The Darkly Stewart Mysteries: Light and Darkly

by DG Wood

Darkly didn’t realize how famished she was. She tore into her bloody steak and sopped up the blood with a piece of toasted bread.

  “You used to like your meat well-done,” Darkly’s father observed.

  Darkly looked at the bread. It’s true. Things had changed. She had changed. She could feel it. William’s eyes lingered over the spot where her silver necklace used to lie. Darkly used her napkin to pull the silver shaman beads from her pocket and put them down on the table in front of her father.

  “You know what those are, don’t you?”

  There was only the slight tone of accusation in Darkly’s voice. She was not on the attack. She just wanted answers.

  “Yes,” William answered.

  “Uncle Ennis told me silver is used to ward off shape-shifters. Like me.”

  William swallowed the last of his beer.

  “I’ll get us two more. I’ll call your mother and let her know we’ll be late.”

  While William stood at the bar and placed his call, Darkly absent-mindedly ran the beads through her fingers and dropped them. If her eyes couldn’t see, she would have sworn her hand had burst into flames. She picked the beads up again with the napkin and dropped them into the glass of water sitting untouched next to her beer.

  William returned with two more pints. He picked up the glass and examined the beads.

  “To answer the question burning a hole through your skull, I didn’t suspect right away. When your mother and I found you…it was an accident. I wasn’t searching for…”

  “…a werewolf?” Darkly completed the sentence.

  “When I first saw the medallion around your neck, I assumed your first parents had put it on you to ward off whatever had taken them.”

  Darkly realized this was pretty damn close to the truth.

  “And then?”

  “The fact you refused to take it off, well, that seemed reasonable. If you had been told repeatedly your life depended on it, then why would you?”

  “But, as it became clear the necklace caused you pain, I began to suspect another explanation. And I became convinced that it was the one thing that would enable you to lead a normal and safe life. I hoped I was doing what your first father found himself no longer in the position to do. I see you’ve become even more sensitive to silver.”

  Darkly sighed and settled back into her chair.

  “Why did you let me go out there?”

  “I raised you, Darkly, to be tough, to wake up and face fears and bad odds just as you would any day of the year as a Mountie. I knew it was time to let go. A little. The morning you showed up at Ennis’s house, he was preparing to leave for Wolf Woods to check up on you. It was me who asked him to follow you back. It was me who sent Gus with you.”

  Darkly jolted forward.

  “Shit. Gus.”

  “What’s happened?” William asked, guilt in his voice. “Is he…?”

  “He’s not dead, Dad,” Darkly said reassuringly. “But, he’s not what he used to be. He’s not coming home.”

  It was William’s turn to sigh. Darkly anticipated the reason behind his concern.

  “I am sure he won’t let his parents think the worst. He’ll find a way to get word to them. Though, maybe thinking he’s dead would be easier.”

  “That’s only one worry, Darkly. An RCMP constable goes missing, all the stops are pulled out to find him.”

  “Then we better get my story straight. But, Dad, that’s not all. Every man, woman and child who lived in Wolf Woods has left. They’ve given up on isolation as their best chance of survival. They’ve decided if they can’t beat us, they’ll convert us.”

  Darkly realized the irony of speaking in terms of us and them. Were Buck, Marielle, and Wyatt already wearing off?

  William said nothing for a good minute. He looked at the beads in the glass and then around the pub at the patrons enjoying the company of friends, unsuspecting of the multitude of hidden threats they faced every day of their existences.

  “So, you’re telling me we’re going to see an upturn in dog bites?”

  “Think lower, Dad.”

  Darkly settled herself back into life as an RCMP Constable. The warm weather came to an end, the leaves turned gold and red, and then the snow fell. Darkly was questioned over Gus’s disappearance, then interrogated, then suspected of having some involvement in his absence. She gave him the slip, she said, in Vancouver. She didn’t know what could have happened. The investigation that led her west ended up being a dead end. So, she did what she was asked to do. She took some personal time at her Uncle Ennis’s place in the woods. Internal Affairs wasn’t buying it.

  Then something unexpected happened. Gus’s parents came forward to say they had heard from their son. He was safe. He would see them again. But, he was never returning to the Mounties. They handed over a signed resignation letter. It was Gus’s signature on the piece of paper. The letter had been mailed from Mexico City. Gus’s parents were told that personnel at the embassy in Mexico City would make inquiries.

  Darkly found the paper-pushing and public relations work she was assigned tedious. The court duty, the posing for tourists, it was all delivered out of a sense of caution. Would she have the confidence to return to action? Would she hesitate under pressure? Would a new partner trust her to have their back? So Darkly waited. Winter came to an end, and green returned to the world. Summer arrived, and the one-year anniversary of the extraordinary events at Wolf Woods came and went.

  During the past year, Darkly and her father scoured the internet for incidents, clues that Buck’s people had made progress in their colonization. There was always that chance that a people who led an almost institutionalized life would simply be extinguished by the modern world, unable to adapt enough to survive. But, this was wishful thinking.

  The evening of October 31st rolled around, and Darkly returned home from work and microwaved her dinner. She then booted up her laptop and worked her way through the usual political and entertainment distractions to look for evidence that Wolf Woods was something beyond the figment of a personal psychosis. She came across a report of a strong earthquake in Los Angeles. The epicenter was in the Hollywood hills. Though no one was hurt, and damage was minimal, the quake was strong enough to make buildings shake, including The House of Blues music venue on Sunset Boulevard. Out of simple human interest, Darkly clicked on the video that captured the quake at the moment it happened.

  A concert-goer was recording with her smartphone the band onstage in the main room at the venue. The crowd sways to the music of the pop country band, The Other Words, and a woman suddenly rushes past the camera. Then the band stops playing, and the concert-goers gasp and turn in unison to rush to the exits. The band leader onstage calls for calm, and the now shaky video ends.

  Something about the course of events triggered Darkly’s investigatory instincts. She played it again, then again. It was the one concert-goer running before all the rest. It reminded Darkly of the adage that animals know when natural catastrophes will hit seconds before they actual do strike.

  Darkly played the video once again, hitting the pause button just as the woman running away from the stage passes the smartphone camera. The face is a little blurry, and partially covered with hair. But Darkly is pretty damn sure she is looking at the face of Marielle.

  The sound of the doorbell snapped her out of her astonishment. She looked down at her untouched meal and got up, already thinking she had to get to L.A. asap. She opened her front door to a flashback.

  Darkly pulled her gun on a sasquatch. The sasquatch peed its jeans. Sasquatch don’t wear jeans. Darkly lowered the gun that was pointed at a teenager in a gorilla mask, holding a white pillow case full of candy open in front of her. He dropped the bag and ran.

  Darkly grabbed the bag and dove back inside, slamming and locking the door.

  “Fuck.”

  Darkly holstered her gun and dug her fingers into her hair and pulled on it. It was fucking Halloween night.

  “Arg
hh. Stupid.”

  The doorbell rang again, and Darkly looked down at the bag of candy by her feet. She took a deep breath and opened the door, with the candy held out in front of her.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  But it was not the kid returning for his Halloween loot. Ennis and Wyatt were standing there in the puddle of adolescence.

  “Trick or treat,” Ennis said with a grin.

  Wyatt devoured the bag of Halloween candy. Wrappers hit the floor, as Ennis stood over Darkly’s shoulder watching the Los Angeles earthquake video. Darkly paused over Marielle’s face. Wyatt got up and inspected the face himself.

  “It’s her,” he said, and returned to the candy.

  “May I?” Ennis asked.

  Darkly gave up her seat in front of the laptop and walked over to the kitchen?

  “Coffee?” she called back.

  “I could use something to eat,” Ennis answered. “Preferably not Halloween candy.”

  Darkly rummaged through her fridge.

  “I have some leftover Indian.”

  “Perfect.”

  Darkly emptied a couple of curry dishes and rice onto two plates and popped them into the microwave. A few minutes later, she put the plates down in front of Ennis and Wyatt and inspected what Ennis was searching for on the internet.

  “Like your father and you,” Ennis began, “I’ve been keeping an eye on the news for specific triggers. Animal attacks mainly. Upticks in STDs.”

  Darkly looked incredulous at this.

  “You honestly think people will go to the doctor for this?”

  Ennis shrugged his shoulders.

  “Something did catch my eye in guess where?”

  “Hollywood,” Darkly guessed.

  “Bingo. One of the problems of drought, which California has been in a state of now for several years, is that wild animals will move into the suburbs from the surrounding mountains in search of water and food.”

  “Bear, deer?”

  “That’s right, Darkly. Other animals, too, like mountain lions.”

  “I’m not following you. What do mountain lions have to do with wolves?”

  Ennis pushed a couple of buttons and sat back to eat a couple bites of curry. Darkly leaned in to look at a bunch of red dots across L.A. County, California. Each dot represented a physical siting of a mountain lion in a populated area. Most of the dots were on the outskirts of L.A. proper. A few were in Santa Monica and the area around the city’s iconic Griffith Park, a wilderness within one of the most urbanized areas of America.

  “Are these dots, what, over five, ten years?” Darkly queried.

  “Two,” Ennis corrected with a full mouth. “Scroll down.”

  Darkly scrolled down to a new map. This one had much fewer dots.

  “This one tells you the encounters with mountain lions over just the past year,” Ennis continued. “See anything unusual?”

  Darkly saw the same sporadic dots sprinkled around the outskirts of Los Angeles, though fewer in number. But, in the center of the city, there was a concentration of half a dozen red dots, all within a few blocks of Sunset Boulevard.

  “When is the last time a mountain lion was spotted on Sunset Boulevard?” Darkly asked, suspecting the answer.

  “Decades,” Ennis answered, confirming her suspicion.

  Darkly clicked on one of the red dots. An information bubble popped up with details of the sighting. Darkly read out loud.

  “Body parts of domestic cat discovered. July. Veterinary examination revealed wounds consistent with attack by mountain lion.”

  “That would be kill bites to the neck or head, as opposed to bites to the hindquarters, like a coyote,” Ennis interjected.

  Darkly clicked on the other red dots. A homeless man’s pit bull, another cat, a pet rabbit, even an iguana. Then there was the report from a night jogger, whose greyhound was snatched by something impossibly large lurking in the shadows of an alleyway. All blamed on the recent incursion by mountain lions. An incursion blamed on the drought.

  “Wolves also deliver death to the neck,” Darkly said with a smile that revealed she was enjoying this game. It was only just starting. “I don’t believe Marielle will turn her appetites to the two-legged kind of animal. But, God only knows how many other wolves she’s made. And she was pregnant. She would have had the baby by now. I wonder how many mountain lion attacks were reported on Sunset Boulevard before the drought?” Darkly asked cheekily.

  “None,” Ennis responded, with no need to check the facts online.

  Darkly got up and grabbed three beers from the fridge. She gave one to Ennis and one to Wyatt. Wyatt instinctually put the bottle top in his mouth and pulled the cap off with his teeth. Darkly twisted hers off and took a drink.

  “I need to get to L.A.”

  “Yes,” Ennis concurred.

  “It’s time I brought Vincetti into the fold. We need someone on the inside who can cover for me. He’s not going to believe this.”

  Ennis pointed at Wyatt.

  “Seeing is believing.”

  Darkly knocked on the door and stepped into Sergeant Vincetti’s office before he had the chance to tell her to come in or go away. He looked up and sighed internally. Darkly countered the coming patronizing placations of how her time would come, and that her current assignments were only temporary.

  “I’ve got a lead.”

  Vincetti leaned back in his chair and studied Darkly for a moment.

  “Okay, I’ll bite. A lead on what?”

  “On Gus’s whereabouts.”

  “Has he sent another letter? Where is he now? Some other warm place fucking spring-breakers? Aruba? You know, I don’t really care.”

  “Los Angeles.”

  “Good. Maybe he’ll become a star. People do quit their jobs, Darkly.”

  “And leave the country, traveling the world without a passport?” Darkly countered, flopping down Gus’s passport in front of Vincetti. “His mother gave this to me this morning.”

  Vincetti handed the passport back.

  “He must be a dual citizen traveling on another passport.”

  “He’s not. I looked into it.”

  Vincetti was becoming annoyed.

  “Oh, you looked into it? Darkly, what do you care? What do any of us care? It pisses me off that a constable with a promising career ahead of him has wasted his potential and tax payers’ money, but these things happen. He’s not being investigated for a crime, so let it go. That’s an order.”

  Darkly changed her line of attack.

  “I didn’t give Gus the slip. I was with him the whole time.”

  “Damnit, Darkly,” Vincetti said, getting up from his chair. “Stop fucking around.”

  Darkly put her hands on Vincetti’s desk and leaned in.

  “Honest to God. We went out to a little town in the middle of nowhere, found a…,” Darkly searched for words, “…cult, and he joined them.”

  “And why are you suddenly telling me this now?”

  “I can’t tell you that. But, I can show you. Join my father and me for a beer tonight.”

  Vincetti was at his wit’s end. He walked to the door to show Darkly out.

  “I don’t know who put you up to this, but you can tell them to go fuck themselves. Now, get out, Darkly.”

  Darkly had suspected this approach wasn’t going to work. But she had to try before going the difficult route. So be it. The hard way it was to be.

  Vincetti pulled up the wooded driveway beyond the suburbs of Toronto. The beams from his headlights bounced off the brilliant white of the birch trees bordering the gravel drive. His home was an oasis well worth the hour and a half drive from the office and back. He was looking forward to a hot shower, a glass of wine, a little of his mother’s Sunday pasta and catching a hockey game on the television. So, it was with some little fury that he got out of his car to face Darkly blocking his way to his front door. She wasn’t alone. Ennis, Wyatt, and Darkly’s father were with her.

&nbs
p; “Is this supposed to intimidate me, Darkly? I’m writing you up for this.”

  William jumped in.

  “Now, hold your horses there, son. We just want to show you something vital to national security.”

  “I’m not your son.”

  Ennis stepped forward, placing his hand on William’s shoulder.

  “Both William and I are retired Mounties. There was a time when that counted for something. Darkly thought if you wouldn’t listen to her, you might humor a couple of old-timers.”

  Darkly smiled at Vincetti hopefully. He looked ready to give in, until he noticed Wyatt.

  “Who’s he?”

  “He’s what I want to show you,” Darkly answered. “Can we come in?”

  Vincetti brushed past the group, unlocked the door, flipped on the foyer light and left the door open for the other four to follow him in.

  Vincetti pulled his jacket off and threw it on the sofa that divided the kitchen from the television room, exposing the gun holstered under his arm. The sergeant then grabbed a wine opener and removed the cork from a bottle of Italian wine and poured out five glasses. He grabbed the remote and put on the hockey he had been looking forward to watching uninterrupted.

  “Well?” Vincetti asked, his eyes on the flat screen television.

  Darkly took a sip of wine and set them off to the races.

  “The reason Gus isn’t coming back is because he was made a werewolf.”

  Vincetti didn’t look at Darkly when he turned the television off and crossed the room for the stairs up to his bedroom.

  “Finish your wine and get the hell out. I’m going to bed.”

  As Vincetti raised his foot onto the first step, he heard the glass shatter behind him. He swung around.

  “Really?”

  That was the only word he got out. Wyatt was in front of him in the space between himself and Darkly. Wyatt’s fingers grew into claws, as they reached out for Vincetti. The sergeant fell onto the stairs, as hair exploded from Wyatt’s face that was bubbling into a new shape. Vincetti turned and crawled up the stairwell as fast as he could. He reached the first room, the bathroom, and threw himself in, falling and hitting his head on the toilet.