Fox Run (25 page)

"Tell me, please."

So I did.

When I was finished, I told her, "Once we're sure, I am turning it over to you and Lara. I am not competent to plan what happens after."

She nodded. "Lara should be the one to handle it, anyway."

"So we're agreed, my job is to find proof, and hopefully find the missing pups. I tell you, and we talk about how to tell the alpha without anyone else knowing. And you'll follow my lead."

She nodded. "Exactly."

"Did you get my maps?"

"Yes. I spent a lot of money on maps. That's part of why it took so long."

"Where are my notes from the office?"

"I kept them. I thought they might be incriminating, but I didn't understand them. It's just some numbers." She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out my paper, handing it to me.

"Not just numbers, Elisabeth. Latitude and longitude."

She took the paper and looked at them. "If these are latitudes and longitudes, they are somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa."

The numbers were all a single digit and a lengthy decimal point. I smiled. "Add forty to the latitudes and eighty to the longitudes."

"These are close," Elisabeth said.

I grinned. "They're all in the upper peninsula. You know, where David's wife, Natalie is from."

"What are they?"

"The locations of her parents," I pointed at the top number. "Her brother." The second number. "And a piece of property in her maiden name." That was the third pair of numbers. "I think perhaps we should start with that one, don't you?"

She smiled. "I believe we should stop by Natalie's property and make sure no one has broken in. It's only the neighborly thing to do. Where is it?"

"Where are my maps?"

Elisabeth got up, disappeared into the cabin, and then returned with two map tubes. "Wisconsin and Michigan," she said.

"Gimme!"

She opened the Michigan tube and began pulling out maps. We spread them out, and finally I found the one we wanted. I marked the three properties, labeling them P for parents, B for brother and N for Natalie. The N was about six miles inland from the lake.

We both stared at the map. "I think perhaps, captain, that you should set a course there."

"I do believe, little fox, that you are correct."

While Elisabeth ran the boat, I dug out both tracking collars. I switched the harnesses between the two of them. When I put one back on, it would be the one from the deer, the one no one knew about.

"Michaela," Elisabeth said. "We can't get there tonight, not by boat."

"All right, Elisabeth," I said. "Let's put in here." I pointed to the map. "We don't want to be out on the open lake at night. This is a big boat, but it's just a boat."

We got everything settled, and I fetched a second beer for Elisabeth. Then I said, "I'm going to have one, too."

I slept afterwards.

* * * *

We put in to the harbor at Ontonagon. We didn't think we would be seen, but just in case, I stayed below with the curtains drawn. The theory was I would be furry, collared, and caged any time we were near shore, and I wasn't ready to go back into the cage.

We had a quiet dinner, talking about happy times. Then finally I sighed and shifted. Elisabeth put the collar on me and I climbed into the cage, grumbling. Then she called Lara. I could easily hear both sides of the conversation.

"Hello, Alpha."

"How did it go?" Lara asked her.

"She was angry. I still think the cage was going too far, and she was severely dehydrated by the time I got her on the boat and could give her some water."

"It couldn't be helped. She is too willful."

"She refused to go into her cage tonight, Alpha. I got some bites and scratches in the deal. Now she's sulking. I'm not sure she's going to ever forgive either of us."

"Did she accept the collar?"

"Yes, although she was pissy about it. Hang on, I'll take a picture with the other phone and you can see her body language. She's not happy." Then Elisabeth took a photo of me giving her my back, forwarding it to Lara's phone. "As you can see, she's all caged up and exceedingly unhappy. Can I please take her out of the cage at least?"

"Tell her I am very sorry."

"I don't think it's going to be enough, Lara. She knows I am following orders, and still she bit the crap out of me before I could shove her in. But she also knows whose orders they are. I don't think you're going to have a girlfriend when this is over."

"At least she'll be safe," said Lara. "That's all that matters now."

"Yes, she'll be safe, but I wonder about her mental condition. I am doing this, but it is under protest."

"Noted. Stick to the plan, Elisabeth."

"Yes, Alpha."

They talked for a while longer.

"Tell her I love her," Lara said as they wound down.

"Hang on, I'll put you on speaker. You can tell her yourself. Okay, go ahead, Lara."

"Michaela, I know you're not happy about the cage, but I hope you understand it's for your own good. I'm sure we can work through this. I love you."

I growled at the phone.

"I'm sorry, Lara. She's not happy."

"She's safe." And then they said their goodbyes. As soon as Elisabeth hung up, she let me out of the cage and took the tracking collar off me. I shifted human, put on pajamas, and sulked for a while. Elisabeth felt miserable, so eventually I pulled myself out of it and told her it was all going to be all right.

* * * *

I slept fitfully, full of bad dreams, dreams in which Elisabeth didn't let me out of the cage. In the morning, I was crabby and took it out on Elisabeth. She put up with my moods, undocking us and setting us back out on the lake. Once we were well clear of the harbor, I came out on deck and apologized for being a bitch.

"Sleep badly?"

"Nightmares. That you didn't let me out."

"Oh Michaela, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. Does the pack have a good therapist? I'm going to need one."

She laughed, but I had been serious. I didn't push it. I went below and made us breakfast.

The swells were heavy today, and it wasn't a comfortable ride, but it sure felt a lot better when we turned around the point and dipped into the calm leeward water. We traveled another half hour, cruising along until we found a cell signal. I made use of the dinghy that came with the boat. Elisabeth waited off shore in the big boat while I ran up onto the sandy shore with the tracking collar -- the one they knew about. I found a good place to hide it. Then I returned out to the boat, and we continued on.

We dropped anchor and had dinner. Then I shifted. Elisabeth put the collar around me and I climbed into the cage again. Elisabeth called Lara. I immediately began putting up a significant fuss, bitching in fox at the top of my furry lungs.

"How is she?" Lara asked.

"Angry. I promised I wouldn't put her in the cage. It was the only way I could get her to shift."

She took another photo and sent it to Lara. They only talked for a few minutes before hanging up. Lara didn't ask to talk to me. That actually made me feel bad. As soon as she hung up, I stopped my racket, and Elisabeth let me out of the cage. She slipped me into another harness, one I could slide in and out of. Then she played with my phone for a while until she pulled up a map program. I practiced unlocking it. We had marked the location of Natalie's property, and the phone had a GPS. I was all set.

She ran me to shore in the dinghy.

"Are you sure you can find it."

I licked her hand. I'd find it.

She gave me a quick hug. "Play it safe, Michaela. Please, play it safe." Then she let me go, and I took off into the woods.

I counted footsteps. That was how I estimated distances. I ran five miles then stopped and listened while I slipped out of the harness. I dug the phone out of the bag and fumbled until I got it turned on. I was a little off course, so I adjusted and took off. I repeated that at five and a half miles, then again when I was about a quarter mile from the property.

At that point, I stopped and lay down, listening. I waited like that for an hour. I heard no noises except the normal forest noises. After an hour, I crept closer, very cautiously, listening for noises every hundred yards.

Finally I heard my first noise: a cheap door slamming then after a short moment, an even cheaper door. The noises repeated in reverse a minute later. I thought that was odd. I crept closer.

Eventually I came to the edge of a clearing. Across the clearing, three hundred yards away, was a small cabin and next to it, an outhouse. After making sure I was downwind, I settled down to wait.

Forty minutes later, a man stepped out of the cabin. He carried himself like a wolf. He crossed the grass to the outhouse. Afterwards, he smoked a cigarette before returning to the cabin.

A short while later, two men came out. The distance was way too far to make out details, but it looked like the one in back was pushing the first one to the outhouse, and the first one was smaller.

I watched for hours. By the time I turned around and cautiously left, I was sure I'd found it. I hadn't gotten close enough to be sure, but I thought this was it.

When I got back to the lake was when I realized we made a mistake. We had marked on the phone's map the location of the property, but we hadn't mapped the location of the boat. I got to the water, and the boat was nowhere in sight.

I mentally flipped a coin and turned right. I ran for a half hour but never saw the boat. I turned around. I ran past where I'd started and for only another five minutes before I saw the boat resting at anchor. I ran down to the water and yipped twice. Five minutes later, Elisabeth picked me up on shore. I waited until we were back on the boat before shifting back.

"Well?"

I explained what I had seen.

"Are you sure it's the right place?"

"Elisabeth, I don't know. I have never met the youths that were taken. I met them as wolves, but I don't know what they look like. I don't know what the kidnappers look like. But I don't believe in coincidence. I think it's the right place. But I would have to get a lot closer to be sure, and even if I were peeking in the window, I'm not sure I'd be completely positive."

We went back and forth about it. What if she went? She knew the youths. We decided she'd be spotted or smelled. We talked about pictures, but anything I could take would be too indistinct at the distances I'd be.

In the end, we decided we had to talk to Lara. She would have to decide if we scouted more or acted on what we had. We both went to bed.

I slept poorly again.

Early in the morning, we motored back to where we left the other tracking collar. I went to shore and picked it up. While I was gone, Elisabeth sent a text to Lara asking if she was free to talk. We waited for her to call us.

We waited two hours, and then she called. Elisabeth answered.

"I am alone," she said.

"Is David around?" Elisabeth asked her.

"No. He, Reggie and Eric are following up on a lead."

"Lara, do you remember how David met Natalie?"

"Yes. He did an old fashioned bride hunt. No one does those anymore."

"So he is an extreme traditionalist. I bet he hates a female alpha."

"He has always been supportive," Lara said. "He has saved my life more than once. He loves me."

"And he was very loyal to your father?"

"Yes."

"Which means he doesn't want to challenge you, because he'd have to kill you. He wants you so embarrassed that you resign as alpha."

She thought about it. "I don't buy it."

"Did you check our location last night on the map?"

"Yes. You're in the Upper Peninsula."

"Thirty miles from here is a piece of property in Natalie's maiden name."

She was silent for a good minute. "What did you find, little fox?"

I told her. I told her all of it. I finished with, "Lara, I can not absolutely say I found the pups and their kidnappers. I've told you what I've found. What do you want us to do?"

There was a long pause before she said quietly, "Please put Elisabeth back on the phone and then give her some privacy."

"Yes, Lara. Lara, I am so sorry."

"You didn't do it, Michaela."

"Here is your sister." I passed over the phone then moved forward on the boat and sat down at the bow, staring out over Lake Superior. It was peaceful. I tried to ignore Elisabeth and Lara talking quietly, but it was hard to ignore the faint sounds of my lover sobbing over the phone to her sister. But this was something for the two of them now. I was new to this relationship, but this was someone they had known a very long time.

Eventually Elisabeth hung up with Lara and came forward to sit next to me.

"I am so sorry, Elisabeth."

"I know. Michaela, the alpha of the Madison wolf pack has kindly, formally asked the alpha of the Bayfield foxes to get photographs of a certain cabin from as closely as she can without getting caught."

"Oh shit," I said. "With a phone camera, I bet."

"It's all we have."

"I'd have to be so close, Elisabeth. And I can't operate the phone that well with fox hands. I would have to be human."

"You are very quiet, fox. Can you do it?"

"If they catch me, I'm dead, and they'll kill the pups, too, I'm sure."

"Don't get caught."

I took a big breath. "Do you have infravision or anything like that?"

"No. Just very good night vision."

"So if I'm belly down in the tall grass not moving?"

"I won't see you."

"Let's go to shore together. We need to see how closely I can sneak up on you."

"I'll be alert," she said.

"Then the point you hear me should be safe." She nodded.

I took a breath. "All right. I would approach the corner of the cabin as fox. If I get there, I'll switch to human, then slide very carefully to a window and take pictures. When done I back away, put the phone back, shift, and then get out of there."

We anchored the boat well offshore, leaving the known tracking collar on the boat. If anyone checked our location and asked, we could tell them we found a fishing spot. Together we used the dinghy to head back to shore. I shifted, and Elisabeth outfitted me with a little harness I could duck into that would carry the phone. Then I slipped into the woods while she sat on the beach. Whenever she could hear or smell me, she would just speak conversationally to tell me. I would be able to hear her just fine. She would huff quietly every few minutes if she didn't hear or smell me just to let me know.