His began to buzz again.
But...the kid might know who the psychotic one was. Yeah. The kid very likely knew. And wouldn't Andrew be terrified to betray someone as dangerous as that? If he knew the killer. Or maybe Andrew knew someone who did know. Perhaps start there, an easier confession for the boy-a safer confession- by far.
"Andrew," Max said, "you have before you two options. You can refuse to cooperate. You can protect these false friends, who have caused serious injury to a lot of people. People, Andrew, who are just like the Inu Hunters. Not stooges, not sympathizers. People who have no more choice in all this than you or your parents. But, in refusing to do the right thing, in refusing to tell us who the Inu Hunters are, you are in for a long, long stay right here in this jail cell --"
"Captain..." Mrs. Tebbe began, even as Mrs. Takei gasped out an outraged "No!" and drew her arm around her son. Max lifted his hand, a blunt order for them to keep quiet, though his eyes never left Andrew.
"The court will not hesitate to throw the book at you. Why shouldn't they deal harshly with a delinquent who has molested so many innocent people? We're talking assault and battery, Andrew. Those aren't misdemeanors, they're felonies."
"Captain..." Mrs. Tebbe tried again.
"But if you give this careful thought, if you dig deep inside, you're going to know what's right. Don't let anyone else get hurt, Andrew. The law will want to balance the good you do today against the bad you've done in the past."
Mrs. Takei was shaken. Andrew hardly had color in his face and he turned miserably to his mother. Max could almost feel the cold edge of Mrs. Takei's glare slicing into his forehead.
"My son is a citizen of your nation, Captain, and there is absolutely nothing, nothing more he is going to say without an attorney present."
"That's certainly his right, Mrs. Takei."
The woman almost sneered at the word. Max rose and Mrs. Tebbe did so as well, though not as quickly. Mrs. Takei was still clutching her son when she asked, barely controlling her voice, "With whom do I speak regarding bail?"
Max looked back at her. "There will be no bail for Andrew."
He expected attack from both sides, Mrs. Tebbe on his right, Mrs. Takei on his left. But only Mrs. Takei reacted, rising in disbelief and outrage.
"You cannot do this!"
"Mrs. Takei, it's already done."
/ / / /
Max was beginning to find Mrs. Tebbe's office soothing. He was beginning to think of it as a sanctuary, away from his own office at Lakeside. They were sitting silently together, though Mrs. Tebbe's desk barricaded her from him as usual. They had their standard cups of coffee between them. Something for Max's hands.
In his estimation, the interview with Andrew had gone very well, whether Mrs. Tebbe share that opinion or not. For the first time in several weeks, Max felt as if he was back in form. Why had it taken him so long to settle in, he wondered. When he thought about it, it had taken him just as long to move comfortably into his duties in Arizona. Before that, he had always been able to slip so easily into whatever tour of duty was his.
He shrugged. Maybe he was just getting older. No doubt much of it was due to Annie's death. Then again, first the Arizona tour and, now, this one had begun on very odd footing...
"Captain, you're thinking awfully hard."
Max looked at Mrs. Tebbe blankly for a moment. "What's that?"
"I said smoke's coming out of your ears. Thinking of the interview?"
"Yes and no. It went well, didn't it?" Mrs. Tebbe's expression forewarned him, so he said, "You know what I mean. Did you think we'd be able to send Mrs. Takei and Andrew off, waving and smiling, to their block?"
Mrs. Tebbe relented to reason. "No. Of course not. Really...you're right, Captain. It went as well as it could. We need to do something to shake the Inu Hunters up."
"Mrs. Tebbe, we gave that young man a lot to think about. Even if he doesn't know the real reason he's sweating it out in jail, his mother does. Somebody's going to come up with the name of the Inu Hunters' pack leader. When that happens, I think we'll make some real progress."
"It's just a pity we have to put the screws on somebody like Andrew."
Max took a long drink of coffee. "I know. Before they came here, I doubt any of those kids had done anything worse than soap a few windows on Halloween. But that isn't the case now."
"But the way Ataki died. I just can't believe a group of boys, no matter how angry--"
"The coroner's report isn't in yet. There's still the chance that the grisly details were secondary. Maybe the boys had only meant to intimidate the old man. Maybe they had him cornered and his fear triggered their mob instinct. Somebody went too far. A blow to the head with a blunt object. Panic. They drag his body through the barbed wire and haul ass. If you'll excuse my French."
"And they make it on foot, lugging dead weight, all the way to the hills, making sure they're just outside the government property line, then hoof it back without the guards seeing them?"
"They stow the body a little closer to camp, but not well enough to keep it from animals. You do have coyotes around here. Even cougars, I'm told. One of the search parties mentioned finding a couple of large animal prints the morning after Ataki's disappearance, remember?"
Max watched Mrs. Tebbe as she weighed the merits of his theory, and he felt a pang of resentment. Why did she always feel the need to second guess him?
"You've really thought this through, haven't you?" she asked, but her voice wasn't cynical.
"It's a viable scenario."
"What about that splinter group of K.A.F.A. in Disjunction Lake?"
Max opened his hands amiably. "I don't want to cross them off the list, either."
The C.A. sighed and retreated to her coffee. ax leaned toward her as best he could from across the desk.
"Mrs. Tebbe, do you think I want the murderer to be one of those boys?" Did she? Could she think him so cold?
Mrs. Tebbe looked at him. She seemed impressed by his question, her face softening more than Max had ever noticed before.
"No," she replied. "Of course not. I'm sorry, Captain. I treat you like an adversary, don't I?"
"Yes, you do."
She actually smiled. It wasn't the type of bright, full smile Annie was always so eager to give, but it was an honest one.
"I'll try to change that. I have enough adversaries already. I could use an ally."
Chapter 13
Tulenar Internment Camp
First Night. Full Moon.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death...
Nancy Tamura prayed those words over and over in her mind, afraid to call on the Virgin aloud, afraid the slightest sound might provoke it further. Her nurse's training told her that she was critically wounded. She knew it was blood loss and shock that blunted her pain. And yet, she could feel the blood everywhere, thin tendrils of warmth cast across her head like a net.
She knew her back was raw meat from being dragged such a distance. As she clawed along the ground, pushing against the earth with arms and legs, chest and belly, she felt the cold air where flesh was scraped away, exposing muscles and nerves.
But none of this, none of this mattered. Somehow, some way, she must get back to the camp, back to the twins. Her sons, dear God, her sons! Who would take care of them until their father was released?
A wave of vertigo almost stopped her in her tracks, but her will was strong enough to keep her pushing relentlessly forward. Which way is Tulenar, which way? The full moon gave no hint of direction. How long had she been crawling now, surely she was almost there. Shock blinded her to distance. Her struggle had covered only eight feet.
Long canines sank into her ankle and she was yanked backward, as she had been time and time again. She screamed with pain and despair. My God, she wanted to shriek at the thing, why don't you just kill me, damn you! Just kill me and get it over with!
But every time fear threatened, the image of the twins, the image of her husband sprang before her fading sight. She would pray to the Virgin again, begin crawling again, aware somewhere in the back of her mind that the creature walked by her side, watching every agonized move. No, don't dwell on that, think of your boys, think of them...
But the thought of that thing so near was beginning to overwhelm her. She couldn't see it any longer, it kept just out of view. But she could hear it. Hear its deep, barrel panting, its low growls. She saw it brilliantly in her memory, saw the silver fur glowing in the moonlight, its frame preternaturally huge. Saw its muzzle contorted in a snarl, its teeth gnashing. She could see the eyes. The eyes as human as her own.
And she could not keep the terror at bay any longer. She wept uncontrollably now, her arms stretched to their limit upon the barren ground. The terror of her own death coiled around the dread she held for her family as the beast stepped on one of her flayed shoulders and flipped her onto her back.
She reached for her scapular. She was a good Catholic and wanted to grasp the little relic-filled pouch against her heart at the moment of her death. She didn't realize it had been torn away, along with so much of her flesh, as the beast had dragged her relentlessly onward. Its silken cord, its two square velvet pouches -protecting her heart front and back- were lost in the wasteland.
Reach for the scapular. But her fingers thudded instead against the beast's snout as its great jaws stretched across her breastbone and started cracking.
Chapter 14
Tulenar Internment Camp
First Night. Full Moon.
The night was so sharp against Doris's senses, it was as if it would draw blood. She stood on the small front porch of her house, her terry robe cinched around her like a tourniquet, watching the search beams of the towers lance into Tulenar's lanes. The buildings dotted with light as internees roused to the commotion. At the far western perimeters, the rays of military torches pierced the dark.
She looked at the full moon as relief from the blanched beams in the camp, but its hoary, mottled face was no easier on her eyes. Had it really only been ten minutes since the sergeant had notified her? And now Arthur was there, too, at her side, but not as a comfort. He was angry, and saying, "You can't get deny this one, Doris. Mrs. Tamura was abducted!"
The sergeant was clearly shocked by Arthur's familiarity. "See here, mister, you can't talk to the Center Administrator that way!"
Arthur ignored the sergeant, Doris ignored Arthur. She was too numb, staring out at the chaos.
"Look at me, Doris!"
"That's it," the sergeant said, and took a step closer to him. "I want you out of here now!"
Doris heard Arthur take in a breath, as if to calm himself. He was so close, she could feel the warmth on her neck when he let it out.
"I'm sorry. Doris...call off your bulldog and, please, look at me."
"For the last time," the sergeant warned, "she's Mrs. Tebbe to you."
But Doris could hear the uncertainty in the sergeant's voice. Three times Arthur had taken outrageous liberty and she had done nothing to correct the situation. Through the numbness, she began to worry about how this must seem to the soldier.
"You want him arrested, Mrs. Tebbe?"
Doris couldn't make herself reply. The sergeant's expression hardened with resolve of duty. Arthur's, with the understanding of betrayal.
He left. God, the look on his face. And she just watched him go. I should say something, she thought belatedly.
She looked back toward the camp, toward the pandemonium, and was almost overwhelmed with the numbness again. A young Nisei mother, her twin sons no more than five. The boys had fled their dormitory shrieking, still in their pajamas. They had been spying from their beds, peering through the window at Mrs. Tamura. It had been her turn to give the Block Six vegetable garden its nightly watering.
A monster, they had said. A monster had swallowed their mother's head and dragged her through the fence.
What am I doing, just standing here? The numbing shock suddenly dropped away. Doris turned to the sergeant. "Get over to my office. I'll meet you there as soon as I dress."
Had Pierce been contacted yet? As the sergeant hustled away Doris headed for her door, but a voice called to her from the night's pale gloom.
"Mrs. Tebbe..."
She hesitated, turning toward the voice as a man stepped around from the house's north. In the ghostly light of the moon, the silvercraft at Alma Curar's wrists and throat almost glowed.
Gruffly, she asked, "What are you doing here?"
"We need to talk."
Doris began toward her door again. "Whatever it is, Mr. Alma Curar, I have another matter much more urgent."
"I know. Mrs. Tamura. That's why I'm here."
She stopped, full of interest now, as he came up the steps. "You saw something? Give me a moment and we'll meet the sergeant at my office..."
Mr. Alma Curar shook his head, his expression stony. "It won't do any good to meet the sergeant, Mrs. Tebbe. What I have to say is for you only."
"But why? There's no need to mistrust--"
"Mrs. Tebbe, Mrs. Tamura is dead."
Doris said nothing, her stomach in knots, her heart thumping.
"Her body can be found in the same general area where Mr. Ataki's remains were discovered. It wouldn't have buried her very close to him. It's too clever to have done that. But it does keep a pattern."
"How can you possibly--"
"I know its habits." The healer didn't seem to want to go on. But then he said, "I know them very well."