She cocked her head ever so slightly to the left and looked up.
The girl stared back at her with an unsettling intensity. Eyes the color of a shallow Caribbean sea looked out from beneath a dark fringe of lashes. For a split second Ellie was reminded of her second honeymoon, when she’d first seen a tropical ocean and the hordes of small, dark-skinned children who played in the waves. Those children, as thin as they were, had been full of smiles and laughter.
She glanced across the street to the huge rhododendron in front of the hardware store. Behind it, she knew, a man from Animal Control had his rifle trained in this direction. It was loaded with a tranquilizer dart for the wolf pup. Behind him, a worker from the local game farm was ready with a muzzle and a cage.
Keep talking.
She sighed. “I didn’t really set out to become a cop. I just sort of bumped into it; that’s how life works for me. Now my sister, Julia, she’s a planner. By the time she was ten years old she wanted to be a doctor. Me, I just wanted her Barbie collection.” She smiled ruefully. “I was twenty-one the second time I got married. When that marriage tanked, I moved back in with my dad. That is not a high point for a girl who can legally drink . . . and boy, did I drink. Margaritas and karaoke were my life back then. I meant to try out for a band, but somehow I never did. Story of my life. Anyway, my Uncle Joe was the chief of police. He made a deal with me: if I’d go to the Police Academy, he’d ignore my parking tickets.” She shrugged. “I had nothing better to do, so I went. When I got home, Uncle Joe hired me on. Turns out I was born for this job.” She shot a glance at the girl.
No movement. Nothing.
Ellie’s stomach grumbled loudly.
“Aw, hell.” She reached down for the chicken and tore off a leg.
As she bit into it, she couldn’t help closing her eyes for just a second. She chewed slowly, swallowed.
The leaves rustled. The branch creaked.
Ellie stilled. She felt a breeze move through the park; it scratched the drying leaves.
The girl leaned forward. The pink tip of her tongue showed between her lips. Ellie noticed that the girl was missing one front tooth.
“Come on,” she whispered. When there was no movement, Ellie tried different words, hoping for a connection. The stories and sentences weren’t working. Maybe simpler was the answer. “Down. Here. Chicken. Pie. Dinner. Food.”
At that, the girl dropped from the branch, landing like a cat, quietly and on all fours, with the pup still in her arms.
Impossible. The child’s bones should have snapped like twigs on impact.
Ellie felt something in her gut tighten. She wasn’t a fanciful or superstitious woman, but just now, sitting here on this bench, staring at this filthy, scrawny child with her silent white wolf pup, she felt a kind of awe.
The girl’s gaze locked on her. Those beautiful, eerie blue-green eyes seemed to see everything.
Ellie didn’t move, didn’t even breathe.
The girl tilted her chin and sniffed the air, then slowly released her hold on the wolf, who stayed close beside her. She took a cautious step toward the chicken.
Then another.
And another.
Ellie released her breath as quietly as she could. The girl moved like a wild animal, sniffing, sensing. The wolf pup shadowed her every move.
Finally the girl broke eye contact and went for the food.
Ellie had never seen anything like it. The two looked more like litter mates over a kill than anything else. The girl kept tearing off chunks of chicken and stuffing them in her mouth.
Ellie reached slowly behind her and gathered up her net.
Please God. Let this work. She didn’t have a clue what Plan B was.
In a perfect cheerleader turn, Ellie pulled out the net and tossed it toward the girl. It settled over the child and the wolf pup and hit the ground. When they realized they’d been caught, all hell broke loose.
The girl went crazy. She threw herself to the ground and rolled to get free, her grimy fingers clawing at the nylon net. The more she struggled to be free, the tighter she was bound.
The wolf pup snarled. When the red dart hissed into his side, he let out a surprised yelp, then staggered and fell over.
The girl howled. It was a terrible, harrowing sound.