The Case of the Unfettered Utonagan

by B R Snow

  The baby woke up and kicked her legs as she let loose with a yawn. She stared up at me, and another wave of emotion washed over me.

  “Oh, good,” my mother said. “She’s awake. Can I hold her, darling?”

  “Of course, Mom.”

  My mother gently lifted Max and tucked the blanket around her. Then she rocked the baby and forth in her arms.

  “She likes you, Mrs. C.,” Chef Claire said.

  “She better,” Josie said with a laugh. “Grandma just set her up with a trust fund.”

  “Hush,” my mother said, grinning at Josie.

  “If I let you cuddle me, will you set one up for me, too?” Josie said.

  “You’re not that cute,” my mother said, then cooed to the baby. “Your Aunt Josie thinks she’s so funny, doesn’t she?”

  Chief Abrams and Detective Williams gently knocked on the open door but remained in the doorway.

  “Can we come in?” the Chief said.

  “Absolutely,” I said, raising the bed. “What’s the latest?”

  “Well, we’re still working up all the charges,” Detective Williams said. “It’s a long list.”

  “Did you get a chance to talk to Judge Thompson?”

  “We did,” Detective Williams said. “Based on the different versions of the will we showed him, he thinks there’s a good chance Lacey will be able to keep Cabot Lodge.”

  “The handwritten version was the clincher,” the Chief said. “Judge Thompson says it indicates Peters’ true intent.”

  “That’s great news. Do you think Charlotte is going to try and fight it?”

  “I doubt if Charlotte is going to be worrying about anything other than staying out of jail,” the Chief said.

  “Is that even a possibility?” I said.

  “Highly doubtful,” Detective Williams said.

  Lacey poked her head through the door and looked around.

  “Should I come back later?” she said. “It looks like you’re having a party.”

  “No, come on in,” I said. “There’s plenty of room.”

  “Oh, my goodness,” Lacey said, getting her first look at the baby. “She’s perfect.”

  “Thanks,” I said, beaming.

  “She is, isn’t she?” my mother said, staring down at her granddaughter.

  “Is Rooster here with you?”

  “He spent all morning clearing some brush, and now he’s working on his truck,” Lacey said, shaking her head. “The guy never stops moving. He said to tell you he’ll be stopping by the house tomorrow. You are still getting discharged today, right?”

  “I am. You guys want to tell her the good news?”

  “The judge thinks you’ll be able to keep Cabot Lodge,” the Chief said.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” Detective Williams said. “Congrats. What are you going to do with the place?”

  “I imagine I’ll live there,” she said. “At least most of the year. I’ll play the winters by ear. But we need to figure out what we’re going to do with the hybrids.”

  “There is that,” Josie said.

  “We can’t keep them caged up,” Lacey said. “That’s no life for them.”

  “No, it’s not,” I said, then a thought floated to the surface. “Maybe we’re looking at it wrong.”

  “This is the part where we just sit quietly and wait for her to continue, right?” Lacey said.

  “You’re a quick study,” Josie said, laughing. “Okay, Snoopmeister. What have you got?”

  I pushed myself further up in the bed to get more comfortable. I smiled as I watched my mom gently rock the baby who’d fallen back asleep.

  “The hybrids are becoming a problem all over the place, right?” I said.

  “They are,” Josie said. “For lots of reasons.”

  “But what’s the biggest problem?” I said.

  “It’s the same problem we’re trying to deal with,” Josie said. “What do you do with a wild animal that’s partially socialized?”

  “Right,” I said. “You can’t turn them loose, and you can’t have them around the house as pets.”

  “Limbo Land,” Josie said, nodding.

  “Then instead of trying to figure out what we’re going to do with the ones out at the lodge, maybe we should be looking at ways to help as many of the hybrids as we can.”

  Josie frowned as she thought about my comment, then the penny dropped.

  “You’re talking about creating a hybrid sanctuary,” Josie said.

  “I am,” I said, grinning at her. Then I focused on Lacey. “Do you remember how many acres Cabot Lodge sits on?”

  “A little over five hundred,” she said.

  “That would be enough,” Josie said. “But you’d still have to feed them. They’re way too dependent on people by now to make them fend for themselves.”

  “Yeah,” I said, nodding.

  “And you’d need to fence it,” Lacey said. “Five hundred acres? That’s one big fence.”

  “It is,” I said. “But ranchers out west build massive fences all the time. And some of those places are thousands of acres.”

  “I love the idea,” Lacey said. “There’s just one problem.”

  “The cost of the fence,” I said.

  “You’re not planning on paying for it, are you?” Josie said.

  “No, I’m certainly not. Mom?”

  “Don’t look at me, darling,” she said, cradling the baby in her arms. “I have other plans for my money these days.”

  “No, I wasn’t asking you to pay for it,” I said. “But if we set up the sanctuary as a non-profit, you could shake the trees for donations, couldn’t you?”

  “I suppose I could make a few calls,” she said.

  “Thanks. Oh, before I forget. Remember to give Gerald a call and let him know it’s okay for him to keep accepting contributions from Charles Howard.”

  “I’ll do that,” my mother said, beaming down at the baby and gently stroking her head.

  “How did you know Charles wasn’t involved in Jeremy’s murder?” Lacey said. “You guys took quite a chance letting him know what he was walking into at that lawyer’s office.

  “Not really,” Detective Williams said, shaking his head.

  “Two reasons,” I said. “The first was the fact that Jeremy’s research was actually panning out. And there’s no way Charles would do anything to jeopardize it. If he could have figured out a way to do it, he probably would have put Peters in one of those plastic bubbles just to keep him safe.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Lacey said.

  “The second reason was the way Charles reacted all the time. Especially the night we had the dinner party at the hunting lodge. His eyes were constantly moving around. Like he was trying to figure out where Peters could have hidden his research. It was pretty clear that was his only focus. The rest of the stuff with Clarissa and Charlotte was just a sideshow to him.”

  “A corporate guy who was keeping his eyes on the prize,” Detective Williams said.

  “But he could’ve had someone else kill Jeremy,” Lacey said.

  “Not with that much at stake,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said. “But it was still a gutsy move tipping him off like that. I would have been worried about being wrong and having it blow up in my face.”

  “If it had, we were in the coat room with guns,” the Chief said.

  “Hang on,” I said, staring at Lacey. “Say that again.”

  “What? The part about it blowing up in my face?”

  “No, the other thing,” I said, rubbing my forehead.

  “I said it was a gutsy move to tip him off,” Lacey said.

  “Gutsy,” I said, then focused on Detective Williams. “You wouldn’t happen to have Peters’ journal with you? You know, the one with all the drawings and rambling passages.”

  “I do,” the detective said. “We had to bring everything with us when we met with Judge Thompson
this morning. Why?”

  “Dig it out,” I said, raising the bed as far as it would go.

  He rummaged through his bag then removed the journal from an evidence bag.

  “Near the back, one of Peter’s last entries, there’s a short poem. If I remember, it’s a pair of rhyming couplets.”

  Detective Williams flipped through the pages then came to a stop.

  “The one called The Final Reveal?” he said.

  “That’s it,” I said. “Read it out loud.”

  “Ignore the howls, they’re not for you. Ignore bared teeth, it’s what they do. Does the money man have the guts? To prove to all, that I’m not nuts.”

  Detective Williams glanced up from the journal and frowned.

  “Robert Frost, he’s not,” Josie said.

  “No,” I said. “But it’s all there.”

  “I’m sorry, Suzy,” the Chief said. “But I’m going to need a little more.”

  “Good,” Detective Williams said, staring at me. “I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who’s lost the plot.”

  “The line about ignoring the howls is some sort of lone wolf reference,” I said. “Call of the wild stuff. Howling at the moon. They’re not for you. Get it? The howls aren’t for you.”

  Everyone gave me a blank stare, and the Chief eventually motioned for me to continue.

  “Ignore bared teeth, it’s what they do,” I said. “The wolf is just telling everyone to keep their distance. It’s part of their natural instinct. Right?”

  “If you say so,” Josie said.

  “Yeah, I’m lost too,” Lacey said.

  “I get it, darling,” my mother said.

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  “You’ve officially gone off the deep end,” she deadpanned.

  “Well, it had to happen eventually, right?” Josie said, laughing.

  “What a bunch of philistines,” I said, making a face at her. “The first two lines are talking about a wolf’s natural behaviors, but that they’re really not a threat to us. Don’t you get that?”

  “Uh, no,” the Chief said.

  “Not really,” Detective Williams said, shaking his head. “But for the sake of the discussion, let’s say I do. What does the poem have to do with anything?”

  “The third line says does the money man have the guts,” I said. “Peters is referring to Charles Howard. His money man.”

  “That one I get,” Josie said. “But what’s the reference to him having the guts?”

  “The guts to prove to everyone that Peters wasn’t actually crazy.”

  “Geez, thanks for clearing that up,” Josie said.

  “How much abuse did Peters take from other researchers and academics about his wolf research?” I said to Lacey.

  “A ton,” she said. “He was constantly the butt of jokes.”

  “So, if he got it from all sides about his work with wolves, how much crap do you think he would have gotten if he told people what he was really working on?”

  “Growing human body parts,” Josie said, nodding. “Okay, now I’m starting to catch up.”

  “Jeremy was very insecure,” Lacey said. “And all the jokes and snide comments cut him deep.”

  “Okay, now I understand the poem,” Detective Williams said. “But what does the line about having the guts mean?”

  “It’s a clue about where Peters hid his research. What’s the one place out at Cabot Lodge you definitely need courage to explore?” I said, reaching for my bag. I removed my phone and made the call. “Hey, Rooster. Didn’t think I’d get you. You’re getting reception out there?”

  “It’s been decent the last couple of days. Congratulations. I hear she’s beautiful.”

  “Thanks. She is.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t get in today,” he said. “But I’m going to swing by your place tomorrow morning if that’s okay.”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “Come early. Chef Claire is making breakfast.”

  “What are you having?” he said.

  “Well, I can’t speak for anyone else,” I said. “But I’m starting with a Mimosa.”

  Everyone in the room laughed.

  “It sounds like you’re having a party over there,” he said. “Did you call just to say hi, or do you need something?”

  “Actually, I need you to look for something,” I said.

  “You got it.”

  “How are you and Thelonious getting along?”

  “The male wolf in the first cage?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Now that he’s figured out I’m one of the people who feeds him on a regular basis, he’s okay. It’s not like I can get close enough to pet him, but his bark is worse than his bite.”

  “Told ya,” I said, glancing around the room with a smug look.

  “Don’t gloat, darling.”

  “What’s that?” Rooster said.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Have you fed them yet?”

  “I was just getting ready to do that. Why?”

  “Because after you feed Thelonious, I need you to look in the structure inside his cage.”

  “In his doghouse?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What am I looking for?”

  “You’ll know as soon as you see it,” I said, my neurons on fire.

  “Okay, hang on. Let me grab his dinner from the fridge,” Rooster said.

  I put the phone on speaker and set it down on the small table attached to the bed. We heard Rooster close the fridge then the sound of his footsteps as he walked down the hall and out onto the back porch.

  “Almost there,” he said, heading down the steps.

  “Take your time,” I said, glancing over at Max who was still sound asleep against my mom’s chest.

  “Here you go, Thelonious,” Rooster said, then we heard the soft thump of something landing on the ground. “I gave him an extra big portion just to keep him busy. Okay, let’s see what we’ve got.”

  We sat quietly listening to the sound of Rooster crossing the cage. He groaned and followed it up with a string of expletives.

  “Sorry about the language.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Your back?”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty cramped in here. Hey, I see something.”

  “What is it?”

  “It looks like a cubbyhole of some sort. Son of a gun.”

  “Did you find something?”

  “Holy crap,” he said. “How did you do that?”

  “I study poetry in my spare time. What is it?”

  “It’s a briefcase. There’s a laptop inside along with a thick document wrapped in plastic.”

  “Does it say anything on the outside?”

  “Project Org 2020. Funding Round Four. Final Report,” he said. “Suzy, you are officially my hero.”

  “Aren’t you sweet. Would you mind bringing it with you tomorrow?”

  “No problem. Maybe I’ll even do a little light reading tonight.”

  “It’s probably a great cure for insomnia,” Josie said.

  “Okay, Thelonious made very short work of his dinner. So, I’m going to get out of here just in case he’s still hungry. Oh, tell Lacey I’m making dinner. It should be ready by seven.”

  “I’ll be there,” she called out.

  “Great,” he said. “See you when you get home.”

  Rooster ended the call, and I stared off at the far wall.

  “Home?” Josie said, grinning at Lacey.

  “It’s just a figure of speech,” she said, blushing.

  I dug through my bag and found the business card. Then I made the call and put the phone on speaker.

  “Charles Howard?” Detective Williams said.

  “Yup. Hi, Charles. It’s Suzy.”

  “Hey, I heard the news. How did everything go?”

  “Great. Long, painful, but great.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you. Are you still in town?”

  “Actually, I was just about to check ou
t and hit the road.”

  “You might want to extend your stay another day.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I can do that. Assuming I have a good reason.”

  “Oh, it’s good. Can I ask you exactly what you’re looking for?”

  “You mean, Jeremy’s research?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, based on the last conversation he and I had, I’m looking for a document.”

  “Funding round four, final report?”

  “Wow. You found it?”

  “We did,” I said. “He’d hidden it in one of the wolf cages.”

  Charles laughed.

  “A total nutjob right to the end,” he said eventually. “When can I pick it up?”

  “Swing by the house tomorrow morning for breakfast,” I said. “It’ll be there.”

  “That’s incredible news, Suzy,” he said. “How did you figure out where he had it?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it in the morning,” I said, stifling a yawn. “But right now, I need a nap.”

  “Sure, I understand. Thanks so much, Suzy. A whole bunch of people are going to be a lot better off because of that report.”

  “I guess that remains to be seen.”

  “You worry too much,” he said.

  “Only about the future of mankind,” I said, then shrugged. “And all the dogs.”

  “I’ll do my best not to disappoint you,” he said. “Can I assume you’re going to want a reward?”

  “No,” I said, then an idea popped. “But you can do me a favor.”

  “A favor? Sure. That’s the least I can do. What do you need?”

  “I need you to build us a really big fence.”

  “A fence? Man, I could have guessed all day and not gotten that. Okay, I’m sure that can be arranged. What should I bring to breakfast?”

  “Just your checkbook.”

  I ended the call and yawned.

  “Well played,” Josie said.

  “Thanks. Geez, I’m beat.”

  “We’ll get out of your hair,” the Chief said, then looked at Detective Williams. “C’mon, I’ll let you buy me a drink.”

  “You guys should come to breakfast,” I said.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Detective Williams said. “We don’t want to intrude.”

  “Speak for yourself,” the Chief said, then glanced at Chef Claire. “What are you making?”

  “Whatever Suzy wants.”

  “Belgian waffles,” I said. “And bacon.”

  “There you have it,” Chef Claire said to the Chief.