by Edie Claire
Within another minute, the truck had passed through the patch of fog, and Ri had trouble believing that anything around her could remind anyone of London, much less gothic beasts. Although a thick bank of clouds hung in the air just above them, the stunning landscape was clear again. It was also now changing rapidly, with every twist in the road bringing on a different palette of color and a more arid feel to the vegetation. Grassy meadows changed first to rocky fields, then to black rocks in red dirt. Dark-green clumpy bushes sprung up amidst the rocks, and thin, oddly-shaped evergreen trees stuck up here and there like bottle brushes, oddly reminiscent of cactuses in a Western cartoon. But looking seaward, the view was unquestionably tropical, with green slopes swooping down amidst blooming flowers to meet the dark blue of the ocean far below.
“If we were here mid morning, you couldn’t drive six feet with passing a bicycle,” Maddie said lightly. “Right up above us is where all the adventure tour buses and vans park and let people out. It’s especially big for passengers on the cruise ships — everyone loves to bike down the volcano.”
Ri looked out the window and down at the incredibly steep and twisting, occasionally without-a-shoulder two-lane highway. “On this road?” she asked skeptically. She loved to bike, but the idea of pedaling down a volcano had always brought up images up of a dedicated path through a leafy jungle, not sharing space on an open road with pickup trucks.
Maddie chuckled. “Yeah. It can get pretty dicey sometimes. That’s why I always get out of here before the morning rush. But what a view for the bikers, huh?”
Ri could not deny that. But of course, much depended on the weather. On a cloudy day, this entire side of the mountain could be engulfed with fog.
No sooner had the thought occurred to her than the truck climbed into another patch of mist, this one thick enough to obscure her view of anything beyond a few yards. When they popped out of it again, she found herself in a forest of spindly trees. The fog thickened and thinned in turn, and a misty rain coated the truck windows. When, in the next clear spell, Ri saw that giant ferns had materialized on the cut rock walls of the switchbacks, she shook her head in disbelief. “This is so weird,” she exclaimed. “Everything changes so fast!”
“Oh, it changes all over again at the top,” Maddie assured. “But we’ll save that for another day. We’re almost home now.” The landscape opened up once more, and here Ri saw grass and bushes again, along with a sprinkling of wildflowers by the roadside. The entrance to Haleakala National Park was marked with a guardhouse and a stop sign, but the wood and stone hut was unmanned after hours, and Maddie passed the automated pay station and pulled on through. She drove a little farther uphill through the fog, then turned off on a service road that seemingly led into oblivion.
Ri truly could not see more than a few feet in front of the truck’s headlights. “How do you even know where you’re going?” she asked.
“Instinct,” Maddie replied, even as she crept along at a snail’s pace. The lane was heading downhill, and wherever they were going, the fog seemed even thicker ahead. “Although if a nene decides to cross here,” she said worriedly, pulling up tall in her seat to get the clearest possible view of the asphalt directly before the bumper, “it had better watch out for us.”
“Maddie!” Ri shouted. Perhaps now she was thinking too much about London and werewolves… but she was ninety percent certain that the figure she’d seen skulking in the mist ahead of them was real. “Stop!”
Maddie slammed on the brakes so hard the truck bounced. “What is it?”
“I saw someone,” Ri insisted, pointing. “A man. Right over there.”
Maddie looked. “I don’t see anyone.” She shifted the truck into park, popped open her door, and leaned out. “Who’s there? Wolf, is that you?”
A man’s voice called back, deep and grumbly. No figure was visible now; all Ri could make out was a small light bobbing along as it moved away from the road. “Yeah, it’s me.”
Maddie growled in exasperation. “Are you suicidal or something? I can’t see!”
“Then why’d you stop?”
“Smartass,” Maddie mumbled to Ri. Then she raised her voice again. “Where are you going? I need to talk to you about something.”
The voice returned from an even further distance. “Camping. See you tomorrow!”
Maddie plopped back in her seat and shut the truck door with a slam. Her eyes turned to Ri. “That was Wolf,” she said with annoyance. “I was going to introduce you to him, but apparently, he’s gone feral again.”
Ri lifted an eyebrow. She’d gotten only the briefest glimpse of a man wearing a hoodie underneath a bulky hunting jacket, his square jaw unshaven and long, light brown wisps of hair curling around his ears and neck. She’d seen his eyes, though. They’d looked a bit odd the way they reflected in the truck’s headlamps, but she could swear they were a piercing, cool ice blue.
“Feral?” she repeated, unable to get the image of a white-coated arctic wolf out of her head, even though she was pretty sure that wolf eyes were amber.
“Well, I don’t know what else you’d call it,” Maddie said, her voice edged with frustration as she shifted the truck back into drive and carefully steered it around a bend and into a parking lot. “Most of the time he’s perfectly civilized, even fun to be around. But that’s when you keep it strictly co-worker. The second you try and make an actual friend out of the man, he snarls and slinks off into the woods and won’t come out again for a week.”
“Snarls?” Ri asked. The man’s appearance in the fog had startled her, but she didn’t detect any hostility in his voice. He had sounded rather good-humored, actually.
Maddie sighed. “I don’t mean it like that,” she admitted. “He’s a great guy. I like him a lot. It’s just that…” She seemed to struggle with the words. “There’s something about him that draws a woman in. And I don’t mean physically, although that’s another subject. And it’s not just me that’s noticed it, either. Over the winter, there was a woman here named Sam, and she and Wolf were pretty good friends. Or at least I thought they were. They both liked Mexican food and they used to cook together and make all kinds of spicy stuff. Sam was in her forties and married with two kids and there was nothing romantic about it. But she told me there was something about him that always seemed kind of sad to her. She wanted to help, and she kept trying to get him to talk to her so she could figure it out. She said she thought he’d be a happier person if she could just draw him out of his shell a little bit.”
Ri made a noncommittal “hmm” sound. She knew nothing about Sam and shouldn’t judge. Most likely, the woman’s motivations were good. But Ri was biased. In her own history she’d dealt with way too many extroverts who looked at introverts like herself as needing to be “fixed.” Some people preferred a smaller circle of close friends and weren’t as into sharing about themselves. That was hardly pathological.
“I’ve always gotten along well with him, too,” Maddie continued. “He knew I wasn’t on the market when he met me and he’s never hassled me, but he hasn’t shunned me, either, and that means a lot. Making guy friends is actually easier now that I’m with Kai, but it’s still…” Her voice drifted off. She looked back at Ri and shook her head. “Never mind. Anyway, I’ve had the same experience Sam had. He’s friendly enough, but he’ll only let you get so close.”
Ri got out of the parked truck and followed her hostess blindly through the fog. No buildings were visible.
“I wouldn’t describe him as ‘sad’ like Sam did,” Maddie went on. “But I wouldn’t call him content, either. Personally, I think his work makes him lonelier than he’s willing to admit. But there’s something else that’s been bugging him the last couple days — something specific. He seems really worried, and because I cared enough to ask him what was wrong, he’s literally run for the hills.”
Ri looked over her shoulder in the direction in which the voice had disappeared. It was a stupid thing for her to do, since all she c
ould see was fog. “He’s really going camping?” she asked. “In this?”
“Oh, yeah,” Maddie answered as they approached a green-painted building. “He pitches a tent out at Hosmer Grove and communes with the wild things. Like living here isn’t rustic enough.” She opened a wooden door and gestured Ri inside. “Welcome to the Hilton!”
Ri’s mind bubbled over with questions as Maddie gave her an enthusiastic tour of the modest shared living area and kitchen, then walked her down the hall to show off the tenants’ quarters, which consisted of decent-sized private rooms furnished with a bed, dresser, desk, sink, and closet.
“It’s dorm living, I won’t lie,” Maddie admitted, taking a seat on her mattress and waving Ri toward the desk chair. “But for those of us eking out a living off of grants, it’s affordable. And peaceful, too. So here’s the deal. I know you’d rather live in the valley if something comes up, but until then, I’ve worked out a possible option for you. The woman two doors down, Ilma, will be working in the field for the next three weeks. I talked to her about your situation before she left yesterday, and she said she’s fine with you staying in her room while she’s gone as long as you don’t mess with her stuff — which was kind of a joke, because the only things she left behind were a couple of books on botany and one wool coat hanging in her closet.”
“Oh! How much would it cost?” Ri asked, unable to contain herself any longer. “And what would I do after three weeks?”
Maddie shrugged. “The rent’s already paid by Ilma’s grant,” she explained. “She said if you want to, you can make a donation to the nonprofit that’s sponsoring her research, but that’s up to you. As for later, well, something else might turn up by then, and what have you lost? And there’s another possibility.”
Ri held her breath. It was crazy, the thought of her living all the way up here on Haleakala. But it was also exciting. When the place wasn’t shrouded in fog, she could walk around and see the whole bay stretched out below her! “But,” she wondered out loud, “how would I even get to work?”
“I drive down the hill every morning,” Maddie said. “I can at least get you to a bus stop if I’m not going all the way to Ma'alaea. It will eat into your sleep, I won’t argue that. And it will take some coordination to get you home. But if you don’t mind taking the bus part way, half the people here drive up that road every evening. I’m sure somebody can give you a lift back if I can’t.”
Ri felt her cheeks redden. The idea filled her with a budding joy well out of proportion to the cause. Living up here would be a supreme inconvenience. She’d spend hours on the road commuting every day. But what a road! And when she got here, where would she be? She’d be near the top of a volcano, that’s where. Hanging with her almost cousin-in-law Maddie. And that guy with the ice blue eyes.
“There’s a possibility,” Maddie went on, “that you might be able to legitimately rent a room here for the rest of the summer within your budget. It’s just a possibility, now, because you’re not a typical candidate to reserve a spot at the field station. But you are doing biological research. And if there’s a vacancy that wouldn’t otherwise get filled, I’d say there’s a good chance Kenneth might cut you a break.”
Ri smiled broadly. She stepped forward and gave her new friend a hug. “Thank you so much. I love this place already. I’m not completely sure why, to be honest, but I do.”
Maddie laughed. “It does have that effect on people.” She rose and started packing a bag. “Well, let’s get you back to your hotel for tonight. Kai and I can help you move into Ilma’s room tomorrow if you want. And Kenneth’s supposed to get back to me about an opening here for the summer. Wolf’s supposed to be out of his room by June first and we don’t think anybody’s booked it yet — so that’s a distinct possibility.”
Maddie smiled at her encouragingly, and Ri smiled back. But somewhere, in the depths of her unfathomable psyche, she felt a sharp pang of disappointment.
Chapter 11
Wolf woke early. How early, he wasn’t sure. Nor did he care. The eucalyptus trees in the grove were bursting with raucous bird calls, and the inside of his tent was stuffy. As long as there was enough sunlight to see by, it was time to get up.
He peeled himself out of his mummy-like sleeping bag, opened the tent flaps, and crawled out. The dawn air on the mountain was crisp and cold, just the way he liked it. He lay on his back on the wet grass, stretched out his limbs, looked up at the relatively clear sky, and took a full breath into his lungs. Up here, with no one and nobody in sight, he could almost pretend he was home.
Except that if he were back in Alaska, his dogs would be licking his face right now, hassling him to get up and feed them.
He grinned at the thought. But his happy reminiscence didn’t last long. The dog, he remembered, his smile fading quickly. What had happened to her?
He knew that logically, reporting what he’d seen to the abuse hotline was the right thing to do. But he also felt partially responsible for whatever fate had befallen the dog afterwards. The Beard had been annoyed enough at being hassled that he had messed up Wolf’s truck — had he exacted some revenge on the dog, too? Had he given her away or maybe just dumped her somewhere? In his gut, Wolf feared even worse. His every instinct told him that The Beard, who appeared to live alone, had a history of making this long-haired mutt his whipping girl. That whenever he got mad and got drunk, he took it out on her.
Wolf couldn’t let it go.
Where was she?
He rose from the ground and inhaled another lungful of air. Today, he would find out exactly where she was. How she was. One way or the other.
He packed up his gear, hauled it back to a deathly quiet and half-deserted Hilton, took a quick shower, and left again in his truck. He could feel the air getting hotter and clammier as he descended the mountain, and he shed layers of clothing accordingly. It would be a hot one down in the valley today. The vanloads of bikers he kept passing on their way up would appreciate their time at the higher elevation, and the early start.
It took him nearly an hour to wind around the base of the mountain, then head uphill again to the spot where the dog lived. But this time he didn’t drive on the dirt road that ran behind the house. This time he drove down the lane in front, then searched the yard for the dogs. He saw the two pit bulls lolling in the grass. There was no sign of the long-haired mutt.
He parked directly in front of the house. The dogs rose and began barking, but when he spoke to them through the windows of the truck they quieted immediately, and when he got out they came right up and greeted him like an old friend. “Where’s your buddy, Bella?” he asked.
All he received in response were yawns and squeals. He looked around the yard from where he stood, then walked up to the front door and knocked. It was a Saturday morning, and it was still early.
Too freakin’ bad.
No one answered. Wolf waited a minute, then knocked again. After three more minutes had passed, he considered his duty discharged. Trespassing on another man’s property wasn’t a crime that he considered lightly. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t consider it at all.
He stepped around the shack of a house to where he could see all of the backyard, and the pit bulls, vicious guard dogs that they were, trotted happily at his side. “Bella?” he called loudly, knowing full well that The Beard, if he happened to be awake, could hear him from inside. “You here, girl?”
Wolf listened. He thought he heard something. A scratching sound.
“Bella?” he called again.
This time he heard a whine. His heart began to pound as he turned in the direction of the dilapidated shed beside the patio. One of the pit bulls ran ahead of him, nosed its way under the shed and disappeared up to the shoulders. When Wolf reached the shed the dog backed out again, then jumped up at him with an anxious, excited whine.
Good God.
Wolf dropped to his knees and peered under the shed. It was too dingy underneath to see anything. “Bella?” he calle
d, more softly this time.
A tail thumped once. Then twice. It began to beat a steady rhythm.
“Hey there, girl. Can you come out?” he cajoled, feeling both relieved and sick with worry. She sounded like she was probably within reach, but if she was hurt he didn’t want to injure her further by pulling at her. “Come on out, Bella. Come on, girl!”
More scratching. The dog was clearly trying to move. A few times she stopped altogether, but Wolf kept up a steady stream of encouragement, worrying more about her condition the longer it took. He had to get her out of there. The ground all around the shed was littered with trash and a variety of foul odors mingled in the air. She had to be lying in filth. “You can do it, Bella!”
He could see a paw now. And another. No. The second paw was swollen and bloodied. “Come on, girl,” he said softly. It took another minute for the dog to completely scoot herself out from under the rough edge of the rotting wooden shed, but Wolf refrained from touching her until he had some idea of what he was dealing with.
None of her legs appeared to be broken. But he could not say the same for her ribs. The light-colored shaggy coat on the side of her chest was completely matted with a nasty, suppurating wound. The fur all over her body was dotted with remnants of dried blood, her tongue was red and swollen, and her gums were pale and dry. Very gently, Wolf reached out a hand and smoothed the hair on the back of her neck. He lifted a patch of skin, then released it. But rather than slipping back into place, the skin remained tented.
Red-hot anger swelled within Wolf’s chest. The dog was badly dehydrated. Whatever had happened to cause her injuries, she had probably crawled under here immediately afterwards… and might not have moved since. If The Beard had kicked or struck her on Wednesday, the same day he messed up Wolf’s car, that meant the dog must have lain here, suffering, for three nights and two days.