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Chapter Nine: Calmonte Lighthorn

Reis stared out of the passenger window of the Joji's car, watching the green trees and grassy fields of the park disappear in the face of brick buildings as the two of them entered the downtown area again. The buildings flew by, merging together in a heap of red and brown colors; at least until they passed Brier Street again. Though it passed as quickly as the other buildings, to Reis, it froze in place. Jerry and Tony had left the site and another officer was securing the area. It was Gary, a Labrador in his mid-thirties, who was leaning slightly against one of the traffic meters at the intersection, but not to a degree that would suggest laziness as he kept a stern, upright composure. Gary gave a quick wave to the car as it passed and Joji responded with a honk of the horn. Before the complexion of Brier Street could disappear into the figment of red and brown (and some other sporadic colors) as the building passed, Reis managed to get a mille-second look at the chalk outline of a body in the street.

He got what was coming to him.

The last time that Reis saw Tobias was not after he bashed him and his buddy Keith in the locker room three years earlier; though Reis wished it had been with all his heart. No. It was the first time that he and Marcus returned to Mayfield after they had moved to Florentine during Marcus's winter break to see his parents for Christmas (which happened to be the only time they did so since, for the following two years, Marcus would be doing something between semesters that kept him tied to Florentine). Reis went over to see his mother, who had just gotten out of jail. When he opened the door he found her on the floor, foaming from the mouth and clutching onto the carpet right beside the coach. Standing right above her...was Tobias. He was trying to tilt her legs up and shouting at her to breath. But as soon as he saw Reis, he bolted out of the house through the back door. Reis did not pursue him but rushed right to his mother. He quickly dialed 911 and performed CPR on her until the paramedics arrived. A couple of days later, when she was able to speak again in the hospital, she told Reis that Tobias was her new (what Ries took to mean) fixer, but she ordered Reis not to do anything to him. At that, Reis stomped right outside the hospital room, his mother's screams behind him. Reis tracked down Tobias in the trailer park where he lived. He pulled the tiger out of the flimsy rust den he called home and threw him to the ground. He then pinned him to the down and told him to stay away from his mother or else...Reis could remember the words clearly

"...I WILL END YOU!"

That was the last time that he saw Tobias, and he was glad that the fucker disappeared from Reis's line of sight until he died...especially after what Reis had learned about the night his mother died. Apparently, the 911 call was made from a phone that was no were near where they found her body. Furthermore, a neighbor had reported that a tiger, fitting Tobias's description, fled the house shortly before the paramedics got there. Part of him...no...he wished that he could have been the one at that...

"Here we are!" sounded Joji. Reis sat up to see Joji parking the car beside a shop a few doors down from the barber shop. Standing outside the barber shop were two cats, a white female and a brownish male. They were teenagers from what Reis could tell from where he was sitting. Upon seeing Joji's car pull up, the male cat ran into the barber shop. Seeing this, Joji sprung out of the car and headed down the street, and Reis quickly following behind him.

"I want you to wait outside the door and block it till we're finished. I'll call you in if I need help. Understand?"

"Yes." Reis said promptly.

As the two were only a few yards away from the entrance of the barber shop, the male cat came back out and joined the side of the white female cat who was leaning against the glass window of the barber nshop. Joji glared at the two, who returned the gesture. Joji pulled the barber shop door open, making the bell tied to the door jingle loudly with the ferocity of his pull. Reis held the door open with his leg as he blocked the door's entrance with his body. He glanced over to the young couple leaning against the window. He noticed that the male cat had a blue jacket that read in gold lettering "MHS Wrestling Team". Reis lightened his face and nodded upward. "I was on that team a few years ago." The male cat tilted his head to the side a bit, finally muttering out "Aren't you Reis Northcote?"

"Yea. How did you know?"

The cat moved his body the right, so that he was it was completely turned toward Reis, his shoulder leaning against the window. "I remember you from when I was a freshman.

"Hmm," said Reis trying not to look the too interested.

"You know, they pulled your trophies from display after what you did."

Reis huffed, "I guess I deserved that."

The cat gave a very faint half smile.

"Officer Northcote!"

In a flash, Reis snapped his body backward, as he knew that when Joji used formalities it meant it was urgent. However, as he swiftly turned, he almost smacked his muzzle against the black face of another wolf. Almost tripping over the ledge were the door stood three inches off the ground, Reis had to take an awkward, substantially longer step backward to keep himself from smashing the back of his head on the curb. He could sense the snickering of the two cats watching him. But as always he quickly regained his balance and was able to prompt himself up in a more intense position as to show that he was not a heavy handed klutz. However, his new found center couldn't hold for long as the giant figure came right for him as Joji thrust the large stranger forward.

"Take hold of him!" shouted Joji. Reis quickly complied, grabbing onto the stranger's right arm, which was slung behind his back and cuffed onto his left. Reis's fingers came into contact with the worn and ripped black leather of the stranger's jacket. The two of them led the massive mystery man to the police car, resting the front of his body on the passenger side of it. As Joji conducted a pat down, Reis took a second to make out the details of this wolf who was strangely compliant, only smiling as he looked forward staring obliviously. Though Reis hated to admit it, but the man was intimidating to him by his size alone. Always being one of the bigger guys in almost every situation, it was a little unnerving to be trust into the presence of seven foot tall wolf. Of course the wolf's size was not all that was intimidating; the color of his fur was particularly unsettling. Most other wolfs who Reis had known, especially in his own family, had dark fur that aired toward gray. But Reis could remember no one in his life, wolf or otherwise, who had fur, feathers, or scales that were not just dark...but pure black. Black in the strictest sense, as in the complete absence of color. His leather jack and dark jeans were well distinguished from his hide. The pureness of the black even made it hard to distinguish the bristles of the fur on his body so that he almost looked like merely a black shape. A piece of the darkest night lost in broad daylight.

Still smiling, the stranger slowly turned his head toward Reis. A disturbing sensation came over Reis as the wolf in front of him settled his black eyes on him. His eyes made no distinction in the wolf's complexion. It was as if, even in the sunlight, the stranger's pupils had dilated to the point of absorbing the whole iris; leaving only a window into the stranger's internal features, which appeared no different and no less disquieting, as his external ones.

"What are you waiting for? Didn't I ask you to read him his Miranda?" Joji snapped as he pounded a gun that he found in the wolf's jeans on the roof of the police car. Reis locked eyes with the wolf's. The wolf sported his teeth in a confident and amused smile as he hung his lower jaw and raised his eye brows. Reis could do nothing but glare back at him.

"Come on kid...Let me hear you sing your song..." the stranger finally spoke. He had a peculiar accent. It was deep, arrogant, and very urban. It sounded like one of those uppity Italian-American accents from New York or Chicago... as far as Reis knew.

"...Don't screw up... it's one of my favorites..."

Reis tried to ignore the wolf's mocking. The last thing he wanted to do was take requests from a criminal. "You have the right to remain silent..." Reis began.

"Mmm!" exclaimed the wolf shaking his body in gratification.

"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..." Reis continued keeping his eyes grilled to those of the wolf, doing his best to blank out the wolf's antagonizing gestures.

"I look forward to that encore..."

"Shut up and face forward!" snapped Joji.

The wolf only glanced toward Joji with his satisfied grin. "Is that how you talk to old friends, Junior?" then turned back to Reis, "Let the kid finish."

"You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you by the state."

The wolf shook his head, turning his head back to facing forward. "I can afford an ambulance chaser, kid."

Joji sprung back up, grabbing a hold of the gun left on the top of the car with his right hand and putting his left hand on the top of the wolf's head. "Then I guess you check out...open the door, Officer Northcote." Reis opened the back left door and Joji pushed the haughty wolf inside. As Joji headed back for the driver's side of the car, the mysterious black wolf flashed his eyes at Reis's one last time before being separated from behind a wall of glass.