The Lady's Man

by Linda Turner

Her jaw set determinedly, she reached for the robe at the foot of the bed. “Give me a few minutes to get dressed, and then we can go.”

  Nick was waiting for them in his office when they arrived. Elizabeth took one look at his face and knew that the next few minutes were going to be every bit as difficult as Zeke had warned her they would be. She’d never seen Nick look so grim. Bracing herself, she said, “Where is he?”

  “In the back room,” Nick replied. “But I can’t let you go walking in there thinking you’re going to see the body of the same wolf you saw running across the ridge a few days ago, Elizabeth. He’s in pieces,” he said curtly. “There’s not a lot to identify.”

  She was, she told herself, prepared for that. Even if her stomach was already roiling at the thought. “I can handle it,” she said stiffly. “Let’s get it over with.”

  The back room Nick led them to was normally used as a storage room. Small and windowless, it held discarded desks and chairs, office supplies, and boxes of records. An old scarred table in the middle of the room had been cleared off, and there, under a sheet, was Napoleon’s remains, such as they were.

  Her heart hammering against her ribs with dread, Elizabeth gratefully latched on to Zeke’s hand when he wrapped his fingers around hers. With a nod to Nick, who stood across the table from her, she signaled that she was ready. Without a word, he swept back the sheet.

  The sight before her was gruesome. Literally hacked to pieces, the poor animal could have been a wolf or a coyote, or even a dog. But even as bile rose in her throat, Elizabeth knew in an instant it was Napoleon. In the stark light from the bare bulb overhead, the fur that wasn’t tainted with dried blood had the same faint sheen of blue that had always made it easy for her to pick Napoleon out of the other wolves.

  Her fingers tightened in Zeke’s, but she didn’t cry. Instead, a hot fireball of fury burned in her gut. “That’s Napoleon,” she said coldly. “The blue in his coat is a genetic cast that none of the other wolves have.” The identification made, she turned and walked out.

  Seething with anger, she turned on the two men the second they joined her in Nick’s office. “Whoever did this isn’t going to get away with it,” she said icily.

  “I agree,” Nick said. “The man’s a psychopath. I don’t mind telling you that just thinking about what he’s capable of scares the hell out of me. He’s enjoying himself too damn much, and next time, he won’t be content with killing a wolf. And you’re the one he’s got his sights set on, dammit!”

  “I think it’s time we stirred things up with a reward,” Zeke said. “Leaving threatening messages on Lizzie’s machine is one thing. Killing and dismembering a wolf, then dumping it on the side of the road, is a whole other ball game. Somebody had to see something, hear something. With a little incentive, they just might come forward and talk.”

  Taken aback, Elizabeth said, “Are you saying that someone knows who killed Napoleon and they’re just sitting on that information? While the monster plans to kill me?”

  It was a sad fact of hfe, but it was true. Moral outrage seldom loosened tongues. Money, on the other hand, could turn a mute into a chatterbox if the numbers were high enough. “We’ll give people the benefit of the doubt and hope that anyone who might have seen or heard something wasn’t aware that a crime was being committed,” he told her. “They will be, once the reward is posted. Then we’ll see who comes forward.”

  He and Nick discussed the amount and agreed that five thousand dollars was more than an adequate incentive to get people talking. “I’ll call Denver and get it okayed, then work up a flyer.”

  “My men’ll help post it,” Nick promised, then gave him a hard look. “You realize this is going to up the ante, don’t you? Once news of the reward gets out, the bastard’s going to start feeling the heat. And he’s going to lay the blame for that right at Elizabeth’s feet. If he was mad before, he’s going to be downright ballistic now.”

  “If he even thinks about coming after her, he’s going to have more trouble than he can handle,” Zeke said coldly. “She’s not going to be alone—not even for a second. Between you and me and your deputies, he’s not going to be able to get near her.”

  “We’ll have to set up a schedule. I can keep an eye on her while she’s here in town—”

  Amazed, Elizabeth listened to them arrange her life and said dryly, “Do I have anything to say about this schedule? Or am I expected to go meekly along with whatever decisions the two of you come up with?” When both men just blinked at her, she rolled her eyes. “I have a job, guys, and it doesn’t involve sitting in an office all day long. I spend half my time out in the mountains with the wolves, and that’s not going to change just because some jackass is threatening to kill me.

  “That doesn’t mean I intend to go off by myself,” she said when Zeke started to scowl, “but you might as well accept the fact that I can’t always be with one of you two or a deputy. I can’t even promise that Tina and Peter will be around, for that matter. Our job is to track and study the wolves as they establish their territory now that they’re back in the wild, and they seldom stay together. When they split, so do we.”

  “I don’t like it,” Zeke growled.

  “I’m not wild about it, either,” she admitted, “but if I have to tie myself to the office all day, then we might as well fold up our tents and call it quits right now because this project will never succeed without me in the field. I can’t direct things from behind a desk in town. I’ll be careful, but I’m not letting Napoleon’s killer sabotage what’s left of this project by scaring me into not doing my job.”

  Her chin set stubbornly, this wasn’t something she was willing to bend on, and both men, like it or not, had no choice but to accept it. Nick, recognizing a woman who had her heels dug in when he saw one, knew when to give in. “Keep your eyes open whenever you leave the office to make sure you’re not being followed,” he told her. “And keep your cell phone handy. If you’re the least bit scared, even if you don’t see anything threatening, I want you to call my office immediately.”

  Zeke wasn’t nearly so gracious. “And one of us should know where you are at all times,” he said roughly, his blue eyes dark with irritation. “I don’t care if you just stop by the grocery store on your lunch hour, I want to know about it.”

  He looked so disgruntled that Elizabeth couldn’t help but grin. “Yes, Zeke. Whatever you say, Zeke. I wouldn’t want to worry you, Zeke.”

  “See that you don’t,” he growled. And ignoring Nick’s presence, he hauled her close for a scorching kiss.

  It was over almost before it had begun, but when he reluctantly drew back, she was flushed and breathless, and he didn’t want to let her go. “C’mon,” he said huskily. “I’ll follow you to your office, then come back here and get started on those flyers.” Ignoring Nick’s broad grin, he took her hand, and led her outside.

  How she was able to think clearly enough after that to drive, she never knew. It was only a short distance, but she found herself watching her rearview mirror, watching Zeke and thinking about last night. Earth-shattering. There was no other way to describe it. He’d turned her world upside down and shown her a side of herself she hadn’t known existed, and she didn’t know if she’d ever get over the experience. Not when, hours later, she was still feeling the aftershocks from just a kiss.

  She had to think...about Zeke, about herself, about the emotions she didn’t seem to have any control over any longer...but the day that stretched before her was packed to the brim with things that needed to be done. Now that Napoleon was beyond her help, she had to find Queenie and make sure she—and her pups when she had them—was all right. But first and foremost, she had to find another place to live. Despite the fact that Zeke and the memories he’d given her last night had gone a long way toward making her forget the horror of finding Napoleon’s bloody collar on her front porch, she never wanted to spend another night in that house as long as she lived.

  Tina and Peter arrived
at the office the same time she did, so Zeke didn’t even come inside once he saw she wouldn’t be there alone. Waving, he turned around to head right back to Nick’s, leaving Elizabeth to tell them about the discovery of Napoleon’s body and the threats made against her and the other wolves.

  “So watch your backs,” she warned. “So far, he seems to be focusing on me, but there’s no telling what the man’s capable of.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Peter assured her. At six foot four and two hundred plus pounds, he was more than capable of handling anyone who made the mistake of coming after him or his wife. “You’re the one I’m worried about. I don’t like the idea of you living out there in the country all by yourself.”

  “Why don’t you move into town with us?” Tina suggested. “I know the apartment’s small, but we can make do.”

  If their place had been big enough, Elizabeth wouldn’t have hesitated, but small was an overstatement when describing their place. Little more than a minuscule loft over a two-car garage, it and the old Murphy place had been the only two rental properties available when they’d all moved to Liberty Hill for the duration of the wolf project. Tina and Peter had had no choice but to take it, but they couldn’t turn around without bumping into each other with just the two of them living there. There was no way they could squeeze in a third person.

  “I appreciate the offer, guys, but I just don’t see how we could manage it without killing each other. But I am going to move. I’m going to call the Realtor right now.”

  Not surprisingly, the town’s only Realtor couldn’t help her much because there just wasn’t anything available. The town was too small, and when people moved there, they had a habit of staying put. There were no motels, no apartments, nothing but two run-down old shacks that hadn’t been lived in in years. Stuck, Elizabeth asked her to check rental property in Spring Canyon, the next closest town, but although the woman agreed to get back to her, she couldn’t hold out much hope that she would find anything. Thirty miles away, Spring Falls wasn’t much bigger than Liberty Hill and was just as sedentary.

  Desperate, Elizabeth then called Ed at his diner and the postmistress. Between the two of them, they saw just about everyone in town over the course of a given day, and if anyone would know who had a place they might be willing to rent or someone who even took in an occasional boarder, it was Ed and Hilda.

  Unfortunately she struck out there, too. She had a pleasant chat with both of them, but when she hung up a few minutes later, she was no better off than she had been before. Unless the Realtor came up with something in Spring Falls, she would be forced to stay where she was.

  In the meantime she had a bigger problem to worry about. Queenie was pregnant, her mate dead, and she was due to go into labor anyday now When she did, she would be in serious trouble. Without Napoleon there to get food for her, she would have to do it herself, and if she picked the wrong spot to den, there was a possibility that her pups could be killed by predators or freeze to death before she could make her way back to them.

  “She’s moved back to the ridge,” Peter said when Elizabeth checked the female wolf’s radio signal “She must have waited until everyone left yesterday, then made her way back to the area near the holding pen late yesterday afternoon. You think she’s still waiting for Napoleon to come back?”

  Elizabeth listened to the radio signal herself and shook her head. “Maybe initially, but not now. She’s so close to dominoing—if she hasn’t already—that her first priority has got to be her pups. I think she’s denned.”

  “Then we’d better find her,” Tina said, already reaching for her jacket. “I’ll warm up the chopper.”

  The day was clear and cold, with no sign of the fog that had shrouded the mountains the previous morning. Lifting the chopper into the crystal-clear air, Tina headed north, toward Eagle Ridge, while Elizabeth adjusted the volume of Queenie’s radio signal in her earpiece. The closer they drew to the meadow where Elizabeth had last seen the two wolves running free, the faster the signal beeped.

  “She’s got to be around here somewhere,” she said into her headset over the roar of the rotors “Try over there by those trees to the right. There’s a lot of underbrush—she could have crawled in there to den ”

  Tina obligingly sent the chopper skating to the right until they were hovering directly over the trees, but the view was obstructed by the thickness of the foliage. Queenie’s collar sent out the same rapid beat as before, but that only meant she was in the approximate vicinity. She could have been a thousand yards in any direction, and the signal would have been the same.

  “Let’s find the perimeter of the signal,” Tina said and began to zigzag across the sky.

  Twenty minutes later they had mapped out a thousandsquare-foot area north of the meadow. Wild and untamed and dense with trees, it was just across the meadow from the holding pen and held all manner of places for an animal to hide.

  Pushing on her sunglasses to cut the glare off the snow, Elizabeth gazed down with narrowed eyes at the rough landscape below, searching for the slightest sign of motion, but there was none. And still Queenie’s radio signal beat frantically in her ear. The fact that the chopper hadn’t scared off the pregnant wolf like it had the other animals in the area was all the proof Elizabeth needed that she’d denned—which was all the more reason that they find her soon, before something happened to her pups. Those pups were all Elizabeth had left of Napoleon and were the future of the project. They had to survive.

  Swearing softly, she said, “See if you can set us down in the meadow. We’re going to have to continue the search on foot.” There was no other alternative.

  Zeke had the reward approved by ten in the morning, and handbills designed within a half hour. By noon, he’d printed them out on Nick’s computer at the sheriff’s office and posted them all over town. Nick’s deputies distributed them around the county, and by two o’clock the calls started coming in. Not surprisingly most people just wanted to chat and find out what was going on

  Manning the phones with Nick, Zeke winced when he recognized the nasal voice of Dolores Ivy, his mother’s third cousin. Loony as they came, Dolores had been known to stand on her rooftop and signal for aliens with a flashlight. If she knew anything about Napoleon’s death, Zeke would swallow one of the reward posters whole.

  “Hello, Dolores,” he drawled, rolling his eyes at Nick, who was well acquainted with his cousin and her eccentricities. “What can I do for you?”

  “You can tell me how I apply for this reward you’re advertising all over town. Roger Harper plowed down my fence the other night when he came home drunk, and I need the money for a new one.”

  “It’s not quite as simple as just applying for it like it’s a bank loan, Dolores. We’re trying to find out who killed that dead wolf that was found on Hawk Road early this morning. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

  “Well, of course not!” she huffed. “Abigail Smith lives out that way, and I wouldn’t be caught dead anywhere near that woman! Do you know she told everyone at church that I had a screw loose just because I sleep with my glasses on so I can see my dreams better? I haven’t spoken a word to her since.”

  Zeke seriously doubted that Abigail cared, but he only said soothingly, “I’m sure that’s very wise of you. I wish I could hear more of the story, but I’ve got another call. If you hear anything about Napoleon’s death, call me. Okay?”

  “Okay, dear. But wasn’t he killed at Waterloo?”

  Swallowing a groan, Zeke explained that he was talking about the wolf and quickly hung up. When he looked up, it was to find Nick grinning at him. “Why am I getting all the nutcases?”

  “Hey, she’s your relative,” Nick retorted, chuckling. “And you just got a taste of what I have to put up with on a regular basis. Do you know she actually called me at three in the morning one night and wanted me to come out to her place to arrest an alien she swore was hiding in her basement? And I’m not talking about the illegal ki
nd, either. She was convinced it was a Martian. I tried to explain that she’d probably just heard a mouse scrounging around for something to eat, but nothing would do but that I had to go out there and search the place myself. When I didn’t find anything, she claimed he flew off right before I got there.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing Napoleon’s body wasn’t found anywhere near her place or she’d have sworn the Martians did it,” Zeke replied just as the phone rang again. Snatching it up, he said, “Sheriff’s office Zeke McBride speaking”

  “Are you the fella looking for that wolf killer?”

  The caller was elderly, his voice sharp and rough. Assuming it was another curiosity call, Zeke leaned back in his chair and began to doodle on his notepad. “Yes, sir, I am. I’m an agent with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife. And you are...?”

  “Lloyd Godwin,” he said promptly, and rattled off his address.

  “So what can I do for you, Mr. Godwin? Do you know anything about how the wolf died?”

  “Well, I’m not quite sure about that,” he said. “Maybe. What day was he killed?”

  There was something about the old man’s tone of voice that had Zeke sitting up straighter and motioning for Nick to listen in on the call. “We’re pretty sure he was killed the day before yesterday, sir. Why? Did you see something suspicious?”

  He hesitated, then drawled, “I don’t know if I’d say it was suspicious. Just kind of odd. Chester Grant was up on the ridge road in his wrecker late that afternoon, and the idiot almost drove me off the road. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought a thing of it—he drinks, you know—but I got a good look at him as he passed me, and he was white as a sheet. If you ask me, he was running from something.”

  Alarm bells clanged in Zeke’s head. When he was first called in on the case, he sat down with Nick and came up with a list of people who were openly opposed to the wolf project. Chester Grant’s name was on that list. An alcoholic with a short fuse, he had a reputation for blowing up at the least little provocation In spite of that, though, Zeke wouldn’t have thought he had the guts to actually kill one of the wolves in cold blood. From what he knew of the man, he was nothing but a bag of hot air.