Dead Letter Day (18 page)

Chuck rubbed his hand over his face. “That’s not good. How are they containing him?”

“In a straitjacket in a locked room.”

“That’s not going to last. Someone’s going to get hurt.” Chuck’s scowl deepened.

Duh. “I think someone already has.”

Chuck shot a look at me. “I get that, Melina. No need to get on your high horse. No one in this pack bit that man. If they’re the same things that were in that woman’s garage, then I’m not sure we’re even talking wolves here. I do know that if it’s anything like lycanthropy, we need to get him out of that ward before the full moon.”

I’d been thinking the same thing. “How exactly do you propose to do that?”

I got the look again. “Do you really want to know that?
Wouldn’t it be better to have a little plausible deniability with that cop boyfriend of yours?”

He had a point there, but I didn’t much like him bringing Ted into it. Between that and Jenny’s comments, I was feeling like my personal business was a little too hot a subject on the ’Cane gossip channel these days. “I can handle my cop boyfriend.”

“I have no doubt about that. I’m not so sure he can handle you.” Chuck laughed.

His laughter rang in my ears all the way home.

THE NEXT AFTERNOON, SOPHIE AND I HAD FINISHED sweeping the back of the dojo when we both felt the presence of something. I felt it first and then saw Sophie’s head shoot up. Then she got very still.

“What is it?” she asked. She still couldn’t distinguish between different types of paranormal presences. Of course, I hadn’t been able to before about six months ago either. I wondered if it was a talent she’d develop. I’d never developed a special skill for knife throwing, which she obviously had.

“Werewolf,” I answered. Strong, musky, virile. For a second, my heart leapt. Could it be Paul? Was he back? I focused harder. No. Not Paul. It was familiar, though, a wolf I’d met. Still, it was probably better not to take chances. Just because it was a devil you knew didn’t mean it was a devil you wanted to hang out with after dark in a strip mall parking lot.

We heard the first knock on the front door. Sophie jumped. I put a hand on her arm to steady her. She looked at me, her eyes wide. “A werewolf who knocks?”

The Pack wasn’t exactly known for its manners. I figured this must be a good sign. “You stay here,” I said. It’s not like the Pack didn’t know she existed. I’m pretty sure they did.
I hadn’t exactly tried to keep her hidden. Even with a polite werewolf knocking on the door, I still wanted to keep her safe. That’s me. Always thinking safety first. Maybe I wouldn’t totally suck as a mom.

I walked out of the back and onto the mat, peering out into the dark to see who was there. I probably looked like I was on a stage set with all the lights on and the plate glass windows. I couldn’t make out much of what was outside, though. A shape. Vaguely manlike. That’s all I had.

I walked to the front door and the shape stepped into the light from the streetlamp outside in the parking lot.

Sam. I blew out a breath and a little tension with it and unlocked the door.

“Dude, you scared me half to death. What are you doing here?”

He stepped inside. Werewolves didn’t have to wait for an invitation like vampires did. “Sorry. I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by.”

“In the neighborhood?” We were a good long way from his home.

He shrugged. “Kevin sent me down here to pick up some stuff from a tile place that’s nearby. For the kitchen of that place you stopped by.”

Okay. That sounded reasonable. “So this is a social call?”

Again with the shrug. “Not exactly. I was wondering if you’d made any progress on finding Paul.”

“Come on in.” I gestured for him to follow me into the office. Once we were settled, I said, “I haven’t heard anything from Paul. Have you?”

Sam shook his head. “No. No one has. At least, no one who’s talking about it.”

“Who’s talking?” I leaned forward on my elbows, eager to hear what he had to say.

He laughed. “Pretty much everybody. The Pack is getting restless. He’s been gone too long without anyone hearing from him. They want someone to take some action.”

That was news to me. Chuck clearly wanted me to stay away and I don’t think Kevin could have been much clearer either. “What kind of action?”

“That’s part of the problem. No one knows what to do. I figured I’d stop by here and see what you’d found out. I mean, I knew you’d been asking questions. Maybe if I knew what you knew, I could help.” He glanced behind himself. “Is someone else here?”

I hesitated for a second and walked to the door of the office. “Sophie,” I called.

She came out of the back of the dojo. “Yeah?”

“Come on in here. I’d like you to meet Sam.”

She walked across the mat to the door, her long braid swinging behind her, her stride steady and sure. She’d come a long way from the shy little thing who had hidden the scars running down the side of her face with her hair when she’d come to the door. I felt a moment of pride.

I’d done that. Well, not alone, but still, I’d helped Sophie blossom into this confident young woman. I introduced her to Sam and they shook hands.

“Messenger in training?” he asked.

She smiled. “Basically.”

“You like it?” He lounged back, his legs crossed at the ankle.

“It beats wondering why you’re seeing weird stuff that no one else sees,” she said with a laugh.

Sam laughed, too. “I suppose so.”

Sophie flung her braid behind her back and I caught a glint in Sam’s eye. Damn it. This was not what I needed right now. A Messenger/werewolf romance? No no no.

I broke into their conversation. “You can go, Sophie. We’re done here. I’m just going to chat with Sam for a few minutes about Paul.”

“That’s okay. I have to wait another fifteen minutes anyway. Ben’s picking me up.” She smiled.

Great. I doubt Ben would be any happier to see the sparks flying between Sophie and Sam than I was.

“Okay. Go ahead and wait in the foyer, then.”

Luckily Sophie took the hint and left the office. I pulled the door shut behind her.

Sam was watching me, one eyebrow cocked. “Don’t you trust her?”

“Of course. She’s young, though.”
It’s you I don’t trust,
I thought.

He nodded. “I heard you were younger when you started.”

Again with the gossip. I sat down. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Around.” He shrugged.

Fine. Whatever. “So how restless is the Pack?” I changed the subject back to what I wanted to know about.

“Pretty restless. Folks are starting to grumble about Chuck not taking action. They think he should be doing something.”

“Like what? Tacking up flyers to telephone poles?” I could just see it. A cute picture of Paul with “Lost Werewolf” underneath it and those little tags to pull off with a phone number.

“Organizing search parties, maybe. Something.”

“What does Kevin think?”

Sam sank farther back in his chair. “I don’t know. He’s…distracted these days.”

“Distracted by what?” I wondered if Inge was part of
Kevin’s problem. Someone who can make your brackets spontaneously go on sale could be an issue.

“I’m not sure about that either. I just know he disappears sometimes now, which he never used to do, and he doesn’t seem very focused.” Sam’s fingers drummed on the arm of the chair.

That was interesting. “Disappears to where?”

“If I knew, it wouldn’t be a disappearance. He doesn’t have to check in with me. I just know that there are times when I expect him to be at the shop and he’s nowhere around.” Sam fidgeted more. Talking about Kevin was clearly making him uncomfortable.

“How often?” I asked.

“A few times a week.”

“And you have no idea where?”

“Nope.”

“And no one else does either?”

“Haven’t asked.”

I shot him a look.

He held up his hands. “How can you still not get this? I can’t question Kevin. I can’t question Chuck. Not unless I’m ready and willing to challenge them and I’m not. They’re older, stronger and more powerful.”

He was right. I did know that. “You can’t even ask a guy where he’s headed?”

He shook his head. “Some guys you might ask. Not Kevin.”

I remembered the sense of Kevin’s barely controlled rage at just seeing me in his shop and figured I could understand Sam’s reluctance to quiz his boss on his comings and goings. “I’ll see what I can find out on the down low.”

“Thanks. You haven’t learned anything yet?”

I hesitated. “Do the names Michael Hollinger or Leann McMannis mean anything to you?”

He shook his head. “No. Should they?”

“I don’t know. I know they mean something. I’m just not sure what.”

“I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”

I sort of wondered if he meant that literally, but decided not to ask.

He unfolded himself out of the chair and headed toward the door. “Maybe I’ll go see if I can find anything at his cabin,” he said.

Paul had a cabin? “Has anyone else been up there?”

“Of course. Chuck and Kevin both checked up there for him.”

Damn it. Had they really? “Would you take me there?”

Sam looked a little uncomfortable. “They wouldn’t say he wasn’t there if he was. Or if there was some kind of sign that something else was wrong, they wouldn’t hide it from the Pack.”

“No, but sometimes I look for the ketchup in the refrigerator five times and don’t see it and Norah can find it the first time she looks. We don’t all see things the same way. I have some ‘looking’ skills, if you will, that you guys don’t have.”

Sam thought for a second. “Sure. Meet me tomorrow. I’ll take you there.”

We agreed on a place to meet and he left.

A cabin in the woods. Occupied by a werewolf. Nah. That didn’t sound menacing at all.

MY FATHER HAS POINTED OUT THAT OUR FAMILY COMES by our general lack of sense of direction naturally. After all,
our people wandered for forty years in a very small desert without ever figuring out how to get out of it.

I am the exception to the rule. It’s like I have a compass in my head. Twirl me around blindfolded and I can still point which direction is north. I have no idea whether this is part and parcel of being a Messenger or if it’s just me. I was too little when I slipped into the family swimming pool behind my mother’s back and drowned to always figure out what’s me and what’s Messenger. I was only three at the time. At this point, it doesn’t really matter anyway. I’ve been a Messenger nearly my whole life, so being a Messenger is being me, I guess. Or, at least, that’s how I’m starting to feel.

I don’t remember feeling all that different when I woke up after being dead for three minutes, but I was and nothing was ever the same again. I doubt I’ll ever know if I could head east into the setting sun like my brother did recently if none of that had happened. It’s one of the conundrums of my life as a Messenger and a Markowitz.

Regardless of that compass, I don’t know if I would have been able to find Paul’s cabin on my own. Between the turns on unmarked roads and the twists and turns those roads took once I got on them, I might still know which way was north, but I had no idea which way to go.

“Turn right here,” Sam said.

I turned up the road that he indicated, although designating it a road was being extremely generous. Calling what we were on already a road would have been generous, and this was a little fork off of that. “So do you know the way here or are you tracking your way?” I asked.

“A little of both. I’ve been here a few times. Not always like this.” He smiled at me as he gestured down at his body.

It took me a few seconds to get what he meant. He’d been here in his wolf form. He probably took a somewhat
different route then, one that didn’t require any roads at all. “Are you and Paul…close?”

He shrugged. “We’re Pack,” he said as if that was explanation enough.

It was, in some ways. It was a little like saying you were family, but with an added dose of violence. “I appreciate you taking the time to show me the way.”

“I’m glad someone is doing something. He’s been gone too long.” He didn’t turn to look at me as he spoke, but kept his eyes on the road in front of us instead.