Wolftown

Schuster, Kevin, Wayne, and John collided in the Happy Howlers’ hallway.

“Nothing to worry about,” Kevin said to Wayne and John.

“What are you two doing outside the door?” Schuster locked the böxenwolf in the restroom.

“Why are you talking to her like she is a böxenwolf?” Wayne asked while John said: “Listening to a lady scream about being held at gunpoint by a police officer.”

Thinking before speaking, Schuster said, “She has indicated, or she claims that she is a böxenwolf and I’m collecting evidence about it. Maybe cooperating with her will lead to useful information.”

“Does she have an animal with her?” Wayne asked.

“Everything is under control. Wait somewhere else. It’s police business and whatever she says to Kevin is confidential. Move along, please.”

“What happened?” Wayne asked.

“It’s police business. Get warmed up.”

“Everything is fine,” Kevin said.

“I’ll get a wolf towel from the shed,” Wayne said.

“A what towel?” Schuster asked.

“A towel used to dry wolves.”

“Is it outside?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m coming, too.”

“Why?” Wayne asked.

“The suspect might come here in a wolfish manner, so watch out,” Schuster said.

“How much like a wolf?” Wayne asked.

“Very wolf-like and being around people and buildings doesn’t matter. I’m going to stay with you, just in case.”

“You left us outside before,” John said.

If I knew böxenwolves were real, I wouldn’t have, Schuster thought.

“You think she is less dangerous than the suspect you haven’t seen?” Wayne asked.

“She is pretty well secured, and he isn’t,” Schuster said.

“Kevin and John, stay in the break room.”

“I was going to change in the bathroom,” John said.

“Okay. Just don’t wander off and don’t talk to the lady. Wait, Wayne. I’ve got to handcuff her in a minute.”

“Why? What’s she doing?” Wayne asked.

“What do you think?” Kevin asked.

Schuster ignored Wayne’s questions about the strange animal noises. “Give me my magazine and round.”

“Will you threaten to shoot my client again?” Kevin asked.

“Not until she behaves aggressively.”

Kevin handed the ammunition to him.

Schuster handcuffed the lady and apologized for scaring her, he and followed Wayne outside.

John asked Kevin, “Was she a werew—or a böxenwolf?”

“Anything that happened is confidential,” Kevin said.

Wayne will love that more than murders in the sewers, John thought. How am I supposed to explain it to Paula?

Schuster convinced Wayne and John to wait in the breakroom, and he and Kevin whispered in the lobby. Schuster constantly watched the restroom door. He thought he could reach it before the lady broke down the door or ripped it off the hinges if böxenwolves behaved like stereotypical werewolves.

“I thought böxenwolves were people who thought they could turn into wolves, but they are actual, real werewolves, right?” Schuster asked.

“Böxenwolves are people. They own wolf straps that transfigure them into wolves,” Kevin said. “Werewolf is a synonym.”

“You’ve seen it before?”

“I haven’t seen a half-human half-wolf transfiguration before, but I was aware of the possibility. We don’t discuss it with the uninformed. It might scare people.”

“You should have told me.”

“Well, I think the monstrous böxenwolf explanation should come after the ordinary böxenwolf explanation—”

“It isn’t ordinary!”

“—which I intended to give you once I knew whether the belt worked or not. You didn’t give me a chance. Should I now?”

“Okay.”

“The wolf strap is a piece of wolf fur tanned with a specific alchemy recipe. Whoever puts on the wolf strap transfigures into a wolf to some degree, depending on how the belt is positioned. The lady won’t attack you just because she can transfigure into a wolf. A böxenwolf is as violent or non-violent as a person. It doesn’t change her behavior.”

“Are you sure?”

“Very.”

“How do you know?”

“I had worn my family’s belt and felt nothing evil or monstrous. I didn’t like it, for no particular reason. During the wolf attacks, böxenwolves went to City Hall because if we don’t cooperate with authorities or the mob, historically bad things happen.”

“I thought you were there as a lawyer.”

“And that.”

“She said that Dennis Laufenberg tried to blame the attacks on böxenwolves. How can he do that when the böxenwolves are at City Hall?”

“He didn’t want us there, remember? You must have heard him and Mayor Dwyer.”

“So, is it passed down information or does it have to be in one family, like a hereditary thing?”

“It is possible for people to make wolf straps without being in a family that traditionally makes them.”

“Could the suspect have killed a wolf, and no one noticed?”

“You might be too young to remember the Wolf Panic of 1982, or maybe your parents kept the details from you.”

“I wasn’t allowed to play outside because a wolf would’ve eaten me.” His parents omitted the dog from wolfdog because they worried all dogs would scare him and his mother thought the wolf part overwhelmed the domesticated part.

Kevin said, “Böxenwolves turned in their wolf straps to the police. My family did, but we knew the wolf strap wouldn’t cause trouble. The police gave the wolf straps to the museum. The museum hasn’t put all of them on display and I don’t remember hearing about a theft. Are you going to call Sheriff Jordan for backup?”

“Yeah,” Schuster said.

“You might want people other than me, her, and you to believe you. In retrospect, I think Dennis Laufenberg believed us, but I can’t imagine another high-ranking law enforcement agent believing it.”

“Do böxenwolves have some kind of special ability or something?” Schuster asked.

“A böxenwolf needs to relearn things like walking because humans and wolves walk differently. Automatic biological processes seem to be the same, but voluntary movement takes effort. The rest might be legendary, and it might be accurate, but I’m not completely sure.”

“Like what?”

“It is all theoretical. A böxenwolf heals faster than a human or a wolf. Iron and silver can injure a wolf too badly for it to heal. Iron and silver can make it transfigure into a human against its will or bring it under enough control for someone to untie the wolf strap. The last one seems contradictory to the strap’s lack of effect on a person’s mind.”

“Are they stronger than a wolf or a human?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m sure a person would be able to take advantage of a wolf’s natural abilities.”

“What about the full moon?”

“I’m not aware of a particular advantage, except maybe better night vision, like wolves.”

When the wolf attacked him and Foster, he saw the wolf’s jawbone in the dark and rain, but after Foster shot through it. He assumed Foster caused the exit wound because nobody reported a wolf with a facial injury. Schuster saw blood gush from a wound he inflicted, and the next minute, it scabbed. He hoped the rain washed away the blood instead, but even when he saw it, he doubted the idea. Now he worried his wolf bites might transfigure him into a werewolf.

“Do they heal fast enough to see it happening?” Schuster asked.

“Don’t people when scabs form?” Kevin asked.

“Faster than that with stuff that shouldn’t be healing,” Schuster said.

“I’m not sure. People say the longer you are a böxenwolf, the easier it is. I’m not sure if they mean the time must be consecutive or if it is accumulative, or if they mean being a böxenwolf is a skill or if it is a natural process.”

“What about claws?” Schuster asked.

“I didn’t pay much attention to mine,” Kevin said. “Being bitten by a böxenwolf won’t turn you into a werewolf.”

“But people don’t like biting people. They do it for self-defense, but it’s gross and desperate. That’s why horror shows people biting people. Scratching is fine. And people don’t like touching guts wearing gloves, let alone biting living ones with bare teeth. A person wouldn’t bite intestines. I mean intestines that haven’t become sausages, and not human. That’s all serial killer behavior, and Dennis Laufenberg doesn’t show a serial killer level of behavior. I think. Does he?”

“Maybe he snapped, but we know he was violent.”

“And some serial killers seem fine until you look under the crawl space. Was he actually like that and Foster and me didn’t notice? Does he have dead bodies in the woods or something?”

“If you are worried about it, you should check. Maybe he is just beginning,” Kevin said.

“I guess he could have hidden it, but the violence level is much higher. And he is about your age,” Schuster said.

“Does it matter?”

“He’s kinda old to begin serial killing, but I guess it could happen.”

“He had a good childhood, and I’m not aware of unusual behavior. You only know what witnesses and victims willingly told you. He could have used greater violence or threatened people, and, obviously, the people wouldn’t tell you.”

“I’ll put up with böxenwolves existing, but I’m not going to assume he is the most aggressive one yet. If a hostile böxenwolf finds us, I’m going to arrest him, and I’m considering him violent and dangerous,” Schuster said.

“You could heal your arm with the wolf strap,” Kevin said.

“It’s evidence.”

“You would still have scars.”

“They would look too old to be from yesterday.”

“May I speak with my client now?”

“Okay. I’m going to figure out what to do. I’m not going to ask her to put on the wolf strap again.”

“If I wear it, people might think it requires an ability.”

John shivered, sitting under a heating vent, and waited for Rebecca’s tea kettle to whistle. Wayne replayed John’s tape recorder and attempted to imitate her, repeatedly. His wolf vocalizations occasionally confused wolves.

“Your voice is too low,” John said.

“Even if it was higher, I couldn’t make sounds like that,” Wayne said. “She didn’t sound like a person.”

Searching the wolf pens alone for storm debris and conducting normal cleaning would last hours.

“Do you need help with the wolves?” John asked.

“I’ll see how cranky they are,” Wayne said.

Before Wayne or another employee entered the wolf pens, they cornered the wolves in a secure area. The secure area had one fence, and if somebody reached through the wire fence, the wolves could nip. Volunteers required extra training to enter the wolf pens. John had worked at a rehabilitation facility for exotic pets and lab animals, but Wayne would not consider it adequate training. If he accepted John’s offer, the previous days’ wolf hunts exhausted him.

Schuster entered the break room a few minutes later. “Are you two warming up okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” John said.

“Are you?” Wayne asked.

“I’m fine, thanks. The lady calls herself a böxenwolf,” Schuster said.

“Like an identity?” John asked.

“She changes into a wolf when she has the wolf strap on.”

“It’s impossible,” Wayne said.

“Does her attitude change or something?” John asked.

“No, and it isn’t a costume.”

“Does she have schizophrenia?” Wayne asked.

“Her personality stays the same like she has one. You won’t believe me, but I know what I saw. She looked like a wolf.”

“Maybe you should lie down for a while,” Wayne said.

“You’ll believe it if you saw it, but she won’t wear the wolf strap again, and letting other people wear it might contaminate police evidence. You heard her through the door.”

“People sound weird under stress,” Wayne said. “And when you’re stressed, it sounds weirder.”

“You said some of it didn’t sound like a wolf,” John said to Wayne.

Schuster said, “Arguing won’t settle the problem, but if one of you two try on the wolf belt and nothing happens, you would have just wasted a minute and can disprove me to your heart’s content.”

“Why don’t you do it?” Wayne asked.

“Because if I turn into a wolf, I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my duties as a policeman,” Schuster said.

“But then you would be the one tampering with evidence, instead of us,” John said.

“It’s a last resort, and I’ll write down it was for research purposes,” Schuster said. “I’ll do my best to be the one who gets in trouble for it.”

“Did it turn her into a male or a female wolf?” Wayne asked.

“I didn’t find out. Why?”

“I’m not saying that it could possibly work, but if it does, I don’t want to be a female wolf,” Wayne said.

“I don’t care which gender,” John said.

Schuster gave John the instructions, in the same tone as administering a drunk driving test, and emphasized skin-to-hide contact, though John had no idea why.

John untucked his shirts and wrapped the wolf strap twice around his waist, hardly overlapping. Within seconds, he felt another body grow or half-split from his. Disorientated, he flopped hard onto the floor, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. A minute-old wolf pup controlled its body better than he controlled his.