by Vella Munn
She lowered her muzzle to the ground and inhaled repeatedly. Less than a year ago she wouldn’t have identified the human scent as something to avoid, but nothing was as it had once been. A vague feeling of loss distracted her. The forest wasn’t home, but because for the most part she lived in the present, she didn’t ponder what it would take for the thick-growing trees and always damp earth to become familiar.
As long as the source guided them, she’d do what it directed.
Like yesterday, there was something familiar about what she recognized as a female scent. As she refilled her nostrils, memories of another woman surfaced. The early one hadn’t been safe, but neither had she represented danger. More importantly, the old man who used to feed her and her brothers had loved the early woman.
Try as she did, Smoke couldn’t make up her mind about the man she’d watched today. Because of what had happened to her missing brother and what she’d witnessed yesterday, she knew guns and rifles represented danger, but today’s man was more complicated than that. She didn’t want complicated. She needed orders.
Again.
A sound between a whine and a howl spun her around. She was relieved to see her brother coming toward her. This brother, the one who had lived, was larger than her. He couldn’t hunt like her mate did, but the source spoke to Gun every time it did to her. As a result, she and Gun shared the same goal. Not their goal but one forced on them. One they didn’t question.
Gun didn’t rush smelling where the humans had been. When he’d finished, the siblings walked to what was left of the cow elk and repeated the process. Next, they trotted to where the calf’s body lay, followed by approaching the high ground where the humans had stood toe to toe. There was another scent there, a little older, similar to the two elks, but alive. Proud and strong.
Familiar.
Sacred.
Whining, Smoke rested a paw on Gun’s shoulder. She wasn’t afraid of humans, but neither did she trust them. A few were bad and needed to be killed. That was the source’s message. However, the source hadn’t told them much about the powerful male elk. As a result, they might have to come to their own conclusions, but not today.
Still uneasy, Smoke closed her eyes and gave herself up to the orders coming together in her mind. The source wanted Gun, her pups, and her to leave this place and follow the bull elk’s tracks. Because she had never thought to disobey the force that controlled so much of what she did, she lowered her muzzle and started trotting. As she did, she barked to let her pups know they were to follow her. She didn’t try to send a message to her mate.
It was nearly dark by the time the four grays reached their destination. Their keen eyes, noses and ears told them that they’d found not just where the great white elk was, but also his herd.
“They’re safe,” the source told her. “Tonight they’re safe but tomorrow…”
Smoke pressed against Gun’s side. She relaxed a little when her brother licked her muzzle, but there was a message in Gun’s caress. The source needed them to insure that the elk herd would continue to live in peace.
“Too late,” Gun reminded her.
Her brother was right. Yesterday humans had slaughtered a nursing female elk.
The killers would pay.
Justice.
* * * *
The wolf-dog mix his owner had named Lobo dropped to his belly and crept closer to the elk that were bedding down for the night. Lobo knew to avoid where the great white bull stood guard. Maybe he should go in search of smaller, safer-to-kill game, but his rapidly growing cubs needed a lot of meat. Trying to provide them and his mate with what they needed to stay alive filled many of his waking hours. If not for the drive to hunt and kill, he might let his mate’s brother starve.
Brother and sister shared something Lobo couldn’t comprehend, something that kept him separate and lesser than them.
A fully grown elk was more than he could bring down, but a calf would feed his family for days. He’d tried to convince his pack to return to the cow that hunters had killed, but his mate and her brother had insisted on coming here. He had no choice but to remain near them.
Driven by the compulsion instilled in him by his wolf father and accepted by his dog mother, he studied one elk after another until he spotted one that kept her weight off a rear leg. The elderly cow was thin. He recorded her vulnerability and smelled her despair.
Yesterday his mate’s brother had snapped an elk calf’s neck, but most of the time the brother was useless when it came to hunting. Lobo had all but given up trying to teach the adult grays how to hunt, but his cubs were learning. Tonight was perfect for another lesson—as long as he stayed away from the white bull’s hooves and antlers.
Filled with purpose, he howled. His cubs joined him. He touched his muzzle to theirs.
“Go,” he told them. “Leave the herd and wait for me to drive this kill to you. We will attack as one.”
From where they watched, Smoke and Gun remained alert in case the source commanded them to save the old cow, but the order didn’t come. Neither did the white bull try to chase the hunters away from the cripple.
* * * *
“I wish he could tell me what he’s thinking,” Mia said as Banshee sniffed her boots. Her dog had already checked out Jeff’s boots, chuffing as he did.
“I imagine he finds all those different smells confusing, but maybe he knows more than we do. He probably thinks we aren’t bright. He might be right.”
As far as she could recall, this was the first lighthearted thing Jeff had said. They were standing beside her quad with her porch light keeping the night at an uneven distance. In the wake of a day filled with activity, she didn’t know what to do with herself. The old house and rows of trees surrounding it were familiar. Her situation anything but.
“He does that sometimes,” she said. “Looks at me as if to ask why I haven’t figured something out. Fortunately, he’s patient. Aren’t you?” She rubbed Banshee between his ears. The dog’s nose continued to work.
“I thought about becoming a K9 handler,” Jeff said. “But it calls for a lot of commitment.”
“I’m sure it does.” She was hungry, but not only didn’t she have much in the way of dinner food in the house, she wasn’t about to ask Jeff if he wanted to eat with her. Their relationship was too ill-defined for that. “I didn’t know whatever you call your agency has K9 dogs.”
“You’re right, the department I currently work for doesn’t have tracking dogs. I believe it should.”
She wanted to know what he’d been doing before this and why he’d changed jobs, but if she asked and the explanation was complicated, who knows when he’d get around to leaving?
He woke the cell phone he’d pulled out of his pocket and studied the screen. “The pictures you sent came through. Damn, but he’s something. I’m going to transfer them to my laptop so I can enlarge the images.”
“And then what? You’ll forward it to your friend? What if someone else—”
“I was just going to say the same thing about you.” He narrowed his gaze. “We need to get this straight, try to, anyway, even though you and I are only part of it.”
She rested her hand on Banshee’s head. “You’re talking about trying to find out whoever killed the cow.”
“Yeah. That’s the part I can’t control. At the same time, waiting for someone to come looking for Ice might be the best chance I’m going to get to identify the poacher.”
“Ice?”
“That magnificent beast needs a name.”
“Ice. I like that. You said Darick and you are the only wildlife officers stationed on the southern Oregon coast. How can you keep Dark Mountain under surveillance? Is that what you call it, surveillance?”
“Close. Have you already sent the pictures to Niko?”
Had he deliberately not answered her question about how he intended to keep an eye out for killers who probably justified their actions? “This morning. There’s a message from her.”
/> “What does she say?”
The question of whether Jeff had a right to ask wasn’t important in the greater scheme of things, or was it? No matter what the answer, she was too curious about Niko’s reaction to put off getting it. She accessed her messages and listened, figuring he wouldn’t be able to hear the words.
“Holy shit. Seriously shit,” Niko had said. “You’re damn right we need to talk. Call as soon as you get this.”
“She sounds excited,” he said. “The message was short.”
“Yes, it was.”
“No indication that she’s shared the pictures with anyone?”
She shook her head.
He studied her. “It’s going to be your call, the two of you, that is. I can’t forbid you from saying more than you have, but I’m sure you’re aware of the possible ramifications.”
No longer hungry, she stared at him. “I saw two dead elk, one I had to help get that way. I don’t want any more animals to lose their lives for the hell of it, especially not Ice.”
“He’s the one with the biggest target on him.”
Jeff wanted to believe she’d do everything she could to protect Ice. Damn it, trust cut both ways.
“Are you going to get in touch with your friend tonight?” he asked.
Of course. “I haven’t decided. Are you?”
He shrugged. “I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Then what? We try to decide where to go from here?”
“Yeah. Try.”
“You must have some idea of what you’re going to do. Protocol you follow.”
“There is. Someone knows something. I’ve made a mental list of those I want to question.”
“People who’ve been caught or suspected of doing what happened up there?”
“The net’s larger than that.”
* * * *
“Sorry. Getting here took longer than I wanted it to, but I brought something I think will make up for it.”
Mia’s mouth started watering as Niko pulled a box with a frozen pizza in it out of a grocery bag. Niko, again, reached into the bag and withdrew a bottle of wine. “A little something to tide us over while the pizza bakes.”
“You’re a good woman,” Mia said as she started the oven. “And you know me well.”
“When you told me you’d just gotten back from Dark Mountain, I put one and one together and came up with an empty belly. I bought a screw top bottle because your cork puller sucks.”
Mia had been intending to buy a decent cork puller, but it remained low on her priority list. She selected a pizza pan while her friend filled two cheap wine glasses with a pale liquid that connected her with the name Ice. After too long spent wondering how much danger Ice was in and trying to understand Jeff Julian, it felt good to be around someone who was on the same wavelength.
Niko was a couple of inches shorter than her, with long, thick, black hair Mia envied. Most of the time Niko, who could care less about physical appearance, kept her hair braided, but it was loose tonight. The way it floated over her shoulders had Mia convinced Niko was the perfect poster child for the romanticized Native American woman. Her eyebrows and lashes were thick and dark like her long hair, her cheekbones high. Her large brown eyes were deep-set. If Niko owned anything except jeans and flowery peasant blouses, Mia hadn’t seen it. Most times Niko wore boots, but was in moccasins tonight, probably because she’d been at home. Slender, Niko hated sitting still as much as Mia did and took pride in not having a domestic bone in her body.
“Here’s to putting a lie to the crazy notion that there’s nothing new under the sun,” Niko said as the women clicked glasses. “Holy shit, girlfriend. You know how to blow the top off my head. Now tell me where and how you took those pictures.”
Mia slid the pizza into the oven, and they went into the living room, trailed by Banshee and Niko’s Doberman, Chinook. The friends chose recliners while the dogs shared a blanket-covered couch. Almost from the first, the dogs had gotten along.
“Dark Mountain’s south side,” Mia said. “It’s a long story.”
Niko placed the wine bottle on the coffee table between them. “I have the time.”
“First—” Mia held her glass to her lips and swallowed. Cool, sharp liquor sent sparks through her. “I have to ask you something important.”
“Hopefully it doesn’t involve you needing a loan, because I’m tapped out.”
Niko was a teacher’s assistant for the local high school’s gifted students. She earned less than she was worth because she liked the short hours and smart kids. The schedule left her with time to volunteer for the tribal council.
“Broke’s a way of life for me too,” Mia confessed. “Have you shown the pictures to anyone?”
“When would I have been able to do that? I didn’t see them until I got off work.”
“But you might have—”
“Not been able to keep them to myself? I was tempted.” Niko took a drink. “Am I the first person you’ve shown them to?”
“You’re the second.”
Instead of pushing for an explanation, Niko sipped. She could be like that, infinitely patient. She maintained she learned more that way.
“Jeff Julian knows.”
Niko blinked. “I’ve met him. Not hard on the eyes, but essentially a cop.”
A number of Niko’s tribal members had problems with alcohol or drugs. And those problems sometimes put them at odds with law enforcement. Even though Niko didn’t hesitate to fault those who abused booze or drugs, those were her people. Her loyalty to them went deep. Given a choice, Niko almost always sided with her people.
“He’s a cop all right, but I didn’t have a choice except to— Let me start at the beginning.”
“Should I take notes?”
“I think you can keep up, but there’s a lot to the story.”
Mia was still talking when the oven buzzer went off. She didn’t finish until they’d eaten as much pizza as they could. Niko hadn’t asked many questions, which made it easier for her to stay with the chronology of what had happened since she’d heard the rifle shots. That seemed so long ago.
“Print out a full-size picture of Ice, will you?” Niko asked. “I’ll handle the clean-up while you do.”
Because they’d used paper plates and hadn’t yet emptied the bottle, Niko was done in the kitchen before Mia returned from her office. She’d made two copies of the clearest image of Ice. After returning to their recliners, the women placed the papers on the coffee table. Even though Ice hadn’t been as close as Mia wanted him to be, there was no ignoring his impact. The elk was regal, ageless, part of the past, present and future rolled into one.
“This still doesn’t seem real,” Niko said.
“I feel the same way.” Mia ran her fingers over the massive rack. “What scares me is if the wrong people find out about him.”
“They might already know.”
“Unfortunately.” Mia was a little buzzed, but not enough that she didn’t catch the concern in Niko’s voice. “Someone who sees nothing wrong with shooting a nursing cow is going to lose his mind just thinking about bringing this big boy down.”
“And I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do to stop him.”
Even though she shared Niko’s fear, she shook her head. “Jeff and Darick will make Ice’s safety a priority.”
“I don’t trust Darick Creech any farther than I can kick him.”
“What? Why not?”
“Because I told him something in confidence once. Instead of giving me some direction and letting me handle the situation, thanks to him, my student’s mother spent time in jail.”
Concerned because this was the man Jeff might be confiding in at this moment, she asked Niko for the details. Niko explained that a sixteen-year-old girl with a sharp mind and too many absences had told Niko that her mother, a convicted felon, had recently bought her third rifle. The mother kept them in their trailer, supposedly for protection, but mostly because she liked
being armed. The girl had known it was against the law for her mother to own weapons, but the older woman had always hunted. No way was she going to stop bringing home venison. The girl had asked Niko to try to find out how much trouble her mother could get in.
Soon after, Darick had come to the school to try to ease personnel’s concern because a cougar had been spotted near where the buses were kept. Niko had waited until Darick had explained that the odds of a cougar attack were less than winning the lottery. Then she’d presented the student’s concern to him. He hadn’t said much, hadn’t asked the student’s name, which Niko would have refused to divulge.
Less than a month later the mother’s probation officer had made an unscheduled visit. “Darick betrayed me,” Niko finished. “And that girl hasn’t trusted me since.”
“You can’t be sure it was him. Besides, it’s against the law for that mother to own rifles.”
Niko shook her head. “I have no doubt that bastard went to the probation officer. He probably sees himself as a hero. Look, let’s say Jeff Julian shows this”—she indicated the picture—“to his good buddy. I figure it’ll take Darick no more than five minutes to start blabbing. The man can’t keep his mouth shut.”
The wine and her full belly might have something to do with it, that and the hours she’d spent on Dark Mountain with Jeff and who or what else. The only thing Mia was sure of was that she was done in.
“I figured you needed to know,” Niko said. “Maybe Darick feels differently about animals than he does about humans. Maybe he’ll protect the elk. Keep his yap shut.”
“I’m overwhelmed,” Mia admitted. “The thing is, I can’t walk away from this. I can’t.”
Niko slipped off the recliner and knee-walked over to Mia. She rested her hands on Mia’s knees. “I know where this is coming from. So do you. Your uncle.”
Her uncle, whom she’d failed to protect and who had died as a result.
* * * *
