Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (23 page)

"Right," she said.

"Benny is renting me space for a very reasonable rate. If you want to move yours with mine, I'll pay your rent, but I'm sure there's no reason you would need to do that unless the enforcers need that space.
Scarlett, you too. I suppose you'll need to talk to the enforcers. I still have a key to Benny's, but you don't. I don't know how much we're going to be up here in the future. I don't have anywhere to stay now."

Elisabeth sat up and set her head on my lap. I pushed her away. "Off, Lizzy," I said. She huffed her displeasure but lay back down.

I fiddled with my phone and forwarded to Greg and Gia the pictures I had taken so far. Angel and I continued to take photos of people as they came and went, and Angel took a bathroom break to take more photos, possibly catching other body language or people who had pulled out laptops who hadn't had them earlier.

Angel opened her boo
ks, and I put on my teacher hat, but we kept up our diligence, watching the people coming and going.

We sat there for a couple of hours, ordering more food and drinks periodically, and covering far more of Angel's school materials than was necessary. Angel and I alternated taking trips inside the coffee shop for more photos and to scope things out. One guy looked dodgy to me, but he left long before Greg called. Still, I got a lot of photos of him.

A car pulled up to the curb in front of us, but no one got out. I saw the guy inside on his cell phone, so I decided he must have pulled over to take the call safely. I ignored him after that.

Greg called. "He's there."

"I haven't spotted him," I said. "I'll take more photos."

I got up and made sure I got photos of everyone inside who was using anything that could be used for sending and receiving email. Absolutely no one looked suspicious. A few minutes later, Greg called me back. "He's gone."

"No one has left," I said.

"Maybe just shut down his computer," Greg said.

"No. Could it be someone on a phone?"

"No. It's a laptop."

"Greg, I swear, it's not anyone here."

I grabbed our waiter and asked for more water for the wolves then returned to Angel. The car that had been at the curb was gone again.

"Greg," I asked. "Would it have to be someone inside?"

"No," he said. "Just someone close."

"Like a car that parked at the curb?"

"Oh yes," he said after a minute.

I sighed. "I didn't get photos."

"Neither did we," he said. "Sending a car. Get back here and we'll talk about it."

"Angel," I said, pulling out my wallet. I gave her a couple of twenties. "Please go get our bill paid."

She nodded and disappeared inside.

Eric arrived while Angel was still inside. I bundled the wolves into the back, then waited by the door for Angel. She took the back seat and gave me the front.

"I looked right at him," I muttered.

"Who."

"Our guy. He was parked in the spot you were at."

Lara shifted to human and began pulling on clothes. "No one thought of that," she said. "We should have."

I stared ahead. "There was a car before, too. I heard it leave. I didn't pay it much mind. Oh god, if anything happens to Virginia, it's my fault."

"No," said Eric. "It's not. It is the fault of the people who took her, and only their fault."

"He's right," Lara said. "Or else it's all our faults. I sat there with you the entire time, and I didn't even notice the car. I was watching people and using my nose."

I turned to look at Lara. "When we find them, what happens?"

"It depends on what we find," she said. "And what evidence we can produce. We will gather the evidence we can until we can prove at least to ourselves that we have the right people. If we can use that evidence to convince law enforcement, we'll give Robert a chance to decide what we do. If we're stuck with evidence that law enforcement can't use, we'll handle it ourselves."

"If we handle it ourselves?"

"There will be bodies."

"If we handle it, I am going."

"Greg and I will take your request under advisement," she told me. "You will now say 'Yes, Alpha', Michaela."

"Yes, Alpha," I told her. "But this conversation isn't over."

"I didn't think it was."

* * * *

"We got proof of life," Greg said the moment we were in the door. "She's alive, and voice analysis suggests no more stress than might be expected for the situation. We're analyzing for background noise, but that will take time."

I began smiling broadly and hugged him. "Thank you," I said quietly.

"You're welcome," he said. "God, I hate assholes like these. I am going to enjoy taking them down."

"Are we going to?"

"Oh yes," he said. "We're definitely going to take them down. Now, let's you and I go somewhere quiet and talk about the car you saw." He addressed the room. "No one else talk about it. I want your impressions unconfused by comparing notes."

He led me next door, and he already had a camera set up to record the interview. He told me where to sit, then he sat opposite me and turned on the camera. He picked up a pad and asked me to describe what I had seen.

I gave an overview. I set the scene, so to speak, then explained about a car pulling up. "He was on his cell phone. I thought he had pulled over to make it a safe call."

Greg nodded, taking notes. "Keep going."

"I looked at him for a moment, but he was just talking on his phone, so I stopped paying attention. He left while I was inside, scoping out the people on their laptops."

"Did you see him using a computer?"

"No, but I wasn't looking at him anymore."

He began to pepper me with questions. Describe him. I couldn't. Was he white? Yes. Bald? No, but thin hair, not long, but not shaved, either. Old? No. Maybe 20-something, possibly low 30s. He went on.

"Okay, tell me about the car."

"Dark color SUV. Dark blue or green, I think. A little dusty."

Greg did the same thing about the SUV as he had about the guy, pulling a little more information from me. "Any particular smells?"

"Not to me," I said.

"Sounds?"

"Nothing in particular."

"So he didn't need a new muffler? Did you hear the engine knocking? Anything scraping?"

"No," I said. "
None of those."

"All right," he said after more questions, some of them repeats. "Send Lara down next."

I went back to the main room, sent Lara down to see Greg, then said, "I am going for a walk." I waited for the protests.

"We're coming with," Elisabeth said.

I stared at her before nodding.

I stepped out, Elisabeth at my side, Karen and Serena flanking us. I picked a direction that would take us to the waterfront, not saying anything. Elisabeth sent Karen and Serena further from us then quietly said, "What's going on?"

"I just wanted to stretch my legs."

"Why are you moving your things from the house?"

"It's not my house anymore, and I don't want to ask permission to access them. Lara told me she would arrange to move the things I was keeping. She assured me you weren't claiming my kayak."

"Of course not. You wouldn't have to ask permission."

I took a deep breath before responding. "A clean break is best. You may grill Lara if you want anything else on this topic, and she will share whatever she feels is appropriate. You may tell her I said that. This conversation is over."

Elisabeth didn't respond immediately, and we walked briskly for several blocks before she said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"
Making you pay such a heavy personal price."

I stopped, turned to her,
and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. I pulled her towards me, which really meant pulling me to her. "I said this conversation is over!" I pushed her away, releasing her. "I am struggling to keep ransom night from putting a permanent rift between us, Elisabeth. Being reminded of what you took from me isn't going to help with that process. This conversation is over, and you will never bring it up again. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Alpha," she told me after a brief pause.

I took a deep breath. I caressed her cheek once, and said, "Thank you, Elisabeth. And thank you for watching out for my safety and my friends." I started off down the street. "I am bad company right now. I am sure Serena and Karen can keep me safe, if you would rather be elsewhere."

"Are you asking me to leave or giving me the option."

"Giving you the option."

"I'll stay."

"Thank you," I said again quietly.

We reached the waterfront the
n turned to walk down it. "Is this a bad idea? I've been seen around here a lot."

"Don't look like you're scoping anything out," Elisabeth said. "Look like a tourist or a resident instead."

"And what are you?"

"Another tourist," she said.

"You guys don't look like tourists."

"They aren't watching for anything like this," she said. "We're fine. Stop worrying about it."

We walked slowly along the waterfront, looking out over the lake that I loved so much. We hadn't gotten too far when I said, "Is there something I should be doing to help?"

"You could roam the streets randomly hoping to spot a car you barely recognize or hoping that when you walked past, you heard Virginia's voice coming faintly from someone's basement at the exact time you walked past."

"Am I keeping any of you from something more productive?"

"We could be in fur roaming all over the neighborhoods with our noses, but I bet we'd get picked up by animal control long before we caught the scent."

"Are you going to recommend we do any of those?"

"I believe you need this walk," she said. "You're going to have more to do on this. But now it's time to let other people do their parts. You need to do what is necessary so you'll be ready when it's your turn again."

We walked on for several minutes. I felt lost. I didn't know my place in the world anymore. I was getting real tired of the pity parties I seemed to hold with some frequency. I needed something to focus on instead.

"I don't like this look, Michaela," Elisabeth told me in a quiet tone.

"I promise I won't ditch you tonight," I said.

"And tomorrow?"

"I don't know who is going to piss me off tomorrow, so I'm not ready to make promises for tomorrow."

"You've made promises to me before," she replied. "You seem to be good at breaking them."

"Situations change," I said. "I am sometimes forced to react without having opportunity to first apprise people to whom I have offered promises."

"Pretty answer," Elisabeth replied.

"I need something to do," I said. "I'm having a good pity party in my head right now."

"There are a few hours of daylight remaining to us," she pointed out. "We could use them."

"How would we do that?" I asked her.

"We have several kayaks a short drive away.
"

"If you weren't babysitting me, what would you be doing?"

"Babysitting Lara."

"I think it's time to walk the dogs again," I said.

She tightened her lips but said nothing.

"Off-leash," I added.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked.

"It might be a long shot, but we're not doing anything productive down here. You have a nose. I have ears. I think we should at least attempt to use them. We might get lucky. It's not a big town, after all. Unless you have a better idea."

She pulled Karen and Serena in. The four of us talked about it. No one had a better idea, and all of us felt we'd be more productive that way than any other.

"We'll make it even better," I said as we turned towards the motel. "I think some of you should get away from the dog walker. You can stay a house or two ahead of me."

Elisabeth grinned. "Sniffing the bushes, I imagine."

"I imagine," I said.

* * * *

Greg and Lara admitted they didn't have any better ideas. Lara said she wanted to go along.
She especially liked the idea of leading me on a merry chase.

"You're going to have to wear leashes and make it look like you got away from me, but lots of dogs know how to carry a leash in their mouths, so you can do that to avoid tripping on them
. It needs to look like you got away from me, not like I let you run loose."

Angel wanted to know if she could come.

"In fur?"

"Yes. I can be the one that didn't get loose, if you like."

"Fine with me. Lara?"

She nodded and ordered everyone to start shifting. "Are you all right?" she asked me quietly.

"Just a stupid pity party," I replied.

"Better now?"

"No, and I don't think it's going to be better any time soon, but I'm going to try to keep myself occupied with other things until it either goes away or I find a solution."

"Is this about the house?" she asked.

"And everything else."

She frowned. "You do know, you are deeply respected by everyone in this room. There is some real power here, and people listen when you speak."

I mulled that over. "I have influence, but no real power. I don't need power. But I do need to know who I am, other than the alpha's mate."

"You are you," Lara told me. "Uniquely you, Michaela.
I don't know how to help you see what the rest of us see."

"Let's concentrate on finding Virginia. Then we can worry about finding me."

She nodded. The wolves were almost done shifting, so she slipped out of her clothes and turned furry. I put collars and leashes on all of them, and we headed out the door.

I didn't know the streets of Ashland the way I did Bayfield, but it's not a big town. Greg handed me a small map. The plan was to go up and down the streets slowly, paying attention to where we'd been. The wolves would spread out, sniffing as much as they wanted, staying close to me, but would make sure I couldn't catch them. I would keep my ears open. It was more likely they would smell something than I would hear anything useful, but trying this was better than sitting in the motel moping.

I reviewed the map and decided to be methodical, beginning with the southwest corner near the motel and working over time to the northeast. Our plan wouldn't net us anything if the kidnappers weren't right in town, and there was a lot of almost-in-town that wouldn't be right in town. We were searching for a needle in a haystack.

I was hoping the wolf noses and fox ears would act like a magnet, pulling that needle right out of the hay.

I explained all that to the wolves, and they chuffed agreement.

We got a couple of blocks from the motel to where I wanted to start, and I said, "All right. Time for you guys to go have fun, I think." I made a show of struggling with their leashes as the four of them pulled away from me. "Damn it," I said. "You can not have understood that. Knock it off."

They all chuffed at me and headed to opposite sides of the block.

"Well, you're a good girl, Gellie," I said.

She gave me a look that basically said, "Seriously? Gellie? Seriously?"

We chased after the wolves. I made a show of ordering them to behave, and they made a show of leading me all over the neighborhood, up one block and down the next.

We annoyed a goodly share of neighborhood dogs and a few homeowners. I apologized whenever confronted. "They're normally so well-behaved, but I mentioned they smelled worse than wolves and threatened a bath when we got home, and this is the result."