by Naomi Clark
“You’ve found her?” she said eagerly, letting us in. “Oh God, tell me you’ve found her.”
“Not yet, Tina,” Shannon said. “But we’re making progress. This is my partner, Ayla Hammond,” she added, stepping aside so I could shake Tina’s hand.
The other woman’s grip was firm; she knew I was a wolf and she was testing my strength. No way would she have subjected Shannon to this bone-crushing grip. I squeezed her fingers in return, holding her gaze. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” She released me, flipping her thick brown hair out of her face. “I didn’t know you were bringing your partner along, Ms Ryan.” There was distrust in her voice. I supposed I couldn’t blame her, knowing how the Pack had treated her.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Shannon said, smiling sweetly at her. “Shall we sit in the kitchen?” Without waiting for an answer, she strode through. Tina frowned, then followed.
I lingered in the hallway for a second, taking in the clean décor, the photos on the wall. Pictures of Tina with a girl at various ages, Molly, I guessed. She was the spitting image of her mother, fine-boned for a wolf, with dark hair and eyes. As the pictures went on chronologically, her expression changed though: from open and beaming to closed and dark. Typical teenage moodiness, I thought. I’d hated having my picture taken at that age. Of course, it hadn’t driven me to run away from home.
I’d had plenty of other reasons to do that.
“Can I get you a drink, Ms Hammond?” Tina called from the kitchen. It was an obvious hint to join them, so I took it, wandering into the kitchen.
“Black coffee, thanks,” I said. Shannon was sitting at a small round table; her open folder revealing more pictures of Molly. I sat down next to her, once again taking in the décor. The kitchen was furnished country-style, lots of pine and red-and-white check. Fresh tulips sat in ceramic vases on the windowsill and the shelves were lined with porcelain chickens and pictures of wheat sheaves. It was all strangely at odds with the grim exterior of the house.
“This is nice,” I said.
“My ex paid for it all,” Tina said with a shrug. “If you’ve got to live in a shit hole, it may as well be a nicely decorated one.”
“Does Molly have much to do with her dad?” Shannon asked.
Tina smiled thinly at her. “You asked me that last time.”
“I just want to reiterate a few things, that’s all,” Shannon said. “It never hurts to go over the details.”
“She sees him a couple of times a month. Weekends here and there. She wasn’t outcast, so she’s free to mix with the Pack.” Tina glowered down at the kettle she was filling, as if aiming all her bitterness at it. “But they’re not very close. She blames him for…everything, I suppose. The divorce, me being outcast.”
“The abortion?” I asked, as carefully as I could.
Her shoulders stiffened, then slumped. She turned her head from us, letting her hair veil her face. “Fucking Pack bullshit,” she spat. “You can’t fucking take a piss without one of them poking their nose in to tell you you’re doing it wrong. We’re better off without them!” She slammed the kettle down on the sideboard. The lid jerked open, splashing water all over her arm. She swore and reached for a tea towel. “Have you spoken to her dad yet?” she demanded of Shannon, making a visible effort to curb her anger.
“He’s not back from his holiday yet,” Shannon said. “I told you when we last spoke that I’d contact him as soon as he was, but given that he was in Greece when Molly disappeared, I don’t think he’ll be much help.”
“Well if you don’t have anything new to tell me, why are you bloody here?” Tina slumped against the sideboard, kettle forgotten. “Why am I paying you if you’re not actually doing anything to find her?”
I gritted my teeth, aggravated by her manner. Shannon stayed impressively cool, simply shuffling through her papers until she found a blank sheet. “When we first spoke, you mentioned Molly had been in trouble with the police in the past. I wanted to follow up on that. Does she have any friends you think might have helped lead her astray? Any boyfriends who were trouble?”
I watched Tina visibly struggle with her reply. Maybe she was just curbing the urge to yell again, but it felt like more. Like she was deciding whether to lie or not. After a few tense seconds, she sighed and dragged her fingers through her hair. “Look, I didn’t tell you this the first time because I didn’t think it was important, okay? So don’t get all uptight with me.”
“I’m not here to judge you, Tina,” Shannon said gently, rising to stand by her. “Anything you can tell me that will help Molly is important.”
Tina nodded and did that noisy exhale again. “She was seeing this boy—a human.” She raised her hands defensively. “I don’t have a problem with that, I really don’t. I didn’t think it would ever get serious, because Molly wanted a family one day and well…you know.” She shrugged. “Anyway, this boy—his name’s Marc Wright—lives a few streets away and he’s got a reputation. You know.” She cocked an eyebrow at us as if we should know. I didn’t.
“A reputation for what?” I asked.
“Drugs, gangs, that sort of thing.” She sniffed. “I suppose having a werewolf girlfriend is a status symbol for kids like that. Anyway, I went round and spoke to him after Molly ran off, in case she’d said anything to him or they’d had a fight or whatever.”
Shannon was making notes, frowning. “You should have told me this the first time,” she said. “These kinds of details can be crucial in cases like this.”
“Well he didn’t know anything!” Tina said, folding her arms across her chest. “He told me and I’d have known if he was lying. He swore he hadn’t seen her and she hadn’t said anything to him about wanting to take off, so why would I tell you when it was already a dead end?”
“Then why are you telling us now?” I asked.
“Because I’m desperate! Molly’s been gone for almost a month and nobody’s bloody doing anything! The police, the Pack, nobody!” She burst into tears, balling her hands into fists and hiding her eyes. “She’s never been gone this long before. And I know things have been horrible and I know she hates me, but she’s never been gone so long!”
Shannon wrapped her arms around the other woman, pulling her into an embrace. Tina struggled at first, then relaxed and leaned into Shannon, weeping into her hair while Shannon stroked her back. I sat and watched awkwardly, at a loss for what to do. I was embarrassed for Tina. I guessed she would hate herself for this weakness afterwards—I certainly would—but I also sensed she needed it right now and I didn’t know where to look. It was all so weirdly intimate.
I stared at Shannon’s file while my partner murmured comforting nonsense to Tina. I flicked through the photos and notes. There were school pictures and holiday snapshots, a few of Tina and Molly together, copies of the photos in the hall. There was one that I guessed must have been taken at a Lupercali a few years ago; a younger Molly posing in a smart green dress, a few other cubs lined up with her. I frowned, recognizing one of them as Oscar.
“Tina,” I said.
She looked up from Shannon’s shoulders, blinking red eyes at me.
I held up the photo. “Was Molly friends with this kid?” I pointed out Oscar. He was a few years older than Molly, but they stood close together, identical smiles of pride on their faces.
Tina wiped her eyes and peered at the picture. “She used to hang out with him a lot, before we moved here,” she said. “Oscar Maxwell, that is. Rob—that’s my ex—is good friends with his dad.”
I nodded and set the photo down. Did one missing teenager and one erratic teenager make for a lead? I had no idea, but I made a mental note to tell Shannon about Oscar later.
As it happened, she began pressing me for details as soon as Tina shut the front door on us fifteen minutes later.
“So?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Well, I think it’s nothing. Just that I met Oscar at Lupercali and then saw him again when I wen
t to see Vince at the Fox on Tuesday.” I explained Oscar’s wild mood swings and his argument with Vince. Shannon nodded, pursing her lips thoughtfully.
“It can’t hurt to ask any of Molly’s friends if they’ve heard from her,” she said. “Although it doesn’t seem likely that she would have been in regular contact with any Pack teens since Tina was made outcast.”
“Depends,” I argued. “The outcast ruling doesn’t include Molly—she’d still be free to do wolf things, go to Lupercali, all that. So she might still be in touch with Oscar.”
“I’ll look into it,” she decided. “I want to talk to the boyfriend first.”
“Want me to come?” The idea of Shannon marching off to speak to a drug-dealing gang member by herself put my wolf on edge. You never let your mate go hunting alone.
“Why not?” She smiled at me and I relaxed a little. “If he really is as villainous as Tina makes out, a werewolf bodyguard could come in handy.”
“Oh yeah, especially a wolf as fierce-looking as me.” I was shorter than Shannon, who wasn’t exactly towering, and humans who didn’t know better thought that made me a weak wolf. Shannon liked to say it gave me the element of surprise. It just annoyed me. The first year after I left home, I’d spent all my time getting into bar fights as I worked my way north. Every drunken idiot who wanted to prove he was tougher than a werewolf had picked me to prove it.
Shannon patted my cheek as she unlocked the car door. “I think you can be pretty damn scary when you put your mind to it.”
I thought of the feral wolf. “Not scary enough.”
***
Marc Wright was a beautiful boy of about seventeen, with smooth chocolate skin, huge liquid brown eyes and a knife as long as my forearm. He brandished it at us through the living room window as we approached the house, his eyes wide and wild, clearly warning us off. Shannon, once again showing a level of calm I was sure she must be faking, ignored the knife and knocked on the front door.
His mother opened the door, a thin, harried-looking woman with sharp eyes and a mean mouth. “You social workers? Selling something? Church types?”
“My name’s Shannon Ryan and this is my partner, Ayla Hammond.” Shannon flashed her business card at the woman. “We’d like to talk to Marc Wright about his girlfriend, Molly Brady, if we could.”
The woman examined the card, brimming with suspicion. After a few seconds, she nodded. “Marcus!” she bellowed. “Come out here!”
Marc slunk to the door, knife still clutched in his hands. “Coppers?” he asked in the same I ain’t done nothing tone as his mum.
“It’s about that girl of yours. So make sure you tell the truth, now.” His mum shoved him outside and slammed the door on him. Shannon and I exchanged glances. This was going to be hard work.
Marc slouched against the front door and fixed us with a mean, assessing glare. “Molly? I ain’t seen her in weeks.”
“But you were her boyfriend?” Shannon asked.
“Yeah, I suppose. We hung out. She was a bit young for me, like.” He looked me up and down and winked. “I like older women. Experienced women.”
I ignored his leer. “Have you heard from her since she ran away?”
“Nah. We weren’t serious or nothing, we just saw each other for a laugh sometimes. She was always going on about running off, you know? Starting a better life for herself, that shit.” He sniffed, disdainful, and pointed at me with the blade of the knife. “You a werewolf? I like wolf women. They’re always up for a laugh.”
“I’m not,” I said, the faintest hint of a growl in my voice.
Shannon angled herself between us. “Did you notice any change in Molly’s behavior in the days before she left? Did she mention any new friends, anything like that?”
He scratched his nose as if genuinely thinking about it. “She was smoking this new shit. Went right off the weed, which was a pain, because she was buying her weed from my mate and he always gave me a cut, didn’t he?”
Silver Kiss. I wasn’t sure why I was sure, I just was. It was clearly the new big thing with humans and wolves. Lawrence was addicted to the stuff and Vince had said most of the kids at the Fox were into it. So it wasn’t too much of a leap in the dark to assume Molly was too. Whether that was relevant, I wasn’t sure. As Lawrence had assured Calvin, Silver Kiss was a herbal cigarette, nothing illegal or dangerous.
“What about new friends?” Shannon persisted. “Where was she getting this new stuff from if not your mate?”
“I dunno, like, she did mention this guy. I thought she might be banging him on the side—she is a bit of a slut, you know? I can’t remember his name. It was like Stuart, or Simon, or something. Something a bit gay.”
I couldn’t help myself; a full growl escaped me and Marc glanced at me in alarm. “You not gonna wolf out on me, are you?” He held the knife up again in a more defensive position.
Shannon laid her hand on my arm. “I think you’ve told us everything you can, haven’t you?” she asked Marc. He nodded, wide eyes fixed on me. “Great. We’ll get off then.” She handed him her business card. “Just give me a call if you think of anything useful. I know Molly’s family would be so grateful.”
He glanced at the card. “Is there a reward or something then?”
“Maybe.” Shannon smiled brightly at him. “Thanks for your time, Marc.”
“Yeah.” He looked back at me, apparently satisfied I wasn’t going to rip his throat out. “Yeah, and hey, you ever want some fun, you come find me.” He winked again. “I know loads of fun stuff.”
“You’re not my type,” I assured him as we left.
***
“Not entirely a wasted day,” Shannon said as we drove home. “I still don’t feel like we’re really onto it yet though. I’ll have to ask Tina about this Stuart or Simon, see if she knows anything.”
I stared out the window at the passing houses. Twilight was falling fast, bringing another light snow shower with it. The streetlights turned the snow orange, giving the city an eerie, otherworldly glow. “What about the wolf Tina had the affair with?” I asked. “Is it worth checking him out?”
“I’ve pretty much ruled him out already,” she replied. “According to Tina, he bitterly regrets the affair and is working hard to repair his marriage.”
“She already told you about the affair?”
Shannon shrugged. “I asked her about Molly’s dad and it came up. She didn’t go into much detail.”
“Has he got kids, the other man?” I asked.
“None. Which I suppose just compounds the damage. His wife can’t conceive, but he knocks up the first woman he hops into bed with for a drunken fling. It’s got to be unbearable for the wife.”
And it hammered home how strange it was that Tina had aborted the child. To conceive twice ought to be a joyous triumph for a wolf, regardless of the circumstances. I wondered, if she hadn’t been caught out, would she have kept the cub and claimed it as her husband’s?
“Here’s what I think at the moment,” Shannon continued. “It’s a straightforward enough scenario. Molly’s angry and resentful over how the Pack treated her mum, but she’s also angry at Tina for messing up her—their—life. She’s fallen in with a bad crowd, probably got into drugs if what Marc says is true and now she’s met someone new and she’s run off with him. It’s a way to upset and piss off her mum and get some attention at the same time.”
“If that’s the case, she might just come back on her own when she’s had enough,” I mused. “She’s only fourteen—she’ll miss her home comforts soon enough, surely?”
“Hopefully, but I think I have to act like that’s not the case. Which means the next steps are finding out who this Stuart or Simon is and figuring out how she might have left the city. Checking out CCTV and that sort of thing.” She rubbed her forehead. “I hate going through CCTV tapes. It’s so bloody boring.”
“Find out if she was into Silver Kiss,” I said. “Vince said Oscar was fine until he started smokin
g that.”
She nodded, but I could tell she was only half listening. “I never thought of wolves as being into drugs,” she said after a brief silence. “It’s weird to think of werewolves shooting up or snorting coke.”
“Well, maybe we’re not as superior to you puny humans as we like to make out.” I switched the radio on and the blast of bubbly pop music filled the car, keeping us both quiet until we were back home.
Actually, there was a long tradition of drug-use in werewolf history. Back in the Middle Ages, before it was understood that wolves and humans were separate species, people believed they could transform themselves into werewolves by using potions and rituals. They’d smear themselves in anise and opium, or drink beer mixed with blood under the light of the full moon and wait for Satan to show up and gift them with wolf shape.
In Egypt, where they’d been more into cats, it was believed that cat spirits could possess a human and transform them that way, if the human had taken the right mixture to open them up to the spirit world. We’d all heard the stories of the kugarvad—cat shifters—as children, but they were extinct now, if they’d ever existed at all. Wherever you looked in history, humans, shapeshifting and hallucinogenics were tightly woven together.
Of course, none of that was useful to Shannon, so I didn’t lecture her on werewolf history throughout the ages. She’d had to do Lupine Studies in school same as me.
SIX
I’d planned a run with Vince and Joel for Friday night, in Larkspur Park. I went there straight from work, feeling a pang of guilt at leaving Shannon home alone for the night. She was busy making calls about CCTV, guaranteed no fun at all. It wasn’t that she didn’t have friends here—she was pretty cozy with the family next door to us—but there was so much I did that she couldn’t join in with here. When it had just been the two of us, me a lone wolf with no Pack to run with, it had always been our friends, our social life. Now it was mine and hers and I didn’t like the divide.
