“I’ll have to give a statement?” Meg asked Montgomery.
“Yes, but not today.” Montgomery smiled. “We’ll take you home. Emily Faire can give you a checkup, make sure there aren’t any cuts we missed.”
Simon thought Montgomery wanted to ask about something else, then thought better of it.
“Arroo!” <Found the road,> Blair said. <I told Nathan. He said he and Kowalski will be there once the Crowgard give the patrol car back.>
<What did the Crows do with the car?>
<Nothing. But Kowalski left the car unlocked. The Crowgard went inside to look around and decided they wanted a ride to the spot where Broomstick Girl not-Wolf had gone to ground. And Kowalski says he won’t drive with a Crow perched on the steering wheel because that isn’t safe.>
“Problem?” Montgomery asked.
“Only if the Crows around here learn how to turn on your police cars—and drive.”
Montgomery looked alarmed.
“He’s teasing you,” Meg said, patting Montgomery’s arm. “Aren’t you, Simon? Simon?”
He looked at her.
“Oh dear.”
Eventually Kowalski and Nathan arrived with a carful of Crows, who obligingly hopped out and then perched on any part of the car where they didn’t slide off. Burke and O’Sullivan arrived a few minutes later with Captain Miller and his officer following in their own car.
After a brief discussion, it was decided that Burke and Montgomery would take Simon and Meg home, while Kowalski and O’Sullivan, along with Blair and Nathan, would help Captain Miller and the humans from the medical office retrieve the body in the woods. With the Elders so close, it wasn’t safe for the humans to go in without the Wolfgard going with them.
While Simon carried Meg to Burke’s black sedan, she didn’t say anything about his not wearing clothes. But as soon as they were settled in the backseat, she glanced at him and blushed. “Simon, could you . . . ?”
Another human had hurt her, and right now she didn’t trust this form. He shifted to Wolf and did his best to find a comfortable position after she hauled him halfway into her lap and held on.
? ? ?
It took longer to return to Lakeside than it had to drive to the spot where the car and Cyrus Montgomery had been located.
Burke hadn’t said anything about a patrol car full of Crows, but every time the Crowgard flew toward the road, he slowed down to let them keep pace with the sedan for a minute or two—to let them see the sweet blood in the backseat, sleeping with her cheek on the head of a large, dozing Wolf.
Then the Crowgard flew off to spread the word: Broomstick Girl and her Wolf were going home.
CHAPTER 29
Messis
The Crow took the small mesh bag and flew west. He had not been the first courier; he wouldn’t be the last. When he was ready to return home, there would be another Crow waiting and ready to take the mesh bag on the next stage of its journey.
It took a few days, but eventually the mesh bag was delivered to Jenni Crowgard, as promised. She took it and flew off to a private spot in the Lakeside Courtyard, then invited Starr and Jake to join her.
With deft moves, she opened the bag with her beak and plucked out the prize. It wasn’t as fresh as when the Feather Lakes Crowgard had taken it for her—with the Elders’ permission—but that didn’t matter.
The three of them tore at the soft tissue and, with a vengeful glee, ate one of Cyrus Montgomery’s eyes.
CHAPTER 30
Firesday, Messis 24
Douglas Burke followed Greg O’Sullivan into the mayor’s office and took a seat at the round table. Mayor Chen and Police Commissioner Alvarez occupied the other two chairs.
“Shouldn’t the Chestnut Street station chief be here?” Burke asked. He’d gone over the head of his own chief as well as those of the rest of the station chiefs in Lakeside enough times over the past month—or more—that he was a little surprised he still had a job.
“I’ll have a meeting with all the station chiefs later today to discuss how we proceed going forward,” Alvarez replied. “To do that, I need an accurate assessment of whether or not Lakeside has a future, or if the incident with Cyrus Montgomery was, in effect, a death sentence for all of us.”
Silence. Then O’Sullivan said, “Kick a pebble, start a landslide.”
Burke nodded and addressed the explanation to Chen and Alvarez. “For the terra indigene, the attacks by the Humans First and Last movement were somewhat understandable—two opposing packs fighting for territory, winner take all, and everything that lives within that territory has to adjust to the rules laid down by the victors. But the disruptions and conflicts within a human pack that could be created by someone like Cyrus Montgomery weren’t something that had been seen by the Others in the wild country—especially the Elders. Maybe there was concern that that kind of behavior could be absorbed by shifters who had too much contact with us. Sort of a psychological kind of rabies. Or maybe the Elders needed to study the effect one disruptive personality could have on a small community of humans before they allowed us to resettle places under their control. I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.”
“Captain Burke and I talked with Henry Beargard earlier this morning,” O’Sullivan said. “We had the impression that the Elders took some responsibility for what happened because they didn’t heed Simon Wolfgard’s warnings about Cyrus being a danger to the Courtyard’s residents. We also had the impression that seeing the police and Wolves working together to find Ms. Corbyn had shown the terra indigene who had little interaction with us that humans could fit in with other creatures.” He paused. “Governor Hannigan received a message last night. He doesn’t know how it was delivered or who, specifically, it was from, but the gist of the message was that police, firemen, and medical personnel can do their jobs after dark without fear of attack by the terra indigene, and that those who clearly belong to those professions won’t be harmed if they enter the wild country to search for a missing human.”
“That’s a big concession,” Alvarez said.
“With some luck and more work on our part to continue to build trust, some phone lines between regions may be restored as well,” Burke said.
“The mayor’s office will do what it can to help build that trust,” Chen said.
Alvarez shifted in his chair. “What about the blood prophets? Is the governor going to replace the doctors who were killed by people trying to find those girls?”
O’Sullivan shook his head. “The task force has been disbanded. There are less obvious ways for caretakers to share information about the girls, and letting those girls remain hidden is safer for all of us.”