Part 15 (1/2)
”I ... uh ... put on...” I indicated my scrubs. ”Lay down and the next thing I knew someone was smas.h.i.+ng a pillow on my face.”
”That pillow?” She pointed.
I nodded.
”Why did he stop?”
”I-” Should I mention the wolf or shouldn't I? Probably had to.
”There's this wolf...” I began. ”She ... uh ... likes me.”
”A wolf likes you,” the chief repeated. ”Why?”
That I didn't know. ”She just does. She hangs around. Follows me when I run. Stuff like that.”
”And you're telling me this why?”
”She scared the guy away.”
Her eyes widened. ”A wolf came in the apartment?”
”The door was open.”
Deb blinked. ”You're sure?”
”That the door was open? Yeah. How else would she have gotten in?” I wiggled my fingers. ”She doesn't have thumbs for the doork.n.o.b.”
Which got me thinking-for Pru to have gotten in someone had to have left the door open and it hadn't been me. The intruder?
Or Henry.
”Very funny.” Deb set her hands on her hips. ”Is this wolf black, with weird eyes?”
”You saw her?”
”Not me personally. But we've had reports.”
And here I'd thought I was the only one who'd seen her. I guess that was because I'd thought I was the only one who could see her.
”Her eyes?” Deb pressed.
”They're green.”
”Which is weird, right? Most wolves have brown eyes.”
”Most,” I agreed. ”Some might be a lighter shade, yellowish or hazel, which could appear green in certain light.”
But none would ever be the green-green of Pru's eyes. Even hybrids-part dog, part wolf-would be more likely to have blue eyes than green. Pru being a hybrid would explain why she felt comfortable hanging around town, walking into apartments. It did not explain why I could suddenly hear her now when I hadn't before. But that was more my weirdness than Pru's.
I made a soft sound of amus.e.m.e.nt. The chief glanced at me, but I shook my head. I wasn't going to tell her the wolf's name was Pru. That would just add more weird to the weird, and how was I going to explain how I knew her name? I couldn't. Wouldn't. Definitely shouldn't.
”I need to send a report to the Department of Natural Resources,” she said.
”What? Why?”
Deb jumped. I guess I had shouted.
”It's what we do when wild animals misbehave.”
”She hasn't misbehaved. She saved my life.”
”By walking into an apartment. Wolves don't do that. They also don't hang around towns or follow people when they're jogging. You know that.”
I did.
”She seemed harmless.” At least to me. She hadn't been harmless for the intruder.
”I doubt she's harmless. She's also the only wolf that's been seen, which makes her a lone wolf and they're unpredictable at best.”
Pru was definitely unpredictable. Still ...
”What will the DNR do?”
”Send a wolf expert.”
”What will he do?”
”Decide if she needs to be relocated or shot.”
”I don't think you should call them.”
”Thanks for the advice.”
”Sarcasm?”
”You think?” I narrowed my eyes, but Deb moved on. ”How did the wolf stop the masked intruder from smothering you?”
”Yanked him away by his s.h.i.+rt. Once the pillow was off my face, and I could breathe, I was a little harder to kill and he ran.”
I'd left out how the guy had flown through the air and smacked against the wall. I was funny that way.
”If you had a pillow over your face you couldn't see exactly what happened,” Deb pointed out.
”No. But I can add. The guy stopped. The wolf had a piece of his s.h.i.+rt in her mouth.” I searched for it amid the debris. ”There.” I pointed to the bit of brown material peeking out from beneath the leg of what was left of my end table.
”Anything else?”
”He dropped his ring.” I s.h.i.+fted my pointer finger to where it still lay on the floor.
Deb walked over, bent, squinted. ”What is that on the face?”