Costly Obsession: Animalize

  *****

  “Yes Mr. Raleigh, oh yes of course, Oscar. They’re there? Great, I’m so sorry for worrying you, but... yes I agree, their safety is the most important thing. I hope you won’t be too hard on them, Jeremy assured me that they haven’t snuck out lately, since the... deaths that is, but it never hurts to check. Oh that’s good... that’s true, we have pulled our own stunts as well. Well let me get off here, I have a few more calls to make and the sooner the better. God bless you too, Mr.... Oscar. Good night to you and your wife, Bye.”

  Wendy pressed the off button and began flipping through her address book for the next number, “Well that takes care of the Raleigh boys and Ms. Mann said that Chris was sacked out on the couch in front of the television, so that only leaves Michael Lamb.”

  An overwhelming sensation took Wendy’s stomach from her throat to the floor. This was the moment that changed so many lives forever not just hers, as the phone rang she prayed that she had been wrong and that young Michael was right where he was supposed to be. Her heart seemed to stop beating when Marion Lamb returned to the phone and angrily related her son’s missing state.

  “I just can’t believe he’d do something like this, then again, yes I can. He’s been so... so, so deviant lately. I just don’t know what I’m going to do with him; reform school seems like a good idea at the moment. It’s just like him to run off and disappear when there’s a murderous freak on the loose. Michael just doesn’t stop to think about things. Sometimes I don’t even believe he thinks at all, and now he’s out there, runnin’ around, while some lunatic...” It was at that moment Marion ceased being angry and realized that her baby boy was in real danger, “Oh Wendy, what am I gonna’ do? What if he runs into that thing and it... it...?” She couldn’t continue as the last vestiges of anger faded away into panic and her ‘rotten punk’ of a son transformed back into her little boy.

  “Don’t worry Marion; he’s probably close by somewhere. I’ll call Officer Carpell and he’ll get right out and pick him up if he’s out there and bring him home safe and sound, where you can ground him for the rest of the summer if you like. Most likely he’s somewhere in the house sulking or something, you know how teenagers are. You check the house again and I’ll make that call, alright? You just hang in there, okay?”

  “You think?”

  “I know when Jeremy gets mad or something’s bothering him and he can’t leave the house he goes out on the roof of the garage and pouts things out for a while, it’s possible.”

  Marion thought it over for a moment and began making a mental note of all the possible places that Michael could have stashed himself. “But you’re still gonna’ call Gary right? And you’re gonna’ tell him that he’s missing, just in case? And you will call me right, and tell me what he said? And you’ll make sure to have him call me as soon as he finds some... him right?”

  “Yes, of course I’ll make sure you know everything that’s going on; okay? Now go ahead and have a good look around while I make that call. Good bye Marion.”

  Wendy had done her best to keep her voice as calm as could be using the tone she usually uses for work when things go wrong. Marion was one more person she had added to her list of those she had lied to this evening, but that couldn’t be helped now; there were more important things to think about right now. Michael WAS missing, and like it or not her worst fears were being realized. The chance that she was jumping to conclusions was waning and now she had to call Officer Carpell and explain her crazy theory to him. It’d be easier if she could just tell him that Michael Lamb was missing, but if he truly was... responsible for the attacks, than she couldn’t let him walk into the same thing that Frank had the night before. Then again what if he thought she was nuts and it went around town that Wendy Kinsington had lost her mind, what kind of an impact would that have on not only her, but her entire family? Things like that don’t just blow over in a small town like Epson. Back and forth she volleyed between her conscience and reason.

  “Well you have to tell him something Wendy. You can’t wait much longer, one thing’s for sure, Michael’s gone.”

  Aaron was right, tempes fugen, and she had promised Marion. She had to see this thing through and even though her reputation was on the line, it wasn’t worth more than a man, or a boy’s, life. She dialed the phone one more time and rehearsed what she was going to say as best she could.