The Wolf at Bay (Big Bad Wolf)

by Charlie Adhara

  “Who did this?”

  “Nobody. It’s nothing.”

  “Nobody? So you did it to yourself?” Ed had grabbed Cooper’s forearm right above the wrist and was squeezing so hard Cooper could feel the pulse in his fingers. He didn’t pull or push him, just held him like a drowning man. Park had stuck his arm in between them like he was one second away from sweeping his arm out and knocking Ed across the driveway. Cooper felt a flicker of fear for his father and then immediately guilty for thinking that of Park.

  “No! God! Just some asshole I was chasing down, okay? Back off, Oliver.” He swatted Park’s arm away with his free hand. Park let it drop but stepped closer.

  “When was this?”

  “I don’t know, Dad, a while ago. Don’t worry about it.”

  “I am your father! Don’t you tell me what to fucking worry about.”

  Cooper froze, and even Ed seemed shocked. He didn’t shout and he didn’t swear. He’d always been a hard man but firmly in control.

  In the yard, Cayla’s singing had stopped. “Dean?” they heard her call cautiously.

  “Coming!” Dean yelled back, and then more quietly, “Dad. Dad, come on.” He stepped forward and touched Ed’s shoulder lightly.

  Park was practically on top of them at this point, the four of them standing way too close, and Cooper felt the insane urge to just turn and run away and not stop running until he got home. His real home. In DC.

  “Dad,” Dean repeated, and Ed looked up at him like he didn’t recognize him. Cooper hadn’t seen that look since his mother died. “You’ve been working all day. Let’s get some water, okay?”

  Ed nodded, releasing Cooper’s arm slowly and leaving white finger marks behind. Without looking at him or Park, he followed Dean into the backyard.

  “What the actual fuck,” Cooper whispered when they were out of sight. “I haven’t seen him like that since... I’ve never seen him like that.”

  He thought he was shaking but realized the quivering was coming from Park, pressed against him shoulder to shoulder. He pushed him away. “That goes for you, too. What was that about? Why are you crawling up my ass right now?”

  Park turned abruptly, walked away taking a few deep breaths, and then circled back to Cooper. He looked upset. “They don’t know anything at all, do they?”

  Cooper felt his heart stutter and restart, beating faster, sharper, until he could feel it in his throat. He said slowly, “What do you mean?”

  “I mean your family doesn’t know anything about you.”

  He whispered, “You knew I’m not out with them. I told you that. I warned you.” An echo of the words he’d spoken just earlier that day, but he wasn’t joking anymore. The adrenaline swirling around his veins from before was settling and clotting into anger. “Is that why you keep touching me? Trying to get them to figure it out? Because if that’s it, Park, you can fuck right off. It isn’t your decision, whatever we are—it’s mine.”

  “No,” Park bit out. “I’m not trying to out you. I’m saying they don’t know you at all. Yeah, they don’t know you’re gay and you’re right, that’s your prerogative. It’s your family and I’m not involved as you keep reminding me. But what about everything else? The BSI?”

  Cooper lowered his voice. “You’re upset because I didn’t, what, tell them about werewolves? Is that what all those little hints were supposed to be last night? You wanted to know if I told them about...you?”

  Park was shaking his head but wouldn’t look Cooper in the eye. “What did you tell them you do? At the BSI? Because it sounds like someone told them you work in the office all the time and don’t go into the field at all.”

  Cooper’s face flushed at the accuracy of that, so there was no point trying to deny it. “So what? It’s easier that way. Think about how bad my dad is now with calling and shit, and that’s when he thinks my job is boring and I bring shame onto the law enforcement family tradition.”

  “What’s wrong with calling?” Park said. “Besides, you’d probably get along better if he knew what you did. Or some version of it, anyway.”

  “If he can’t be proud of every part of me, he doesn’t get to know the rest,” Cooper hissed. “I’m not some kind of fucking pick’n’mix bag.”

  “They didn’t even know you were in the hospital.” Park’s voice was raised now, his eyes dilating and possibly glowing gold, though through the haze of Cooper’s frustration with his father, everything seemed brighter. “You almost died, Cooper.”

  “Yeah, and? You think if he’d seen me tubed up in some hospital that would fix us? That he’d realize just how precious life is and forget all about what a disappointment I’ve always been to him? I don’t know what kind of feel-good TV special you were raised in, but that’s not going to happen. You don’t know him.”

  “You have no idea what it’s like being lied to by your family. Finding out you didn’t know them at all. Not until they die out of nowhere and you can’t even mourn them properly because they didn’t trust you enough to keep you in their lives.”

  Park’s lip curled back as he spoke, revealing slightly elongated canines. He had never flashed his teeth at Cooper before. But then, he had never looked so angry before. Cooper had a feeling he wasn’t the only one projecting. There was the taste of old wounds opening up in the air between them, rank and bitter.

  A shiver ran down Cooper’s spine.

  Park looked away and scrubbed his hand over his face. After a moment he said into his hands, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t—I didn’t mean—”

  The automatic words that’s okay hovered on Cooper’s tongue, and he bit them back. It wasn’t okay.

  It was a mistake to bring Park here. Instead of making things better, he had just made them worse. Sometimes letting people get to know more about you didn’t bring you closer, it just gave them more reasons to want to walk away.

  After a long moment Park looked at Cooper again. His face was red from rubbing, but his eyes and teeth were normal, or rather, restrained.

  “Look, maybe I should—” Park broke off as a strong breeze ruffled his hair. Cooper felt some more dust lodge in his eye and scrubbed at it irritated and a little panicked. Maybe he should what? Take a break? Go back to DC?

  But Park wasn’t looking at him anymore. He had turned his back, and Cooper could hear heavy breathing. For one horrifying moment, he thought Park might be crying. His stomach dropped. The thought of Park upset, maybe even hurting... It pulled a wave of protective anger through him and an even stronger desire to wrap his arms around him and hold on until the tension in his shoulders melted away.

  “Oliver?”

  Park didn’t respond.

  “Please don’t leave,” Cooper blurted out. “I’m sorry.”

  Park shook his head abruptly and then snorted, like he was trying to clear a bad smell from his nose, and Cooper realized he had been sniffing the air and not sniffling. He felt a hot wave of embarrassment flood his face.

  Park was giving him an odd look but then called out, “Cayla!” and jogged toward her, still digging and singing in the loose dirt where the gazebo had stood. “Cayla, come here!”

  “What—?” Cooper followed Park to the backyard, and Cayla hopped toward them.

  “Cayla, can you go inside and find Dean for me?”

  She frowned. “I’m digging.”

  “Cayla, please go get Dean. This is important and there’s no one faster.”

  She made a face, clearly not fooled and a bit insulted Park thought she might be. She looked at Cooper questioningly. Stupidly, he felt a little smug she trusted him over Park as the adult to turn to. But whatever Park was up to, he felt confident there was a point.

  “Go ahead, Cayla. Please.”

  Trusted adult or not, he was not safe from her incredulous face either. Still, she pranced toward the house.

  Park
crouched in the pit where she had been digging and started to scoop dirt away with his hands.

  “If you’re looking for somewhere to bury your bone, I can think of a few better places than that,” Cooper joked weakly, confused and not sure if they were still fighting or not.

  Park grimaced, stood, and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Somebody beat me to it.” He nodded at the ground.

  Cooper took a few steps closer to see. At Park’s feet, protruding from the dirt, was a row of brownish white teeth, flat-topped, all crammed together in one tight row, and still attached to the filthy bottom jaw of a human skull.

  Chapter Five

  Cooper started to suspect something was wrong when the FBI arrived. Well, more wrong. He, Park, his dad, Dean, and Cayla had all been shuffled into the front room. This kept them far away from whatever was happening in the backyard but with prime seats to watch a big black SUV pull to the curb in front of the house and two suits step out.

  “Do you know them?” Ed asked, and Cooper rolled his eyes.

  “No, Dad. The FBI’s a little bit bigger than the sheriff’s office,” he snapped, and Dean shot him a look. Cooper resisted the urge to stick out his tongue. It was hard not reverting back to childish rhythms here.

  The agents—a tall Latino man and an equally tall white woman—swaggered across the front lawn and into the house with such perfect synchronicity it had to have been practiced. It was moments like these that he sympathized with his father’s disdain of the FBI. The agents headed straight for the back of the house, ignoring the front room completely. Cooper frowned and went to stand by Park, who was sitting calmly in the corner of the room.

  “Something’s up,” he murmured.

  Park raised an eyebrow, expression otherwise unchanging. “Besides the body just dug up in your father’s yard?”

  Cooper rolled his eyes. “A skeleton,” he corrected. “It could be ancient or something.” Park looked skeptical. “Well, it had to be there before the gazebo was built, and who knows how long that’s been here? Before my family moved in, at least. But now they’re freezing us out.”

  The Jagger Valley uniforms had started friendly enough, or as friendly as one could get over human remains. They’d all known his dad and Dean from the county sheriff’s office of course. But at some point the tone had changed and the front room began to feel more like a holding cell than a safe place.

  “And now the friggin’ FBI? What the hell are they doing here? I know the Jagger Valley sheriff’s department isn’t exactly equipped, but this seems a bit much.”

  “With your father and brother’s connections, it wouldn’t exactly be ethical to have their coworkers investigate.”

  “Sure, if they were suspects,” Cooper scoffed. “But not this.”

  Park glanced pointedly to the right, and Cooper noticed his family intently eavesdropping. He sighed and shut up. As far as they knew, Cooper and Park were the FBI. And they were. Sort of. But there was a distinct separation between the rest of the FBI and the BSI. One he doubted the newly arrived agents would let go without comment. The last thing he needed was suspicions from Ed and Dean that he was lying about his job. Especially after what had gone down with Park.

  Just then the suits walked in. Cooper watched their eyes take in the dynamics. The front room, like the gazebo, had been his mother’s space while his dad had spent his time in the back rec room, and it showed even after all this time. The brightly colored furniture peppered with cozy blankets, the little glass bird figurines she’d loved peering down at them from the shelves, the photo books on Patagonia she’d pore over, planning an elaborate trip that would never happen. Cooper didn’t think a single item had been moved in the last twenty-five years.

  Cayla was curled up on the couch with Dean at her side reading her a book about South American amphibians. Beside them Ed was tense and uncomfortable in one of his mother’s straight-back chairs, Park was removed and separate on the other side of the room, and Cooper stood caught between the two groups.

  Both agents’ eyes stuttered over Park. Barely noticeable unless you were trained to look for these things. Cooper glanced back to try and see what they saw. Park was a big man, tall and powerfully built, and his posture was carefully arranged to look relaxed and innocuous. Cooper was used to this, but something about it seemed more effortful today. The raw power of the wolf was running closer to the surface than usual. He looked...dangerous. And the agents had noticed, too.

  Cooper stepped in front of Park, interrupting the agents’ gaze. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m Special Agent Primelles and this is Agent Joon,” the man said. “We just have a couple quick questions. This shouldn’t take long.”

  Cooper sighed. It shouldn’t, but it would. And it did. First a Jagger Valley deputy—and friend of Dean’s—was asked to sit with Cayla in another room, and then they were each asked to introduce themselves, their reason for being there, and their movements through the day. It was harder than it sounded and, predictably, Ed interrupted to say Cooper and Park worked for the FBI as well.

  “BSI,” Cooper corrected, and showed his badge when they asked. Whatever his dad was trying to do wasn’t going to work. He remembered being an FBI agent himself and hearing rumors about the mysterious BSI. Even the FBI weren’t aware of the true purpose of the bureau. But it was hard keeping a secret, especially in the government, and most agents suspected there was more going on than the cover story. Those suspicions grated, giving the BSI agents a weird reputation. Many FBI agents disliked and mocked them while at the same time were desperate to be a part of it and in on the secret.

  “And Mr. Park, you’re also with the BSI? For how long?”

  “Not long.”

  “And you’re in town for Mr. Dayton’s engagement party?”

  “Yes.”

  “As a friend of the family?” Primelles asked.

  “Yes.” Park’s tone didn’t change. But something about him, maybe the way he was watching Primelles with an almost detached, unblinking stare, raised the hairs on Cooper’s arms, and he didn’t think he was the only one. He had never seen Park make so little effort to put a person at ease before. Not unless he was confronting another wolf.

  Cooper watched the agents closely as they continued questioning, but he was almost positive they were human. Only humans would continue to push Park when he was like this, either ignorant to all the warning signs or, like Cooper, just pigheaded enough to pretend they were.

  “So you had just finished clearing this gazebo away.” Primelles gestured at Park’s filthy hands. “Could you explain again why you were digging around in the dirt with your hands, Mr. Park?”

  “I saw something.”

  “You saw something. While you were standing by the truck?” Joon prompted, but Park just shrugged, face aggressively blank. Cooper almost felt sorry for them.

  Clearly not getting anything from Park, Joon changed focus to Ed, tone overly casual and friendly now, and Cooper breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing subtle about his dad’s back-off signals. “Mr. Dayton, with a busy weekend ahead of you already, why’d you decide to tear down the gazebo today?”

  Ed opened his mouth, shut it, shook his head. “I don’t...know.”

  Cooper’s eyebrows shot up. “What—?” He glanced at Dean, who looked just as confused by their father’s response. “It was falling apart, rotting. Right, Dad?” Ed shrugged, but he didn’t look at him. Cooper turned back on the agents. “Why are you here? Why are you treating us like suspects?”

  Primelles stared at him coolly. “Just trying to figure out how a murdered man ended up under your gazebo.”

  “Murdered?” Dean said.

  “Without a doubt.”

  “Well, how should he know?” Cooper said. “That gazebo’s been here for ages. Maybe you should find whoever lived here before us. Right, Dad?”

  H
is father was shaking his head, lips pressed together and frowning.

  “We also have a tentative ID on the victim. Alex Hardwick.”

  Cooper could sense the stillness from his dad and Dean, the sudden tension. But feeling every inch the baby brother, he couldn’t stop from babbling on, confused and playing catch-up. “You mean like Mrs. Hardwick next door?”

  “Her husband, yes.”

  “But he—he left her...”

  Recently, Cooper wanted to say. But of course it wasn’t recently. It was around twenty-five years ago now. But he could remember Mr. Hardwick clearly. He’d always smelled of cigarettes and those hard cinnamon candies he sucked, trying to cover up the smell. He’d laughed a lot, a lot more than Mrs. Hardwick, and visited the field while the neighbor kids were playing to join them for a game of catch, though he didn’t have children of his own. Thinking back on it now, Cooper realized he’d been a very handsome man, blue-black hair and snapping dark eyes. Cooper could remember feeling pleased when Mr. Hardwick ruffled his hair and gave him cinnamon candies, though he probably did it with all the kids.

  It was hard to marry the memory of that man to the empty bones in the backyard. Harder still knowing Alex Hardwick had disappeared when Cooper was a kid and somehow ended up under the gazebo that had supposedly already been there.

  “How is that possible?” he said.

  The agents weren’t looking at him anymore. They were looking at his dad.

  “When did you say the gazebo went up, Mr. Dayton?”

  Ed jerked his head and avoided their eyes. “I didn’t. I didn’t say. I don’t...remember.”

  Cooper blinked. The obvious lie took the breath out of his lungs.

  Dean cut into the awkward silence. “It was a couple years before Mom passed. I was in seventh grade, I think. Coop, you were nine. Remember?”

  Cooper jerked his head, scanning his memory for a time before the gazebo, but the results were fuzzy at best. He spent as little time as possible thinking about his childhood. After his mom had died, everything about those first eleven years was seen through a lens of loss and what could have been, and it hurt. It just hurt. So he stopped thinking about it, and eventually the less important memories had faded.