Wolfsong

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Regina's Song, and I'm not making any money from this fic

Author's Note: Ok, I'm going to change something slightly. The majority of this fic is going to be written from Mark's point of view, but some parts can't be. You'll know which parts those are because they won't be written using the first person

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I drove as fast as possible back from college. I wanted to get to the Green Lantern Tavern to see if Charlie's brother Bob could tell us anything about the murder.

I paused at a red traffic light, and tapped my fingers lightly against the steering wheel as I waited for the lights to change to green.

I was trying to think about what Bob might say about the murder, but I kept seeing Lyra Wilson's face in my mind. I wondered why she hadn't wanted to do the paper on 'What I did over the summer'. I probably should have asked her about it, but chances were that it wasn't anything really important.

As the traffic lights finally changed to green, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I had to look again to be sure of what I had just glimpsed.

There was a wolf standing on the corner of the street.

I blinked, and the wolf was gone. Now that it wasn't there anymore, I wasn't so sure that I really had seen it. It could have just been my imagination. Then again, why would I imagine seeing a wolf?

Someone behind me honked their horn, and I started driving again, still trying to work out what was with that wolf.

Oh, wait. I knew why I might have imagined seeing a wolf. When Twinkie had been murdering people, she had had a tape that she always listened to with a woman singing to the sound of wolves howling. With the new murder, I must have been subconsciously thinking a lot about wolves. So, therefore, I thought I saw a wolf. Really, it made perfect sense.

So why did I think that there was more to it than that?

After we've been to see Bob, I'll see if I can find anything out about whether or not a wolf has escaped from one of the zoos, I decided. At the very least, it'll give me peace of mind.

That having been worked out, I turned into the road.

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Lyra was racing through the woods, feeling terrified out of her mind. The phone call from Andrew had worried her greatly. She lost all hope of seeing her friend alive again.

If only they hadn't started to investigate that murder case! If they'd just left it well alone, then Andrew would not have become a target because of what he had found out.

A dark shape appeared in front of Lyra, and she let out a choked gasp, suddenly unable to scream. She took a step back, feeling the rough bark of a tree dig into her spine.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" a male voice asked.

Lyra glanced to one side, and found herself face-to-face with a hooded man wearing very baggy clothes. She couldn't see his features because his face was in shadows.

Lyra whimpered, and tried to move back even further, forgetting that there was a tree behind her. "Wh... Where's Andrew?" Her voice cracked as she spoke the name of her friend. She knew that he was dead. He had to be. He had called her from this forest, and now the killer was here as well.

Something glittered in the darkness, and Lyra knew that it was a knife as the killer pressed it against her throat. She trembled as she felt the sharp edge cut slightly into her skin and warm blood trickle down. And the only thought going through her mind was, This top is going to be stained. My mum's going to be mad at me. I've already ruined enough clothes as it is.

"Your friend is dead," the killer told Lyra in a singsong voice which terrified the woman even more than the knife held to her throat. "You should not have interfered in my work," the killer added.

"I called the police," Lyra bluffed. "I called them just before I came out here. They'll be here soon."

The man chuckled. "Nice try," he responded. "Unfortunately, I know that you're lying."

"What... do you mean?" Lyra asked, uncomfortably aware of how close the steel was to her throat. One quick slash and her life would be over. Just like Andrew's.

"You and your friend are not the only ones who can do detective work," the murderer replied. "I had your phone bugged. Andrew's, too. I know exactly who you've spoken too, and the police wasn't among them. Besides, do you honestly think that the police would have believed you? They already think that you're mad."

How could he know that? Lyra wondered. Andrew and I only tried to tell the police. We didn't mention what we'd found to anyone else.

"Who are you?" Lyra questioned.

"I don't think I want to tell you that," the man said.

"Why not?" Lyra wanted to know. "You're going to kill me anyway."

"Not at this moment," the man responded. He then made a high-pitched whistling noise.

A shape which looked like a wolf leaped at Lyra, and the woman felt a tearing pain in her shoulder before everything went black. The last sound she heard was the murderer's laughter, which sounded so familiar...

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As soon as we had finished eating, James, Charlie, and I went round to the Green Lantern Tavern to see if Bob had any news for us.

Bob must have guessed that we were going to come and see him, because he was already sitting in the booth. He also wasn't surprised to see us. His first words were, "I was wondering how long it would take for you two to show up."

"What can you tell us?" Charlie wanted to know.

"Not a lot," Bob admitted. "This murder looks very similar to the ones committed before, right down to the curare injected into the victim to stop them from being able to run away, struggle, or cry out."

The noise in the Tavern was all but deafening, but we didn't dare speak any louder. The last thing the police needed was for some reporter to just happen to be in the Green Lantern Tavern and overhear us. It wasn't likely, especially not with all of this noise, but sometimes it paid to be careful.

"Is there anything different about this murder?" James questioned, shooting a quick glance at me. We really didn't want it to be Twinkie.

"We haven't found anything different," Bob said. "But it has to be a copycat killing. After all, Renata Greenleaf is in that Sisters of Hope convent."

Charlie looked at me. "I think you'd better tell him."

"Tell me what?" Bob asked.

I hesitated. If I was honest, I really didn't think that Twinkie had had anything to do with this new murder. She'd already killed the person who murdered her twin sister, so she'd had her revenge. But Twink wasn't really sane, so she might have totally flipped.

"I spoke to Father O this morning," I told Bob reluctantly. "Apparently, Twinkie managed to escape the convent."

Bob swore.

"Yeah, that was pretty much our reaction," Charlie responded.

"You do know what this means, right?" Bob asked me. "When it's discovered that Miss. Greenleaf's escaped from the convent, fingers are going to be naturally pointing in her direction, even if it wasn't her who committed the murder. And there's going to be no chance of an insanity hearing this time. The press are like sharks in water scenting blood. They'll demand justice, even if the justice they're seeking is against the wrong person."

I nodded slowly. "I know," I said. "I thought pretty much the same thing."

"Thank goodness Burpee isn't on the police force any longer," James murmured.

Burpee had been a police officer who had been trying to get a big-time gang leader called Cheetah after he made a mistake which caused him to lose the gang leader and got him demoted. When Twinkie had started killing people, Cheetah had left town, apparently scared that her real target was him. Burpee had been furious, and had nearly ruined Twink's chances of getting into the convent by blabbing everything to the press despite everyone being warned not to by Judge Compson. Burpee was now suspended indefinitely from the police force, which was just as well, if you asked me.

Bob slowly shook his head. "I can try and keep Miss. Greenleaf's name out of it, but that won't work for very long," he told us. "So far, the other officers working on the case believe that it's the work of a copycat killer, which is very likely. But if we find evidence that Renata Greenleaf is the killer, then I'm not going to remove the evidence. Do you understand me?"

"I understand," I said while James and Charlie nodded their agreement.

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Lyra had been unable to get to sleep again after the nightmare she had just had. For one thing, her shoulder, where she had been bitten by the wolf, was throbbing again.

Lyra slipped into her clothes, and then made her way towards the common room in the hotel she and the rest of the students were staying in. Chances were, someone would be awake.

Lyra had asked to have a room on her own. It wasn't that she was unsociable. Far from it. It was simply that the nightmares she had were liable to end up disturbing anyone sleeping in the same room as her considering how often she woke up screaming.

Lyra had woken up in the hospital after being bitten by the wolf, and that had been where she had had Andrew's death confirmed by the police officers who had come to see her and admit that she had actually been right. But their admission had come too late. If they had believed her and Andrew before, Andrew might have actually still been alive.

Bethany was in the common room, reading a book. Her shoulder-length red hair had flopped forward over her face to form a curtain. She hadn't seen Lyra enter the room yet.

Lyra gave a small smile. Bethany had been one of the few people who had attempted to make friends with her after Andrew's death. She had been very patient about it as well. Lyra had eventually opened up to the fiery redhead.

Lyra cleared her throat.

Bethany looked up, and smiled, shifting her feet from where they had been propped up on the cushions of the sofa. "Hey, Sweetie," she greeted Lyra in a soft voice. "Have another nightmare?"

Lyra nodded, and sat down beside Bethany. "I don't know why," she admitted in a soft voice. "I thought that I'd finally gotten past the nightmares stage."

"It's probably stress," Bethany responded. "I was stressed having to come here. After all, I had loads of packing to do. I had to leave most of my makeup behind!"

Lyra had to laugh at that. Bethany loved her makeup. She had had her clothes bag, and then another bag with all of her makeup in which she had been forced to unpack before the man and woman taking them to this town had allowed her to get on the coach.

Bethany grinned. "It can't have been that bad if you're laughing," she said.

Lyra looked down. "I'm probably not going to be able to get to sleep again tonight," she whispered. "So I'll probably stay in here all night instead."

"Great," Bethany replied. "I didn't really want to go to bed anyway."

Lyra gave her friend an odd look. "You don't have to stay up as well," she told Bethany. "I'll be fine on my own."

"I know you will be," Bethany said. "Just humour me, ok? Your parents would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you."

After that statement, the two sat in silence for a while, each caught up in their own thoughts.

A few moments later, the door to the common room was pushed open.

Bethany gave a very undignified squeak, and jumped slightly. Unfortunately, she had already been sitting on the edge of the sofa, so that movement caused her to fall off. She grabbed at Lyra, and the two fell in a heap onto the floor.

"Um.. Are you all right?" the woman who was standing in the doorway asked.

Lyra looked up, and had to rub her eyes. "Oh, no," she groaned.

"What is it?" Bethany demanded, attempting to untangle herself from Lyra. Then she, too, caught sight of their late-night visitor, and gave a soft squeal.

Renata Greenleaf extended a hand to help first Lyra then Bethany to their feet. "Are you two okay?" she wanted to know. "I don't think that falling off a sofa is a very good idea. You could easily get hurt."

Bethany eyed Renata warily while Lyra brushed herself off and then retrieved Bethany's book from where it had fallen.

"Ok... Please tell me this is a bad dream," Bethany said.

"Would you like me to pinch you?" Renata asked sweetly. "You're not dreaming."

"And you're not supposed to be here," Lyra told her as she handed the book back to Bethany. "The last I knew, you were going to that convent."

"I left there," Renata responded. "There's a new murderer on the loose, and they're going to frame me."

"How do you know that?" Bethany wanted to know.

"I just do," Renata answered. "I need some place safe to stay. Could I stay here?"

Bethany and Lyra exchanged glances, both thinking that they should really call the police, but neither making a move to do so.

"Please?" Renata begged. "All I want to do is find out who's trying to frame me for murders that I definitely haven't committed. You can both watch me as much as you like. As much as you feel comfortable doing."

"Well... We could both move into your room," Bethany said to Lyra.

"But..." Lyra began.

At just that moment, the chilling howl of a wolf broke through the night air.

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