“It took two shots, that I can see. Not much blood, and it’s cold. He killed it somewhere else, hauled it down. It doesn’t look like he got in, or tried. But I didn’t look that close. A couple of your people pulled up right after I found it. They’re calling the sheriff.”
“Son of a bitch. What’s the damn point in-Wait!” Alarm ringing in her words, she pushed up straight in the seat. “Go back, go back. What if he’s using this to lure us away? If he got inside? The animals, they’re helpless. Go back, Coop.”
“Nearly at the gate. I’ll drop you off. I’ll go back.”
“Hurry. Hurry.” When he braked at the gate, she turned. “Wait for me,” she demanded and jumped out. “Eric!”
She circled wide of the wolf-smart girl-and Coop watched Eric get out of the car on the other side. “Catch this! Catch it. Get the best pictures you can of the wolf, the gate, of everything. Wait for the sheriff.”
“Where are you-”
She scrambled back in Coop’s truck, slammed the door on Eric’s question. “Move!”
He punched the gas, shot back in reverse, and went with the fishtail when he whipped into the turn. When he blasted the horn, she jumped, then stared at him. “On the off chance you’re right, and he hears us coming, he’ll book. This isn’t about confrontation.” Not yet, Coop thought. Not yet. “It’s about harassment.”
“Why off chance?”
“It’s unlikely he knew I was here last night, or I’d be leaving before your people got here. Otherwise, they’d be the ones to find the wolf, and they’d have come in, come up to tell you. Everybody’d be here, not at the gate.”
“Okay, okay, that’s a point.” But she didn’t breathe easily until she saw the first habitats, heard the usual calls and clamor of morning.
“I need to check them, all of them. If you take that direction, just follow the path, I’ll take this side and circle around, then we-”
“No.” He pulled up, stopped. “Off chance,” he repeated. “And I’m not risking him getting you alone.”
She lifted the rifle she had across her knees, but Cooper shook his head.
“Together.” And when they’d finished, he thought, he’d check both cabins, all the outbuildings.
“They’ll think I’m coming to visit, so there’s going to be some annoyance when I don’t.”
There were grumbles and hisses, and a few protesting calls as they walked by. She moved briskly as each visual confirmation eased the painful thud of her heart. That heart stuttered a moment when she scanned Baby’s enclosure. Then she looked up-she knew his games-and found him standing on the thick branch of his tree.
His leap down was gorgeous and full of fun. When he purred, she gave in and ducked under the barrier. “Soon,” she murmured. “We’ll play a little soon.” She stroked his fur through the fence, then laughed when he rose on high hind legs, pressed closer so she could use her fingers to tickle his belly. “Soon,” she repeated.
His disappointment rumbled in his throat as she stepped back behind the rail. She shrugged when Coop stared at her.
“He’s a special case.”
“Didn’t I hear disapproval, even some derision, in your voice when you talked about people who buy exotic pets?”
“He’s not a pet. Do you see me fitting him with a jeweled collar and leading him around on a leash?”
“That would be the one you call Baby.”
“You pay more attention than I think. He’s been at the refuge since he was a kitten, by his own choice. They’re okay,” she added. “If someone unknown was around they’d make some noise. But I have to check anyway. We’ve got a group coming in this morning, a youth group. And we’ve got two cats with ingrown claws that need to be seen to. Plus the interns have a few hundred pounds of meat to process in the commissary. We’ve got a routine, Coop. We can’t let this interfere with the health of the animals or the running of the refuge. If we don’t have tours, our budget dips. And you’ve got a business to run, animals to feed.”
“Check the rest on your cameras. Let’s go through the offices. If they’re clear, you can set up there, check your animals.”
“Willy’s going to let us open the gates, isn’t he? Let my people in.”
“Shouldn’t be long.”
“I didn’t get a good look at the wolf. It was good size, so I’d say full-grown. To take one down like that… Maybe it wasn’t with a pack. A lone wolf’s easier prey. He wants me upset, off-balance, to throw this place into upheaval. I took my share of psych courses,” she said when Coop only studied her face. “I know what he’s doing. Not why, but what. I could lose some volunteers, even some interns over this sort of thing. Our intern program is essential, so I’m going to be doing some fast, hard talking at our emergency staff meeting today.”
She unlocked the cabin that held the offices. Coop nudged her aside, pushed the door open. The area appeared to be clear. He stepped in, swept it, then moved from space to space to do the same.
“Stay in here, use the computer. I’ll check the other buildings. Give me the keys.”
She said nothing, only passed them to him. When he left her she sat and waited for the computer to boot up.
She’d known he’d been a cop. But she’d never seen him be one until today.
He’d thought he understood what went on in the refuge. But he realized he hadn’t considered the full extent of the work even after Lil had given him an overview. The commissary alone was an eye-opener, with its enormous coolers and freezers, its massive amounts of meat, and the equipment required for processing it, handling it, hauling it.
The stables held three horses, including the one he’d sold her. Since he was there, he saw to their feeding and watering, and marked off both chores on the chart posted on the wall.
He checked the equipment shed, the garage, and the long, low cabin posted as the education center. He took a quick scan of the displays inside, the photographs, the pelts, teeth, skulls, bones-where the hell did she get those?
Fascinating, he thought as he checked both restrooms, and each stall inside. He walked through the small attached gift shop with its stuffed animals, T-shirts, sweatshirts, caps, postcards, and posters. Everything tidy and organized.
She’d built something here. Saw to the details, the angles. And all of it, he knew, all of it, for the animals.
As he backtracked he heard the sound of cars, and headed around to meet the sheriff.
“Everything’s fine here. She’s in the offices,” he said to Tansy, then turned to Willy.
“Looks like he decided to hole up after all,” Willy said. “We can’t be sure it wasn’t somebody else, and they just happened to pick that gate. Or somebody got the bright idea because of the cougar. But the fact is hunting wolves is illegal around here, and people know it. Know the trouble they’ll get into for it. Now, a farmer shooting one that’s after his lifestock’s one thing. But I know every farmer in this county, and I can’t see any one of them hauling the body up here like this. Even the ones who think Lil’s a little on the odd side.”
“The bullets in that wolf are going to be from the same gun that shot the cougar.”
“Yeah, I expect they are.” With a nod, Willy folded his lips tight. “I’m going to be talking to the Park Service, and the state boys. You might do some talking yourself. Maybe somebody going on the trail, using your outfit or one of the others, saw somebody, saw something.”
He looked over as Lil came out. “Morning. Sorry about this trouble. Your vet around?”
“He’ll be here shortly.”
“I’m going to leave a man, same as before. We’re going to do what we can, Lil.”
“I know, but there’s not much you can do.” She came down the steps. “One cougar, one wolf. It’s bad, but it’s a hard world. And those two species may be romanticized in other places, but not here, not where they might wander down from the hills and take down a man’s cattle or ravage a henhouse. I understand that, Willy, I live in reality. My reality is I have thirty-six animals, not including the horses, spread over about thirty-two acres of habitat and facilities. And I’m afraid he’s going to decide to bring it here, that’s what he hinted at today. And he’s going to kill one of the animals that live here, that I brought here. Or worse, one of the people who work here, who I brought here.”