Raised by Wolves

by Geonn Cannon

  “Didn’t you tell me Elizabeth knew about them?”

  “Right. Shit.”

  Dale got up and went to stand behind Ari. She put her hands on Ari’s shoulders and began a gentle massage, working the tension out with her fingers and thumbs. Ari grunted and slumped slightly.

  “I miss massaging you,” Dale said.

  “Don’t stop on my account,” Ari said.

  Dale kneaded harder and leaned in close to Ari’s ear. “You’re going to figure this out, puppy. Because you’re the best detective in the Pacific Northwest. You’ve solved so many cases other people couldn’t figure out. You took down Cecily Parrish. You stopped a war. You can figure this out because you are Ariadne Willow.”

  “Thank you, Dale.”

  “Whenever you need it, baby.” She kissed Ari’s cheek and let her hands slide down Ari’s back. “This is just another case. And there are very low stakes. No one died. No one is trying to kill you.”

  “Yet.”

  Dale pinched Ari’s side. “Knock on wood, Ariadne, now.”

  Ari reached out and rapped her knuckles against the wall. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. All I’m saying is, even if the solution escapes you and this tapestry is never found, it won’t change anybody’s lives. It’ll just be a sad thing that happened.”

  “That’s not much comfort. But it is something.” She put her right hand under her left arm and squeezed Dale’s hand. “Thanks for the pep talk.”

  “I’m happy to be your cheerleader.”

  Ari looked over her shoulder. “Wait. Like... literally...? Like if I got the uniform...”

  Dale swatted Ari’s butt and shoved her away. “Mind on the game, Willow. Just let your mind rest a little bit. Stop pushing on the door and see if it swings open a little on its own.”

  “Good advice.”

  Dale went back out to her desk. When she saw down, she could see Ari stretching out on the couch in her office. They’d spent a lot of time on that couch together. First as boss and employee, then as friends, and finally as lovers. They had slept together for the first time on that couch. It was platonically and accidentally, but it still counted. The first time she’d woken up and felt Ari’s weight against her back, had rolled over to see the tangled strands of hair falling across her face.

  She smiled at the memory and pushed it aside so she wouldn’t be distracted as she went back to her tedious assignments.

  ###

  Ari wasn’t fully asleep. She heard Dale moving around in the office, heard the phone ring. “Bitches Investigations, this is Dale. Yes, I called about a tapestry called Crossing-Over Place... no? Okay, would you know of anyone else who might be contacted about that sort of item? Thank you very much.” There were times when she knew she drifted off, but the actual unconsciousness was brief. Sometimes Dale hummed.

  Ari kept her mind at rest, refusing to chase her tail or try pushing facts of the case into any particular configuration. Eleanor, the twins, Preston, and Vivian were all phantoms at the edge of her mind. All of them were obscured by fog.

  She opened her eyes when she heard movement nearby. She knew from the smell of her body wash that it was Dale, and she had her back to the couch so she could pin photos to the evidence board. Each of the Burroughs kids received their own portrait, as did Vivian. They looked like profile photos taken off websites. Probably Elizabeth’s winery, Eleanor’s app company... she didn’t know where the pictures of Evelyn and Preston would have come from, but they looked professionally done.

  There was a picture of the house next, and then a picture of Crossing-Over Place. At the end of the row, Dale added a picture of Ari.

  “I thought I was only added to the suspect pool as a joke.”

  “Can’t rule out anyone.”

  Ari sat up and put her feet on the floor. “You’ve betrayed my trust. I’m going to have to find a new fiancée. And secretary, assistant, lover, best friend...”

  “Maid.”

  “I’m not that messy.”

  “Maid,” Dale said again.

  “Fine. Too much hassle. I guess I’ll just keep you.”

  She rested her chin on her fist and looked at the row of portraits. She wondered where Preston had gotten a professional picture taken. And why. Maybe it was something rich people did. Either way, he looked handsome. Next to his picture was Evelyn’s... no, Elizabeth. Ari narrowed her eyes and stood up to get a closer look. Dale had hung the twins next to each other, of course, and the pictures made it very hard to tell which one was which. Makeup, hair, clothes, the accoutrements of a professional photo shoot made it very easy for one twin to look like the other.

  Dale had gone back out to her desk, but came back with another picture. “I made a dumb mistake. Those are both pictures of Elizabeth.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, I got them off this stupid family site they have. Apparently it’s a modern version of a Christmas card. Anyway, I got two Elizabeths and no Evelyns.” She took down one and tacked the right picture in its place. Evelyn’s hair was shorter, her cheeks a little rounder, and her expression was more guarded than Elizabeth’s almost seductive glower.

  Ari grunted. “You’re not the only one making a dumb mistake. I was standing here trying to figure out which was which.”

  “Is it easier now?”

  “Well, yeah,” Ari said, “now that I know what I’m looking at. It was different when I...” Her voice trailed off and her eyes drifted down the row of pictures.

  “Puppy...”

  “Oh my God.” She turned and went to the computer and tapped a button to make the screen wake up. Dale had left the browser on the last page she’d searched. Ari grunted and hung her head in disappointment, irritation, and frustration.

  “You’re worrying me, Ari. What’s wrong?”

  Ari raised her head to lock eyes with Dale, then looked past her at the board. “This case only seems impossible because someone has been lying from the very beginning.”

  “Who?”

  Ari sighed. “Me.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Dale waited for the punchline. When it seemed as if there wasn’t one coming, she echoed what Ari had said earlier. “I thought you were only on the suspect wall as a joke.”

  “Hold on,” Ari said, lifting one finger and closing her eyes. She had to rethink everything about the case, and everything about her initial meeting with Vivian Burroughs, with what she’d learned from the kids, and the revelation she’d just had. “Okay,” she said at last. “Okay. Stay with me here.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Ari came around the desk and pointed at the board. “This case looks impossible because we’ve been assuming two things from the beginning. First, we’ve assumed the tapestry was in the room six weeks ago because I was telling everyone I saw it. What if I didn’t?”

  Dale said, “But... you did.”

  “I saw a wall-hanging and Vivian told me it was Crossing-Over Place. I had no reason to doubt that fact. Which brings us to the second assumption we’ve been making: that Vivian is innocent.”

  “That seems like an easy assumption to make, given the circumstances.”

  “True,” Ari admitted. “But looking at the facts, it might not be accurate. Vivian spent thirty grand to hire us. She spent another five grand on hotel rooms and flights for her daughters... that’s five grand each, so a total of at least fifteen thousand dollars bringing her girls home. Just so they can be there in person when she reveals none of them are getting the tapestry.”

  Dale said, “Well, there’s the official will reading. There may be other things in the house the girls might want to pick up.”

  “Fair point. But she spent that much money for her daughters, while her son has become homeless. Do you think she wouldn’t have known about that? Maybe he would have tried to keep it from her, but I find it much more likely he asked her for another in a long line of loans he would never have to pay back. Maybe that’s why she said no this time. May
be it was just because she knew he would eventually get her house so there was no point in keeping him in his old apartment.”

  “That makes sense to me,” Dale said. “As do the hotel rooms. Yes, she was throwing around a lot of money, but she had it to throw around. And it’s not like she could take it with her when she went. I, for one, plan to have a negative balance in my bank account when I finally shuffle off the mortal coil.”

  “Leaving me with all your debts? Real nice.”

  “No, I’m taking you down with me.”

  “Oh, okay, that’s fine then.” She held a hand up to the board. “Back to this... your way makes a lot of practical sense, but it doesn’t take into account what I’ve learned about Vivian. She’s vindictive and petty. Her last conversation with Elizabeth was to shame her for being gay. On top of that, when we met, Vivian apologized for the fact I’d have to interact with her kids. I think her kids are great! They can be buttheads when they’re all in a room together, but what family isn’t guilty of that?”

  Dale said, “Let’s say Vivian is a bitch. How do you make the leap that this is all a conspiracy she orchestrated before she died?”

  Ari went to back to the computer. She turned the monitor around so Dale could see the screen, and she pointed at the picture.

  “That’s not what I saw.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  Ari shook her head. “I don’t know, I just... this is very close, but there’s something off about it. The thing I saw was different somehow.”

  “The thing you saw six weeks ago.”

  “I know,” Ari said. “I know, but I’m a detective. I can tell when something is off. I realized it with the pictures of the twins. I thought you’d pinned up pictures of two different people, so I was trying to find the differences. I did the same thing when I met with them in person. And the thing is, I almost convinced myself I could tell the difference between the women in the pictures.”

  “Isn’t there a risk you’re doing the same thing with the tapestry?”

  “No. Well, yes, sure, technically, but I mean... This is the opposite. I saw a tapestry and then, when I saw the picture online, it was close enough that I didn’t question it. I didn’t look for the differences. When I realized that, I looked at this image, and it-it’s wrong. The thing I saw was a forgery. A good one, but probably not one that would have fooled any of the kids or an expert who knew what it was supposed to look like. Vivian brought me in to confirm Crossing-Over Place was still in the house. If you owed something that expensive, wouldn’t you have it insured?”

  Dale’s eyes widened. “And when it mysteriously went missing, your private investigator did her due diligence to find it--”

  “But the case can’t be closed, so eventually insurance is going to pay out.”

  “To a dead woman,” Dale concluded.

  Ari straightened. “Yeah, that’s admittedly an issue. We’ve confirmed Vivian actually... I mean, it’s a morbid thing to ask...”

  “We saw her obituary,” Dale said. “She was cremated. I’m sure the lawyer has some kind of death confirmation. I can give him a call if it’s too weird for you.”

  “I would appreciate that. Thanks. Find out where she was cremated, too.”

  Dale nodded and looked at the board. “So Vivian had somebody create a fake Crossing-Over Place...”

  “It wouldn’t even have to be very good. It just had to fool me, and that’s not very hard.” Dale started to protest, and Ari held up her hand. “When it comes to tapestries, I’m a dunce. But thank you for trying to jump in like that, baby. I see you.”

  Dale winked at her. “I’ll call around and see if there’s anyone who made something like that in the past few months. But here’s another question... why? You just said that Vivian shelled out, uh, well, let’s just round it up to a hundred grand to cover our bill, the hotels, flights, making a fake tapestry of that size and quality, everything.” Ari nodded. “And she did all that to con the insurance company? She was rich enough to throw around that kind of money, so what’s the point?”

  “Maybe she’s actually broke.”

  “Our check cleared, no problem.”

  Ari twisted her lips, brow furrowed with thought. “This case refuses to make sense...”

  “You’ll get there. You found this, you’re going to find something else. The pieces are all there. In fact, I think it’s less impossible than it was yesterday. I have faith in you, mutt.”

  “Whoa,” Ari said. “Hey. I told you before, I don’t like that. Where’s that coming from all of a sudden?”

  Dale shrugged. “I don’t know. It just slipped out. I must have forgotten you said you don’t like it.” She sighed. “Anyway. Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. Just... stick with puppy. I love puppy.”

  “You got it. I’ll go get Timothy Dodd on the phone so we can confirm Vivian Burroughs actually did go through with ending things.”

  “Can you find the name of the clinic where she... where it was... she...”

  Dale took pity on her. “Emerald Care. The number is already on your phone.”

  “Thank you. They probably won’t talk to me about a specific patient, but I’ll see what I can learn about the whole process. And maybe someone will be willing to talk to a nosy private eye.” She gave the evidence board one last look as Dale went back out to the front office. When she came out, she knocked on the corner of the desk. “Dinner tonight? We can go out somewhere. Shake Shack?”

  “That sounds good.”

  “I’ll text to let you know when I’m done.”

  “Okay.”

  Dale was already scrolling through her phone to find Timothy’s number, and Ari had her phone out to get Emerald Care’s address as she headed to her car.

  ###

  The rest of the day was a bust. Emerald Care was a stone wall of patient confidentiality, which would be a huge point in their favor under other circumstances. Ari did get the basic run-through of what a client could expect at the clinic, but no one would even speak hypothetically about anyone who may or may not have come in on Sunday night. Ari was grateful for the information but in the end, none of it was particularly helpful or illuminating to the case.

  Dinner wasn’t much better. Ari got a chicken dog, and Dale picked at her cheeseburger and barely touched the order of fries they’d gotten for the table. Ari’s updates about Emerald Care were met with non-verbal responses, and her eyes were constantly aimed down at the table rather than on Ari. Finally, Ari touched her knee under the table.

  “Hey, is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. Just fucking tired.” She rubbed her eye with the heel of her hand. “Watching security video nonstop, reading those essays... I might wear my glasses tomorrow instead of fucking around with my contacts.”

  “Well, I think you look pretty sexy in glasses, so I’m all for that plan.”

  That received a tepid smile, and Dale went back to being mostly non-verbal.

  “Was there something in the essays that upset you, or--”

  “Can we just drop it? We talk all day at the office, we talk all day at home, some days there’s just not much to talk about.”

  Ari sat up straighter, stunned. “Yeah. Okay. We can just have a meal together.”

  “Fantastic.”

  Whatever was bothering Dale would still be there in the morning, Ari decided, and maybe then she would be willing to talk it out. If distance was what she wanted right now, then that’s what Ari would give her. They drove home in silence, and Ari felt like an uninvited guest as she followed Dale inside. She went into the kitchen to make tomorrow’s lunches while Dale was in the shower. When the water shut off, she went in and knocked on the door.

  “I’m going for a run. I shouldn’t be out long.”

  “Mm’ay,” Dale said around her toothbrush.

  “I love you.”

  “Mm,” Dale responded.

  Ari tried not to feel hurt as she undressed in the living room. Tired eyes, a headache
from watching monotonous video footage, a lack of progress on their case... it was enough to make anyone grumpy. Dale usually clung to her through those moods, though, and being shut out like this was awful.

  She folded her clothes on the couch, opened the door, and let herself out. She paused and listened to the neighborhood sounds. A trashcan being rolled to the curb next door, a car revving its engine on the next block, but no one close enough to spot her. She bent down like a runner on the starting block and let the wolf wrap itself around her.

  Her next conscious memory was a blur of streetlights, strange smells, a cacophony of sounds she couldn’t hope to categorize, and an ache in her joints. She was back in a runner’s position and unfolded herself, stretching sore muscles. Sweat covered her, which meant the wolf had been busy before finally giving back control. She blinked the stinging moisture from her eyes and examined her surroundings. Trees, thickly packed, which was good considering her nudity. She was on a narrow dirt trail and she could smell water. Colman Park, she thought, which was good. But there weren’t a lot of restaurants, diners, gas stations, or pay phones.

  She was near the community garden so, after determining no one was nearby, she pushed through the underbrush and climbed the rise to where her stash was buried. She dug it up and pulled it loose from the mulch and unzipped it. A few minutes later she was dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of old tennis shoes, and she had five dollars in her pockets along with some change. There was also a wristwatch in the bag and she checked the time: twelve minutes past one. Not too bad. She wrapped the remaining clothes back up in their plastic sacks, zipped the bag, and returned it to the hole.

  There was a shack nearby where the gardeners could keep supplies, and she was able to jimmy the lock without much trouble. There was an old-fashioned rotary phone on a table and she dialed Dale’s number. She sniffed and ran her free hand under her nose as it rang, watching the windows for any night watchman or joggers who might come down the trail. The phone buzzed again and she frowned. She was pretty sure she had dialed the right number. She pushed down the switch to disconnect the call and dialed again. This time it rang once and cut off.