The Wolf Code

Chapter 3

     Senora saw the dinosaurs an instant before she saw the dirt driveway that led into the wildlife center.  Four large, shaggy bison grazed lazily in a fenced area by the front entrance, not even lifting their heads when the tires of her car sprayed tiny gravel behind her.  She stopped, unrolling her window and peering into the foggy morning, looking for the person that the Sheriff said would be escorting her in.

“You’ll need to drive a little slower than that in the park,” a voice drawled behind her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin.  How had he gotten behind her?

Before she could ask him just that, he was at the passenger door, his hand on the handle and waiting for her to unlock the door.  She did so reluctantly, still trying to figure out where he’d been hiding when she had pulled up.

“I’m Ty Mahigan,” he said, thrusting one bronzed hand toward her and smiling. 

His black hair was shoulder length and slightly wavy, his eyes a dark brown so deep that she found herself instantly lost in their depths. .  She shook her head, pulling herself back to the moment and her hand out of his.  He smiled again, eyes twinkling merrily as if he knew what she’d been thinking for the instant she had lost herself.

“Senora Edwards,” she said almost as an afterthought.  “Are you my guide?”

“You could say that,” he said, offering nothing more.

He pointed at the gate, then sat back in the passenger seat, content to have her driving him along the narrow, winding path. 

The gate closed behind them as they passed the large building that served as the welcome center and bathroom facilities.  Then, the last signs of civilization disappeared, and it was almost as if they had driven straight into an African Safari. 

All manner of wildlife circled the car as she drove slowly over the crumbling pavement, careful to give the red deer that lumbered across the road plenty of time to pass.

`“They don’t seem worried about us,” she said.

“That’s because the wildlife center is about to open, and they’re expecting to be fed.”

“Out of cars?” Senora asked, a little surprised.  “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“It’s a unique place.  It was one of my favorites growing up.”

“And now?” Senora asked. 

“Who says I grew up?”

Senora scoffed, eyeing him sideways as she crept down the road at five miles an hour. 

“You’re joking, right?”

“Of course, I’m joking,” he said.  “Maybe.”

“So, why were you sent as a guide?  I’m not sure that I really need a guide when I have my GPS.”

“I’m a consultant of sorts.  You need me, trust me.  I’m here to watch over you.”

“I can watch over myself,” she shot back.  “I’m an FBI Agent, not some bumbling tourist.”

Her tone was curt, but he seemed unaffected.  For some reason, that irritated Senora.  Most men apologized when they’d offended her.  But she could already tell that Ty wasn’t most men.

“So, who do you work for?” Senora asked, wondering exactly who this tall, bronzed and muscled man was. 

He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt stretched taut against his muscles; not exactly typical detective attire.  Senora couldn’t think of an agency that would allow the haircut either.  Whatever he did, she would lay money that he was an independent contractor of some sort.  There was no way he worked under anyone.

“I work for you right now, but that’s not important.  Take a right here, where it says employees only.”

She did as he instructed.  She decided to drop the subject for now.  He was dancing around her questions, and she wasn’t in the mood to spar with him, even if it was mentally.  He was obviously more of a morning person than she was, and he wasn’t invested in the case.  The heaviness that had settled on Senora’s heart since the Sheriff had called thirty minutes ago wasn’t holding Ty’s good-natured ribbing at bay.  He was here to do his job, and Addie’s life meant nothing to him. 

Sure, he would probably feel something at the sight of her body, but it wasn’t the same.  He wouldn’t know the moment when she was standing by Addie’s car when Senora believed that she could make a difference for this troubled woman.  Ty hadn’t heard the stories about what a good heart Addie had, and how she had put her job on the line to take care of her mother any way she could.  Addie was just a body to Ty and to the Medical Examiner.  She couldn’t begrudge them their good mood.  They hadn’t failed Addie.

Senora had failed Addie.

That’s not fair, she thought, and she knew that she was right.  If Addie was already dead, Senora hadn’t really had a chance of saving the woman.  But that didn’t make losing her victim any easier. 

She sighed heavily before she remembered that she had company in the car.  Ty turned, his expression concerned, his eyes boring into her.

“Are you alright?” he asked, pointing to the fork in the road as he waited for her answer.

“It’s hard to lose them,” she said.

“I imagine it is.  I’m sorry you couldn’t save her, but from the sounds of it, she was dead last night.  I’m not sure what you could have done.”

“I know that,” Senora said.  “But I always have hope.  Sometimes, hope is the only thing that these people have, and I’m the only one holding onto the hope that they’ll be found.  Addie was written off right away by everyone else.  I just knew that I would find her safe.”

“Addie had a history of crying wolf,” Ty said. 

“That doesn’t mean she deserved this.”

“Of course, it doesn’t mean that.  But it’s hard for people to take a disappearance seriously when the victim has a history like that.”

His voice was calm, and something about the way he spoke to her made it clear that he agreed with her.  He wasn’t okay with Addie’s latest disappearance being written off as a hoax, but he didn’t have the time invested in it that Senora did.