Cry Wolf (9 page)

She tore her eyes away from him. “So, who is this person we’re going to see, and why? I thought we were hitting the Chamber today.”

She’d wanted to do that interview yesterday, but Sean had other plans. He’d accompanied her to the high school for her Werewolf Club interview and then he’d driven her past several sighting hot spots. It had been after six when they’d parted ways, and then she’d gone back to talk to Joey Phelps, the owner of the farm whose property ran parallel to the road that was one of those hot spots.

Now Sean was taking her to meet someone else.

“His name is Chris Parkins. Real nice guy, but a bit of a character. He saw the werewolf last year.”

Another eyewitness? She had been
so
hoping to talk to some skeptics today. Andrea sighed. “Okay, can we please make a pact right now to stop calling this thing a werewolf?”

“What do you want to call it?”

“I don’t know. Mystery animal?”

“Totally unoriginal, Andi.”

“Fine. What would you suggest?”

“I’m pretty fond of Woodbine Werewolf myself.” No surprise there since he’d coined the phrase in the first article he’d written about it.

She scoffed. “Please.”

“You know, some parts of the country have similar sightings. They’re calling them Man-Dogs.” He smirked when she looked at him in disbelief. “See, I have researched this subject a little myself, you know.”

That wasn’t what Andrea found absurd. “Man-Dog? That’s worse than werewolf.”

He sighed. “You’re not going to be happy with anything, are you, Sunshine?”

“If you give me a good suggestion, I will,” she promised sweetly.

“What did Joey Phelps call it when you interviewed
him
?”

Andrea sent him a startled look before she could censor herself. She wouldn’t exactly call Sean Hunter and Joey Phelps friends who chitchatted every night by phone, so either Sean was psychic or he’d followed her last night.

The obvious answer irritated her.

“He had more to say about you than he did about this…animal.” She turned her attention to the road. “Obviously he’s not a fan of yours. He swears he’s never seen anything suspicious on his property. Not a footprint. Not even a piece of fur.”

Phelps had been a tough source to crack, all right. Once he’d opened up, he’d had plenty to say, though. He didn’t believe any such creature existed, he was mad because sightseers trampled his crops hunting it anyway and he wouldn’t budge from his belief Sean had made it all up as a story simply to sell newspapers. Andrea didn’t think Sean would ever sink that low—
that
much she could say.

Sean shrugged. “I was driving by and saw you turn into his place last night. I wondered how it went.”

“It was nice to finally meet someone who isn’t in your fan club.”

“Ouch. That bad?” Sean grimaced.

“That man hates your guts.”

All right, so maybe she exaggerated, just a little. She hoped Sean had exaggerated too when he called Chris Parkins, her next interview, a bit of a “character.”

Parkins turned out to be a pediatrician. Not a bad sign. Andrea followed Sean into a comfy-looking office. Doctors were typically nice, respectable people. In her experience, they made great sources for stories.

She took the lead and walked into a spacious, modern lobby.

Everyone there seemed to know Sean—but what was new? He leaned against the reception desk as if he owned the place. The woman sitting there was young, black and very pretty. “Hey, Susie Q, looking real good today. Meg around?”

“You just missed her, Sean. She got a call from the school about Jason acting up and had to go meet with his principal.”

“What? You’re kidding. I wonder why she didn’t call and tell me.” He pulled out his cell phone and frowned. He sighed. “That kid is gonna be the death of us both.”

“Dr. Parkins is expecting you. I’ll buzz him for you,” the woman said.

There was that name again—Meg. His wife? And who the hell was Jason? His son?

Andrea felt disappointment tighten her chest. It didn’t matter, she told herself. She glanced at Sean. He looked preoccupied as he fidgeted with his fingers—fingers that were bare. No wedding ring, but what did that prove? Lots of guys didn’t wear them.

Get a grip, Lockhart. Why don’t you just ask him whether he’s married or not if you’re so interested?

She told her conscience to take a nosedive off a bridge. She wasn’t interested. But if she asked Sean anything remotely personal, he would think she
was
. Much easier to say nothing at all.

“Is there a problem?”

He shook his head. “No problem. Just a family thing. It can wait.”

A rotund man in a white coat burst out of the double doors leading to the examining rooms and did a ballerina twirl in front of some young patients waiting in the lobby.

The two little girls giggled and yelled, “Hi, Dr. Parkins!”

“My little angels, I’ll be with you in a minute. Watch some cartoons. Read some magazines. Give your mothers a hard time.” He blew them kisses.

The doctor saw Sean and Andrea standing at the front desk and rubbed his hands together. He danced over toward them.

“Sean, my boy, it is so good to see you! And what do we have here?” He gasped. “Who is this deliciously beautiful young woman at your side? Are you a model, sweetheart, and even if you aren’t, will you marry me?”

He looked a little bit like the eighties’ actor Dom DeLuise—only with more hair and glasses.

Marry him? Ah, no.

“Dr. Parkins, I presume?” Andrea held out her hand in greeting. He lifted it dramatically and kissed the back of it with a smacking kiss. She smiled at his theatrics. “Uh, I’m afraid I’m not a model—not even close. And isn’t that already a wedding ring on your finger, doctor?”

“I know. I know. You’re crushed. I can see it in your face. So cruel of me to lead you on.” He sighed dramatically and then winked at Sean. “Enough of this gibber-jabber. Come on back to the office, children. I promised Meg I would squeeze you in for fifteen minutes tops.”

When the door to his office shut behind them, he dropped into his desk chair and sighed. “Okay, let’s talk about werewolves, shall we, boys and girls?”

“Uh, Doc. Miss Lockhart prefers the term
animal
to werewolf, if you don’t mind.”

Andrea sent Sean a mean look. He just grinned.

The doctor leaned back in his desk chair and pretended to mull over the idea. “Animal. Hmmm. Yes, I like it. Politically correct too.”

Enough playtime. Time to get to the point.
“Doctor, I understand you had a sighting of this…animal last year. Would you mind telling me about it?”

He leaned forward and picked up a Buzz Lightyear toy he had on his desk. His office was littered with toys of various shapes and sizes. She wondered if they were for his patients or for himself.

“Well, I was actually helping some other volunteers set up for the Corn Festival we have on Main Street every November.” As he spoke, he used the Buzz Lightyear to demonstrate walking. “I was baling some hay bundles off a truck to help set up a pumpkin display around our entertainment stage when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. At first, it was behind the stage, but it moved into the trees nearby.”

Dr. Parkins reached for a Chewbacca action figure that was twice as small as the Buzz. He hid the Chewbacca behind a picture frame, then moved it so its head peeked at Buzz.

“It watched us from the trees nearby as we worked. It was strange. Unlike any creature I’ve ever seen before. You’re right about something, Ms. Lockhart. It wasn’t a werewolf. This happened about four o’clock in the afternoon on a Saturday. The sun was out, not a full moon. Besides, I don’t even know if I would describe it as looking like a werewolf. It was more like…well, a giant dog, on two legs. We even named it.”

Andrea’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Named it?”

“Yes, my wife and I refer to it as Fluffy, kind of like a pet. Every now and then, she’ll say, ‘Did you see that Fluffy was in the paper again?’” He chuckled. “Well, it’s never harmed anyone, as you well know. I bet it’s scared and confused, as curious about us as we are about it. I worry if it has a family.”

Andrea sent Sean a look that was half amusement, half
Are you kidding me?

She cleared her throat. “When you saw this animal, what was it doing exactly?”

He sat the toys aside and reached for a piece of paper and a pen. As he scribbled, he explained that the animal had simply watched him and another volunteer—who’d also seen the creature—as they set up a stage.

“So you never felt threatened or in danger in any way?”

“No, I didn’t.” He lifted his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t think Fluffy wants to hurt anyone. Like I said. I think he’s confused and curious. Maybe he’s like any other animal. If he feels threatened, he’ll defend himself. Here. This is what he looked like. Good thing I took art in school, huh?”

He slid the hastily done drawing across the desk.

It wasn’t bad. Good detail, good enough to give her an idea of what she was dealing with.

Andrea had to admit. It looked, for the most part, like a werewolf.

She sighed.

“Thank you, doctor. I know you have patients to see, so I won’t hold you up any longer.”

He stood up when she did. “Ms. Lockhart, I know you probably think I’m a bit of a nut, but I really did see this animal. I hope my personality doesn’t lead you to believe otherwise.”

Call her crazy, but she believed him.

“So, this is it, huh?”

Sean watched as Andrea shielded her eyes from the overhead sun and glanced both ways down the empty stretch of road. He followed her gaze and wondered what she was thinking. There was nothing but cornfields as far as the eye could see.

“God, I feel like I just landed in a rerun of
Hee Haw
.” She sighed dramatically, then glanced to where Sean leaned against his truck. “No offense.”

None taken.
He straightened and gestured down the road as he walked to where she stood. He gave her a quick recap of the most recent sightings here. A man was changing his tire when he heard growling and turned to see the creature approaching from the cornfield. The guy claimed the werewolf chased him up a nearby tree, where he waited until help came.

“Did anyone check this area afterward for footprints?” Andi glanced at her watch.

Sean followed close behind as she gingerly stepped through the high grass and skirted the edges of the cornfield. “I came out here with Reed the next day. Nothing.”

“Imagine that.”

“Of course, it had rained later that night, so any tracks could have been washed away.”

“If there were any to begin with.”

“Are you
always
this skeptical?”

“I wouldn’t be a very good reporter if I weren’t.”

Sean had the feeling he should feel insulted, but he mentally shrugged it off. As long as she was in town, she’d be out to prove something to him. He was a laid-back kinda guy. He would put up with it—to a point.

She moved farther along the edge of the field, poked at some cornstalks. “Anyone else ever reported sightings in this spot?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. One of the first sightings was on this road—in broad daylight, just like the doctor.”

“Oh yeah, I remember reading about it. The youth pastor. Doesn’t the daylight angle sort of blow the whole ‘werewolf’ theory out of the water?” Andi sent him an amused glance, then made pointy-ear gestures with her fingers. “I thought you could only turn into a werewolf at night and if the moon was full.”

“Who knows? Hollywood has gotten it wrong before.”

“Please.” She turned back toward his truck. The sight of her tramping fiercely beside the cornfield in her fancy boots and pantsuit—a black one that hugged her curves and made him feel a bit like a dressed-down Agent Mulder to her Scully—sent his mind spiraling in all kinds of naughty directions. Sure, she looked tempting all dressed up, but what would she look like in a pair of Daisy Dukes? Pretty damn hot, he imagined. With an effort, Sean turned his attention back to the landscape.

Something about it did look familiar. Sean whistled in surprise. He’d been right! “Do you see it?”

She turned and glared at him, looking barely tolerant. “See what?”

“That picture you showed me. I thought maybe it was taken here.” He shrugged and glanced back toward the cornfield.

Her reaction was comical. She went from frustrated to interested real quick, then tried not to make a show of going back to his truck to dig the picture out of her bag for comparison. When she held it up, obviously not seeing what he saw, he decided to go easy on her. He grabbed her wrist, redirected the picture until it lined up with its real counterpart, and stepped back.

“Yep, I thought so. See that old barn in the distance? Took me a while to figure it out, but that’s the picture, all right. Minus the werewolf, of course.”

She sighed. “Do you always have to be so damn cocky?”

He resisted the urge to laugh. He was a natural-born jester and couldn’t help himself. Half the time when she took him seriously, he was only kidding.

Andrea turned away quickly—too quickly, he realized, a second before her left foot slid right out from under her on the uneven, slippery grass. Sean figured it was a good thing he’d stayed close by.

“Careful.” He grabbed her around the waist and steadied her tall frame against his own. Andi’s hands gripped his arms, which only brought her body closer to his.

The contact was electrifying. It shocked all of Sean’s nerves into instant, painful awareness. He had the sudden urge to lower his head and kiss her.

Ridiculous. This was Andi Lockhart. The classmate who’d once worshipped the ground he walked on. The young woman he’d always felt protective toward, in a big-brother sort of way.

Her full lips glistened.

Obviously, Andi Lockhart wasn’t an awkward youth anymore, and Sean certainly didn’t feel very brotherly toward her either. The knowledge both excited and terrified him. He wondered if she felt the attraction too.