by Geonn Cannon
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, Ari and Milo shoveled the driveway to free Ari and Dale's cars. The neighborhood roads still looked hazardous, although it was obvious a few brave souls had managed to turn some of the ice into slush. Ari's car had better brakes and more traction than Dale's, and Milo told them to just take it and pick up Dale's car when the roads were a little less arctic. They wished her well on her trek to the grocery store, then headed out. They took it slow, deciding on Dale's apartment as their destination before they even started the car. There was a grocery store within walking distance and, if that was picked clean, a nearby convenience store would provide the basic necessities.
The drive from Milo's house to Dale's apartment, normally completed in under ten minutes, took the better part of an hour. Fortunately everyone else desperate or foolhardy enough to be out that morning was being just as cautious. They were forced to reroute twice by snowplows, avoided streets where there were a lot of pedestrians. Ari hadn't been sliding much, but she wasn't going to take a chance when there were kids building a snowman on the curb.
Pulling into the garage of Dale's building was like being transported to a different planet. Wet tire tracks led down the ramp, and clumps of blackened snow trailed down to the bottom like clumps of dirty cotton. But it was warm, brightly-lit, and the sea of cars reminded Ari the city was actually inhabited. Dale's usual spot was occupied, so Ari drove farther until she found a different place.
"I feel like I just woke up from a really long dream," Dale said.
"Rip van Winkle." She put her arm around Dale's waist and led her to the elevator. "We'll see what the streets look like tomorrow. For now, as the boss, I'm saying... no work today."
Dale gave that idea the thumbs-up and slumped against Ari once they were in the elevator. "It just feels good to be home. With you."
The building was alive, compared to the silence of three people bouncing around in a mansion. They could hear music coming from the apartments they walked past, some doors standing open with signs that announced they had hot plates if anyone wanted to cook and another that advertised board games if anyone had kids they needed to entertain. There was a note taped to Dale's apartment door that announced the building was rationing their power until everything was back to normal, politely requesting that people shut off or unplug anything that wasn't absolutely necessary.
Dale unlocked the door and tested the lights on to make sure they worked.
"Dale?"
"Mm?"
"If the building didn't have power, don't you think the elevator would have been a little slower?"
Dale turned to her. "Shut up and undress."
Ari was shocked by the sudden change in tone. "Pardon?"
"You heard me, boss lady. You scratched my itch yesterday, but I didn't get to scratch yours. So take off your clothes before I take them off for you."
Ari backed into the living room while Dale advanced on her. "You know statistically, the odds of someone overhearing us now are much greater now than they were at Milo's house."
"Don't care. Pants off."
"You're a wild woman." Ari pushed off her shoes.
"You've got your wolf, I've got my libido." She put her hand on Ari's shoulder and pushed her down onto the couch, straddling her as she started unbuttoning Ari's shirt. "Let's find out which one howls louder."
#
They eventually made it to the bedroom where Dale finally repaid Ari for what had happened at Milo's. Afterward they changed into clean pajamas - the first truly clean clothes they'd worn in a week - and napped until the mid-afternoon. Ari woke before Dale but remained still and silent so as not to disturb her, content to watch the weather out the window. A few flurries were drifting across the glass but Ari knew it was just the last whimper of the storm that had shut down the city for the past eight days. Soon the streets would be cleared and they would go back to their real lives. She made plans to call Detective Lorne to touch base, and the urge to call Madeline Morris to check up on her was strong enough that she decided she might as well give in to it.
She slipped out of bed to make the call without disturbing Dale. Jenna was fine, and they'd made it through the storm unscathed. They spoke briefly before Ari hung up and plugged the phone in to charge. She'd managed to keep it alive during the blackout, but now the little battery indicator seemed to eagerly suck power from the outlet. She put it on the arm of the couch so it could fill up and then tiptoed back to bed. Dale was still out, so Ari slipped back under her arm and stared at window.
Speaking to Madeline and hearing Jenna's chipper voice over the phone reawakened Ari's unanswered questions in regard to the case. It was driving her crazy that she didn't even have a clue who the mystery shooter was. The 'mean man' Jenna couldn't identify, the apparent mastermind behind her kidnapping. She wondered if it was possible he was also involved with the Melody Scott abduction. The Scotts were fairly well-off. Had they been unable to come up with a ransom or just unwilling? Was Jenna his attempt to get a quick payday?
Her mind wandered back to the story of Agatha and Johanna. Simon Lehner had kidnapped children to incite humans to raise arms against canidae in their midst. Could Melody and Jenna have been the first victims in a new wave? If the hunters were willing to use a drug like wolfsbane for their own twisted means, why not blame them for a series of abductions? Maybe Madeline had screwed up their plans by going to a private investigator instead of the police. But then why involve Brandon Kent? And if the exchange was a trap, why had the Mystery Man shot at Brandon instead of her?
Dale stirred and turned her head to rub her chin against Ari's shoulder. "Hi."
"Morning."
"What time is it?" Dale slumped back onto Ari's chest.
Ari looked at the clock. "A little after five."
Dale burrowed closer to her. "I want to sleep some more. Tell me a bedtime story. Not Agatha and Johanna. Tell me a better one."
"Okay, baby. Once there was a wolf who thought she was a girl. She didn't have a pack. She didn't really have friends or a family. And then one day, an angel with bright red hair swooped in and saved the wolf's life from some bad people." Dale giggled sleepily and spider-walked her fingers over Ari's stomach. "She took the wolf who thought she was a girl home and made her feel safe and warm and loved. And she showed the wolf what it was like to really be a girl. It took a long time, but eventually the wolf stopped thinking she was a girl and became one. A real one, with a heart and love to give. And she realized that in all of her life, the red-haired angel who saved her was the only person she had ever truly loved. And the wolf knew that she would do anything to protect the red-haired angel."
Ari looked down and saw that Dale was asleep. She lightly kissed Dale's forehead just above the eyebrow and Dale made a quiet noise of contentment without waking.
"You're the only person who has ever mattered to me, Dale," Ari whispered. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you."
She stroked two fingers up and down Dale's upper arm and closed her eyes. She finally joined Dale in sleep thinking about Madeline Morris, Jenna, Brandon Kent, Missing Melody, her mother, Benjamin Moss, and what could possibly tie together such a disparate group of people and if it had anything to do with a treaty from two centuries ago crashing down around them.
#
Dale lifted her head and blinked sleepily when Ari slipped away from her again. Ari shushed her, guided her back to the pillow, and kissed her cheek. She stroked Dale's arm until she fell back to sleep and padded barefoot out of the bedroom. The apartment was freezing, so cold that she knew she could have seen her breath if the lights had been on. She hugged herself against the chill and checked her phone's charge before she dialed Detective Lorne's number.
"Willow." He had answered on the fourth ring, which made Ari check the clock. She and Dale had slept away most of the day, but it was still only nine o'clock at night. "I'd ask where you'd been, but no one in Seattle is asking that question these days. How'd you fa
re in the storm?"
"All in one piece," Ari said.
A lamp clicked on behind her and she turned to see Dale pass through the light into the kitchen. Her hair was pushed up on one side and flipped over the top of her head, and her feet seemed to be turned sideways judging from the difficulty she had walking. Dale waved two fingers as she passed Ari and went to investigate their food stores. As she began investigating what was still good and what needed to be tossed, Ari focused on the call.
"Now that the city is lurching back to life, I thought I'd check in. If you still want me to check out Brandon Kent's money drain of choice, I could swing by tonight."
"I doubt they'll be open tonight. Most businesses are giving it until tomorrow so the streets can be cleared and the black ice can thaw a little more."
Ari watched Dale throw out a plastic bottle of mayo. "Tomorrow's fine. We were kind of cut off for a while. How did the city fare?"
"We're rebounding. The city burned in 1889, and now we've frozen. Fire and ice, right? In a hundred years they'll have to deal with a flood from rising water levels."
"Scary thought. Okay. I'll let you call you tomorrow when I'm heading over there." As she hung up, Dale opened a Tupperware container and offered it to her to double check. Ari gave it a sniff as she shut off her phone. "Wolf says it has three or four more days until it goes bad. We can have that for dinner tonight if you want to play it safe."
"Okay. You wanna heat it up while I finish with the fridge?"
"Sure." Ari stepped around the counter and placed the dish in the microwave.
"Was that Detective Lorne?"
"It was." She slipped past Dale and took a can of soda from the door of the fridge. Even without power, it would have stayed frosty and cold. She popped the tab and took a drink. "I confirmed that I don't have to go out tonight, so we can stay hunkered down in our bunker until tomorrow morning."
"Excellent." The microwave beeped. Dale checked the temperature, stirred the casserole, and nuked it for another thirty seconds. "After all the naps I've taken this week, and now being wide awake at my usual bedtime, my sleep schedule is going to be completely wonky for a few days. It'll be kind of nice to be part of your world."
Ari aimed a finger at her. "If you start singing songs from Aladdin, I'm out of here, blizzard or no blizzard."
Dale chuckled as she took the casserole out of the microwave. "Just promise me you won't venture too far from home until some of this snow melts. I worry about you on the best days, so I don't want to think about you freezing out there while you wait for me to come pick you up. How much do you want?"
Ari held her thumb and forefinger a few inches apart as she settled on one of the stools at the kitchen counter. Dale served up the food and got a soda from the fridge before sitting across from Ari. She crossed her legs and watched Ari for a moment before she spoke.
"We didn't talk about this when we were at Milo's because I thought you'd want privacy, but you never said how you felt about your mother being back."
Ari shrugged. "She's not back. She was always here, I just never acknowledged the fact. I happened to get forced into spending five minutes with her, but nothing's changed."
"You're sure? I think I'd have a few choice words for her if I was in your shoes."
"Oh, I have words, there's just no point in saying them out loud. And now that I know... what I know about how I came to be, I'm not really sure I can pull off the righteous indignation with the same authority. I have to rethink all the words I've wanted to say to her since I was a teenager. But if I decide I have to say them, I'll say them to you."
Dale smiled. "That's all I ask."
"Right now I want to get back to the case. Do you mind if I brainstorm a little with you?"
"Mm-hmm. Please."
"I was trying to connect Jenna and Missing Melody to the story about Johanna and Agatha. Back in the day, the bad wolves killed kids to make people take up arms against our kind. If the hunters are coming back, it makes sense that they might try that tactic again. Enough kids go missing, when the hunters come up with a scapegoat to blame, people won't hesitate. But no matter how I try to work it, Jenna doesn't fit. If her abduction was part of some canidae conspiracy scheme, why give her back? And why do it so easily?"
Dale raised an eyebrow. "Easily? You ran across Seattle, you got shot at, Brandon Kent is dead, and Madeline was terrified for days--"
"Granted. But given how it could have gone, that was easy as pie. Brandon cooperated from the very beginning. He let me call the shots."
"He was just taking orders. He was terrified because he was prepared to deal with a hysterical mother who would do anything to get her daughter back. You showed up and turned the tables on him. You were a better opponent and he caved."
Ari shook her head. "If it was that easy to throw their plans completely sideways, Mystery Man wouldn't have waited so long to kill Brandon. He would have just eliminated the middleman to talk with me himself." She took a bite of her dinner and chewed thoughtfully. "What about the ransom? Why not give a number?"
Dale gestured with her spoon. "It's like what you said. They were making Madeline decide how much Jenna was worth. To you and me, a million dollars is a fortune and to Milo she considers a hundred-dollar bill to be a nice tip. Money means different things to different people."
"So he's a philosopher kidnapper?" Dale shrugged. Ari looked toward the window. "And Brandon knew what Madeline was worth. Maybe not the exact dollar amount, but he had a good idea. He worked with her, he dated her, so he at least could guesstimate about how much she could afford." She stirred her meal. "So if it wasn't a scheme to get as much money as possible, then why let Madeline choose how much to give?"
Dale thought for a moment as she chewed her mouthful. Finally she shrugged. "Maybe they just wanted to get rid of Jenna. You know, like when a store is trying to get rid of something that won't move, they drop the price or let you negotiate a little."
"Kidnapper's remorse," Ari muttered, then pressed her lips together. "But they treated her kindly. They were being so nice to her that she doesn't even realize she was in danger. She thinks it was just an unusual couple of days. Even the gunfire didn't faze her because she thought we were playing."
Dale hummed and looked toward the window. The clouds were low enough that they formed a bulky ceiling over the city. Ari ate a few bites before Dale spoke again.
"Maybe Brandon wanted the cops involved."
"They said no police."
Dale rolled her eyes. "Everyone says that in every kidnapping movie, and who always gets involved? Cops or the FBI. They swoop in and take over the negotiations. Brandon didn't expect to be dealing with someone like you. What if the kidnapping went the way it did because of Missing Melody?"
"How so?"
"Brandon and Madeline broke up a year ago, but not because she hates him. It's because he's a gambler. She's worried he won't be a good provider for Jenna so she ends the relationship. She moves on, Brandon doesn't. He decides to show Madeline he can be a hero. He gets a partner who is smarter than him to make sure things go off without a hitch. They plan, they get everything ready, and they finally work up the nerve to actually grab Jenna. His plan is to be the one who brings her back. A knight in shining armor who has proven he can come through when it really matters. But Missing Melody ruins everything. Suddenly he's a kidnapper in a city where suddenly every cop is on high alert for a kidnapper. He panics and all he cares about is getting out of the situation as soon as possible. But he doesn't want to be arrested for kidnapping so he has to play the part for the exchange."
Ari considered it. "It fits. Mostly."
Dale looked crestfallen. "Where did I go wrong?"
"Jenna was taken after Missing Melody was already on the news."
"Shoot."
"Not to mention the part where Brandon hires someone to help him kidnap a little girl. How? With what money?"
"He gets half of the ransom."
Ari smiled. "He fi
nds someone willing to commit a felony and be paid on the successful completion of the job? I don't spend much time with that sort of person but I very much expect they're the cash-upfront sort of businessmen."
Dale considered that and then brightened again. "Brandon did pay them. He clears out his bank account because he can just replace the cash when he's got the ransom."
"Kind of stupid..."
"This is a guy who spends every paycheck in a poker game. He's a gambler, Ari. That's exactly the sort of risk he would take."
Ari had to give her that. "Okay, but in that scenario Brandon's murder makes absolutely no sense. The girl was gone, the money was gone. Any sane kidnapper or accomplice is going to want to regroup. What would make you just pull out a gun and shoot your partner? Especially if said partner was the one who set the whole thing up?"
Dale pursed her lips and looked into her bowl.
"New theory." Dale looked up and Ari used her fork to punctuate her thoughts. "Mystery Man is the boss. He hired Brandon to kidnap Jenna and, if things went wrong, Brandon would be the one to take the fall. But who would want to kidnap her, if Brandon was just a patsy?"
"Madeline's ex-husband? Gerry or whatever? Has Detective Lorne checked up on him?"
Ari shrugged. "I presume so, but he hasn't told me anything. Madeline didn't seem to think he was a very viable threat, but she did say he was capable of killing her. She said he considered her a trophy. Maybe he was okay with her escaping but Jenna was his child. What if he decided she was stolen property and tried to get her back?"
Dale narrowed her eyes. "No. Because then why even have a ransom? Why not just take her and run back to wherever it was?"
"You're right."
