Treasure

The green Ford Expedition stopped by the side of the road, the back passenger-side door opening just before a huge black wolf jumped in. The door closed, and the vehicle was moving again seconds later. The spot had been carefully chosen, no houses or streetlights were around, and the driver had gone past three times before he caught a break and no cars were coming either way.

There was the sound of crunching bones and moments later a naked Todd was in the back seat. “You guys are fucking idiots, you know that?” He pulled on a pair of jeans, then pulled a T-shirt and sweatshirt over his muscled chest. He crawled into the front seat and buckled up. “Head for the hotel, and don’t get pulled over.”

“Sorry Alpha,” the younger man said from the back. “I let her slip.”

“You did, and now we’ve got a dead friend and MY FUTURE LUNA just got hurt while running from me. How could one little shewolf get loose from a trained warrior?”

“The same way she outran an Alpha,” the big driver said before realizing that was the WRONG thing to say. He muttered an apology and looked back to the road, glad he was driving because otherwise he’d be nursing a fresh wound.

The Alpha considered just killing both of these idiots, but he pushed the impulse down and thought for a minute. “With Treasure at the hospital surrounded by cops, there’s no way we can get close to her and grab her tonight. She took a good hit, she’ll be in there for a few days at least.” He glared at his Beta as he drove. “We’re going to head back to the hotel and you two bozos are going to stay out of sight. If she lives, she could identify you.”

“She barely saw us, boss,” the young one said. “It was dark out.”

“She has a fucking WOLF, you idiot. If she didn’t, you wouldn’t have gotten your forearm ripped open. She can see plenty good in the dark.”

The rest of the ride was quiet. He dropped the men off at the hotel, then drove off to pick up some pizza and beer. Along the way, he called the Beta he left in charge of the Pack and told him it would be a few more days before he would return with their Luna.

It was after midnight before Treasure woke up in the recovery room of the hospital. Her head, her face, her shoulder and arm… everything hurt. She tried to move but her body wouldn’t respond, and she couldn’t open her mouth. She started to panic, causing the machines hooked up to her to alarm and getting the attention of the nurse. “Relax, Treasure, you’re in the hospital,” the nurse told her. “You were in an accident and your jaw was broken. You won’t be able to open it because the doctors had to wire it shut so it can heal,” she said.

Rea closed her eyes, tears starting to drip down her face. She didn’t remember running or getting hit by a car, she remembered nothing after she watched Jenny drop to the ground dead. She must have had another episode, but how did she get away from those men? What happened while she was out?

“Would you like some water,” the nurse asked her. She went to talk but couldn’t move, the pain came quickly, so she just nodded. The nurse brought the cup up, letting her have a few sips through the straw that soothed her dry throat.

A doctor stepped up to the bed, looking at her chart and her vitals, he smiled at her. He ran her through some tests, starting with her eyes and tracking his finger, all the way to wiggling her toes. “You’re doing well, Treasure,” he said. “We’re going to move you to a room in a few minutes, and you Mom is anxious to see you.” Mom! Rea couldn’t imagine what she was going through now, first her husband and now her. “Would you like me to bring her back?”

Rea nodded quickly, and the doctor left and went to find her Mom. The press was camped out by the ER entrance, and he found her with a few other people in the conference room. “Mrs. Olson?”

She looked up from where she had been crying on her mother’s shoulder. “Treasure? Is she all right?”

“She just woke up and asked for you,” he said. “She’s going to be fine. We’ll be taking her to her room soon. I’ll let family talk to her for a few minutes, but you’re all going to have to go home and let her rest. Visiting hours start at eight,” he said.

“But she’ll be fine?”

“She came through the surgery just fine, and the X-rays didn’t show any brain injury. Her shoulder and face took most of the impact. Tomorrow the orthopedist can talk to you about her recovery and the therapy she’s going to need. We’ll be giving her some strong painkillers, she’ll sleep through the night. You won’t miss anything going home and getting some rest.”

He walked her through the door of the Recovery Room and she started crying again as she saw her baby in the bed, a cast on her left arm and shoulder, and her face swollen and bruised. She reached for her good hand, her left hand brushing her red hair off her forehead. “Hi baby,” she said softly. Treasure couldn’t answer, but her eyes told her how worried she was. “Jenny is going to be fine,” she said and she could see the relief immediately. “She’s here, her parents too. You saved her, she told them you gave yourself up so they would stop hurting her. You set off the panic alarm and it led the police right to her, fast enough they could save her. You’re my brave girl,” she said as she squeezed her hand.

The nurses disconnected a few things and they were on their way out, taking an elevator to the fourteenth floor of the hospital. “We have a few things to do, and we’re going to help her to the bathroom,” her new nurse said. “Why don’t you get the others, they can come up and say goodnight before we give her the pain medication. Once it hits her bloodstream, she’s going to be able to sleep until morning.”

Dawn kissed her daughter then walked out, while the nurses helped her get ready for bed. She was still awake when her Mom returned with Grandma, and a few minutes later the drugs took effect and she fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning as the painkillers wore off, the pain started to build again. Her Mom was in the room, but she held off on more pain pills because she needed to get this done. She’d put up with the pain if she could stop this from happening again.

In another room, a police sketch artist was working with Jenny, but Rea didn’t need help. Her Mom had brought her phone, computer and some of her art supplies with her this morning, and the pencil was flying on the sketch pad as she drew the two men. She was so thankful her left side had taken the brunt of the fall, since her left hand was not nearly as good to draw with as her dominant hand. The Detective had the first drawing already, this of the man who had choked out Jenny. She was starting to work on the second man, the one she had fought with, as he walked out of her room.

He took a picture of her drawing and texted it to the Chief, then called him. “Jesus, Boss, I wish all our witnesses have her talent,” he said. “She got this one done in about twenty minutes, now she’s doing the other guy.”

“She has talent,” he said. “Do you trust her?”

“I do,” he said. “She described the guy last night, but this is much better.”

“OK. Get the second drawing when she’s done and take it to the other victim after the sketch artist is done with her. Pick the drawing she thinks is the best representation of the attacker she saw and go with it. I want a BOLO on this immediately to update the one we sent out last night for two guys and a big dog. I’ll hold a press conference and we’ll get these drawings out.” The Chief let out a sigh, he’d barely slept a few hours last night. “We need to catch these assholes before they get anyone else. The Mayor is already up my butt about this.”

An hour later, the two drawings Treasure had done were all over the Rochester and Twin Cities news stations.

Back at the hotel, Todd rolled out of bed about ten in the morning and got dressed. He drove down the road to an IHOP, where he ordered a large breakfast and then two big breakfasts to go. He was eating his eggs when he heard something about an attempted rape, and looked up at the television on the wall behind the counter he was sitting at.

“Police in Rochester are asking for the public’s help in finding two men who assaulted two women in Cripple Creek Canyon in northwest Rochester,” the newscaster said. A pair of sketches was shown on the screen, and his gut clenched when he saw how well his Beta and Warrior had been captured by the artist. “The man on the left is described as being a white male in his forties, about six-foot-six and two hundred and fifty pounds, while the man on the right is a white male in his early twenties, six-foot-tall and a hundred and eighty pounds. If you have seen these men, do not approach them as they are considered dangerous. Call 911 or the Rochester Police Tip Line at 1-800-RCH-TIPS.”

The sketches, though black and white, were too good. He was glad he was keeping the men under wraps and they weren’t the ones who had rented the two rooms. The news moved on to other subjects, so he wolfed down the rest of his breakfast, took the two Styrofoam containers in the bag, and paid up.

He went straight to his room, then opened the connecting door to their room. “You’ve been made,” he told them. “Turn on the news.” They did, and their reaction was the same. “Put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on your door and put your dirty linens in a bag. I’ll get the cleaning lady to change them out because you are sleeping all day. Keep the curtains closed and don’t even open your fucking door or you might be arrested,” he told them.

“What are we going to do, Alpha? Are we going to head home?”

“Not without our Luna we aren’t. After housekeeping leaves, I’m heading out to get some supplies. We’re getting her tonight and getting the hell out of here.”

At lunchtime, Chief Clarke wasn’t at his desk. Instead, he was standing on top of a tall retaining wall along Cripple Creek Parkway. His lead detective in the case had brought in a bloodhound, which had followed Treasure’s scent through the woods to this point overlooking where she was found. “So why am I up here, Detective?”

“Because other than our footprints, there isn’t anything up here but dog prints. Hell, the whole way here, there were no human footprints found, just a big dog and a really fucking big dog.”

“So we tracked a couple of dogs?”

“The bloodhounds were given Treasure’s scent. Treasure was found right down there on the road. In between, no Treasure, just two dogs. The small dog’s prints end here, the big one goes along the edge and across the road a hundred yards west.”

He was getting a headache again. “You got pictures of the tracks?”

“Yes, but no casts, the ground is frozen and the snow isn’t solid enough to take plaster.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe she was taking a fucking ride on his back and fell off. This whole case just sucks,” he said. “I’m heading back. Did we get that blood we found tested?”

“Yes sir, DNA testing will take a few days but blood typing shows it’s not Treasure’s, and Jenny didn’t have any injuries that bled. Type AB positive.”

“As soon as the DNA comes through, run it through the databases. Make sure we’re using the sex offender database.”

“Already on it, boss. I talked to a FBI profiler this morning, it’s rare for sex offenders to work together like this, but he’ll have a report for us in a few days.”

He was doing all he could. “Come on, let’s get some lunch. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

Later that afternoon, Todd returned to the rooms with a bag of supplies. He sent his Beta into the bathroom with a hair dye kit; he couldn’t make him grow hair, but he could get rid of the distinctive grey. The younger one had his long hair cut off, leaving behind a military-style cut that was dyed a dark brown. He had gone to the hospital, taking a photo of the identification cards used there, then bought blank badges and a photo printer at a local store. Using his laptop, he took pictures of both of his men and edited them in to the file he had made. In ten minutes, he had badges printed and ready, each using the barcode he had captured from one of the workers.

A quick trip to a uniform store allowed him to purchase scrubs with the Mayo logo. Visiting hours ended at nine PM, they would be there around eleven when the floor was nice and quiet.