Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.

Shadow Puppets

Chapter 9

Stephanie put her head round the door of the small office in the seventh floor apartment. "Ranger! Ella's here with the clothes."

"Finally." Ranger slammed the top of the laptop down and sprang down from the chair. "Let's take a look."

He followed her out to the lounge, where Bobby was opening a large cardboard box with a pocket knife.

"Where's Ella?" Stephanie asked. "She was just here."

Bobby shrugged. "Said she had to get on with the sandwiches. You need me for anything, boss?"

"No. We'll take it from here."

Bobby took a quick look in the box and dropped the lid shut quickly. "Well, I'm out of here. I was just carrying the box for Ella anyway." He left the apartment at a fast walk, turning toward the fire stairs just as the door swung shut.

"Where's the fire?" Stephanie asked.

Ranger just shrugged and opened the box. He pulled out the first few items and stared at them before throwing them back in the box and reaching for his phone. He paced the apartment as he made the call, trying to vent some of his frustration in the movement.

"Ella," he said in a dangerously quiet voice, "would you care to explain why the shirts you just brought me have Spiderman on the front? And why Steph has Dora the Explorer on hers?" He spun to watch Stephanie's face as she raked through the contents of the box pulling out items. "No, I can safely say that she's not happy about it either. What exactly did you put on the order?… Well send these back and find something else…. No! Not even temporarily…. Well if they can't do it today then go to the mall yourself and try to find something better than these. Bobby will take you…. I don't care about the sandwiches. Order them in and charge it to RangeMan."

He ended the call and threw the phone at the couch before walking back over to Stephanie. She was vehemently throwing items of brightly colored girl's clothing back into the box one by one.

She looked up at him with tears of frustration in the corners of her eyes. "Spangles. They have fricking spangles on them. And cartoon characters. Look." She threw a lemon yellow tank top at him. "It's got My Little fucking Pony on it. And a rainbow. I thought we were getting proper clothes again when these arrived. Don't I get to keep a shred of dignity?"

She screamed with irritation and threw a pair of pink, spangled pants across the room.

"Ella's going out to get us something else. It won't be much longer. Just try to stay calm, Babe."

"I tried to call Lula earlier to see if she'd heard from Tank. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. My Grandma's not around either. Mom called to ask if I knew where she was."

He put an arm around her. "I'll send Hal out to check on them. And don't worry about the guys. Tank and Lester are as good as it gets, and Morelli has good instincts."

"I don't like that we can't reach them."

"There could be any number of reasons for that."

"I just wish we knew where they were."

o0o o0o o0o o0o o0o

Lula was awakened by what felt like every bird in New Jersey singing directly above her head. "God damn. What the hell is goin' on?" She dragged her jeans on and her tee-shirt over her head and poked her head out of the tent.

Tank was sitting like a carved mahogany statue beside the dying embers of the fire, seemingly oblivious to the cacophony of shrieks and chirps coming from the forest canopy. Lester was curled up asleep in a sleeping bag a short distance away from the fire. She couldn't see Edna or Morelli, but either they weren't far or someone was using a buzz saw in the other tent.

Lula looked up over her head expecting to see hundreds of birds flying around in the grayish half-light. She couldn't see any. "Where the hell are they all?"

"What?" Tank asked quietly.

"All the damn birds. And how am I supposed to get my beauty sleep with all this racket?"

He shrugged. "Early yet. Go back to bed."

"I can't."

"Then stay."

She sat down across the fire from him and stared into the sullen glow of the fire as it turned slowly to ash. Occasionally some of the embers would collapse and a shower of sparks would shoot into the air like tiny fireworks. She started to flick tiny twigs onto the fire to burn and watch the tiny yellow flames dance then die.

"What's wrong, Lu?" Tank's voice broke into her reverie.

"My man don't want me no more." She carried on staring into the fire.

"You know I do. And that ain't it, not all of it anyway."

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"I do."

"Tellin' me what to do, is that the way it's gonna be from now on? You gonna start bein' like every other man I ever knew before? I liked it better when you didn't talk."

"Quit trying to sell that crap to me, Lu. I ain't buying. And there ain't nobody else awake to pretend to."

She sagged. "Get the hell out of my head, Tank. I don't want you there. Go back to bein' the silent type."

"Why? Is it so bad in there?"

"Worse that you could ever imagine," she said dully.

"Tell me."

She didn't want to. She desperately didn't want to, but he just watched her from the other side of the fire as though he could sit there for eternity and wait for her answer. And the damn birds screeched and sang in the trees as if to mock her: Listen to us, we can talk. We talk, we sing, we cry and the world listens to us.

And then she was talking, slowly, reluctantly. "I thought I got away. Steph saved me and gave me this whole new life and I thought I was free. We were this duo of kick-ass girl bounty hunters, like superheroes. Wasn't nothing could stop us. And now she's just this little doll made of felt. Just like that. She just woke up one mornin' and it was all gone. What if it's all just gone tomorrow? What if I wake up tomorrow and some witch decides I got to be a ho again?" Tears stung her eyes. "I can't do that again. I can't walk that damn corner till my feet hurt hopin' that the next john won't give me AIDS or decide to rearrange my face cause he had a fight with his wife, or cut me up inside like Ramirez. I'm so scared, Tank."

She looked up at the tree canopy. "And I hate those fucking birds."

He got up and walked around the fire to join her. He slung his arm around her and pulled her close. "You are never going back. Trust me. I swear to you we will fix this. The birds, you're going to have to live with until we get you back to Trenton."

She gave a laugh that was half a sob and leaned into him gratefully. They fed the fire little twigs and watched the flames together while they waited for dawn.

o0o o0o o0o

Tank got up and started to move around while the sky was still gray. "Time to start getting ready to leave."

Lula got up too, and stretched. "I'm hungry. And don't offer me no more of Lester's bird, neither. I never believed the stories about you army guys eatin' anythin' till now."

"I heard that," Lester said without opening his eyes. "Now that's what I call ungrateful."

Tank nodded at a bag hanging from the branches of a nearby tree. "See what you can find."

Lula took down the bag and rummaged through it, pulling out a packet of crackers. She sat down again and chewed them slowly as she watched the dawn gradually filter through the canopy and the forest slowly regain its brilliant green tones. "I ain't never seen a sunrise before. It's pretty." She glared up at the canopy, "And noisy."

Tank threw an armful of branches onto the fire and retrieved the water container. "We'll take you back to the main trail after breakfast." He nudged Lester with the toe of his boot. "Wake up, sleeping beauty, before Edna tries to wake you with a kiss."

Lester's eyes snapped open. "I'm awake. I'm definitely awake."

o0o o0o o0o

"But I don't see why I have to go back with Lula," Edna objected as they followed the trail of crushed ferns and cut branches back the way they had come. "You might need my special talents."

"It isn't safe, Grandma. We're hunting for a witch. Anything could happen," Morelli answered. "You don't want to be turned into a muppet too, do you?"

"Well–"

"It isn't negotiable," Tank cut in. "You're going back to Trenton with Lula."

Edna looked mutinous but kept walking.

They reached the mask tree within an hour of walking and kept going. Lula felt like the eyes of the carved faces were boring into her back as they passed and she concentrated on the path ahead of them, trying not to meet their imaginary eyes. The trail that they had created with their passage the day before was clear and straight; they hadn't been trying to cover their tracks and they had cut a broad swathe through the undergrowth. There was no danger of getting lost.

o0o o0o o0o

After another hour, Lula was dripping with perspiration and mud was dragging at her cross-trainers with every step. She could feel a trickle of sweat making its way down between the cheeks of her ass and she was fighting the urge to stick her hand down her pants and brush it away.

"Damn it, how much further is it?" she griped. "I swear it was easier yesterday."

"Should be a couple more hours," Morelli answered. "We're moving faster than yesterday with the trail already cut."

"What's that big tree up ahead? I don't remember seein' two of them yesterday."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lester murmured as they moved closer.

It was the mask tree again. Lula recognised the carved faces and the tiny bird skulls. Although after this morning's wake up call, she had some sympathy with whoever had strung the skulls up. She would have done the same if she could have caught the noisy little bastards. "God damn it, we've already been here once. You ain't tellin' me there's two of these creepy fuckers out here?"

"Not possible," Tank said flatly. "We've been following our trail from yesterday, and we've been heading due east the whole time."

"Yeah, I know, and you guys are hot shit trackers and all. Even so – scary tree again. I say we been here before. If that's okay with you, of course, kemo sabe."

Edna was prowling around the trunk of the tree looking at the carved faces. "She's right. Here's the one that looks like my Harry, God rest his soul. I recognized that constipated expression right away when I looked at it yesterday. I swear, that man got bound up for weeks at a time. Made my life hell when he couldn't go. He used to say to me, 'Edna, please, just get your finger and help–"

"Enough," Tank said. "We keep walking."

"Amen to that," Lester added, and followed Tank as he continued along the arrow-straight trail.

o0o o0o o0o

An hour later an ominously familiar shape appeared in front of them.

"Come on then, Ace," Lula challenged Tank. "Wanna tell me it's a different tree again this time?"

"Fuck."

"You got that right," Lester said grimly. "Something's seriously fucked up here."

"Here's my Harry again," Edna announced. "I think we need to face facts, gentlemen. I don't think we're going to be allowed to leave."

Morelli looked grim and moved a little closer to her.

"Oh, stop fussing, Joseph, I'll be fine. You don't need to make a point of protecting me. But it looks as if you're stuck with us girls." She looked delighted with the fact.

"No," Lula said sharply. "Forget it. I ain't stayin'."

"She's right, Lu. We ain't got a choice," Tank said.

"No, you're just a sucky tracker. You're takin' us round in circles." Panic put an edge in Lula's voice.

"He's not, Lula. He's good. And so am I. We've both done this plenty of times. " Lester's voice was calm, his face carefully blank.

"But–" Lula looked round at each member of the group for support, and found none. Sympathy, yes, plus excitement from Edna, but just stoic determination from each of the men, including Morelli.

Realizing that they really didn't have any other choices, she did her best to compose herself. "Then I guess we're turnin' round."

o0o o0o o0o

As soon as they started to re-trace their steps, the going seemed to get easier. The ground gradually started to dry out and get less boggy and the undergrowth seemed to thin out. They passed their campsite in what felt like no time at all, and pressed on into unfamiliar territory. The men pulled out their machetes again and started cutting a new path through the undergrowth.

After a while, the black gums and swamp magnolias petered out, leaving them surrounded by oak and elm trees instead, and patches of thin straggly grass started to replace the cinnamon ferns under the largest trees. They needed the machetes less and less as they progressed, and soon they were able to pick a winding trail without cutting anything at all. The party gradually strung out in a long line as they made their way across the open areas of the forest floor.

Clumps of nodding bluebells started to appear under the trees, growing together until they walked across a brilliant blue carpet.

"Wrong season," Lester observed to Tank, who nodded silently.

Edna had forged ahead and was skipping delightedly across the landscape despite the soft drizzling rain that had started to fall. The rain had washed the mud from her rain poncho and now it was a vivid splash of scarlet against the backdrop of soft blues and greens that surrounded her.

Lula whirled as a barely seen shape flitted through the trees to the side of them. "Did you see that?"

Tank pushed Lula behind him and drew his gun. "Edna!" he called, "Get back here."

"I'm fine. Relax," she called. "This is more like a park now than a forest anyway. Look at this enormous tree. How old do you think it is?"

She darted behind the huge fallen oak and disappeared.

"God damned crazy old ladies with no sense of safety. Lester, cover me!" Tank took off at a run in the direction that Edna had taken.

Lester followed him, gun drawn as well, and the two men disappeared around the end of the fallen tree.

Morelli and Lula looked at each other, drew their own guns and followed.

As they rounded the tree, a low, rumbling growl sounded ahead of them, and Lula's stomach turned over.

Edna was standing perfectly still in front of an enormous timber wolf, which was snarling at her through bared teeth. Tank and Lester were standing behind her, both guns trained on it.

"Edna," Tank said quietly. "Step back towards me, slowly and carefully."

"Relax, it's just a coyote. I must have startled it. It's fine."

"Edna, that is a wolf. Now walk this way. Slowly."

"It can't be a wolf. There haven't been wolves in New Jersey for over a hundred years. That's a coyote."

"Edna, he's right," Lester said. "You need to walk back towards us, now."

"Oh please, I'm willing to bet that the last time any of you saw a coyote it was on the back of a rocket trying to catch Roadrunner. You all need to stop worrying about nothing. Look."

To Lula's horror, Edna reached out and clapped her hands sharply in the creature's face. "Shoo! Scat!"

The wolf's jaws opened even wider and it gave another deep, rumbling growl. It had a rhythmic quality that reminded Lula of laughter. And then it spoke.

"Better listen to them, little one. Time to run."

"Oh, holy crap," Lula murmured weakly. "Tell me it didn't just talk."

Tank didn't miss a beat. "Step the fuck away from her, furbag."

The wolf bared its teeth at him and howled. The sound curled around them, and Lula felt her legs turn to water. She steadied her hands on her gun and fought the urge to bolt.

Tank kept absolutely still, weapon trained on the wolf. "Hold your positions. Nobody runs."

The wolf took a step closer to Edna. "Say it."

"I don't know what you mean."

All the hair stood up in a ridge on the wolf's back, and it howled again. "You know. SAY IT."

"Oh, Grandmother," Lula recited in a quavering voice, and it swung towards her.

"Yessss. Say it."

She closed her eyes, praying that she wasn't signing Edna's death warrant. "Oh Grandmother, what big eyes you have. Guys, somebody think of something, quick."

"Edna, for the love of God, step away now," Tank said urgently.

"All the better to see you with," the wolf rumbled, and it took a step closer to Edna.

"Oh, Grandmother, what big ears you have. Jesus." Lula could hardly bear to look.

"Edna! Now," Tank hissed.

"All the better to hear you with." The wolf took another step closer.

Lula tried not to look at the saliva dripping from its jaws. "Christ, somebody better have a plan here. Oh, Grandmother–"

"Eat lead!" Edna announced triumphantly as she produced a gun from under her rain poncho. She took a wild potshot at the wolf slavering a few feet away from her. The bullet nicked its ear and it shrieked and turned away. She followed it up with another bullet into its unprotected rear, and the wolf screamed and bounded away into the woods, leaving a trail of blood across the bluebells.

Edna blew across the top of her handgun like a wild west gunslinger before stuffing it back under her rain poncho. "Don't mess with the Grandma." She turned to look at where Tank, Lester and Morelli were gradually lowering their weapons with shaking hands. "Something wrong, gentlemen?"

Tank leaned against the fallen tree and breathed deeply, wiping the cold sweat out of his eyes along with the drizzling rain. "Jesus wept. Something wrong? Where do I start?"