought him in for more questions? What if they locked him back up and then Park lost control like Stephen said he would? Why were they so hell-bent on Park as a suspect? And how—

  Cooper stopped and looked back at Gabriel who was waxing on about how many people had shown up to the marina and how well his sister’s campaign was going. “How do you know Agent Joon?”

  Gabriel cut off mid-monologue, expression immediately defensive. “I—the FBI was questioning everyone yesterday. They wanted to know about you and—you and your colleague. Why you two were over at my parents’ place asking questions.”

  Cooper blinked slowly. “It was you. You’re the one who told them about our relationship.”

  Of course Gabriel had picked up on something between them—especially with his insider information on Cooper’s sexuality—but to have him go running to the FBI...

  Cooper ran his hand through his hair and laughed without humor. “You know, when we were kids I probably would have analyzed the shit out of this show of jealousy, but not anymore. Because frankly, Gabriel, I don’t care. I really just don’t care.”

  “I’m not jealous.”

  “No, of course not. You just tattled on me as a purely selfless, concerned citizen. Tell me, did you unjealously call him my guard dog then, too?”

  Gabriel’s face flushed. “So what if I did? That’s what he was acting like. He practically bit my hand off every time I touched you yesterday. He’s obviously got issues.”

  “You implied he threatened you?” Cooper hissed. “Jesus, no wonder they came after him so hard.”

  “Hey.” Gabriel reached for him again, seemed to think better of it, and crossed his arms. “I was just looking out for you.”

  “You didn’t do this for me. Only for yourself. Just like always.” Cooper started to walk away, paused, and turned back. “And just so you know, Oliver’s not my colleague, he’s my partner. And he’s not my guard dog, he’s a goddamn good man, and no matter what else we are or aren’t, I know he’s always got my back and I’ve got his. So if you ever fuck with him again, you should be a hell of a lot less worried about his bite and more with my bark. Get it?”

  Gabriel gaped at him, and Cooper allowed himself a moment of satisfaction at his expression—surprise, discomfort, and just the beginning of shame—before pushing by and continuing toward the podium. He pulled out his phone and tried to call Park again to no avail. The crowd was so loud he ducked into the boathouse to leave another message before continuing his search for Eliza.

  It was actually a relief to be out of the noise for a moment or two. Plus, in all honesty, he needed a minute to calm down. His heart was beating hard, and a curious feeling of relief and rightness was pumping through his veins. Now was not the time to linger, but he knew as soon as he and Park were on the other side of this shit storm, Cooper would look back at this moment and appreciate finally getting to say the things he couldn’t twenty years ago. Gabriel and that day weren’t the only reasons he’d decided to get out of Jagger Valley, of course, but it was a big part of feeling like he was unwanted here.

  Standing in the same boathouse now, Cooper felt like he’d reclaimed something. This marina didn’t have power over him anymore. It, like the valley, was just a place.

  Cooper took a deep breath of salty air and looked around. It appea
red like the Bells’ business was doing better than ever. The warehouse was packed with boats waiting to be worked on or simply being stored for the season up on little stilts around the sides of the building. Most of the boats were tiny: a lot of runabouts, utility boats, and even a few rowboats. In the center of the room, the floor was replaced by eerily dark bay water, sort of like a reverse peninsula. Two large walk-arounds were docked there, beautiful, luxurious things, and he walked to the edge to take a closer look. Water lapped gently at the dock’s edges, making the occasional odd hollow slapping sound when a passing boat outside the building drove the water in.

  “Pretty, isn’t she?”

  Cooper took a step back, startled by the voice.

  Eliza Bell appeared on the deck of one of the large walk-arounds and leaned over the rail to look down at him. “I wanted to take her out today, but the engine’s been giving me trouble.”

  “Day not busy enough for you?” he asked, and Eliza laughed.

  “I have twenty minutes before I have to go up there and beg people to vote for me in the subtlest way possible. Being on the water calms me down.” She smirked and shrugged. “Bay kid.”

  Cooper ran his hand over the design on the side, elaborate leaves and thorns twisting around the boat’s name. “Eglantine,” he read out loud. He recognized the word, a very particular flower, and the last doubt he’d had dissolved. He smiled brightly. “Did Gabriel do this?”

  “Yes, he convinced me to let him do it years ago. It’s a bit showy but”—she shrugged—“it has sentimental value.”

  She beckoned, and after a moment’s hesitation, he climbed up to join her on deck. It really was a pretty boat and obviously well cared for. The deck was bright, gleaming white, and spotless. There was an open toolbox by the cabin door. Cooper planted himself between it and Eliza.

  “I was actually looking for you before,” he said.

  “Oh?” She put her hands in the pockets of her overlarge raincoat that protected her light gray skirt-suit from the constant drops of bay water that wormed their way everywhere. Pinned to the outside was a “Vote Bell” button. “What can I do for you?”

  “Yesterday you said something about Rose. You said that at the time you and she were friends, she was struggling with a serious drug problem.”

  Eliza looked puzzled. “Yes, she did have a problem. I only wish I hadn’t tried to help her by myself. If I had told someone, got her some real support, maybe we wouldn’t have lost her. That’s why I’m running on the initiative to—”

  “Earlier education on substance abuse, yes. I remember.” He nodded. “And just for the record, I’m all for implementing a more open and honest dialogue about drugs in schools. Except, Rose didn’t abuse drugs, did she? She had a health condition that would have made methamphetamines extremely dangerous.”

  Eliza pursed her lips. “Uncontrolled drug use is always dangerous. Sadly, that’s not enough to stop an addict.”

  “No, that’s very true. But in her case a single use would have been a guaranteed fatality. That’s why she’d never touched the stuff. Not even to try it. Not once. But you didn’t know that, did you?”

  “You’re not making any sense,” Eliza said. Her gentle, comforting voice had shifted just slightly into something patronizing. A caricature of itself. She walked toward Cooper, making to get off the boat. “I have a speech to give in fifteen minutes, so if you’ll excuse me—”

  “A lot of people thought Rose had a serious habit because her condition, when not handled properly, can be mistaken for withdrawal. I only learned that recently myself. What I didn’t understand was why her closest friend—her only friend, really—would claim Rose was an addict when she wasn’t.”

  Cooper watched Eliza’s expression. The pleasant, so-happy-to-see-you politician face was hardening around the edges, a bright anger creeping into her eyes. “Maybe you weren’t really as close as you said. Maybe you just spun the story to serve your campaign better. That’s messed up, but it makes sense. But then I thought of something. The person who killed and framed Sal West couldn’t have just picked him at random. He or she needed to frame someone with at least a little motive to have killed Hardwick. The killer needed to know about the blackmail.”

  Cooper paused. “Who would know about that? Hardwick did. So did Margaret Daugherty. But obviously they couldn’t have killed West. Stephen knew, too. But he doesn’t really fit, because he didn’t kill Rose.”

  “No one killed Rose,” Eliza snapped. “She overdosed.”

  He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “There had to be someone else who knew about the blackmail. But Rose wouldn’t have spread it around. She was scared, upset, she didn’t even want to tell the police. But maybe...she’d tell her best friend. Yeah, I think she’d definitely tell her best friend. Her only friend.”

  Eliza’s eyes were blank. Her usually kind face was abruptly inanimate and her body was motionless, like she’d been switched off.

  “If it helps,” Cooper said. “I don’t think you meant to kill her. I doubt you knew about her health condition or how dangerous even a tiny bit of meth would be. In fact, you cared about her quite a lot, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” Eliza whispered. “She was my friend.”

  “I know.” He kept his voice calm, casual, conversational. “This guy has been making me watch film adaptations of Shakespeare plays recently. Eglantine is not a word I’d have recognized before. Sweetbrier rose, isn’t it? You still care about her, even now.”

  She nodded shakily. “Everyone thought she was a freak, a druggie, and a loser. But she was also funny, and kind, and beautiful and so, so sad.” Eliza blinked hard like she was trying to clear an image from her eyes. “We were close. I—I didn’t have many friends either. My parents... I couldn’t be distracted.”

  “You were just as lonely as her.”

  “She got it. She understood what it was like to have this, this perception of you constantly dictating your life.”

  “You cared about each other. Then what happened, Eliza?”

  “I found her snooping around Mommy’s office. Looking for evidence that she was stealing money from the pageant’s funds. Mommy was right. She was just using me the whole time. Laughing at me, after everything I told her.” Eliza gasped, and there were tears in her eyes now.

  “So you killed her?”

  “No!” she wailed. “I just wanted to get her kicked out of the pageant, to embarrass her. She was nervous. The competition was in a couple of hours. I said we should smoke. I told her a little weed would calm her down.”

  “But you’d laced it with meth.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. I knew Jacob had some stashed away. I’d even tried it myself once. But she’d told me she had no tolerance. So I thought—I just wanted to make sure she didn’t get to the next round. I wanted everyone to know they’d been right about her all along. But she completely freaked out. She was shaking and screaming and...”

  Eliza licked her lips. “Her eyes, they were insane. And her face.” She reached up to touch her own face. “It’s like she wasn’t even human anymore. I ran. I just ran away.”

  “And Rose died.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to kill her,” she whispered. “It was just a stupid joke. I thought my life was over. I hid in my room all day and waited for the police to come take me away. I was so scared.”

  “But they didn’t come. Because everyone in town thought she had a drug problem anyway, no one looked too closely when she OD’d. No one but Alex Hardwick.”

  “He knew what she was doing. He’s the one who put her up to it, so he suspected something else was going on. He broke into our house!” she hissed. “I found him in my room, but it was too late, he’d already found the meth. I begged him not to say anything. I told him it was a mistake, I was still a kid, kids make mistakes, but he refused. He said he was going to tell ev
eryone what I did.”

  “So you followed him out of the house, and as he crossed our yard you saw your opportunity, and you killed him.”

  “I just wanted him to stop, to wait, but he wasn’t listening to me.” Eliza closed her eyes and shook her head. “I never meant to hurt Rose. She was my best friend. I loved her. It was a stupid accident and he was going to ruin my life for no reason.”

  “I don’t think the Daughertys would think there was no reason,” Cooper said quietly.

  Tears spilled over the edges of her eyes from beneath closed lids, streaking her cheeks, and dragging down the blush there in faint pink stripes. “It wasn’t going to bring her back. None of this will bring her back.” She sniffed. “You should have just let it be.”

  “Come on, Eliza,” he said gently. “It’s over now. Let’s go.”

  She nodded—“Yes. Okay”—stepped past him, whole body trembling, and started to climb over the railing of the boat. Her high-heeled pump slipped on the wet bar, and Eliza’s hand shot out for help as she stumbled backwards.

  Instinctively, Cooper reached to steady her and regretted it immediately when her other hand yanked out of her raincoat pocket holding a wrench and clocked him across the temple.

  “What—”

  It was a glancing blow—she wasn’t strong enough to knock him out—but it was enough that he felt unbalanced for a critical second, and his eyesight was too unfocused to see Eliza shove him with all her strength over the rail.

  Cooper flipped backwards and fell the ten feet toward the gap between the boat and the floor. His shin hit the edge of the cement, and bone-splitting pain shot through his leg like acid.

  No, no, no...

  His scream was lost to the water that filled his mouth and nose as his body slipped into the bay. For a moment all he could do was clutch his leg to his chest as he sank farther down into the darkness. The water was cold but everything below his right hip was on fire. He couldn’t tell how bad it was, how dangerous it would be for him to move, if he even could move. Carefully, his tingling fingers traced down over his knee and brushed torn flesh and the unexpectedly hard edge of something that must have been a protruding bone.