More Than Meets the Eye

More Than Meets the Eye

  by Wendy Cooper

  Copyright 2014 Wendy Cooper

  Chapter 1

  The autumn night was dark. Clouds, heavy with rain, hung over the city. And it was cold, so very cold.

  Natasha Valentina Tereshkova stomped her feet to try to coax some feeling into her numb toes. At least that’s what she told herself. The fact that she was ticked at her boss just added a little more stomp to her stamp.

  She glanced first to one end and then the other of the dark back street. The lights that dotted the avenue reflected back weakly in the puddles from that day’s storms. She was alone in the middle of a warehousing complex. It was fairly new, and not in a bad part of town, but it was dark and lonely and so still. Not a soul, not an animal, not even a breeze stirred.

  She tugged her heavy knit beanie down further over her ears. “Take the bus, he said. The warehouse is only a quarter mile from the bus stop. Observe the area before you reach the warehouse, he said.” She stomped her feet again. “I’ll be there to meet you, he said. Well, Jake, you’re late.”

  Natasha heard the vehicle before it rounded the corner. She pulled a pistol out of the folds of her coat, just in case. It was, after all, a poorly lit backstreet at 2:40 in the morning. She put the gun away when she recognized the modern muscle car driven by Police Detective Avery Chen and sighed heavily.

  The car braked to a halt. Natasha didn’t wait for an invitation, but opened the door, jumped in and slammed the door closed. “Hey Tasha,” the Detective greeted.

  “What happened to Jake?”

  “What makes you think something’s happened?” She glowered, because the only reason Avery would have been here was if Jake had called him and asked him to pick her up. “Yeah, okay, something’s happened.”

  Tasha tried to stay angry, but concern won out. She sighed again.

  “Is he alright?”

  “Jake got jumped. He’s at the Emergency Room getting patched up.”

  A slight twinge of guilt stabbed at her gut. But she got over it quickly enough. “Serves him right for leaving me out in the cold,” she mumbled.

  Avery twisted his lip into a smirk, the smirk he used when he wasn’t being fooled by her bluster. Avery put the car into gear and headed off towards the hospital.

  ####

  The faint smell of hospital hung in the air. The waiting area was mostly empty. Avery showed Tasha to a chair and held up a finger, indicating that she needed to wait while he used his police credentials to get further into the complex than the general public would normally be allowed to do. He came back to the waiting room an anxious thirty minutes later.

  “Well?” Tasha asked.

  Avery looked around before leading Tasha over to a more secluded corner of the waiting room. “He’s going to be okay, but the doc says we need to get him home so he can change.”

  “The doc says?”

  “Dr. Wyatt is a friend of Jake’s.” Avery said with special emphasis on friend. Not many humans knew what Jake was.

  Tasha responded with a silent “O”.

  “He looks bad, Tash.” Avery visibly shuddered. “Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing.”

  “How’d anyone get that close? He’s got the best nose around.”

  “I’m not sure, but what I do know for sure is that they beat him with, well the doc thinks silver spikes were involved. Tore him up real bad, lost lots of blood.”

  Tasha thought for a moment before making an observation. “So then whoever they are, know what Jake is. I can’t believe it was blind luck that they chose silver.”

  “Fair to say.”

  “But the only case we are on is a divorce case.”

  Avery got a bit fidgety. “I don’t know Tash.”

  Tasha noticed his fidget but didn’t get a chance to ask why Avery was acting so squirrelly.

  “Avery,” a doctor approached, putting an end to Tasha’s inquiries. His nametag read Dr. Wyatt. “You can take Jake home. I’d rather not bring him through here though, in case he has an involuntary change,” he indicated the waiting room. “Come around to the ambulance entrance. There’s no one back that way right now.”

  As they drove around to the indicated entrance, Dr. Wyatt had Jake in a wheel chair and was waiting. He and Avery put the werewolf in the back seat, Tasha looking on. “Oh Jake,” She tisked.

  He gave her a weak smile before closing his eyes.

  Chapter 2

  The office of Jake Wolf Private Investigations was located in the revitalized downtown area. The Main Street USA projects had been set up in the early ‘80’s to revitalize the oldest areas of cities all across America. Some cities were successful with their efforts others were not. River City was definitely in the success category, as people got grants to clean and refurbish the old, rundown homes and businesses into something beautiful. Trees lined the sidewalks. Foot traffic was abundant.

  Jake’s office was the center building in a block of three and four story buildings. He had utilized the space by placing the office at street level and converting the upper three floors, as well as the basement, into apartments of various sizes: The basement had the same square footage as the office and was also his personal residence. The second floor was also of the same size, and it was where Tasha lived. Floors three and four were divided into two apartments on each floor.

  Tasha sat in her office chair, gazing at the gathered clouds outside of her window, tapping her pencil on the polished surface of her desk. It was almost time to close up, and she couldn’t wait. She was tired from the early morning jaunt to the warehouse as well as the wait at the emergency room. By the time she and Avery had managed to get Jake home, it had been time to jump into the shower to get ready for work. Jake had told her that she could come in later but she had final paper work to finish from the Darvey case that they had just concluded the day before. No final report, no final bill. No final bill, no end of case bonus for her. She got a regular salary, but it was fairly minimal. It was the bonuses that allowed her to acquire the extra things she desired. And she really could use the paltry sum she got as a Private Investigative Assistant. Her car note was due.

  She thought of her nice, new, gas efficient vehicle parked in back of the office and fumed again as she recalled her bus ride to the warehouse and the miserable wait in the cold. And for what? There had been nothing there to see.

  She hadn’t worked for Jake Wolf very long before Jake had offered to train her as an investigator. He said she had good instincts and a good eye for detail. She didn’t realize that he’d actually make her get up in the wee hours of a rainy morning to do actual investigating. The nerve of some people, she thought uncharitably.

  Jake limped through the front office, interrupting her thoughts. He was a very handsome man and Tasha thought that she may be seriously falling for him. He had, outdoorsy, chiseled features and brown hair that was a bit shaggy but she thought it suited him somehow. His eyes were almost gold, with emerald green flames that radiated from his pupils. He was broad of shoulder and narrow of hip and reminded Tasha of a construction worker, strong and hardy, less the beer gut. Today, he was hunched in on himself, making his six-four frame appear shorter. He was pale and sickly looking. One eye was almost swollen shut and various cuts and bruises decorated his face. She hurt for him. Still, he looked so much better than he had looked earlier that morning. Once he had gotten home he had been able to change into his wolf form, which had sped up the healing process.

  He flipped the sign to “closed” and locked the door. “Go ahead and take off early,” he said with a half smile.

  “Early? Jake it’s ten minutes till quitting time.”

  “Yeah, so it’s early,
” he replied cheerily. He sobered, “I’ve got some place to go, and there’s no sence in you hanging around here by yourself.”

  That by yourself gave her pause. “You think the men who tried to brain you might drop by for a visit?”

  “Maybe. Well, okay, probably. I need to leave and I don’t want you here alone.”

  “So, where ya going?” she tried to ask nonchalantly. The fact was, she was worried for her boss. If he hadn’t been a werewolf, he’d have never had survived the beating he had gotten the night before. And he had a certain look about him that just felt like trouble to her way of thinking.

  Jake shrugged. “Oh, you know, I’ve got errands to run.”

  She snorted a little sarcastic laugh. “Errand” was her primary job description. “Do your errands include sneaking out the back and lying in wait for your friends to show, then pouncing on them?”

  He got very serious, as he looked her in the eyes. He never intentionally put her into harm’s way. In fact, if he thought anything was going to be even remotely dangerous, he’d make sure she was far away from it. Or, at the very least, up stairs in the relative safety of her apartment.

  “Maybe, and that’s all I’m going to say on the matter.”

  Which meant exactly that.

  “On second thought,” he amended, “why don’t you go on down to Franklin’s and have some dinner. On me.” He dropped a twenty dollar bill on her desk.

  Oh, dear, she thought, slowly picking the bill up. She tapped in on the desktop as she considered. He was counting on messy. Jake never wanted her around if things were going to get a little, well, a little wolfy. Messy and wolfy always seemed to go hand in hand.

  Tasha put on her brightest, most cheery smile. It was the very smile Jake hated because he knew that she was not just being insincere, but that she was pissed as well. It made him involuntarily cringe just a bit.

  Good she thought to herself. Tasha grabbed her purse and car keys out of her desk drawer, shouldered the small bag. “All right then, I’ll just head right out. And leave you all by yourself to face who knows what,” she said tightly.

  “Tash,” Jake started then shook his head wearily. They’d had similar conversations like this before. “These guys mean business. They used silver spiked clubs to make their point last night. This time they may actually try to kill me.”

  “Which is exactly my point!” Tasha said hotly. “Is anyone coming to help you out? Someone maybe Non-Werewolf who wouldn’t be effected by silver? What about Avery? He at least has a gun!”

  “I won’t be needing a gun,” Jake smiled a slow, sinister smile, the very smile that Tasha hated. Well, more like creeped her out. Completely. She shivered. “All right you win.”

  Tasha left through the back door, noticing that before she was even out of the ally, a dark shape had also exited the back door, and had gone up the fire escape, towards the roof. Tasha turned her attention to where she was driving and left her boss to his own means.

  Chapter 3

  Tasha turned into the parking garage of the Tribal Casino at the outskirts of town. It was a little bit further than she’d normally go for simply something to eat, but it would be worth it. And it was on Jake’s dime, so she would be sure to enjoy it.

  Franklin’s Place was a little piano bar tucked into a dark corner just off of the gambling floor. Before she even entered the dimly lit bar, she could hear Franklin tinkling away on his baby grand. As she got closer to the entrance, she could hear his clear tenor singing an old blues tune.

  The bartender noticed her as soon as she came through the doorway and greeted her with a warm smile and waved over to a seat at the bar. Her seat.

  “Hey Tash, long time no see.”

  “Hey Vince,” she returned his smile. She liked Vince. He was tall and had the physique of a fitness nut, which also happened to be his day job. He was bald with sun-kissed skin and dark blue eyes that lightened when he had a good laugh, which was often. “What do we have on the menu tonight?” she asked.

  “Ah, you know, nothin but junk,” he said remorsefully. “But I know you’ll like the deep fried cheese sticks that Jilly has for tonight.”

  Vince was right on both counts, of course but Tasha loved them anyway. They were high in fat, and Vince always reminded her how close to a heart attack she was every time she ate them. Which wasn’t near as often as she would like as she did try to keep an eye on what she ate.

  “So I’ll run an extra mile or two tonight,” she smiled.

  “If they don’t kill ya before that,” Vince gave her a wink and placed the order. “How ‘bout some fresh vegies with that?”

  She agreed. But not before adding a slider to her order. She was still concerned and a bit angry with Jake and was craving some comfort food.

  Her order came, and she tucked in. Franklin, the magical musician finished his set and took a break, coming over to sit next to Tasha.

  He gave her a shoulder hug and a light kiss to the top of her head in a grandfatherly gesture that always made Tasha smile.

  “Hitting the high fat content a little hard I see,” observed Franklin. “Jake off on a hunt?”

  Tasha nodded. Franklin was her oldest friend in River City. Well, in any city. The casino had been the first place she had stopped, or more accurately, broke down, when she first arrived in town. Franklin had given her a job as a waitress in his bar, letting her sing sometimes to get additional tips. She still performed with him now and again, on special nights, like New Years Eve. He always teased her by saying she must be a song faery because of the way she was able to enchant the audience.

  When the job came open for an office assistant at Jake Wolf, Private Investigations, he had given her a glowing reference, which had basically got her the job, as Jake and Franklin were friends. He also one of the very few who knew that Jake was a werewolf, and therefore the only person who could possibly understand how she was feeling at that particular moment.

  “He got attacked last night, Franklin,” she began. “Four thugs, all wielding clubs with silver, spikey doo-dads. Beat him badly.”

  “Did he change?"

  Tasha shook her head. “Didn’t have the chance, too many witnesses. A beat cop on a routine check witnessed part of the attack and broke it up, so he couldn’t change with the cop, or later, with the paramedics that responded, around.”

  Franklin took a deep inhale of breath. “So no time to heal quickly, then?”

  Again, Tasha shook her head. “He was in bad shape when we took him home. Multiple stiches, concussion, dislocated shoulder, a broken leg. I don’t know how he kept from involuntarily changing and totally rampaging through the ER.”

  The elderly black man with almost completely white hair next to her simply smiled and shook his head. “Jake has incredible control. He has to. How does he look now?”

  “Oh, he looks almost normal. Little sore but you should have seen him this morning. When Avery and I got him back to his apartment, he changed and then slept. Got up about two this afternoon almost completely healed of course. But then he made some phone calls, and, made me come here. Out of the way.”

  Franklin narrowed one eye at her. “You know he’s trying to protect you.”

  “I’m not helpless Franklin. I can fight. And I can shoot damn straight too,” she remarked a little hotly.

  Almost as a condition of her continued employment, Jake had signed her up at the jujistu dojo where he was a member. That hadn’t bothered her at all. In fact, she rather enjoyed it. She had participated in martial arts training for most of her life. He had then encouraged her to get her conceal and carry license, gave her a gun and made sure she could use it, very, very well. Yes, she could fight. Theoretically anyway as she’d never had actually needed to.

  “Perhaps he doesn’t want you to see him in his wolf form.”

  “I could handle it,” Tasha answered with a little less certainty.

  “He also doesn’t want to accidently hurt you
.”

  “I thought he had excellent control.”

  “Ya know, with shape shifting types, it’s kind of hard to tell what can happen when they are in their, uh, other form. And since he tends to use the wolf form to be violent, well, it’s hard to say if he had berserker in there somewhere. Trust him, Luv. He doesn’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “He still shouldn’t have gone by himself,” Tasha said petulantly.

  Contrary to Hollywood werewolves, real life werewolves didn’t turn because of a werewolf bite. Well, not usually, unless the werewolf who did the biting had a certain virus; think rabies but worse. No, it was in their blood, their DNA. Since it was in their genes, werewolves tended to not be the bloodthirsty maniacs seen on the silver screen. They were, however a violent lot while in their wolf form as well as very hard to kill as they were practically invincible. Practically but not entirely.

  She ate her meal, sharing conversation with Franklin until he had to leave. She was pushing her plate away when Avery approached with an easy smile and a “Hey”.

  Tasha raised an eyebrow. “You my escort home?” Tasha liked Avery. He was smart and quick and always made her laugh. He was nice looking too, with his Asian features and neat but somehow still messy jet black hair. He was shorter than Tasha and slender. They were friends only, so the company they kept was always easy going.

  Avery shook his head and smiled his all-tooth smile. “Naw. I’m just here to make sure you stay put for a bit longer.”

  “Well, in that case, Detective,” Vince said with a bright, welcoming smile, “Have a seat, and can I getcha anything?”

  With Avery settled, he and Tasha began talking, eventually getting around to what, exactly, Tasha had been doing hanging around the warehouse in the dead of night.

  “I was there to meet Jake. Obviously he had a more interesting date with four hoodlums. He said he wanted me to take a look at the area, then the warehouse. Said it was for training purposes.”

  “So you weren’t on a stake out, not anything like that?”

  “No sir.”

  “He just wanted you to take a look? I wonder at what?”

  Tasha shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes he just wants to get another set of eyes on the situation. Every once in a while I can catch something that Jake doesn’t. He also says its all part of the training.”