“Where are they?” I asked. Then I saw it. The black wolf. It snarled, and Iain and I took the hint and ran the other way. We made it to the road just as the clearing exploded and knocked us to the ground as the earth rocked and black smoke poured over us.
“Are you okay?”
I opened my eyes and found Leo’s dark brown ones looking into them with concern. “You were out for about five minutes.”
“Iain?”
“I’m all right.” His voice sounded shaky, but at least he was alive.
“Can you move everything?” Leo asked.
I tested my fingers and toes. Everything worked fine. “Can I sit up?”
“We need to wait for the paramedics. I saw the whole thing. You got thrown back a few feet. I don’t know if there’s any spinal damage.”
“You’re the orthopedic doctor.”
“It’s hard to tell by just touching sometimes.”
“Are you okay?”
“I was still in wolf form. If I’d transformed…” He gestured to himself. He was naked and vulnerable. His wolf-hide had probably saved him.
“The black wolf. I saw it.”
“It warned you. I would have, but it dashed out there first and snarled at you. I couldn’t follow—I had to make sure you were okay.”
“Thank you.”
He raised his head as the sound of sirens floated through the broken trees. “I’ll be close by, but I don’t want to be seen here.”
“I don’t blame you. Go find some clothes.” I gestured to the ones we’d brought, which wouldn’t have fit him even if they had been wearable.
He melted into the shadows.
The paramedics arrived with the police, checked us out, and declared us to be generally unharmed, just shaken and bruised. We declined to go to the hospital for X-rays and other diagnostic tests. Then we had to deal with the police again.
“I don’t know what you’ve done, but someone wants you to stop doing it. Badly,” the detective said to us as we sat in his office. Again, we were bruised and dirty, and I still clutched the tattered remains of the clothing.
It was a rehash of the day before, this time sleep deprived, exhausted, and with something to hide. This time I couldn’t deny that the black wolf had warned us, and my head spun as the implications sunk in. It had warned me the day before, although I hadn’t realized it, but enough of the warning had sunk in to make me pull Iain back in the nick of time. Then there was the night Louise had died. Had it brought her to Wolfsbane Manor to give me the message,
What if the black wolf wasn’t a wolf, as I suspected? Leo and Ron said they’d tracked a strange werewolf back to the Manor. Leo hadn’t said anything that morning, but it’s not like we’d had a lot of time to chat.
“We have to go,” I said and stood. “You can contact me at Wolfsbane Manor in Crystal Pines if you have any more questions.”
“Now, Doctor Fisher, we haven’t finished talking yet.” The detective motioned for me to sit down. His drawl as well as his condescending tone reminded me of Bud Knowles, and something inside me snapped.
“Are we under arrest, Detective?”
“No, but—”
“But it’s ten o’clock, and I’ve been up since three without any coffee or breakfast, and don’t you even try to tell me that the swill and donuts you have in the break room will do. My blood sugar is dropping, and unless you’d like to give me an escort to UAMS when I crash out, I suggest you let me leave, get something to eat, and then get back to my estate. My solicitor, Mr. Galbraith, will know how to get in touch with me. Frankly, I’m tired, injured and ready to go home.”
The detective’s mouth worked, and he struggled to say something. I ignored him, and with a sharp incline of my head, told Iain it was time to go. Again, his lips twitched as though he was trying not to smile, but he followed me out without a word.
Chapter Seventeen
“I’m seeing a side of you I had no idea existed,” Iain told me as we rode in a taxi back to Lonna’s apartment.
“What can I say? Death threats and kidnappings tend to bring the best out of me.”
The police had beaten us back to Lonna’s apartment. They didn’t indicate that they’d heard we walked out on the detective. Two members of the bomb squad checked the apartment, then my car, and declared them to be clear.
“Doctor Fisher, Doctor McPherson.” The voice was Galbraith’s. He slammed the door of his antique black sedan and hurried up the stairs in front of the apartment. “The police just contacted me and told me what happened.”
“We’re getting out of here, Galbraith,” I said. “Someone’s after us.”
“It appears so. I wanted to tell you I did find those papers of your grandfather’s we discussed. In all the excitement yesterday, I forgot.” He handed me a manila folder. “And I wanted to make sure you are, indeed, unhurt.”
“Generally, yes,” Iain put in. “Doctor Fisher has hurt her wrist yet again.”
“Have you had it attended to?”
“There’s a good orthopedist in Crystal Pines. I’ll talk to him about it.”
“I would recommend you stay here until you know you’re safe.”
“I appreciate your concern,” I told him, “but I think that will happen at about the half of never.”
“Then Godspeed on your journey. Do you know what route you’ll take?”
“Not yet. It depends on construction.”
“Please give me a call when you arrive.”
Galbraith followed the bomb squad and patrol car out of the apartment complex. His car reinforced my initial impression of him as the creepy undertaker in some old B-movie.
“Was that a little much?” I asked. I looked over the grounds of the apartment complex for a large black wolf to appear. Where was Leo?
“I believe so. He seemed very concerned.”
“A little too concerned. Or am I being paranoid?”
Iain put his hands on my upper arms and squeezed gently. “After surviving two explosions in two days? I would say you haven’t been paranoid enough.”
“You’re probably right. We still have to find Lonna and Gabriel.”
“So why are we going back to Crystal Pines? Shouldn’t we revisit the scene of the crime? Look for evidence? See if they were, indeed, kidnapped?”
“Nope.” I hoped that my impression had been correct and that the clearing had been empty before the explosion. “It’s all been obliterated. And we’re not going back to Crystal Pines.”
“I see.” That’s what I liked about Iain—he understood that sometimes good research needs tangents. “Where are we going, then?”
“I’m paranoid, remember? I won’t tell you until we get there. But first we have to wait for Leo.”
“I always told that cad Robert that you would be the better boss.”
