The Ambrose Beacon Read online

  Chapter 2

  Friday Morning, January 7th

  Jerry knew he’d fallen asleep when the image of his wife danced across his vision. He watched her with the faint awareness that what he was seeing couldn’t possibly be true. The logic of his conscious mind intruded upon the fantasy of his subconscious, reminding him that the image before him, which gave him such happiness, would disappear when he opened his eyes. He had dreamed of his wife being alive and with him at least once a week since she had died, and each time that the harsh reality of his awakening was thrust upon him, the accompanying pain and loss left him feeling empty for the better part of an hour. And though his conscious mind now kept screaming at him that what he saw could not be real and must therefore only be a dream, he ignored it and enjoyed the dream for what it was - the chance to be with Arianna again.

  He stood on the edge of a large, moonlit meadow in which the grass grew to his knees. Above the grass, a canopy of deep blue began at the horizon and seemed to go on forever. It was dotted so thickly with stars that Jerry imagined that this was what he would see if he stood at the edge of the Milky Way and looked into its center.

  What he at first mistook for movement among the stars resolved itself into the dancing of hundreds of fireflies, moving in a silently coordinated dance around one object that outshone everything around it. That object was his lovely wife, Arianna. She stood in the center of the meadow, her arms outstretched, her eyes closed and a mysterious smile on her face. The air was cool, but completely still. And yet her long, dark hair moved gently around her face as if the tiniest breeze caressed it and nothing else around it. The fireflies formed into great, swirling lines that slowly wrapped around her body, gently brushing against the gauzy white fabric of her strapless gown that reached down to her knees. As the lines of glowing creatures spun around her, some of the lines disappeared, their tiny constituents moving out of formation before merging into existing lines or creating new ones. Jerry heard Arianna’s throaty laugh as the speed of their dance increased, her arms slowly rising from their outstretched position until they were directly above her, her wrists joining together as her hands formed a V over her head.

  He saw her bosom heave as she drew in a deep breath and then suddenly exploded into movement. With only the slightest crouch to ready itself, her body launched into a leap of superhuman height, one leg ahead and one behind her in the classic pose of a ballerina in flight. As if they had been privy to her planned leap, the fireflies moved with her, continuing their dizzying lines about her body and somehow managing to stay the exact distance from her skin as they had before she had moved. She remained aloft for an impossibly long time before returning to the ground and flinging her arms to her side and spinning in place as the fireflies continued their mesmerizing dance around her.

  Jerry felt his heart ache as he watched her dance, the grace of her movements ethereal and effortless. Her movements were always the same in his dream, the routine unchanging. They were the steps she had danced on the night that he had first seen her. And after that first night, every time he had seen her dance the effect was the same. His heart would ache, his breath would quicken and tears would form at the corner of his eyes as the beauty of her dance touched his soul.

  As if hearing his thoughts, Arianna paused and looked at him. The mirth in her eyes found its voice as she threw her head back and laughed. The sound of it was like the pealing of a bell, clear and full of joy. She looked at him again and smiled before raising her hand and beckoning to him. Though he knew what consequences his action would bring, he took a hesitant step forward. He couldn’t resist the sight of her. And just as she did in every dream like this one, she turned and ran from him, her ringing laughter filling the night air.

  He knew that he would never catch her, but he chased her anyway. She called his name, as she always did in this dream, but this time her voice sounded different. It was deeper and richer, yet it had the same quality of sound. But it was like comparing the gentle babble of a brook to the rushing sound of a river. The voice was not hers.

  “Jeremiah!”

  Jerry sat up with a gasp as he was pulled from his dream, the vision of Arianna running barefoot through the grass disappearing from his sight. He looked over to where the voice had come from and saw Harper looking down at him.

  “Jeremiah, it’s time to wake up. You’re going to be late for work,” he said, his expression, as always, neutral. Jerry could hear the children moving about the house, getting ready for school, the complaints of Louis the loudest of the noises. His youngest son hated getting up at such an early hour and it took the efforts of nearly the entire family to get him going in the morning. Louis’ antics usually irritated Jerry in the morning, but for some reason it made him smile today, instead. Maybe it was the stark contrast between that reality and the falsehood of his dream, or maybe it was just the fact that they had made it through the night without further incident. He yawned, rubbed his face and sat up on the couch. He looked at his watch and it was nearly seven a.m. He needed to hurry if he didn’t want to be late. There were few things he hated more than for Harper to be right.

  After saying good-bye to the kids, he headed to his bathroom for a quick shower. He let the hot water pour down the back of his neck, soothing the tension that always seemed to build between his shoulder blades. As he shaved and brushed his teeth, he thought of the dream he had just had. His image in the mirror blurred as tears formed in his eyes. It had been years since his wife died, but he still thought of her every day and the ache of her absence still sat in his heart. He wiped away the tears with a towel and managed to wipe away his melancholy thoughts; at least, temporarily.

  Dressed and ready for work, he headed to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee for the road. The family’s calendar was mounted next to the refrigerator. It was a tool that Arianna had used to keep track of the multitude of events involved with raising five children. Harper had carried on the tradition, marking everything down in his neat, flowing script. Jerry looked at the schedule for Friday, the seventh and saw with dismay that it was his turn to take Vaughan to dance practice. He looked at the rest of the schedule to see if there was something he could trade Harper for, but the rest of the schedule had been carefully coordinated to allow Harper to maximize his time with the rest of the schedule. Jerry was stuck.

  He headed out the door, wishing that Vaughan would quit dance. It had been eight years since he had started at Arianna’s suggestion, but nothing else seemed to interest him. Jerry started the car and let it warm up while he called Larry’s cell phone, telling him that he’d be a little late. Larry was already at the office, which wasn’t unusual. He was an early riser and usually the first one to arrive at the Denver office.

  Jerry backed out of the garage and headed down the long driveway, moving carefully through the powdery snow. The car slipped a few times, but the all-wheel-drive kicked in almost immediately, placing the car back on course. Jerry had lived in Colorado for so long that he was used to driving in some of the worst winter weather conditions, though he often longed for the heat and humidity of his native New Orleans. The car approached the front gate of his property and as he turned the wheel to pull onto the main road, something in the periphery caught his eye. The unmistakable silhouette of a wolf loped through the trees next to his driveway.

  Jerry slammed on the brakes, the car skidding diagonally for a moment before coming to a stop. He moved the shifter into park and stepped out of the car, looking back over the roof at the trees beyond. What he was absolutely sure had been there just a moment before was now gone. The spaces between the trees were empty of everything but snow. The sun shone brightly overhead, allowing him to see for several hundred yards into their depths. Even a wolf could not have disappeared so quickly, or so he thought. A stiff breeze blew across the roof, hitting him with a blast of cold air that stole his breath away. Carried by the breeze was a faint smell that he th
ought he recognized, but couldn’t place right away. It was a slightly foul smell, and had it been only slightly stronger, it would have made him gag.

  He scanned the woods one last time as a shiver wracked through him. It was too cold to stand outside, and he couldn’t see anything in the trees. He got back in the car, savoring the warmth that passed over him from the heater. He put the car in gear and pulled onto the main road, looking over a final time at the trees as he passed. He was certain that he had seen a wolf in the trees, which wasn’t exactly a stretch of the imagination based on what they had all seen the night before. He pulled his cell phone from his coat pocket and used the speed dial to call Harper’s cell phone. His brother-in-law answered on the second ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s Jerry.” For some reason, he always said that when Harper answered, though he knew full well that the caller ID on Harper’s phone told him exactly who had called. Had Jerry taken the time to analyze it further, he would have known that it was yet another sign of how uncomfortable he felt with his enigmatic brother-in-law.

  “Is something the matter?” Harper asked.

  “No,” Jerry said. “Well, not exactly. I saw another wolf near the end of the driveway.”

  Harper was silent on the other end, as if Jerry had said he had seen nothing more dangerous than a sparrow.

  “I’m going to give animal control a call,” he added when there was still no response. “Be sure to keep the kids from going outside until they can get out here.” He knew that the tone of his voice made his request sound more like a command, but this concerned his children. He would allow no argument from Harper, though truthfully he expected none.

  “Alright, Jeremiah,” Harper answered. His voice, as always was neutral. It should have made him sound reasonable, but Jerry thought it made him sound condescending. “I’ll be sure to keep them inside. I’m not sure that calling animal control is the best answer to dealing with this problem, though.”

  Jerry was puzzled by Harper’s statement. Who else would he call to deal with wild animals on his property?

  As if reading his mind, Harper continued, “The animals in the woods may be dangerous. I’d hate to see someone get hurt.” The words were sincere, but Jerry thought that Harper’s tone made it sound like he could care less if someone from animal control or anyone else was hurt by the wolves. If it wasn’t for the obvious devotion Harper had always shown toward his children, Jerry would wonder if he cared about anyone.

  “Well, that’s a good point,” Jerry said, trying to make up for his earlier tone. “I’ll be sure to tell them not to come alone and to be sure to be armed.” It really was a good point, Jerry conceded mentally. He’d have to remember to actually suggest it when he made his next call. He heard a slight chuckle from the other end of the phone.

  “You policemen and your guns,” Harper said. Jerry was pretty sure it was meant to be a joke, though he knew well enough how Harper felt about guns. He thought they were barbaric and he took every opportunity to make sure Jerry knew how he felt.

  “Yeah, well I’ll see you when I get home,” Jerry said. He wanted the conversation to be over. He tried to convince himself that it was because he had another call to make.

  “You will,” Harper answered neutrally. “Don’t forget that you have to take Vaughan to dance practice this evening,” he added. As if Jerry could have forgotten.

  “Don’t worry, I remembered.” He wanted the conversation to end. “See you at home.” Jerry didn’t wait for a reply from Harper before ending the phone call. His brother-in-law had managed to take less than thirty seconds to annoy him. It was something he had a knack for.

  Jerry placed the call to animal control, remembering at the last second to tell them to send more than one officer and to be sure they were armed. The woman who answered sounded bored with her job and assured him that they took every response to a report seriously and would be careful. It sounded like she had read the response from a card, which Jerry thought was likely. Government agencies were not known for encouraging their employees to think for themselves. It was a problem that he had started to notice with some of the younger agents coming out of the academy. He knew that he and the other agents of his generation were more cops than investigators. And while he knew that both were important instruments of justice, he had always been more of an action kind of guy. His favorite part of any investigation was the actual arrest; in getting criminals off the streets and behind bars. He saw the detective work as a means to an end and he knew his partner felt the same way.

  The woman at animal control had also made it clear that she doubted the animals Jerry saw were wolves. Like a high school professor, she had explained that wolves were no longer seen so far south and that what he had seen had been either a coyote or a stray dog. He had been tempted to tell her in the same tone that coyotes didn’t travel in packs, but he didn’t want to risk alienating her and having the response to his call delayed.

  He pulled into the garage at work at nine-fifteen and was at his desk less than five minutes later. He was never late for work, but he knew that Larry wouldn’t let it slide without saying something.

  “Glad you could join us, Sid,” Larry said as he leaned over Jerry’s desk, smiling impishly. “You weren’t scared of the widdle doggies we saw wast night were you?” Larry asked in a baby voice. Jerry knew that this was Larry’s attempt at making light of a situation that was bothersome, but Jerry didn’t have the patience for his friend’s silliness just then. The sights that he had seen both the night before and on his way to work had truly concerned him. It wasn’t just the sight of the wolves themselves, which in itself was odd enough. It was the sense that something even odder lay behind both sightings. Something that made his instincts for danger scream out that he was missing something. And it was the feeling that Harper knew a lot more than what he was admitting.

  “Isn’t there something you should be working on?” Jerry asked irritably as Larry returned to his desk.

  Larry opened his mouth to reply, but something behind Jerry had caught his attention and he stood there with his mouth open for a moment before breaking into a nervous grin. Jerry knew what had stopped Larry even before the sultry voice of Cecilia Ramirez came from behind him.

  “Good morning, boys,” she said as she passed, heading toward her own desk on the other side of the room. Jerry turned to appreciate one of his favorite parts of his morning ritual.

  Cecilia smiled over her shoulder, first at Jerry and then, with a gaze lingering just a moment longer, at Larry. She was of medium height, curvaceous and pretty, with long brown hair that rolled down her back in waves. Though she was nearing forty, she looked ten years younger. And her smile, full of straight white teeth, always elicited the same in anyone lucky enough to be its recipient. The business suits that she wore every day as an office assistant were tailored professionally and within office standards, but she could have worn a trash bag to work and there would be no mistaking the figure beneath. But the thing that Jerry found most endearing about Cecilia was her devotion to her teenage son, Eduardo and her elderly mother. Eduardo was Dinah’s classmate and friend, though the complete opposite of his outgoing and popular daughter. Jerry liked the kid, though. He was polite and intelligent, a combination that seemed to him to be all-too-rare in teenagers. But his view of Cecilia, while appreciative, was much closer to a friendship, unlike his partner’s.

  The attraction between Cecilia and Larry was unmistakable to everyone, though Larry was convinced that it was one-sided. Shortly after her ugly divorce and for nearly three years, Cecilia’s interest in Larry evolved from a friendly, but casual one to something almost predatory in its interest. But Larry continued to miss the obvious cues that she gave on a daily basis, failing even to ask her out for a drink. Even Jerry’s best efforts at coaching his friend had yielded no results. Larry continued to believe that Cecilia was out of his league and lik
e a single wildflower in an otherwise green meadow, something that could be admired, but never coveted.

  “I don’t get it, Larry,” Jerry said, shaking his head. “Why don’t you just ask her out already and put the rest of us out of our misery?”

  Larry watched Cecilia as she sat behind her desk, the crestfallen look answering Jerry’s question. “Why bother?” he said. “She’ll just say no or make up some lame excuse.”

  “She wants you to ask her out, you idiot,” Jerry responded as he shook his head slightly.

  Jerry started his computer, waiting for the operating system to start while he thought about what he had seen on his way to work. “Hey, I almost forgot to tell you,” he said as Larry gave one last, longing look in Cecilia’s direction. “I swear I saw another one of those wolves this morning, in the woods next to the driveway.”

  Larry looked up sharply. “You sure that’s what you saw?”

  Jerry nodded silently as his desktop on his computer came up. He clicked on the icon to start his e-mail, when he remembered something from the night before.

  “Hey, what did you do with that blood sample that you collected outside the house last night?” he asked as his e-mail started.

  Larry typed something with his two-fingered method on his keyboard as he responded, “Um, I took it down to the lab when I got in. Aaron’s analyzing it for me now. He said it’ll be ready by tomorrow at the earliest.” He looked up again at Larry. “Why? What are you thinking?” Larry had been his partner for too long not to notice when something was bothering him.

  “I’m just curious, that’s all,” he responded. It sounded weak, even to his ears. He sighed as he added, “It’s just that the woman at animal control said that wolves aren’t typically found in Colorado anymore. She said that it was probably a coyote or a stray dog.”

  Larry snorted as he responded, “What the hell does she know. Look, I know what I saw last night as well as you do. They were wolves. Just tell her to save the biology lesson and do her job.”

  Jerry chuckled and shook his head. That was Larry. Tact was not his strong point. “I’ll tell her you said that.”

  Jerry made a mental note to check in with Aaron in the morning, even though it would be a Saturday. Not knowing what animals he had seen in his yard shouldn’t have bothered him. But it did. He started the tedious task of going through the morning’s e-mails and temporarily pushed the thought of wild animals that shouldn’t be there from his mind.