by Sonja Bair
David cleared his throat, “I think I should let you know that she didn’t only talk to the man this morning. They had sex as well.”
Both Alrik’s and my head swiveled to David. He looked a bit uncomfortable but continued, “I believe that it was consensual sex based on both the scent of the emotions and the energy trail.”
Silence. We could hear the shuffling of the leaves in the slight breeze. The day was starting to heat up.
“Ooookkaaaay. Interesting. I’m not sure what that means, if anything, but okay.” Jia was turning odder as the minutes went by. Again, I reminded myself that she probably wasn’t in her right mind. “Let’s find the gentleman in question. Which way did he go?”
David pointed west, the direction of the closest town, even though it was still miles away. “The trail is pretty fresh; we can probably catch up to him.”
We set a brisk pace, hoping that he was a wanderer rather than a power walker. The county road twisted between some of the low, rocky hills, and small trees occasionally provided some cover from the rising sun. After a couple of bends, we saw a figure in the distance. As we got closer, I could see that he was a young man, perhaps in his early twenties. His hair was an unkempt straw blond that reached to his shoulders. The green backpack he wore was dusty and faded and had several patched holes repaired with what looked like scraps of tarp. He clanked as he walked—several metal canteens strapped to the backpack hit each other with each stride.
Alrik and I looked to David for confirmation that this was our man. He nodded. Alrik put his thumb and middle finger in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. Both David and I both grimaced at the piercing noise, but it caught our hiker’s attention. He turned and I gave what was, I hoped, a friendly, “hi-there-just-need-to-talk-to-you” wave. He paused, and our rescue troop broke into a jog to catch up with him.
“Hello. We are looking for a woman who went missing last night. Perhaps you have seen her? She’s Asian, about thirty years old.” I tried for an innocent voice, but it was hard, knowing that he had had sex with her a few hours ago.
The hiker looked at us with suspicion. He was grimy and smelly, but he didn’t have that worn-in look of a lifelong drifter. My guess was that he was some college dropout who decided to take a few years and explore the country in a poor imitation of Jack Kerouac. I had seen quite a few of these types hanging around San Luis already.
I continued, hoping to put him at ease. “She’s had a major trauma happen recently and we are worried about her.”
He shifted his weight to one foot and his words came out in a rush. “Yeah, that was one crazy chick. I was sleeping in my tent and all of a sudden she comes barging in. Dude, it was insane. Good thing I didn’t have my hatchet handy. I would have clobbered her right then.”
I strove to reply in a patient, understanding tone. “Yes, that does sound crazy. Poor Jia may not be acting in a logical way right now. Did she say anything? How was she?”
“Crazy. That broad was nuts.”
I inwardly sighed; we were getting nowhere fast. Time to change tactic. “We know that you guys had sex and it was consensual. But did she say anything or give any clue of where she was headed?”
The hiker had the grace to look almost embarrassed. “Crazy chick almost jumped me. Good thing I have a thing for Asian women ‘cause, man, I don’t know if I had a choice. She said that she felt the passion and needed to act on it. And I’m not a man to turn down an offer like that. Yeah, we really didn’t talk much; we were busy with other things, if you know what I mean.” He winked.
Really, Jia, this was your choice? I thought.
“Afterward, she said she needed to move on and left the tent. I heard her outside the tent for a while, and then a car stopped. Dunno if she was hitchhiking or someone picked her up, but she was gone. It was a good start to my day.” He grinned toothily.
David spoke up. “She didn’t say where she was going? Or anything?”
“Like I said, man, she had other things on her mind. Sorry if she’s insane or something, but it was all her choice.”
“Okay, thanks.” I grabbed a pen and paper from my backpack and wrote Alrik’s number on it. “If you think of anything that could help us later, please call this number.”
“Yeah, if she needs to feel the passion again, let me know. I’d be willing.” He smirked.
Classy.
Chapter 10
Joanne McCleary was the officer sent to help deal with the remains of Qiang. She was a young officer; my guess was that she was the lowest on the totem pole at the office, since she was the one sent to deal with the crushed, day-old human remains. It couldn’t have been a prime assignment.
Officer McCleary had bright red hair pulled back in a French braid and light skin with freckles. I felt an immediate bond with her over the freckles. Life isn’t easy for women in authority roles if they have freckles.
“I’m no doctor, but I would agree with your assessment that Mr. Qiang Chen is indeed dead.” Officer McCleary cleared her throat, looking paler than earlier after inspecting the bloody rock pile. “We have some contacts with some earthmoving equipment companies in the area, but they are very busy right now with the collapsed apartment building. Does the ranch have heavy equipment that could help move the rock?” Drew confirmed that they did. “My suggestion is that although it isn’t a fun task, we use the ranch’s equipment to remove the rock. We can get some of the search and rescue team up here to help supervise and deal with the body. The body will then go to the coroner’s office, after which it will be released to the family.”
Drew worked out some details about the timing with Officer McCleary. According to my mother, Qiang’s family was having trouble getting permission to travel to the United States on such short notice. They were pulling all the political strings they could, but the process was slow going.
Officer McCleary finished making arrangements with Drew and turned to address the rest of us. “Now, you also reported that there was also a missing woman, Jia Chen. Please give me the update on that situation.” I brought the police officer up to speed, fudging a few details, like werewolves and flying humans. Officer McCleary jotted down the information in her notebook. She let me finish the story even though she looked puzzled at the odd encounter with the hiker. After I finished, she took a few seconds to process the information. I could almost see gears turning in her head and had an uncomfortable feeling she sensed that there was more to the account than I was giving.
“So Ms. Chen had this encounter with the hiker, Mr. Captain High…”
“That was the only name he would give us,” Alrik said with a grimace.
“Yes, Mr. High. And then she left via car, possibly hitchhiking.” She paused again. “Although I admit that it sounds strange, it appears that Ms. Chen is not missing, but traveling on her own volition. As long as she doesn’t overstay her visa to the US, she is free to go where she wants. But keep me informed; this doesn’t feel right.”
“I will. It doesn’t feel right to us either, but she was only staying here as a favor to my mother-in-law, who knows her through her business. We don’t know much about her ourselves.” Drew shook his head in frustration.
“I may take a drive along the highway to see if I can find this Mr. High and see if I can pry some more details out of him. I’ll be in contact if I discover anything new.”
She flipped her notebook cover down and headed to her patrol car. I hoped that she could find something more; I felt like there was an invisible sword of Damocles swinging over our heads on its one fraying string. Something was wrong, but we weren’t figuring it out fast enough. I hoped we could make sense of it before that trouble came crashing down.
***
There was nothing more that we could do at the ranch, so Alrik, David, and I headed back to town. Alrik needed to be back in Los Angeles to meet with a client, and I was anxious to see what San Luis looked like after being rocked with aftershocks. And indeed, times looked rough for my new town. Non-r
einforced buildings had taken a beating, and there were heaving walls and several roofs caved in. One old house a few streets over from me had been thrust out of the ground and now looked like it was on a raised launch pad, ready to be rocketed into the sky. The sounds of construction equipment coming from every direction indicated that people were anxious to put things back to normal.
My own garden cottage had survived fairly well. The fence between my place and the landlords’ was resting at a forty-five-degree angle. A small tree had fallen over and was leaning on my back porch, but it wasn’t big enough to have caused any significant damage. Inside, pictures had fallen off the wall and a few more dishes had shattered, but overall, I was okay. I spent some time sweeping up the mess and borrowed an electric chainsaw from a neighbor to take care of the tree. Technically, it was the landlords’ duty to take care of it, but I wasn’t going to wait around for them to do it. After the day’s work, I collapsed into bed, both emotionally and physically exhausted.
The next day, I decided to tackle my classroom. The principal had contacted all us teachers and reported that overall, the school was in acceptable condition to start on time, but individual classrooms had sustained differing amounts of damage. It would be up to us to clean up our classrooms and inventory damages for the insurance.
As I pulled up to the school, I was surprised at how well the building had weathered the earthquake. It looked pretty much the same as a few days ago, which was a testament to the new building designs which buffered the movement of the ground in an earthquake. I checked in at Amy’s room first. She was picking books off the floor, but her classroom looked okay in general. My classroom had a lot more damage, mainly because of all the science glassware I had. It took the rest of the morning and all of the afternoon to clean the mess and inventory what was broken or damaged. Some of my science experiments were going to have to be modified until I could replace all the equipment. I hoped the school had good insurance to cover all the damage.
My mood had turned foul by the time the sun was low in the sky. I was depressed at the damage to my classroom, worried about the Jia situation, and was starting to turn melancholy about leaving my friends and family back in Chicago. Added to the negative emotions was my growing hunger. Hungry Freya is not an especially nice person. It was time to go home and call it a day.
I didn’t have the makings for a decent dinner and was too tired to even order take out. Instead, I complained bitterly to myself about life in general as I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The food improved my mood some, but things were still feeling grey when I got a call from my sister.
Qiang’s body had been removed and properly taken care of. Jia, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found. Elin was feeling grey as well, so I fell into an old habit of trying to make her laugh, breaking out some earthquake jokes I had heard. None of them were any good, but by the time I got to, “What did the ground say to the earthquake? You crack me up!” she and I were both feeling better. She was going to be in town tomorrow and promised to visit me.
After I hung up with Elin, I called up David. With all the Jia drama, we hadn’t talked about his situation much. I wanted an update on the reaction of the Alphas to David’s seemingly surprising return to life. David offered to come over to my place and tell me all about it. His excuse was that he hated talking on the phone. For some reason, I accepted his flimsy reasoning and invited him over. The only requirement was that he show up with tasty food; the PB&J wasn’t cutting it for dinner.
David arrived in short order, armed with two steak burritos and a bottle of red wine. We devoured the burritos and put a good dent in the wine in no time. Stomachs happy, we both sat back, and David updated me on pack news. Robert and Maria had not talked to the rest of the pack about the reappearance of David, but the pack had talked amongst themselves. The guess was that Pedro and another wolf by the name of Philip had been charged with disposing of David’s supposedly dead body but had realized that he hadn’t quite kicked the bucket. Behind the Alphas’ backs, they treated his wounds the best they could and then put his body in a spot where, if he did manage to survive, he could get himself to safety. Both Philip and Pedro hadn’t been seen since David reappeared in pack ties. David’s contact wasn’t sure if they had been killed by Robert and Maria or had fled. David was now considering whether to contact the Alphas himself.
“There has been too much trouble caused by my reappearance. As much as I would like this problem to disappear, it seems like I will have to face Robert and Maria again. If they won’t accept my resignation from the pack, which I’m sure they won’t, I will have to fight them again.”
I poured another glass of wine for both of us and considered his words. “Why won’t they let you resign?”
“It sets a precedent, and they would lose face with the other werewolves. Their power comes as much from perception of power as actual power.”
“And to fight them would mean to fight to the death, either you dead or both Robert and Maria dead.”
“Yes, and that was my problem before. I could have taken either Robert or Maria, but I couldn’t take both at the same time.”
“Is it required that you fight Robert and Maria at the same time?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to take over the pack?”
David shook his head haltingly. “No. You have to have drive and a hunger for power to be an Alpha. I, on the other hand, want to fit in with the rest of society, supernatural and natural. I want to develop my company. I want to have a family. I want to have good relationships with the other werewolves in my pack.”
“Those are excuses, David, not reasons to turn down being an Alpha. All those reasons that you listed why you couldn’t be an Alpha sound like fabulous reasons to be an Alpha. It sounds like there needs to be a shift of thinking in the werewolf culture. I would much rather have a non-power hungry leader than someone out to squash me down.”
“Out to change the world, Freya?” David asked with a smile.
“No. Out to cut through the bullshit that people accept as fact. So would you want to be Alpha if you could run the pack your own way?”
“I’m done with Santa Fe. I can’t explain it well, but after I got routed out by Robert and Maria, for the first time in years, I felt free. Being a lone werewolf is hard, and I would much rather have a pack for support, but I know that I am through with Santa Fe.”
“Can you survive as a lone werewolf for long?”
He didn’t answer my question for a long time. I waited with him, not breaking the silence.
“No. Lone werewolves can’t survive on their own long. In fact, I had started to lose control recently and I was worried that I may slip into uncontrolled violence.”
“You talk as if that problem was in the past. Is it better now?”
“Yes. It’s better now.” He gazed off into the distance and the silence returned.
“I feel like I’m pulling teeth here. The next logical part in the conversation is you telling me why it is better now. Do I really need to ask the question?”
“Do you really need to know the answer?”
I threw up my hands. “I guess not. Keep your secrets if you want. But I felt like we’re friends and I want to help you, so the answer would have been useful.”
David shrugged. “I hope it’s not a secret that I value your friendship and would like this to be more than a friendship. But if you want to keep it at a friendship, I would still be happy.”
“You don’t even know me, David.” The sentiment he was expressing put butterflies in my stomach, but I didn’t trust butterflies by themselves. Too flighty. I needed more solid and logical feelings.
“I know you enough. Sometimes that is all it takes.” His green eyes sought out mine and refused to let me break contact. The atmosphere was getting heavier by the second.
I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Did I tell you about who they think was to blame for the earthquake?”
The
loaded moment passed, thankfully, and David smiled. “No. Who was to blame?”
“It was all San Andreas’ fault.”
His laugh came out deep and almost carefree, and an unseen weight seemed to roll off his shoulders. I realized then that the David that I met in the grocery store was a very different David than I saw now. The blank, emotionless face and affect were gone. If the pack problems were solved, I wondered what David would be like. It surprised me how much I wanted to see that side of him.
“Back to the Robert and Maria issue. So you don’t want to be Alpha of the Santa Fe pack, but Robert and Maria won’t leave you alone. And the only way to stop them from bothering you is to kill them because they won’t stop until they kill you. Oh, and you need a pack to stop from becoming a loco lobo.”
“Spot on.” David raised his glass in salute.
“Can you start your own pack?”
“Still won’t solve the Robert and Maria issue, and I need more werewolves to start a pack. Although Hollywood thinks differently, werewolves are born, not made. And all the werewolves are already in a pack.”
“Okay, first step. Make sure you win the fight with Robert and Maria. How will you do that?”
“Not lose. Come on, Freya, drop it. Tonight is good. Tomorrow is something we can only worry about and, as they say, worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.”
“Depends on the flavor of bubble gum. Watermelon is especially good at solving quadratic equations.” I paused, then added, “I’ll drop it for now if you promise me this: you won’t face Robert and Maria alone.”
“Fine. You will be the first to know when and if they show up.”
The rest of the evening went by fairly smoothly. I tried to pick his brain about what it was like to be a werewolf, and he deflected my questions by asking what it was like to be an Alva. He walked away from my house that night knowing a lot of my past, where I was still frustrated about his history before San Luis. He was a locked door about Santa Fe, and little bothers me more than purposefully and seemingly meaningless obfuscating.
