Dawn was breaking. He washed, shaved and changed into a clean shirt.
He got in his car and went back to Covington.
The lights were on in Elizabeth's house, though it was early. He'd expected to wait in the car.
She answered the door in slacks and a sweater, groomed, her hair brushed.
He said, "I found Orph."
"I know, I heard it on the news last night. I thought you might come."
She paused, searching his face. "I hoped you would."
"May I come in?" Bauer asked.
She stepped aside and held the door for him. "I'll make breakfast," she said. "There's coffee on."
Loki and the bitch-pup waited in the burrow until they were driven from it by thirst and hunger so great that punishment held no terror for them.
They called and whimpered in the bright sun, while the woods rustled around them, but no one answered and no one came. No one.
Loki found them water in the midafternoon. He tried to catch a frog.
He couldn't, the bitch-pup circled around and drove it back, then he pounced and caught it under has paws, bit, ripped off a leg and a piece of the soft body and gobbled it down. He seized the head while the bitch pup sank her teeth into its midsection and they tore it apart and ate it.
They slept curled together on a bed of leaves in a rock crevice that night.
Loki slept lightly. Sharp sounds snapped his eyes open and he lifted his head to growl.
The sun rose and they left the crevice and sat in the light and called again, and in a while, when no answer came, they set off to find something to eat.
THE END