“Joanie, what the hell?”
The wooden door with its metal core saved us from the brunt of the explosion. The whole building rocked with its force, and the windows shattered inward. If we had been farther into the room, we would have been shredded. Smoke poured under the door, and we coughed, holding each other tightly as we cowered by the wall. We didn’t dare move.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked.
I almost didn’t hear him over the ringing in my ears. “I think so. You?”
“Yes.” The stubble of his chin scraped against my forehead. I picked up my hand from the floor and hissed in pain—it was the same one Leo had adjusted a few nights before.
“You’re hurt.”
“An old injury.”
“Is everyone okay in there?” a voice called from outside. “It’s the fire department. Please respond.”
“We’re fine,” Iain called back.
“Don’t move! We’re concerned you may be injured. Someone will get you out in a second.”
“That was fast,” Iain commented.
“I guess they don’t get many big explosions in Little Rock. And the fire station is just down the road.”
“I didn’t hear the sirens. Must be the ringing in my ears.”
The inner door opened, and Galbraith looked out, his expression one of concern, then shock.
“Doctor Fisher, Doctor McPherson? Are you all right?”
“I think so. Don’t come any further—there’s glass everywhere.”
The outside door swung open, and a fireman in full gear came through. “Is everyone all right in here?” he asked.
“Yes. Can we get up now?”
He held out his hand and helped me up first—by my uninjured hand—and then Iain. Galbraith picked his way across the debris.
“We have to make sure the building is still sound,” the fireman said. “And the two of you should get checked out at the hospital just to make sure you are. The paramedics are here if you want to talk to them.”
I wondered why he didn’t say the same to Galbraith, but then realized that Iain and I both had soot on our faces and dust in our hair. My left hand throbbed.
“I’m fine, but Doctor Fisher has injured her wrist in the fall.” Iain stopped when he saw the smoldering wreck of what had been his car. “My god!”
“Was anyone on the road?” I asked, craning to see.
“No, luckily there was a lull in traffic when the car exploded.”
A policeman walked up to us. “Was this your car, sir?”
Iain ran a hand through his hair. “It was a rental.”
“And when did you pick it up?”
Something still didn’t add up. I let the paramedic look at my wrist as Iain answered the policeman’s questions. No, he hadn’t let anyone else have the keys to the car, no he hadn’t valet parked it anywhere, yes, the rental place would know the history of the vehicle better than he would, yes, he had called ahead and requested a luxury vehicle…
I started, and the EMT apologized for jarring my wrist.
“No, it wasn’t you,” I told the earnest young man.
“Well, you should put some ice on it. It’s swelling.”
I nodded but was too busy following my own train of thought to hear him. There had been a noise outside the window, a noise I’d heard before. It was what had warned me of the impending explosion. But that was as far as my memory would go.
Again, that feeling of being watched, those invisible fingers across the back of my neck that raised all the hairs. I tried not to be obvious about it as I looked around. A shadow at the corner of the building detached itself from the other shadows and moved into the alleyway beside Galbraith’s office. The shadow turned, its tongue lolling out at me, and my heart stopped. The black wolf. Before I could be sure, it was gone, but I could hear Louise’s warning in my mind.
The black wolf knows.
That was the noise I had heard—the sound of an animal prowling outside the window. It was the same noise I’d heard the night of the fire before my car alarm went off and before the explosion in the hallway that started the fire. I remembered it now.
“What happened?” Lonna pulled up with Leo in the car, and he leapt out of the passenger seat. He stopped short when he saw Iain.
“Who’s this?”
“Iain McPherson. He’s another CLS researcher.”
“And you are…” Iain raised an eyebrow.
“Leonard Bowman.” He looked straight into Iain’s eyes. “Doctor Leonard Bowman.”
“Leo, that’s enough.” I pulled him aside. “Do you remember the black wolf?”
His nostrils flared. “Why?”
“I think I just saw him.”
“Give me five minutes, then get my clothes out of the alley.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Track him.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” I glanced over my shoulder and saw Iain watching us. Poor guy, he had no idea what he’d just gotten himself into. But he’d be so excited to hear about what we’d found if he could get past the shock.
“No more dangerous than letting him roam around and making cars explode.”
“Touché. Fine. Good luck.”
He made sure that no one watched him, then darted into the alleyway and disappeared into the shadows.
“Is he...?” asked Lonna when I returned to the group alone.
“Yep.”
She nodded. “You’ll have to fill me in later.”
The rest of the day was a whirlwind. First we had to talk to the cops. Then to the bomb-squad guys. Then to another policeman, this one in plainclothes, at the station. Iain had to make a call to his travel-insurance company and straighten out things with the rental-car company as well as replace everything that had been in his suitcase in the trunk. Luckily he’d taken his laptop as well as his wallet and passport into Galbraith’s office, so the difficult-to-replace items had been spared. Lonna had left us at the police station to go to her office and finally rescued us just as the sun was setting. She suggested that we go out for dinner, but I wanted to be safely indoors if the black wolf was prowling about.
“So who do you think wants to kill you?” Lonna asked Iain as we sat with Italian take-out in front of us and glasses—big ones—of Chianti in hand.
“Are you always this direct?” Iain asked. He leaned forward and snagged another calamari ring.
“Yes. And you’re evading the question.”
Here we were again, Lonna taking the lead, and me just sitting quietly and keeping my mouth shut. Back in the city with the same old patterns. I couldn’t concentrate, though, not with the black wolf prowling around out there and Leo trying to track him.
“I honestly have no idea. I haven’t received any threats. I haven’t noticed anything suspicious. The first inkling I had of something being out of the ordinary was when my car alarm went off while I was in Galbraith’s office talking to Joanie.” He raised his glass to me. “I don’t know how to thank Joanie enough for saving my life.”
“She’s got a knack for self-preservation.” Lonna grinned, and the red wine gave her purple teeth. She looked like she’d been sucking the lifeblood out of a wine barrel. “Don’t you, Joanie?”
“I guess.” I swirled the wine in my glass. “I just knew something was wrong. Just like the night of the fire. Just like the night Louise died.”
“Wait a second.” Iain set his glass on the table and turned to look at me. “You mentioned her earlier, and it slipped my mind. Just how did she die?”
“She showed up one night bloody and hurt, badly hurt. She died on my suede couch. Or maybe it was microfiber. Either way, they took it.”