The Mountain's Shadow

by Cecilia Dominic

  I searched for notes to see if he had written what he'd done, as most scientists would. Nothing. The directions must be in that pile of boxes in the storeroom. I looked around the lab one more time and promised I would be back. My fingers itched to play with the fancy toys all around me. But before I played, or even cleaned, I needed to know what he had done. The question was, where were his notes?

  I returned to the storeroom and sifted through the boxes that had been directly in front of the door. I opened one to find letters in childish handwriting, the ones I remembered sending to my grandfather. Instead of being organized by date, they were tied in little bundles with ribbon. I put that box aside and moved on to the next one.

  My heart skipped a beat when I saw more pediatric charts. A note in scrawled handwriting lay across the top of them: “Charles, this was all I could get. The H. rep and the head nurse are getting suspicious. H.J.”

  The third and fourth boxes held more charts, these very old, including mine and my brother’s. There were also some other papers, yellowed and faded, that appeared to be birth and marriage certificates. I brought these up to the office first, then returned for the other two. I had no idea what the significance of any of it could be, only that my grandfather seemed to have been on the same track. Then there had been a fire, a mysterious disappearance, and now a likely murder. What were we so close to finding that we posed a threat to someone? What kind of threat could be so big it was worth killing for?

  I shuddered as I remembered Louise, her last breaths, her warning about the black wolf. It was out there somewhere, and it may have snatched Lance Bowman after its escapades at the Manor. Another strand in the web, but I was no closer to finding the spider. And if I did find the spider, what would it do to me?

  Chapter Eleven

  I sat with the boxes in the study. Now I had five of them, one from my own destroyed laboratory and four from the storeroom downstairs. Television portrays research scientists with a certain glamour, as though the profession is all about sexy underwear under white lab coats, which are ready to come off at the end of a long day of making life-altering discoveries. In reality, there’s a lot of paper involved. That’s why most of us wear comfortable clothes and geeky glasses.

  The door opened, and Lonna poked her head around.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.” We looked at each other. I let her speak first.

  “I don’t really know how to say this.”

  “Okay.”

  “This place is giving me nightmares. The first night I was fine, but I don’t know, I guess it’s all the talk of missing children and those awful screams in the woods.”

  “Would you rather stay in town?”

  She shivered. “No, because even though I’m not sleeping well here, I feel like I shouldn’t leave, like there’s something here I have to find.”

  “A husband? Or someone else’s husband?”

  “No, there’s something else.”

  I could see the dark circles under her eyes, and a wisp of guilt curled from my stomach to my chest. “I’m sorry, that was out of turn.”

  “I’m sorry too. I’ve been a bitch. It’s just that I came here to help you, and it seems you’re keeping me out of the loop.”

  “Everything’s been happening really fast.”

  “I understand. But would you please try to do better with including me?”

  “I will if I can.”

  She sat in one of the overstuffed leather armchairs by the reading table. “What’s all that stuff?”

  “Things I found in the storeroom off the ballroom. I’m hoping they’ll give me some clue as to what my grandfather found and the direction his research was going in.”

  “And the smoky one?”

  “From the lab in Memphis. Somehow it got sent here. There must have been a mistake, but I’m keeping it.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “What’s in it?”

  “Medical records from kids with CLS. I’m looking to see if there’s something I missed. Hopefully there’s enough for my database to sift through.”

  She came to stand by the computer and looked over my shoulder at my database. “Research through brute force, huh?”

  “You got it, baby.”

  “I was thinking about going to interview Louise’s family. They’ve lost a child and now a grandmother, so they may be more tied into this than anyone else. How about some research by charm and sympathy?”

  “I could do that, but let’s wait ’til tomorrow. It’s already dinnertime, and I feel like I’m really, really close to figuring out something important.”

  Lonna laughed. “I know that look. And that feeling. I’ll have Gabriel bring something in for you for dinner.”

  “Thanks.” I squeezed her arm. “You’re a good friend.”

  “You are too. Even if you’re a stubborn little thing.”

  “You have no room to talk.”

  But stubborn as I was, I couldn’t figure out what, exactly, I searched for in the data. Finally, a little after midnight, I gave up. The numbers and notations swam before my eyes, and I decided to go to sleep and let my brain work on the puzzle.

  I woke to the sound of male voices in the front hallway. The clock said six-o-five, so I rolled out of bed and threw on my robe. Leo and Ron stood in the door, duffel bags in hand, both of them unshaven and with dark circles under their eyes. Gabriel physically blocked them from entering the house.

  “What’s going on here?”

  “Doctor Fisher. I didn’t intend for them to wake you.”

  “That’s not what I asked, Gabriel.”

  “We have a couple of strays here.” He pitched his voice low, almost a growl, all the amicability of the day before gone. “And they want to stay here. I knew if we fed them, they’d keep coming back.”

  “At least be civilized and give them a cup of coffee, Gabriel, so we can find out what’s going on.”

  He shot me a look but backed down and went through the den into the kitchen.

  “Thanks, Joanie,” Ron said. “It’s been a rough night.”

  “What happened?” I gestured for them to put their bags to the left of the door by the umbrella stand, not really a promise to let them stay, but a possibility.

  Leo plopped down on the new sofa and ran his hands through his hair. “Well, we looked for clues in the woods between here and town, but we couldn’t find anything.”

  “Why would you expect to find anything between here and there? What about the other side of the subdivision?”

  “Because whatever’s happening seems to center around this place.” Leo looked up at me. “I know you probably don’t want to hear that, but it’s true.”

  He was right. I didn’t. “Fine. Then what did you do?”

  “We hung out in town for a while and asked people if they’d seen anything unusual the night before last.”

  “They hadn’t,” added Ron.

  “So we went back to Peter’s place. Marguerite was in bed with the help of a sedative, and Peter sat in the drawing room with a glass of Scotch. He looked like hell, I’ll give him that.”

  “I bet.”

  Gabriel came in with three steaming mugs of coffee and set them down on the table with cream, sugar and spoons. “Would you like anything to eat?” He only addressed me.

  “Do you have any muffins ready?”

  “Baked them this morning.”

  “Would you bring those out, please? And three, no, four plates.” I heard someone moving around on the second floor.

  Lonna came down the stairs, beautiful as always in her morning dishevelment. When the guys saw her, their nostrils flared for a moment. Her womanly scent, perhaps? She had showered last night. They exchanged a look, but Leo shook his head.

  “What was all that about?” I asked. Leo gave me a “tell you later” look.

  “Morning, guys,” Lonna chirped. “The muffins smell good, Gabriel.”

  “I’ll bring out some in a moment, Madam. Would you like
coffee?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Ron smiled shyly at Lonna. “How are you today, Ms. Marconi?”

  “So anyway.” Leo picked the story up. “He told us, ‘I guess the two of you don’t know anything about what happened last night?’ We didn’t want to tell him about the strange wolf, not yet, in case the townspeople decided to hit the woods and hunt down all of them, maybe even us.”

  Lonna raised an eyebrow at me, and it was my turn to give her an “I’ll explain later” look. Leo must be tired to be so careless, I thought.

  “He accused us of sneaking down to Mountain View and living it up there or at the club at the time-share resort at night and neglecting our duties to watch over Lance. Can you believe that?” Ron spread his hands and gave us a rueful grin. “As if we have the energy to do that after working all day.”

  “It was a full moon that night, so it was time for our change,” added Leo. “We couldn’t go party if we wanted to.”

  “So he kicked us out. Said if we wanted to run around all night, we wouldn’t be doing it on his dime. He has enough on his plate, and now his kid’s missing.”

  “Something about all of this doesn’t make sense,” Lonna said, her fingers wrapped around her cobalt coffee mug. I noticed her nails were ragged, something she never allowed to happen, as though she had been chewing them. I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t ask about “the change” or why the townspeople would hunt the two young doctors along with the wolves.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t just kick people out unless there’s another compelling reason.”

  “Such as…”

  “You want them to be away from whatever you’re doing.”

  I watched Leo drink his coffee, the muscles in his forearm tensing as he held the cup. He took his time with it, almost like he knew I watched him.

  Lonna took a deep breath. “So, is someone going to tell me what’s going on here? You’ve mentioned a strange wolf twice, and you just said something about a ‘change’?”

  I looked down at my coffee as though something in the light brown liquid would guide me to the right answer.

  “I’m not stupid, you know.” She fixed Ron with her gaze, and he turned away. “I need to know what you boys have been up to. There are children missing.”

  “I’m well aware of that, Ms. Marconi.” Leo’s nostrils flared. “One of them is my nephew, remember?”

  “I do remember. And I also remember there was something about a strange wolf. Since when do two former medical residents track large predators?”

  Ron looked up. “How did you know about our jobs?”

  “I know people who know people. You’re evading my question.” She sat back and crossed her legs. “And no one is going anywhere until I have an answer.”

  “Ron and Leo have CLS,” I said. “But their CLS is different from anything I’ve ever seen or heard of.”

  “Oh?”

  “Right,” agreed Leo. “You see, we actually turn into wolves.”

  “You turn into wolves?”

  “We’re werewolves. So is Gabriel.”

  For a moment, Lonna was speechless. Then she burst out laughing.

  “Oh, Joanie, I cannot believe you. How did you get them to play along?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Werewolves? Come on, you knew about the full-moon connection. Now you’re just playing me.”

  “She’s doing nothing of the sort, Ms. Marconi.” Gabriel set the muffins in their basket on the table. “She’s serious.” He kept his facial expression neutral as he turned and walked back into the kitchen.

  The color drained from Lonna’s face. “Oh my God. You’re not kidding, are you? You’re all insane.”

  “No.” I spoke as gently as I could, not sure of her reaction. “I didn’t tell you before now. I didn’t know how you’d take it. It’s hard to believe, and I’ve seen them.”

  “You’ve seen them…” She made a hand motion. “Change?”

  “Only Gabriel.”

  Now it was Leo’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Oh, have you, now?”

  “Yesterday morning.”

  “And now you’re here,” Lonna said, her eyes wide. “And there are children missing. And there was a strange wolf. How do you know?”

  “His scent was different. He wasn’t part of our pack.”

  “How many are in the pack?”

  Ron bit his lip, but Leo answered. “Four.”

  “Can you tell me who they are? For my investigation, of course.”

  “Well, you already know two of us, and I’m sure you’ve guessed the third.”

  “Kyra?” I asked.

  “Correct,” said Ron. “The fourth may come as a surprise.”

  “Who is it?” asked Lonna. “Peter?”

  Leo laughed. “No, even if he had CLS, he wouldn’t deign to hunt with us. No, the fourth is someone from in town, one of the original Piney Mountain residents.”

  “Who?”

  “Matthew Grunden, the social worker.”

  Lonna coughed. “Impossible.”

  “Matt?” I took another sip of coffee. “That certainly puts a new spin on things.”

  Lonna, meanwhile, appeared as though she’d just had the rug pulled out from under her, which I guessed she had. It’s not easy to find out the shadows that haunt your dreams are real, and besides, who had ever heard of a werewolf social worker? She stared into her coffee cup.

  “He lied to me,” she said in a small voice. ”He told me it was just for the kids that he called me up here.”

  “The kid disappearances aren’t the only thing, apparently.” My mind worked, drawing connections from thread to thread of this twisted web. Matt to the kids. The kids to the new development. The subdivision to the lawyer. The lawyer to the two recently infected doctors. The doctors to the social worker. And Matt to Lonna and to me.

  “It’s all connected through CLS, but there’s something I’m still missing. Like, what happened to Louise? If it wasn’t an accident, then why did someone kill her?”

  “We need to figure out what happened the day of the accident.” Lonna stood, her expression determined, and she smoothed her hands on her skirt. “And I need to talk to Matt.”

  “Louise had a daughter, right? Mom of one of the missing kids.”

  “Yep, and she’s more likely to talk to you than to me.”

  “It sounds like we have our tasks cut out for us, then.” I looked at the guys. “And what are you going to do?”

  Leo yawned. “Sleep.”

  “Good hunting last night?” asked Lonna with a wry grin. She almost sounded sarcastic. I knew that look and guessed she was still trying to puzzle out if we were playing a joke on her.

  “So-so.” Leo popped the last bit of his muffin in his mouth. “The prey has been driven away lately by the screams. They were just once a month or so. Now they happen every week. It sets everyone on edge and makes the prey skittish.”

  The memory of the noise made my hands shake. “I can imagine. We’ve heard it.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “No. Do you?”

  “No. But it scares the shit out of me every time.”

  Ron yawned. “Can’t we talk about this after we get some sleep?”

  “You can bum a couple of the rooms upstairs. I’ll tell Gabriel not to disturb you.”

  After they left, I looked at Lonna, who stared into the hall after them with a frown.

  “You’re taking this better than I expected,” I said.

  She shook her head. “I’m still not sure whether to believe you, but I’ll acknowledge something strange is going on. Whatever the case, if it’s connected to the missing kids, I have to work around it.”

  She went upstairs to get her purse and left me standing openmouthed. Well, at least she’s not freaking out. Maybe she just needs to see one change to believe it. But I had to admit part of me didn’t want to share them.

  Honey Jorgens l
ived in an apartment in the new buildings on the other side of town. That little wisp of guilt curled in my stomach again as I knocked on the door. I’m sure I was the last person she wanted to see.

  The door opened, and a woman who looked like a younger version of Louise peered at me from behind the chain.

  “Who’re you?”

  “I’m Joanie Fisher. My grandfather—” I choked on the words, the woman’s grief tugging my own out.

  “You’re the old man’s granddaughter. He’d’ve come with condolences, too.” The door closed, and I heard the scrape of the chain as she unbolted it. “Please come in.”

  She let me in to the apartment, which was furnished cheaply but neat. “I’m Honey. My boyfriend is at work today. He’s upset about my mama too, but the foreman won’t let him off ’til the funeral.”

  “That’s not very understanding. Do you know when the funeral will be?”

  “No, not yet. The sheriff says since she died under ‘suspicious circumstances’, it may be a while.”

  “Are you here all by yourself?”

  “Nope. My youngest…” She shook her head. “My daughter is asleep in the bedroom. She’s three.”

  “You’ve been hit hard this year.”

  She smeared a tear back up her cheek with the heel of her hand. “First Johnny and now Mama. I told Rich it was because he sold out and is helping to build the new houses, the ones on the land they kicked us off of. We were gonna use the money for Johnny’s and Julie’s college so they can get out of here. I just hope Julie’s smart enough to want to go to a good school.”

  “I bet she is.”

  The woman rewarded me with a small smile. “I’m surprised you came on your own.” She wiped her hands on her jeans and motioned for me to sit on the corduroy sofa. “I’d heard you brought a friend with you.”

  “Lonna came up here with me to help me get settled and also because her friend Matt wanted her help investigating the children’s disappearances. She’s in town talking to him right now.”

  “Matt’s a right good man. He’s done more for us than that sheriff has.”

  More than you could know. “Is Sheriff Knowles a native of Piney Mountain?”