Chapter 7: Hero Complex.
"The thief was someone I've never smelled before, and I've never heard of anyone named Jeff living here in Nome before now, so he's gotta be a newcomer. If these two are one and the same, maybe he didn't plan on staying very long", Balto elaborated, theorizing to his friends.
"Because he can't stay long?", Jenna guessed.
"Exactly. He needed fast money, and honest work just wasn't cutting it", Balto replied.
"But why?", Sylvie asked, befuddled.
"I… don't know", Balto admitted, his enthusiasm waning. "It's just an idea anyway. We need proof. We need to check him out", he determined.
"But we don't know where he lives. He could have stashed the loot anywhere in Nome and it'd take forever checking every house", Nikki argued. And the chow-chow unfortunately made a good point. It was already well past noon, and in four or five more hours it would be nightfall. Time was of the essence.
The doors to the Old Mill opened, cold air blowing in for just a few seconds, and Balto, half-interested, turned his gaze towards the entrance.
A nervous, shivering feline (whether it was from the cold or from anxiety, Balto wasn't sure) padded inside, watching both sides of the room at once and making an effort to keep a close eye on the dogs he passed by, in case one of them tried to make a move against him. However, the laidback, lazy canines were only mildly amused by the cat's fear of them (Balto's teammates included). For a cat who hated being around dogs, this was quite a lot like walking into a lion's den (ironically).
To Balto's surprise, Pete finally stopped when he reached the wolf-dog and his gang. "There you are. I've been looking for you all day. You weren't at home, so I had to look all over Nome, twice, until I came here", Pete griped, looking quite irritated, before he spared a glance looking behind him again. And Balto quickly used that opportunity to stop his ranting before he got too far into it.
"Erm, why exactly were you looking for me?", he asked the cat, quirking an eyebrow.
Pete ruffled his fur, leaned in close and whispered confidentially into the half-breed's ear. "The store where your owner works was robbed last night", he informed the lupine.
Balto frowned, slowly growing irritated. "I know", he replied dryly.
"But did you know that the guy who did it broke in right after he left? And he used a key to do it?", Pete countered, grinning triumphantly as the wolf-dog's expression rapidly morphed from bored to surprised. The same went for the half-breed's friends.
Balto snapped his head around to get a better look at the feline. "Who was it?", he asked urgently, excited that he had finally another lead.
"I have no idea", Pete replied bluntly and honestly, and Balto's face fell disappointedly. "But I know where he went", he added, and Balto's spirits lifted again, being jerked around on quite an emotional roller coaster. "And I would have told you sooner if I hadn't had so much trouble finding you", Pete scolded, starting to complain once more, but Balto wasn't in the mood to listen at the moment.
"Can you take us there?", the hybrid requested, cutting him off as he stood up.
((()-()))
Balto and his pals made sure they stayed just out of sight, finding a good hiding spot with a vantage point, as they watched the house across the street, or rather the fence around the house since that was all they could see at their height.
"Are you sure that's the place?", Balto asked his feline informant, wanting to be sure.
"Positive. Mick's place. The guy who left with the money wasn't his owner, but I always knew there was something no good about that dog", the cat replied, gritting his teeth.
Balto tried to ignore the feline's rather biased view on things as he formulated a plan. "Alright, I'm gonna go take a look. You guys hang back", he decided, addressing his teammates.
"But boss-", Kaltag started to protest. He hated being left out of things, especially when they involved some action, and backing up his boss in a tight spot was a pretty common impulse for the sled dog.
"If something goes wrong, I need you to either be here to back me up or be able to go for help", the wolf-dog explained to the chinook.
"I'm okay with that", Dixie decided pretty quickly which caused Kaltag to shoot her a withering glance.
"Me too", Sylvie agreed.
"Uh-huh", Pete nodded in unison.
Nikki and Star had no problem with the plan as well, while Kaltag grumbled for a few moments, clearly miffed, before he too resigned himself to his role to play in Balto's strategy.
"And Kaltag-", Balto added.
"Yeah?", Kal asked, still sulking a little.
"I'm 'boss' on the job, off-duty I'm just Balto", the wolf-dog requested with a cheeky grin before he leapt onto the road and bolted off across the street.
As he went, Kal couldn't help but think the guy had a real hero complex. Not in the same way as Steele, who always had to be a hero for self-centered reasons. More that he always had to rush into danger to save someone and keep everyone else safe, while at the same time, not putting enough concern to his own well-being.
Jenna watched her mate, wishing him the best of luck, and then she leaned over towards Kaltag. "Wanna bet he'll need us?", she whispered to her brawny friend.
"How much?", the golden chinook asked back.
((()-()))
The first odd thing Balto noticed when he got to the fence was that the gate was unlocked, and it was cracked open, which kinda defeated the purpose of having a gate. And the second odd thing that sprang to his mind was that Eve's scent was all over the yawn. Rosie's mother. She'd been there… recently too. Maybe she'd had the same idea he did: start snooping around.
Worried, the wolf-dog slipped discreetly through the gate (making as little noise as he possibly could), slinked across the yard, and then shimmied his way through the new neighbor's dog door.
He followed her scent inside the house; and he didn't feel any better when her own distinct smell mixed with someone else's. Eve had definitely been there before him, and she had had company. Hopefully friendly company. But somehow the wolf-dog doubted that.
Her trail led to the basement, so he snuck down the staircase with caution, forgetting all about his original reason for poking around. He had to know what his owner had been doing in her husband's coworker's abandoned home..
Unlike Evelyn before him, the wolf-dog couldn't reach the light switch (if he tried standing on two legs, he'd just fall down the stairs and break his back). Luckily, he didn't need the lights to see, his handy lupine night vision suited him just fine.
So the wolf-dog was just as horrified as his master had been by the sight that greeted him – a dozen roughed-up, ill-looking dogs sitting miserably in cramped cages. Including Mickey.
The imprisoned husky looked his way, staring at him in puzzlement for a minute before recognition sparked in his expression. "Balto… you're Balto", he realized, eyes lighting up.
"Why are you-?", Balto asked the prisoner, trying to make sense of his discovery, when his ears detected a creaking sound behind him, alerting him to danger, and he whirled around. The room lit up out of nowhere and the hybrid flinched, stepping back instinctively as he squinted his eyes in an attempt to adjust them.
Jeff was standing on top of the stairs, having been attracted by the sound of his dogs' barking. He had one hand on the light switch, while another hand cradled a cast-iron skillet he no doubt planned on using as a blunt weapon.
The man sneered. "Good thing I was expecting more trespassers. Well, looking forward to them really", he said, more to himself than to the half-wolf, as he stalked down towards the lupine. "But is it really trespassing when the house isn't yours in the first place?", he wondered aloud, before he ultimately shook his head. "Ah who cares?", he decided.
"I hope you got a nice good look at those cages, mongrel, cause one of them's your new home from now on", he jeered, thumping his palm with the non-too light kitchen pan.
Balto growled, unintimidated by the man. Crouching into a defensive position, he was ready to fight the loathsome human off if he had to.
((()-()))
Outside, five dogs and one cat waited impatiently in an alleyway; a few of them even pacing anxiously as the minutes ticked by, fear and uneasiness creeping in despite the faith they all had in their half-breed friend.
"Is it just me, or has he been in there for way too long?", Pete finally spoke up, biting the bullet and saying what everyone else was thinking.
"Something must be wrong", Jenna decided, having already seen this development coming.
"The bo- I mean, Balto needs us", Kaltag declared in agreement; ready, and almost eager, for a good rumble.
The two canines closest to the hybrid were the first to run towards the mouth of the alley, but they were far from the last. Nikki, Star, Dixie, Sylvie and Pete were right behind them, but they didn't get far before Jenna and Kaltag whirled around and stopped them.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You heard the man, we can't all go running in there", Kaltag reminded his buddies, catching them off guard.
"Someone needs to get help if it comes to it. Enough someones to get the humans' attention", Jenna stated.
"Which is not an easy thing to do", Kal remarked, speaking from experience.
The remaining canines (and feline) looked at each other with uncertainty, ruffling their fur, but eventually they conceded to stick to the plan and remain.
"Just be careful, girl", Dixie warned her friend, still having no idea what dangers laid beyond the fence. Jenna nodded and with those words of caution imparted on her, the husky left her friends and the safety of the alley behind to go check on her husband, his fellow sled dog accompanying her.
While the two of them slipped through the opened gate, the remaining animals were worried enough to start biting off their fingernails, if they had fingers to bite.
And then there were five.
More minutes passed and things were uncomfortably quiet, save for the sounds of the animals breathing and shifting around.
Somehow the hands on the clock tower went from 2:15 to 2:30 in no time at all. And there was no sign of their chums. After a while, it was pretty clear that weren't going to be any.
"Is it just me, or have they been in there way too long?", Pete asked again.
Dixie whimpered.
Star turned to Nikki. "Go for help?", he suggested at last.
"Go for help", the chow-chow agreed with him.
And with that decided, the sled dogs, show dogs, and single house cats ran out of the backstreet alley like dogs out of hell. Devil dogs.
((()-()))
On the brighter side of things, Marcus had finally let Thomas out of the holding cell and the man was free to stretch his legs again – so while the sheriff chose to wait around in his chair and ruminate on everything he had apparently learned, the suspect remained upright and enjoyed being able to move around. A few of the lawman's deputies chose to do the same.
It had taken forever to get ahold of Clancy (either because he wasn't home or because he wasn't answering his phone), but when the sheriff finally did get ahold of him, nothing really seemed to have changed because then Thomas had to wait even further still for his boss to get dressed and walk across town. By the time he actually did get there, an hour later than the family man would have liked, Tom felt like he could have bent the bars of his cell with his bare hands, he was so impatient.
The door to the jailhouse opened and Clancy (looking torn, almost guilty for some reason) stepped inside.
"Clancy, I need you to-", Tom started, the wanted poster gripped tightly in his palm as he was about to launch into his revelations.
"Hold on a minute, Tom. Before you go on any further, there's something I have to say", his boss politely interrupted.
"But-", Thomas argued, but the man held up his hand to stop him and the American groaned.
Clancy folded his arms. "I'm actually glad you called me down here. You see after our last falling out, I went home and had a talk with the wife. She told me I was being an 'irrational idiot'. She always did have a way with words", he mused, smiling a little.
"That's great, now-", Tom said tiredly.
"Please, let me finish", Clancy insisted, and his employee ground his teeth, wondering just when he'd finally grind them to dust. His aggravation subsided however when he saw how his employer squeezed his arm and bit his lip. He looked like he was about to do something no man particularly liked doing, something Thomas had had a lot of experience with – swallowing one's pride and admitting they were wrong.
"I thought about what she said for a while, and I realized she was right. You said it, I said it too - you're supposed to be my friend. I know you well enough to know you're as stubborn as me, but you're not a thief. You love your family, and you'd never do something like this to them, no matter how desperate you were. I mean lately you've been working yourself to bone so you wouldn't have to do things the easy way, and I should have given you the benefit of the doubt instead of… Well let's just say my actions today have been the opposite of trusting", he confessed, sounding rather ashamed. He took a deep breath.
"So I came here to apologize", he declared.
Tom blinked. "Really?", he asked.
The man made a silent gesture that equaled 'yes'.
Tom blinked a few times before he cleared his throat. "Well, your apology's accepted then, I guess", he decided. It was a lot easier to be accepting and understanding when he wasn't sitting in a cramped cell. His hand tightened around the wanted poster he had momentarily forgotten about and he remembered just what he had wanted, or rather needed to tell his boss before he got sidetracked.
"There's more-", Clancy pressed on..
"It'll have to wait", Tom quickly interrupted, stepping forward and handing him the crinkled, folded-up paper, the sheriff of Nome standing right behind him, peering over his shoulder.
"We need you to ID this man", the head lawman explained while Clancy read the criminal's stats.
The store owner's eyes grew wide with disbelief while his voice lowered. "My god, it's Jeff", he realized, barely louder than a whisper but just loud enough for the sheriff and his men to hear him, confirming their suspicions.
Marcus snatched the poster from the man's hand unexpectedly, causing him to look up at them a bit stunned. "Thanks, that's all we needed to know", Mark replied, turning towards his officers.
"Okay men, before we leave, remember that the suspect is probably armed and dangerous so be on the lookout. We're also in an area full of civilians so do not use force unless force is absolutely necessary", he advised them.
Clancy's mind however was still reeling. "I hired… a criminal?", he thought aloud, sounding almost like he was in denial. Tom, in return, patted him on the shoulder, feeling a good deal of sympathy in that department.
And then there was a loud thump behind them, startling all the men in the sheriff's office, like something had just slammed into the front door.
Intrigued, Mark went over to answer it when the unlocked door flew open and a little girl stumbled inside, followed closely by a crusade of assorted animals.
Officer O'Reilly, the last person anyone would have expected, recognized all of them. "You!", he hissed, eyes narrowing, at the sled dogs who had harassed him relentlessly.
"Dad!", Rosie exclaimed, running towards her father who she hadn't seen since he was taken away that morning.
More than paternal instincts, his common sense as well, told Tom something had to be wrong somewhere if his little girl showed up at the police station without her mother by her side. And Balto and Jenna were nowhere to be seen either, he noticed. "What is it?", he inquired, looking over the panting, tired child.
"I came home from school and mom's not there. I checked the neighbors, and she wasn't there either. So I thought she'd be here, with you", she explained hurriedly.
"I thought the same", Tom replied honestly, his mind racing from another new turn of events. If Evy was missing at the moment, that meant there was a chance she was… "No, she wouldn't", he insisted in his head, refusing to entertain the thought. And then he remembered the teary, pained expression on her face when she left him alone earlier that day, and how stubborn his spouse could be, not unlike himself. "She would", he groaned.
"She knew all the details of this case, and she knew Jeff was a suspect too. She must have gone looking for him. If he's hurt her-",Tom surmised, growling and balling his fist as all the implications and possibilities started to sink in.
Meanwhile, Rosie grew still as her fear gripped her. There was a chance her mother could be hurt? "We've got to find her dad", she pleaded with the man.
Seeing the family's distress, the sheriff stepped forward. "Well, it's a small town. It shouldn't take long to find out where this Jeff guy lives, if he hasn't already packed up and moved on", Mark theorized.
"No, he couldn't have skipped town this quickly. We'd know if he had", Tom reasoned. And then the immigrant finally turned his attention to the dogs and cats that hadn't stopped barking and yowling the whole time they were talking (the humans had just been pointedly ignoring the racket).
The man crouched down until he and the animals were at face level. "And I'd say it shouldn't take us any time to find him, since these guys know exactly where they are", he grinned, following a hunch.
"You really think they can lead us to him?", Clancy asked skeptically.
Thomas's lips curved even further. "Trust me, they may not talk, but there's a lot people can learn from dogs; and cats too I suppose", the American replied, taking note of the feline he didn't recognize among his dog's many canine friends.
"I for one trust them", Marcus spoke up, taking the civilian side, remembering how Balto led him to a drunken, dangerous Samuel not too long ago. The lawman turned to his deputies again, ready to move. "Alright men, let's follow the dogs", he decided, an order that admittedly sounded weird even to him.
"Wait. Sheriff, do you think one of them could stay here and make sure my daughter doesn't follow us again?", Thomas requested, causing the lawman to quirk his brow.
"But dad, I wanna help m-", Rosie protested, standing up.
"No buts, missy. I'm not gonna let you run into danger and almost get yourself killed like last time. One member of my family could already be in harm's way, I'm not gonna make it two", Thomas declared, leaving no room arguments.
And Rosie, knowing that was her father's final decision and there was no reasoning with the man when he got like this, scrunched up her face and walked off to go pout somewhere else.
When she did, her dad's face softened in relief and he turned towards the sheriff. He hated having to get stern with the girl, but she honestly had no idea how serious and dangerous the whole situation was. A professional criminal and his partner was twice as deadly as a drunkard running wild with a shotgun.
Agreeing to Thomas' request, Marcus asked one of his men to hang back and keep an eye on the girl, and with that last loose-end taken care of, the police force (with two civilians in tow) set out to catch themselves a dog fighter.
