It had been near impossible to find a body bag for the giant corpse but after much hassle the strange body had been carted away to the morgue. Now came what was supposed to be the easier task, finding out about the second victim. Mr. Lewis had been rushed into emergency surgery and therefore wasn't able to shed any light on who had hurt him or why they had done so. As a result, even more doors had to be knocked on. The building supervisor had described him in a way that almost indicated that he was the leader of some strange cult and Eames almost wasn't surprised by this turn of events. However, as the description had been rather unhelpful in leading to a cause for the attack and the information had been noted for later reference while another source of information had been sought out.
Mrs. Nieman seemed to be that source. At seventy-five years old, she had lived a floor above the victim for several years now. Almost immediately after inviting Goren and Eames inside she'd offered the two detectives coffee and lemon scones. "What can I do for you detectives?"
"We need to ask you some questions about your downstairs neighbor." Eames tried on a smile to reassure the old woman it was okay to talk.
"I heard about what happened but I don't know what I can tell you that would help." Mrs. Nieman responded.
"Even a small detail you think isn't important might be able to help us find out who hurt him," Goren pressed on. "Does he have any friends, any family members we can contact?"
This seemed to perk Mrs. Nieman up a little, "he has an adult daughter, Virginia." She paused before continuing. "She lived in the apartment with her father until about a year ago." almost as if telling some great secret she lowered her voice and leaned closer to Goren before speaking again "poor thing never seemed to have much interest in men, we all thought she might be one of those lesbians."
Goren and Eames exchanged a confused look, unsure of where the conversation was going. Finally deciding that it was time to move the conversation along Goren asked "Does Virginia have a girlfriend?"
"No, no...about a year ago she bought home some young stud. Poor thing mustn't have paid attention in sex ed because that young man almost immediately got her pregnant. I think she had to marry him out of shame."
Eames shook her head silently, trying not to smile at the woman's overt bluntness. "What did Mr. Lewis think about this?"
"That's the thing, he was off on some soul searching trip somewhere in the Middle East at the time."
"On a janitor's salary?" Eames probed into what the woman had said, feeling as if there was something concrete and suspicious to be found in this comment.
"That's what Virginia told me. You know she lived in the apartment with her new husband for a time while Mr. Lewis was gone," as she paused again a weird twinkle appeared in Mrs. Nieman's eyes "I dropped by one morning just to see if I could get a good look at the stud, as she'd kept him on a tight leash. That's when I saw his tail."
Tail had to be some kind of euphemism for an abusive side Eames decided. "Have you seen Mr. Lewis's son-in-law abusing him or is he just violent towards Virginia?"
"No, no other than getting Virginia pregnant he's been a perfect gentleman towards her and her father." Mrs. Nieman assured.
"You just said he had a tail? That's usually a way to state that someone is violent without directly stating so." Goren tried to act as if he was softening the blow so that the old woman might continue to open up. "Has Mr. Lewis's son-in-law threatened you?"
The old woman returned his stare remaining levelheaded "It was sticking right out of his pajama bottoms. A big bushy grey tail."
xxx
Maybe she was experiencing what was known as mother's instinct, or maybe it was just discomfort with the drunken frat boy ogling her. Either way, Virginia found herself uncomfortable with her work tonight. When she'd returned from the kingdoms, surprisingly the job at the Grill on The Green had still been waiting for her as Candy had found some way to vouch for her absence. However, a few months later when her and Wolf had found their own place she'd been forced to let it go in favor of, O'Shay's, a bar and grill a few blocks from the new apartment. Wolf had found employment at the bar too, working as a cook and that seemed to make the whole situation a little more bearable on most occasions. Tonight however she couldn't shake the ever pervasive feeling that something horrible had happened. Still, part of her job seemed to call for her to be polite and helpful, even to customers such as the frat boy and even when she felt as if she needed to be somewhere else protecting her cub.
"Can I take you home with me tonight?" frat boy asked, acting as if his overtly blunt pickup line was the height of human intelligence.
"Sorry, I'm afraid somebody already beat you to that, I have a husband." Virginia responded, trying on a fake sweet smile and hoping the frat boy didn't catch that she was suppressing an urge to break his beer bottle over his head. Before he could respond, Virginia happened to look up towards the doorway of O'Shay's and locked eyes with a petite blonde who was too well dressed to fit in with the usual crowd. The woman was immediately readable as a police detective and the fact that she was followed by an equally overdressed man only cemented this point.
The moment the woman locked eyes with Virginia, she began moving towards her with her partner trailing close behind. "Are you Virginia Wolfson?"
Virginia pulled herself away from the frat boy wondering if the sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach had been completely right, "what can I do to help you detectives?"
"I'm Detective Eames, this is my partner Detective Goren," the female detective paused and smiled "We'll try to make this quick so you can get back to work so that your boss isn't upset with you, but we have a few questions about your father."
"My boss?" Virginia turned to where the detective was looking confused. Mr. O'Shay had left for his brother's funeral in Omaha the previous night. She quickly realized who the detective was talking about. Wolf had came out of the bar kitchen and was standing several feet away sizing up the detectives. She realized they must be a strange and somewhat frightening sight to him. Although he was no longer in the nine kingdoms, she knew he still had memories of being unjustly hunted simply for being a wolf. Turning back to the detectives she sighed "whatever my father has done I'll make sure he pays for it."
The Detective Goren fitted her with a curious look. "It's interesting that you said you'll make sure he pays for it. Your father was found unconscious in his apartment. Somebody beat him pretty badly."
In that moment Virginia suddenly felt as if her world had been ripped from beneath her feet. She was almost certain she was going to fall to the floor until two strong arms wrapped around her from behind, anchoring her. It seemed Wolf had forgone his fear of detectives in favor of keeping his mate safe. Although she still felt almost like a scared child at the news of her father being hurt, with Wolf there holding onto her Virginia felt a bit more steady. "I thought you meant he'd accidentally vandalized something." Suddenly another point popped into her head. By how rigid Wolf suddenly became behind her, she realized he'd likely had the exact same thought. "Is Wendell okay?"
"Wendell?" the Detective Eames looked briefly confused.
"Yes, Wendell, our cub. Is he alright?"
Virginia was already used to Wolf referring to their son's nonhuman side by calling him a cub, but she was surprised when the detectives barely reacted on to the odd choice of words.
Instead, Detective Goren tried to soften the blow of what was about to be said. "Do either of you have a photo of your son?"
