Chapter 2
TWO
Something’s Afoot
Tyrion and I waited to hear what Nick wanted. Admittedly, as my crow friend resumed eating the nuts I’d put out for him, he seemed less invested than I was.
“Something strange happened,” Nick began, “but I’m not sure if it’s just odd or oddly menacing in a way our group needs to deal with.”
I ate another bite of cookie. “Okay.”
He checked his watch. “I’ll give you the short version and then I need to get to work. One of my cousins works in city maintenance. He and his crew were working on the Rocky Point Bridge. Do you know that one?”
I thought about it a moment and then went inside to grab a map. When I came back out, Nick was standing and looking confused.
I held up the map. “I see bridges all the time from the air. I don’t always know their names.”
Shaking his head, he took the map from me. “Right. Of course.” He unfolded it, laying it across the railing a few feet from Tyrion. He pointed to an area on the coast between Pebble Beach and Point Lobos. “It’s right around here.”
Flying along the coast in my head, I said, “Right on the ocean? One big arch?”
He nodded, folding the map and doing it properly. I hated when people misfolded maps. All the creases were off. It made my skin crawl.
“Okay. I think I know the one.” I took the map and sat back down. I hoped he would get to the point soon. I was getting really sleepy.
He stayed where he was, leaning against the railing.
“Right. So, all that rain we got over the winter—even this spring—has caused some erosion at the footings of the bridge. It’s nothing dangerous, but they’re on it, shoring it up.
Anyway, my cousin and his crew were there early in the morning, right before sunrise. ”
I nodded, wondering what it would be like to work on a crew. There were always other people around, talking, asking questions. It sounded exhausting. And noisy.
“Orla?”
I blinked. “Sorry. My mind wandered. I’m tired.”
He held up a hand. “Okay. Even faster version. My cousin scented a deer. When he looked, it was a lone deer. He said she was acting strangely. Skittish. She was craning her neck, looking over the edge of the ravine while appearing to move away from it. He was asked a question, turned away from the deer, and when he looked back, she was gone.”
“Did she fall into the ravine?” My stomach hurt. The poor thing.
“That was his guess too. He hadn’t heard her run away, so he jogged to the edge and looked over.
The tide was out. He would have seen her on the rocks, but he didn’t.
He says he felt something dark there but couldn’t identify it.
He didn’t see anything, didn’t scent anything out of the ordinary, but the hair on the back of his neck was standing up as he walked the bridge, searching for the deer. ”
I put my foot down on the porch and pushed, setting my swing into motion.
Maybe that would keep my brain awake and alert.
During my short stint in public school, I’d tried little tricks to keep myself awake.
Owls are nocturnal. I was the weird, silent little kid who rarely blinked, hid her large golden-orange eyes behind dark glasses, and fell asleep in class with alarming regularity.
The teachers and administrators wanted me tested.
My parents, though, knew I was behaving just as an owlet should, so they decided to pull me out and homeschool me instead.
For me, that meant that my parents purchased textbooks intended for much older students.
I dug in and read all night long about any and all subjects that interested me.
Nick seemed to be waiting for something. What did I miss? I tried to recall the last things I’d heard. Oh. “So you want me to fly to the bridge and see if I see anything?”
He gave his head a quick shake. “No. I want us to go there together and we’ll both check out the area. I don’t want you to investigate on your own.”
My brain and body were dragging. “Now?”
He pushed off the railing and crossed to me, taking my hands and pulling me off my seat. “Not now. You can barely keep your eyes open. You go upstairs and sleep. I was hoping you could go with me tonight.”
He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t like messing with your livelihood. I know you’re normally open at night. I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me a time that works for you.”
He hadn’t dropped my hand, and I wasn’t pulling it away. It was so nice and warm, it made me even sleepier.
“If we find anything,” he continued, “we can call Arthur and ask him and the others to meet us here to discuss it.”
I nodded, my brain catching up. Arthur was his police detective cousin, not the construction worker one. Apparently, there were a lot of black bear shifters in Monterey County.
Nick led me to my back door. “Are you all right to get up your stairs?”
I thought I nodded, but I couldn’t remember. “Sure. What time do you get off work?” Maybe we could go before I opened at eight tonight.
“Four, but I want to wait until it’s dark. Humans will think it’s really cool if they see you flying over the road. With me, they’ll pull out a shotgun. I’ve been hit before. It doesn’t feel good.”
I squeezed his hand. “Oh. Where did you get shot?”
He grinned, and it made my stomach flip. “Maybe I’ll show you someday. In the meantime…” He opened my back door and helped me through. “You go to bed now. I’ll check in with you later.”
“’Kay.” I walked away but then heard a throat clearing.
“Orla, honey? I need you to come back and lock this door before you go upstairs, okay?”
Nodding, I shuffled back, pushed him through the door, locked it, and headed back through the bookcases before climbing the stairs.
* * *
When I woke late in the afternoon, it was with a vague, uncomfortable feeling that I was supposed to do something.
Was a book order arriving today? No. Did I need to contact a customer about a special order?
No. Was there something happening in my book that had me on edge?
I considered a moment. No. I’d finished my book before I’d shifted and took flight early this morning.
When I was washing my face and brushing my teeth, I remembered Nick’s visit and that I’d be closing tonight to investigate the disappearance of a deer. My shoulders relaxed. At least now I knew why I was feeling off. Mystery solved. Hmm, maybe I’d read a mystery next.
After I ate, I went downstairs to browse the mystery section, to see what spoke to me. I heard a knock on the front door and checked my watch. It was only a little after six. I didn’t open for two more hours. I wanted to get a new book started before I had to deal with people.
Glancing around a bookcase, I saw Harold, one of my regulars, standing on my porch. What was he doing here so early? I went to the door and opened it.
“Oh, good,” he said, looking winded from climbing the steep hill to my bookstore. He was an old man, but he made it up my road at least once a week to look for a new book.
“Do you want to come in?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s my Maisie. I was wondering if you’d seen her.” Maisie was his little West Highland terrier. He’d only brought her to the bookstore a handful of times over the years, hoping each time that she’d decide I was okay. She never did.
His Westie wasn’t dumb. She could smell predator on me, and she didn’t like her person being near me.
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her since you brought her with you last fall.”
He rubbed his arm and wandered over to the bench on my wraparound covered porch.
Sitting, he seemed to deflate. “I don’t know where else to look.
She’s never run away before.” He stared out over the neighborhood.
“I have a doggie door for her, so she goes out to the backyard whenever she feels like it.
I fell asleep last night, watching baseball.
“When I finally got up today, I took a shower and made a late lunch. I realized Maisie wasn’t underfoot, trying to get treats, so I went looking.
The white lump I’d seen earlier on the couch wasn’t Maisie.
It was a stuffed animal my granddaughter left when she visited yesterday.
” He scratched his head. “I panicked. The doggie door was unlatched, but that was probably me. I couldn’t remember closing it last night.
” He shook his head. “When the grand kids visit, it wipes me out.”
He glanced over, his eyes desperate. “I don’t even know when she disappeared. I searched the backyard for her—it’s just a patch of grass with some flowers and bushes. I can see all of it from my back steps.”
He paused, seemingly shrinking into himself even more.
“There was a board along the side fence that was rotten at the bottom. It was behind a bush, but I was looking everywhere.” He shook his head.
“The neighbors have one of those big, guard-type dogs. He doesn’t like Maisie.
I was worried she went exploring and he attacked her. ”
“Did you talk to your neighbor?”
He nodded. “They said Sarge was only out for a short time this morning and that they were watching him because he’s on a lot of meds.
He just had surgery.” He shrugged. “I could see the dog sleeping in the corner wearing a cone. I’m sure they were telling the truth.
That dog was normally up and barking out the window if you walked by his house, let alone stood on his porch. ”
“I’m so sorry. I’ll keep an eye out for her.” My thoughts jumped to the deer disappearing at the bridge and I grew more uneasy.
He pushed himself up and started down the stairs. “I need to keep looking. My poor girl is probably tired and hungry.”
“Can I give you a ride home?” He looked so dejected, I felt horrible letting him go off on his own.
He waved a hand at the suggestion. “I need to look for her, call her name. Thank you, though.” He turned to look up at me from the bottom of the stairs. “If you see her, you’ll let me know, right?”
I nodded. “I will.” I watched him slowly make his way down the hill, calling out to Maisie.
I went in and locked the door. At the check-out desk, I took a bag, folded it into a smaller square, and then wrote, I’m closed tonight.
After taping it onto the glass on the front door, I went upstairs to shift.