He parked in the alley next to the Handley brownstone. Then he heard the wolf again. It was a high-pitched, modulated howl, a lonely sound tinged with sadness. He pressed the mike button on the gear shift.
“Hue?” Cody said.
“It’s Si. Hue’s grabbing dinner.”
“Have we heard anything from Cal?”
“Not yet.”
“Who’s running recon?”
“Jonee on the south side, Butch on the north. Hue’ll relieve Butch at eleven, Wow will take the south. I’ll run the board here. At six a.m. it’ll be Frank and Annie, south, Cal and Kate on the north, and Hue’ll be back on the board.”
“Anybody planning to sleep?”
“We’ll all be cat-napping here until we get back to normal.”
“That’ll be the day,” Cody said and chuckled. “That’s a good plan, Si. Thanks.”
“Oh, your pal Dave called. He’ll be calling you on your cell.”
“Thanks. I’m going off the monitor now. You need me, call the cell. I’ve got it on the hummer.”
“Gotcha.”
Cody turned off the car, got out and locked the doors. The wolf bayed again as he walked toward the front door and dialed Amelie Cluett. It was very dark. The lights over the doorway were off.
“Hello?”
“It’s Cody. Want to buzz me in?”
“Wow, that was quick.”
The door buzzed and popped open and he entered the hallway. He looked to his left, noticed a light switch and clicked it. The lights outside flicked on.
Huh, he thought. Then he heard her door open and he looked up, and sucked in his breath.
She was standing at the top of the stairs. She was wearing a madras skirt cut four inches above the knee, a white frilly blouse and a red vest. He looked her over as he came up the stairs.
“Not working tonight?”
“I took the day off,” she said, leading him into the living room. The smell of strong coffee greeted him.
“I started to go to the gym this morning but I changed my mind and came home, canceled my appointments and cried for a while. Then I decided to clean the place. That’s what women do when they’re upset, they sanitize the nest and take a shower.”
“And make coffee?”
“I put on a fresh pot after I talked to you.”
He started to take off his jacket as she went into the kitchen but she whirled around and said, “I mislead you.”
“That’s not easy to do.”
“I mean, when I said I had some new ideas. That was just a big, fat lie.”
He laughed. “Well, I admire your honesty. I guess I’ll have to give you that ticket.”
She started to pour the coffee but her hand was shaking so hard she spilled some on the counter.
“Oh, damn!”
“Hey, easy.”
He took the pot from her and poured the two cups and she started babbling as she cleaned the counter with a sponge.
“All of a sudden I was alone here, nobody in the building but me and I saw that yellow police tape on Raymond’s door and I, uh, I got scared to death and I’ve been scared to death all day and then it started getting dark and then there are these wolves over in the Park zoo and they started howling-I guess at the full moon, they do that you know-and I, uh, I just grabbed your card and…”
Who the hell put that tape there? he thought. Probably one of McKeown’s boys. He put a forefinger against her lips and stopped her.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Incidentally, that’s an old wives’ tale, about wolves and the full moon.”
“It’s really eerie.”
“I suppose it can be. Particularly if someone you know has just been killed across the hall and you’re alone.”
Tears welled up in her eyes and she turned her head. He stepped forward and put his arms around her, held her close to him and gently rubbed her back.
“It’s okay, let it out. You have a right.”
“I thought I was all cried out.”
“It’ll come and go for awhile.”
He stepped back and she dried her eyes with a dish towel. “God, I must be a mess.”
He thought for a moment then asked: “Have you eaten anything today?”
“No.”
“Well, neither have I and I’m starved. So how about we turn on all the lights in your apartment and I’ll go over and pull down the tape on Raymond’s door. And then we can go grab a bite somewhere. Or am I being too forward?”
“Oh yeah, you’re just all forward and a mile wide. Look, you don’t have to…”
“I don’t have to do anything. I’d love to take you to dinner.”
His cell hummed against his side.
“I’m gonna have to take this. Excuse me for a minute.” He looked at the call window, pressed the button and said, “Hey, Dave.”
“ Ahoki, brother. I hope this isn’t an inconvenient time.”
“Not at all.”
“Your friends miss you.”
“Yeah, I heard the alpha. I’m right up the street.”
“I picked up a couple of nice venison bones this afternoon at the market on Amsterdam.”
“Terrific. Give me fifteen. Oh, I’ll have a friend with me.”
“That’s cool.”
He rang off and turned back to Amelie. “Why don’t you go do whatever you have to do and I’ll turn on the lights,” he said.
“Everything okay?” she asked tentatively.
“Sure. I have to stop for a few minutes on the way to dinner and see a couple of friends. I think you’ll like them.”
She rushed off to the bathroom and he walked around the apartment clicking on lamps. He stopped for a moment at the window overlooking the street. A nice street, he thought, but it will never be the same for her. Then he went across the hall and tore down the yellow crime ribbons, balled them up and stuffed them in his jacket pocket, and went back to her apartment, doctored his coffee and sipped it until she came back.
He noticed, for the first time, that she wore very little makeup. Her skin was flawless and her eyes, cleared by tears, sparkled behind pale eyeliner. She had exchanged the blouse and vest for a red cashmere turtle neck sweater.
She was something. A guilty pleasure in his world of violence, death and paranoia. Perhaps in fairness to her…
“Let’s go,” he said.
He drove west to Fifth Avenue and turned left with the park drifting past them on the right. He turned into the park at 65 ^ th Street, drove to a discreet entrance behind the Wildlife Center and turned in.
She was surprised but said nothing. I’m with a cop working a murder case and we’re going to a closed zoo in the dark and I feel wonderfully secure, she thought. I have no idea what we’re doing here and I don’t care. It’s a giddy experience after a day filled with fear and it feels good.
And she laughed, secretly, inside herself.
He parked, got out and hurried around the front of the car and opened the door for her. As she got out she heard the wolf howl again only this time it was very close by and seemed less mournful. It startled her and Cody took her hand as she got out of the car and smiled.
“Not to worry,” he said and led her toward an open door at the rear of the wildlife complex. A man was leaning against the door jamb awaiting them, his hands in the pockets of his jeans and a large package stuffed under one armpit. He was a little taller than Cody and was wearing a black sweater, its sleeves pushed up to the elbows. He was deeply tanned like Cody and his short, black hair appeared wind-ruffled. He saw Amelie and looked surprised.
“Hi, pal,” Cody said and they gave each other a friendly hug. Cody turned to Amelie and said, “Meet Dave Fox, the best veterinarian on the planet. Dave, Amelie Cluett.”
Fox smiled and shook her hand. “Miss Cluett. What a pleasant surprise.”
“Hi,” she said with a smile. “It’s Amelie.”
“Good. I’m Dave.”
“We grew up together,” Cody said as the vet led them through the Center.
Fox led them to a rear door marked: “Private. No admittance.” Inside there was a dimly lit glass corridor with another door leading to a large, secluded compound, thick with foliage, with a stream coursing through it and a man-made den at its midpoint. It was enclosed by a ten foot chain link fence surrounded by trees, which hid the isolated enclosure from Central Park’s East Drive. As she peered through the glass into the compound, she saw a large gray wolf exit the den about fifty feet away and walk back and forth, staring at them.