Kennel Club Read online

  “I checked to see if she was still alive. It was...” She remembered the blood, both how it looked and how it smelled. The wolf was going ballistic in her mind, but she forced herself to focus and feel the pulse. She knew it was useless; her throat was torn open, and Ari could see more vicious wounds through the tears in her blouse. “That’s when I heard the sirens.”

  “And you ran.”

  “Yeah,” Ari whispered.

  “Why?” He looked genuinely curious. “Most people who discover a dead body, they welcome the police showing up.”

  Ari said, “Because it felt like a trap.”

  “That’s a little paranoid, don’t you think?”

  “I got a call to the apartment. I walk in, find the woman who called me lying dead on the floor, and two minutes later, the cops are showing up. Sounds like a set-up to me.”

  Rojas said, “I agree. But that’s only if your story is true.”

  Ari covered her face with her hand. She was still searching for a response when the door opened behind her.

  “Speak of the devil,” Rojas said, defeat creeping into his voice. “Hello, Cecily.”

  “Hello, Roaches.” Cecily Parrish stepped to one side and held the door open. “Get out.”

  Rojas said, “She never requested counsel.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m here now. Please excuse us.”

  Despite her friendly tone, it was clear that it wasn’t a request. Rojas stood and closed his file. He paused and looked down at Ari.

  “If there’s anything you want to say...”

  “You will hear it from me,” Cecily said. “Leave.”

  Rojas left the room, head up but shoulders beginning to slump before he reached the hallway. Cecily pushed the door shut behind him and moved to take the seat he had just vacated. She placed her briefcase on the table and thumbed open the locks.

  She looked extraordinarily put-together considering how late it was, but then again, she probably always looked runway-ready. Ari hadn’t seen the lawyer in months, since turning down her job offer, and the effect of her beauty would have been overwhelming if she wasn’t well-trained in ignoring its pull. Cecily was a succubus. Ari was mostly immune to her charms, but she could still feel the energy coming off of her.

  “It’s good to see you again, Ariadne.”

  “Did you do this?”

  Cecily looked at her. “Be more specific.”

  “You fired Shannon to prove a point to me. Did you kill her, too? Did you set me up for murder because I wouldn’t come to work for you?”

  “I’m here because you get to decide what happens next, Ariadne. You were at the crime scene. You ran from the police with blood on your hands and your clothing. There are two paths we can take now. One, I tell them I’m your lawyer. I get these charges dismissed and you go home. To show your gratitude, you close down Bitches Investigations and come to work for GG&M. In addition, you will end your relationship with Dale Frye.”

  “What? That was never part of any deal you offered in the past.”

  “I’m negotiating from a position of power now, Miss Willow. You’ve made this increasingly difficult for us. Asking you to break up with her is just pettiness on our part. We can admit that. But it’s part of the deal.”

  Ari could barely unclench her jaw enough to speak. “And the other option?”

  “I volunteer my services to the prosecution. I ensure that you are convicted of Shannon Hardy’s murder and spend the rest of your life in prison. You lose Bitches anyway. You probably decide to end things with Dale because it’s not fair to have her living alone and without love while you’re locked up. At least with the first option you have the benefit of being free and out in the world.”

  Rage boiled inside her to the point where she couldn’t trust herself with words. She would have felt more articulate as the wolf. She bared her teeth and closed her eyes, focusing everything she had on not changing, on staying in human form.

  “You might want to get better at controlling that beast of yours, Miss Willow. If you end up going to prison, you’ll be part of a very open community. You won’t be able to transform without at least twenty people seeing you.”

  Ari opened her eyes. Cecily was staring at her, maddeningly serene.

  “You’re trying to steal my life.”

  “No, Ariadne. Life as you know it ended when you walked into Shannon Hardy’s apartment. I’m just giving you an option about how you continue from here. Whether you spend the rest of your life in a cage--”

  “Or if I spend it in your cage.”

  Cecily smiled and tilted her head. “Call it what you want, Ariadne. But I can tell you that my cage is gilded. Take your time. Think about it. You’ll be arraigned tomorrow...” She twisted her wrist to look at her watch. “Actually today, in a few hours. I will be in the courtroom. When the judge asks if you have representation, you can say my name. Or you can tell him no. Either way, I’ll have my answer.”

  She closed her briefcase, which had apparently only been there as a prop, and stood up.

  “I would have just left you alone,” Ari said softly.

  Cecily looked down at her.

  “I wasn’t even thinking about you anymore. But now, you have my word, that I’m going to make it my mission in life to fuck you up.”

  “With what, Miss Willow?” Cecily asked. “I’ve already taken everything. I look forward to hearing your answer tomorrow.”

  Ari heard the door click shut behind her as Cecily left.

  Chapter Two

  Gwyneth Willow had been asleep when Dale called her, but she was wide awake and dressed by the time she let Dale and Diana into the house. The kitchen and dining room were awash with light and filled with the smell of freshly-brewed coffee. Diana filled them in about what she’d learned while Gwen poured them cups. Dale was transfixed by Ari’s mother. She seemed composed and laser-focused. She looked like a general who just learned war had been declared.

  When Diana finished explaining why Ari was in jail, Gwen thanked her and guided Dale outside to the car. They were halfway to the precinct before Dale even realized they were the only two in the car.

  “Where did Diana go?”

  “She said she needed to sleep. You were there. You told her to go.”

  Dale softly said, “Right,” even though she had no recollection of the exchange. She chewed her thumbnail and looked out the window. The sun was just beginning to come up. Everything had an ethereal blue glow with a lining of gold. The windows of the highest buildings reflected the sun which hadn’t yet gotten high enough to reach street level.

  “Are you all right?”

  Dale considered her answer carefully. “Ari always comes home,” she finally said. “She goes out at night. She disappears in the middle of the night and I wake up to an empty bed, but she always comes home. Or she calls me to come get her.”

  “I know.”

  “She always comes home.”

  Gwen reached out and put her hand on top of Dale’s. She kept it there for the rest of the drive, only removing it when she had to park. When they walked into the precinct, Dale reached out and took Gwen’s hand before it could be offered.

  The desk sergeant was young, fresh on-duty, and actually offered them a smile when they came inside.

  “How can I help you?”

  “My daughter was brought in last night. Ariadne Willow.”

  He checked the computer. “You’re her mother?”

  “That’s right.” She nodded at Dale. “And her sister.”

  “I’ll let someone know you’re here,” the sergeant said. “Have a seat.”

  Gwen led Dale to the waiting area. “I didn’t think about it until we were here,” she said, “but they probably wouldn’t let a girlfriend in. They probably won’t allow any contact, so it’s not like you could kiss her hello anyway.”

  “Thank you.” They took a seat under the windows. “Not just for that, but for all of this. Taking control. I don’t even know what
’s going on.”

  “Ari’s in trouble. You’re in shock, and you’ve barely gotten any sleep. You’ll bounce back. You just need some time.” She patted Dale’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

  Dale put her head down on Gwen’s shoulder. She had just reached the cusp of sleep when Gwen woke her by quietly saying her name. She opened her eyes and saw a Hispanic man coming toward them.

  “Miss Willow?” he said. “I’m Detective Rojas. You’re Ariadne Willow’s mother?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances. If you’ll come with me, I’ll take you to a room where you can speak with your daughter.”

  Gwen held up a bag. Dale had seen her carrying it, but hadn’t even wondered what it was for. “I brought Ari something to wear for her arraignment. I know I can’t give it to her, but can you... I don’t know, check it out to confirm it’s safe and then let her have it?”

  Rojas looked at the bag, reaching up to scratch his ear as he considered the request. Dale could almost see the pros and cons being written in the air above his head. Finally, he nodded and took the bag from her.

  “I’ll make sure she gets it.”

  “Thank you.”

  He led them past the desk and deeper into the building. Gwen was directly behind the detective with Dale bringing up the rear. Part of her shock was caused by the certainty that there was an easy way out of this. The detective seemed friendly enough. And Gwen seemed to be handling things superbly. Add those facts to Ari’s ability to get out of the tightest situations, and she could see this all being wrapped up by noon.

  And then Rojas opened the door to a windowless office to reveal Ari, handcuffed to a table. They had taken her mud- and blood-stained clothes as evidence, leaving her in a pair of pale blue scrubs. She should have looked like a doctor, but she didn’t. She looked like a prisoner.

  Dale’s breath caught in her throat and she took one step back. Gwen looped an arm around Dale’s elbow and urged her forward into the room.

  “Thank you, Detective,” Gwen said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t give you more than a few minutes.”

  Gwen nodded. “I understand.”

  He left and closed the door behind him. Dale thought it was unusual they would be left alone in the room but, as she sat down, she saw the camera near the ceiling. No doubt there was a cop outside the door and three more watching their conversation on a monitor somewhere.

  Ari looked completely exhausted. Her face lit up when Dale met her eyes, so Dale tried not to look away. She wanted to reach out and take Ari’s hands but knew she wouldn’t be allowed to do it. She put her hands in her lap, then on the table, and finally folded them together as if she was saying grace.

  “Hi, puppy.”

  “Hey,” Ari said.

  “I brought some clothes for you to wear to the arraignment,” Gwen said. “I gave them to the police so they can confirm there are no razor blades sewn into the lining or something.”

  That succeeded in drawing a weak smile. “Thanks, Mom.” Her fingers twitched and then curled into fists. “Dale, I’m sorry.”

  Dale shook her head. “Don’t.”

  Ari bit her lip and looked down at the table.

  Gwen said, “Ariadne, look at me.” Ari lifted her eyes. “Can you be certain you didn’t do this?”

  Dale knew she was really asking about the wolf. And while she believed Ari wasn’t capable of murder, while she trusted her even in wolf form, she knew the question had to be asked.

  “I’m positive,” Ari said. “There’s no chance I did this. I know who did it.” She glanced toward the camera. “Cecily Parrish.”

  “The lawyer?”

  Ari nodded. “This is apparently her last-ditch effort to get me working for her. I agree, she takes my case and I walk free. I don’t, then she sends me to jail.”

  Gwen said, “So you think she...”

  Ari glanced over her shoulder at the camera. “I don’t think she got her own hands dirty, no. I can’t just sit in a cell making wild accusations. But yeah, I think she’s behind it.”

  “We’ll do what we can to figure out what really happened,” Gwen said.

  “In the meantime, do you happen to know a good lawyer?”

  Gwen said, “I’ll look into it. There’s got to be someone.”

  Ari looked at Dale again. “We had to pause the movie we were watching.” Tears threatened to overflow. “You can go ahead and watch the end without me, babe.”

  Dale laughed, but it turned into a sob. She reached out and put her hand on top of Ari’s. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Ari covered Dale’s hand with hers. The chain of her handcuffs made a raspy hiss against the edge of the table.

  Rojas came into the room. “Sorry, ladies. It’s time.”

  Dale stood up and stepped around the table. Rojas put a hand on her shoulder before she could reach Ari.

  “Can’t let you touch her.”

  Ari said, “It’s okay, Dale.”

  Dale let herself be guided back to the door. Gwen followed, and Rojas nodded to the officer who would take Ari back to holding.

  “Let me show you ladies out.” Rojas walked back toward the front of the building. He looked back at Dale. “I have to say, you and your sister don’t look much alike.”

  “I don’t have a sister,” Dale said, her mind elsewhere.

  Rojas smiled as he faced forward again. “My mistake.”

  He left them at the lobby, handing Gwen his card ‘in case she needed anything’ and wishing them a good day. Gwen put an arm across Dale’s shoulders and took her outside. It was now fully morning, the street alive with commuters on their way to work.

  “I’m so stupid,” Dale said.

  “It’s all right. The sister lie was just to get you back there. It served its purpose.” She had her phone out, scrolling with her thumb. “Damn, who do I know that’s a lawyer?”

  Dale hugged herself and watched the cars passing by, full of people going about ordinary days in their ordinary lives.

  “What happens now?”

  Gwen squeezed Dale’s shoulder and walked her toward the parking lot. “Now we find someone to represent Ariadne and hopefully keep her out of prison.”

  “And if we can’t?”

  Gwen started to say something but stopped herself. She remained silent until they reached the car. “Do you know when she last transformed?”

  “Yesterday afternoon,” Dale said. “I was with her. We went for a run. There’s no way she could have blacked out and killed Shannon.”

  “That’s not what I’m worried about,” Gwen said. “Ari has twenty-eight days before the wolf forces her to transform. If that happens when she’s in prison, it will be very bad.”

  “God,” Dale whispered.

  “We’ll figure something out.” They got into the car. “No matter what happens.”

  Dale wished she had some of that confidence. But at the moment it seemed like the deck was stacked against them and their enemies still had aces up their sleeves.

  #

  When she was returned to the holding cells, she stretched out on the bench and stared at the ceiling. Seeing Dale had felt like waking up, just for a second, and catching a glimpse of real life. Now she was back in the nightmare. The cell was the size of a doctor’s waiting room, and she was sharing it with three other women. She knew one of them was a prostitute - bored, pissed off, obviously accustomed to this dance - but she hadn’t heard what the other two were arrested for.

  The night before continued playing in her head on a loop. She left the apartment just as the officers stepped off the elevator. It was immediately obvious that she was being set up, so she ran. In retrospect it was probably a stupid idea, since she ended up getting caught anyway, but she believed there was a chance she could get away. She only had to put enough distance between her and the police to transform and she would be home free.

  Unfortunately whoever
had called in the tip made it sound like enough of an emergency that four different cars had shown up. Ari ran out of the building past no less than four cops. She’d hoped to get lost in the wilder areas of Seward Park, but she didn’t have any luck. Cecily must have been planning this for months. The woman was smart, and devious, and used to getting her own way. Ari had turned her down repeatedly and ruined whatever plans she’d been hatching.

  “Payback’s a bitch,” she muttered.

  One of the other women said, “Preach it, sister.”

  She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep. She didn’t know what to expect and, without a map of what was going to happen, she couldn’t plan. So she just put herself on autopilot and waited. The wolf part of her brain knew she was in a cage but didn’t quite understand how dire things were. Not yet. It was anxious but manageable. She had no idea what was going to happen when it realized the imprisonment wasn’t going to be brief.

  An officer eventually delivered the bag of clothes from Ari’s mother and told her to change in the bathroom. When she came out, he directed her down the hallway. For a brief moment, even still cuffed, she felt like maybe they were letting her go. Her hopes were dashed when they reached the end of the hall and she was added to a line of the women from holding.

  Two more officers were waiting by the exit. The female officer directed each woman to assume the position against the wall so she could run a metal detector over them. The other, male, was using a table to mark off each woman’s name before she was directed out the door into a bus. When it was Ari’s turn, she placed her palms against the bare brick wall and listened to the beeping of the wand as it swept across her shoulders and down her sides.

  “Name,” the male officer said.

  “Ariadne Willow.”

  He tapped the screen of his device. “Any drugs, weapons, et cetera, we need to know about on your person?”

  “No, nothing.”

  The female officer stepped back and said, “Go on.”