Hunger of the Wolf (11 page)

After she left the bakery
,
Amber followed
Sharon
’s directions. She had said to take the first turn on the left after the drug store, but as she walked along the street
Sharon
had told her to take she began to wonder if she had heard her correctly. The buildings in this street were
a little
rundown and contr
asted
noticeably
with the postcard-perfect main street.
The further she walked
,
the
seedier it became
,
and there was even a burnt out car on a deserted lot
. There were no shops
here
, just houses, an
d what looked like a disused
school house on a corner.

She was about to turn back when a man emerged from one of the houses. He w
as
clearly
of Native American
descent
,
and he was dressed in an old fashio
ned western shirt
and a large cowboy hat. He bowed theatrically when he saw her.

“Howdy there
,
ma’am
. You’re looking a bit lost. Ca
n I be of assistance to you?
”
Amber was a l
ittle taken aback. S
he’d had a
lmost nothing to do with Native American
people before. S
he knew
that many
of them
lived on reservations
, but that was about it
.

“Thank you. I’m looking for the pawn shop on this street
”

“Th
en you’ve taken the wrong turn. You need to cross over to the other side of the main street.
This is the Indian part of town
. W
e don’t get many of your folk visiting the area.” He seemed to be appraising her. “What’s a nice
girl like you wanting to visit McNally’s
for
,
if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m staying o
ut at the lake by myself and
just thought I might get a gun for protection from…” she faltered, “from the wolves and other animals.” She’d gone and done it again. After knowing the man for a whole two minutes she had let him know she
was alone in an isolated cabin in the woods.
Would she never learn? “My friends will be there for the next few days
,
though
,
and then I’ll probably go home
,
so I’
m not really alone.
I still
thought it would be a good idea,
”
she added quickly.

“Oh, you’re t
he lady
who is getting a divorce.”

“How
on earth
did you know that?”

“We know everything,” he replied mysteriously and then laughed at the expression on her face. “
My sister owns the jewellery store.
She mentioned a lady coming in who w
as staying at the lake. Said you
almost bit her head off when she asked about your husband. As you can tell
,
not a lot happens around here.”

Amber didn’t know whether to be offended or amused, but the man’s easy going manner disarmed her. “That would be me then. I didn’t mean to snap at your sister, she just caught me on a bad day.”

He waved his
arm. “Don’t worry about it. Bonita
needs someone to put her in her place now and then otherwise she
gets a bit too nosy for her own good
. I’m glad you decided to stay for a bit long
er
,
even with all the stories flying around town.”

“You mean
about
the wolves? Your sister told me about how brazen they are at the moment.
Are they really as bad as people say? Please be honest with me because I’ve heard there’s a game you like to play in this town called scaring the city slickers.”

“It’s true the wolves are bad right now, but that’s not what I was referring to.”

“What do you mean?”

“Surely you’ve heard some of the rumours about
Jesse
Davidson
. He is you
r
neighbour out there
,
and I’d bet money someone
has filled you in about him. I’m pretty sure
I can guess who
,
too
.
”

Amber couldn’t hide her surprise that he’d brought it up. “As a matter of fact I have heard a few things about him.”

“Let me guess, di
d they tell you that mister
horror writer is a sick and twisted individual who spends far too much
time in the company of young people
than is right for a man of his age, and that there is a very strong possibility he was involved in
t
he disappearance of a young girl?”

“Well
,
yes.” Amber wasn’t sure where he was going with this
,
but she didn’t like the way he seemed to be mocking her friends. “From my understanding there is strong evidence that links him to the girl
’
s disappearance.
I’m sure
people wouldn’t be saying these things about him without good reason.”

He laughed again
,
and when he spoke Amber was shocked by the bitterness in his voice. “Oh they wouldn’t
,
would they?
Let me tell you something about the people in this town
,
city girl. They like to keep things nice and simple around here. There used to be a
small
reservation just outside of town
,
but it closed down when I
was just a boy
. T
he families who were left
moved into town.
Right from the start the towns
folk
here
made it
very
clear
they didn’t want us in their town and they would have nothing to do with us.
They like to
pretend we don’t even exist.
Jesse
Davidson
got on their wrong side when he refused to follow their rules.”

“I didn’t know about any of this, but I did hear that
Jesse
’s grandfather was Native American
.”

“That’s right. He was never accepted in the town either
,
but his son,
Jesse
’s father
,
was only part Native American
and he completely ignored this side of his heritage. He also became very rich and this made him acceptable in the eyes of the upstanding community.
Jesse
and his brother wer
e not allowed anywhere near us
as kids
when they visited the cabin in summer
. W
hen
Jesse
started coming out to the lake on his own he became interested in his grandfather’s background and he began asking questions. He wa
s seen
a
ssociating with the wrong people
a few too many times
and that was it. He was
persona
non grata from then onwards
,
and the rumours began to fly.”

“Was that why he began hanging out with the kids after school
, to find out about his grandfather
?” a
sked Amber, still not
convinced by his explanation.

“
No. Before he began writing full-time
Jesse
was a teacher and youth worker. He’s do
ne really great things for the young people
in this town, especially the ones in danger of going off the tracks, but I bet you’ve never heard about any of this.”

“No,” she admitted.

“The reason
he was in town on the night
Tehya
disappeared was because he was at the same eighteenth
birthday party as her
.
It was for a kid he
helped t
o get away from drugs.
We were all there,
and there w
as nothing suspicious
in it
.
Jesse
is no more a suspect than anyone else at that party.
The shame of it all is that since that night
Jesse
doesn’t even come into town anymore
,
and he’s stopped seeing the kids. They really miss him.
My advice to you
is don’t believe everything
you hear
because people around here have their own agendas
.” They had been walking back towards the main street as they talked
,
and when they reached the corner the man lifted his hat. “It was nice meeting you
anyway
.”

“Wait,” called Amber as he walked
away. “I don’t even know your
name.”

“I’m Tom
,
and
Tehya
is my niece.
Take care.
”

“You too. And I hope
Tehya
comes home soon.”
He waved once before disappearing around a corner,
leaving Amber feeling very confused. Tom had given her an entirely differ
ent perspective on
Jesse
,
and
what he
said
did seem to ring true
with what she had seen of the man. Apart from their
one bizarre
meeting at his cabin
when he seemed to be hitting on her
,
he cam
e
across as quite shy. I
t must have taken a lot on his part to ask her to dinner. When he found out she had lied to get out of it his feelings were obviously hurt, but that was probably all there was to it.
As for her s
trange experience in the woods, she w
as more convinced than ever
she had dreamt the whole thing up
.

Everything
Sharon
and Bob had told her had been distorted
,
and she couldn’t help feeling a little angry with them. She was tempted to cancel dinner that night
,
but then
she
remembered that
Chris
might be arriving and decided against it. One thing
she was certain of now was that
she didn’t need a
gun to protect herself. She walked
back
to her car,
planning to
get as much work done as possible
at the cabin
before Bob picked her up that evening.

Amber was very glad she had met up with Tom and heard another side of the story
when she pulled up
and saw
Jesse
on the jetty with
his fishing gear
. If they had not had that
chance
conversation she would have been completely terrified at the sight of
him. Now she knew he was a
decent person, the type of person she would like t
o get to know a little better
in fact,
and s
he was sorry she had dismissed him so quickly when they first met.
She walked down to meet him with a smile

“
Hi, how are you?
”
Jesse
seemed surprised by her
warm greeting
.

“I’m great
,
and I’m glad to see you’re still here and haven’t let the local gossips mongers scare you away.”

“What do you mean?”

“I figure the
Crow
s have told
you all about me. Apparently I’m
a pervert who kidnaps young girls
,
and
I’m
possibly even a werewolf. I wanted to tell you the other morning not to listen to them when I saw Bob dropping you off, but then I figured you’d already made up your mind about me and there was no point.”

Amber was silent for a moment. “I’m really sorry if I came across as rude. It’s true the
Crow
s did tell me a few things along those lines about you
,
and I’m ashamed to say I believed them, except the werewolf part
,
of course.” To her relief
Jesse
smiled
. “But I was lucky enough to run into a friend of yours called Tom in town today
,
and he set me straight on a few things.
He is very complimentary about what you’ve done for the kids in the community.” She saw
Jesse
’s shoulders visibly relax
,
and his smile reached all the way to his eyes.