Monty’s smile was fleeting but genuine. “You got that right. But he would have even less contact with Sissy—with Sierra—if he had no reason to be on the second floor.”
As Simon considered that, he pulled the bowl of cottage cheese to his side of the table and ate a spoonful. He liked cheese and happily purchased his share when a delivery came from an earth native dairy farm. But no matter what they called it, this just wasn’t his idea of cheese. He’d thought he didn’t like it because he was a Wolf. Maybe it was because he was male, since Meg and the female pack chose to eat it.
“That Cyrus and his mate are still at the hospital, and his pups are in the schoolroom with Ruthie,” Simon said. “We could move all of their possessions to the other downstairs apartment in your building and have Chris Fallacaro swap the locks so the key we gave that Cyrus would work on the other apartment.” When Montgomery hesitated, he added, “If you don’t want to look at their things, I could ask Jenni and Starr to pack up their belongings.”
“No offense to the Crowgard, but I think it would be better if I did the packing,” Monty said.
“Well, you’re not likely to lose any shinies while taking the belongings down the stairs.” Simon smiled. “I’ll help you.” The Wolves had looked in the suitcases when that Cyrus arrived, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if the human had brought in anything that wasn’t allowed.
“Thank you. I’ll check with Captain Burke about taking some personal time for this.”
Steve Ferryman and Roger Czerneda had left the Courtyard, but Burke was still in Howling Good Reads. He looked amused as he held up the two books he’d selected—a thriller by Alan Wolfgard and a book Merri Lee referred to as a Crowgard cozy, with an amateur sleuth who had a habit of picking up more than clues while investigating a murder.
“This is the other one,” Merri Lee said as she returned to the front of the bookstore. She handed Burke a book that, from the look of it, had been read a few times already. “Jesse Walker from Prairie Gold sent it to us. You can take it as a loaner. It’s a mystery-thriller series with a human investigator who receives assistance from a couple of terra indigene acquaintances. I gather the author is pretty popular among the Intuit communities but is unknown anywhere else.”
“Was that in the box of books Jesse Walker sent to HGR?” Simon’s chest and shoulders furred a little in annoyance. Until he and Vlad decided whether to order copies for the store, those books were supposed to be a distraction for Meg, not be handed out to other humans.
“Jesse sent two copies of that one,” Merri Lee replied, showing her teeth.
Simon pretended the teeth were displayed in a smile. The female pack was upset because of the Sierra, and he really didn’t want to tangle with any of them. At least, not over a book.
“I have all the information you or Vlad would need to order new copies of the series,” Merri Lee said.
“Good. Fine. Lieutenant Montgomery and I will be across the street. Vlad should be around if you need help with anything.”
“Problem across the street?” Burke asked.
Simon went over to the display table to give Montgomery the illusion of privacy while talking with the captain, and to give himself a moment to digest the changes that had occurred since the Elementals and Elders had retaliated against the Humans First and Last movement, altering so many things in Thaisia—not to mention the savage destruction of so much of the Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations on the other side of the Atlantik.
On the one paw, he felt relieved that the Courtyard wasn’t faltering while his attention was pulled in so many directions. On the other paw, it felt weird not to know what was going on in his own store. Were the rest of the Business Association members feeling the same way? Maybe not Henry, who spent his time in human form carving totems and sculptures from wood. But Tess was more volatile lately.
He looked at the books on the display table. He wanted to arrange a few things as a substitute for lifting a leg and marking territory. He and Vlad had made Merri Lee their assistant manager in order to free up their time to deal with larger concerns and to take over John Wolfgard’s duties now that John had left to run the bookstore in Bennett, but he hadn’t expected her to mark the store as her territory so quickly.
We’re sharing, he reminded himself as he went upstairs to fetch the spare key to that Cyrus’s apartment and call Chris Fallacaro to meet them at the apartment and swap the locks.
Montgomery waited for him at the bottom of the stairs. “We should get this done. Eve Denby called me again. She’s at the Bird Park Plaza right now, doing a bit of scouting for Meg, but she’ll be back at the hospital in an hour to pick up Jimmy and Sandee since the doctors wanted to keep an eye on him a bit longer. They’ve decided this is a variation of that mysterious malady that has cropped up a few times in recent months. That being the case, once he’s released, the only cure is rest.”
They went into the apartment that Cyrus and his family were using and found the suitcases.
Simon looked around the adults’ bedroom and covered his nose with his hand. What had that Sandee rolled in to smell this stinky?
“Gods above and below,” Montgomery muttered. “Jimmy was raised better than this.”
“You smell it too?”
“Yes, I smell it. I’m surprised the station hasn’t received complaints from nearby houses about a bad odor.” Montgomery looked at Simon. “This must be a lot worse for you.”
“We roll on dead fish.” Simon lowered his hand and took a quick sniff. “This is a lot more pungent. More like skunk spray.”
Montgomery laughed, a quick sound muzzled to a chuckle. “Let’s toss it all in the suitcases and leave the suitcases on the porch. I’ll talk to Eve and my mother about how to fumigate this apartment.”
“I’ll pack up the puppies’ things,” Simon said, heading for the other bedroom. The pups’ clothes didn’t smell as bad, but they didn’t smell clean either.
Why would parents turn their offspring into scent markers for predators? Or was being stinky off-putting enough to discourage the human kind of predator?
He didn’t want Montgomery to think he was suggesting the man stink up Lizzy, so he would ask Kowalski or Debany. It seemed a silly way to protect the young, which was exactly why humans might do it.
The locks were swapped, the suitcases were packed and on the porch of the downstairs apartment across from Montgomery’s, and the Sanguinati who was keeping watch had been told who could, and couldn’t, go upstairs to the Sierra’s den.
It wasn’t said, but it was understood, that if that Cyrus or his mate tried to see the Sierra, they would need another trip to the hospital for a sudden loss of blood.