The Wolf Code

Senora let Ty comfort the woman.  He was doing well without Senora’s help, and in truth, Senora didn’t really know what to say to her. This was her first dealing with a family from a town this small, and it seemed that people ran by an entirely different set of social rules than they did in D.C.  Not only that, but many of the calls Senora received were days and weeks after the abduction, and by then, many of the families had already begun to lose hope or accept that their loved one was dead.  But Addie had come to dinner a few hours before she disappeared, so Mabel was still trying to process the fact that Addie was really missing when they showed up to give her the worst possible news.

When Mabel reached out to touch Senora’s hand, Senora almost jumped.  She’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed that Mabel was calmer now, and looking like she was ready to talk.

“I’ll do my best to answer any questions that you have,” she said, her voice and demeanor eerily calm.  “Anything to catch the monster that did this to my baby.”

“Thank you,” Senora said.  “The quicker we get every piece of information that you can think of that might help, the better chance we have of finding Addie’s killer.”

“That’s all I want.  That poor girl had the worst start in life, and it never seemed to get better until recently.  She deserves to rest in peace, even if I wish she was still here with me.”

Tilting her head, Senora waited for the words to settle in before she responded.  She heard something in the woman’s voice that didn’t make sense.

Maybe I misunderstood, she thought, looking for the words to ask her next question without offending the woman and making her shut down.  If Senora was wrong, Mabel might be hurt by the question.  But if she was right, that changed everything.

 “Mabel, was Addie adopted?” Senora asked, cringing inwardly and hoping that she hadn’t misread what Mabel was saying.

  “Yes.  What does that have to do with what happened to her?”

“Probably nothing,” Senora said.

Or maybe everything, she thought.    

“And what about her therapist?” Senora continued.  “Was she seeing the therapist about something related to being adopted?”

“No.  Not as far as I know.  She started going to work through her need to be found.  There was something about faking her abduction and having people search for her that fulfilled a need inside her.  She didn’t want to be like that, but she couldn’t stop herself.  She started going after her last faked abduction.  Something about that one shook her to her core and made her realize that she couldn’t keep going on like that.”

“What was different this time?”

Mabel shook her head.

“I couldn’t tell you, to be honest.  The Sheriff came down hard on her, just like he had every time before.  And she lost a lot of friends, just like all the other times.  But other than that, it was the same crap, different faked abduction.  The only real change was the nursing home.  They didn’t fire her, even though she left a group of seniors in Granbury at the mall.  They should have fired her, but they told her that they understood.”

“Understood?  That seems kind of off,” Senora said, after listening intently to Mabel.

The more Mabel spoke about Addie, the more intrigued Senora was.  And lost.  She felt more out of the loop now than she had when she’d started investigating Addie’s disappearance the day before.  She didn’t know how more information could feel like it was leading her further away from the truth, but that’s exactly how she felt. 

“I was surprised, too.  I thought for sure that she would be fired, but when Mark called her the Friday night after she was found and asked her if she needed more time or if she would be there on Monday, Addie was elated.  I think that was part of what made her seek treatment after I begged her for years to talk to someone about the faked disappearances.  I guess the mercy they showed her really touched her heart.  Maybe that mercy was the attention that she was looking for, though goodness knows I gave that child all the mercy I could spare and then some.”

Mabel smiled, then her face crumpled and she quietly sobbed into a handkerchief she held tightly in her right hand.  Ty was still holding her left hand, offering his strength and waiting patiently while Senora led Mabel through the seemingly endless line of questions she needed answers to.

Ty looked to Senora, and she nodded.  They were done with Mabel, at least for now.  They had enough to go off of to start investigating Addie’s death, and they were going to start with the therapist’s office. 

“Is there someone I can call for you?” Ty asked.  “Someone to come and sit with you after we leave, maybe?”

Mabel shook her head.

“Loretta is next door.  I imagine she’ll be over as soon as you leave.  I guess there are times that it’s nice to have a busybody as a neighbor.”

Mabel laughed softly.

“Do you need anything?” Ty asked, his concern so sincere.

He was so different than the Sheriff, but in this case, Senora had a feeling that the Sheriff was the odd man out.  Caring for each other seemed to be second nature to the people in this town, and everyone else she had met over the course of the investigation was kind and genuine.  Only the Sheriff seemed to think that Addie was a waste of air.

 Senora made a mental note to look deeper into the Sheriff’s past.  He probably had nothing to do with what happened to Addie, but Senora was willing to bet that he had something he was hiding, and he wouldn’t breathe easy until Senora was gone.  Maybe Senora would clean up a little corruption while she was there, so that the people of Glen Rose could actually be protected by their law enforcement. 

“I need my medicine,” Mabel said, and Senora perked up. 

She remembered what Mark had said about Addie stealing medication and how Mabel was on Addie’s insurance now, which was keeping her alive.  Senora heard the fear in the woman’s voice.  Losing Addie was hard, but Mabel wouldn’t survive if she didn’t find another way to get what she needed.