Chapter 1
The silence was driving Wolf mad. It had been weeks since he’d been on the trail of a new case, months since he’d been paid. People were always grateful to have their lost items and loved ones returned, but they often forgot how to write a check afterward. George, Detective Parlance, always told him that he should get a lawyer, but the lack of pay also meant the lack of funds to force payment.
“It’s not like the phone can ring anyway, Grendle,” Wolf said to the Labrador at his feet. “We haven’t paid the bill in two months and the company shut it down two weeks ago. We just have to rely on walk in clients...”
Wolf leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on his desk, knocking over a hula-girl statue, toppling an empty vodka bottle, and sending a pink rubber ball rolling to the floor. He let his left hand trail to the side of his chair and stroked the fur on Grendle’s neck.
Grendle’s ears perked up as he looked towards the door and growled just before the quiet afternoon was broken by a loud knocking and the sound of footsteps running back down the hall. Wolf shot up from his chair like a cat out of a closet in a horror movie and ran to the metal door, swinging it open hard enough to knock some of the plaster loose from the wall. As he stepped out, he tripped over something soft and heavy.
“What the hell is in front of my- Shit are you- Ah. You’re dead. Very dead.” he said as he looked down.
Wolf knelt by the body of the woman and took a closer look. She was in her thirties, thin as a wire, with shoulder length brunette hair. Her features were soft with very few harsh angles.
“Her green eyes must have been beautiful before someone put a bullet through one of them,” he thought.
“Who left you here? More importantly, why?” he said under his breath.
Grendle poked his snout out through the open door and began whimpering while nuzzling in close to Wolf.
“Don’t worry boy,” Wolf said as he pushed back his black fedora and scratched behind his right ear. “We’ll figure it out. In the mean time, I’d better find a pay-phone and call George.”
George had gotten Wolf out of more scrapes than he could remember and Wolf had done the same for George. In a City like Heartbeat there were too few really good cops. George was the best of them, and in return for all his honor and commitment to serving the people and protecting the city, he had been busted down to a basement office, right behind the furnace. His reward for busting too many of the wrong people. He was supposed to stay off the streets and file papers, but Wolf knew that when he needed him, George would be at his right hand.
As Wolf stood up to make his way down the hall and out to the pay-phone about a block down the street he heard something buzz and start playing Fig Leaf Rag.
“Hmm, sounds like someone is calling our friend, Grendle. What d’ya think? Should we answer for her?” Wolf asked as he leaned in and started searching her pockets for the phone. It was in her left shirt pocket, a bright pink flip phone with plastic jewels glued to it.
“Hello,” he answered the phone and waited.
“Hello Wolf,” said a voice masked with distortion gear. “As you can see we’ve left you a little present. Her name was Olivia Crast. The police will find that the bullet that went through her pretty little head is the same caliber as the one for your gun. The one you keep in your bottom desk drawer, but never use. I know that by now you’ve made your way back into your office and you’re checking to see if your gun is there. I assure you, it is safely with us.”
Wolf felt the blood drain out of his face as he saw the empty space where the 9mm Baretta that was registered to him had been since the day he decided he wouldn’t shoot anyone ever again.
“Look here you son of a bi-”
“No! You look here, Wolf,” the robotic voice interrupted. “The police are going to find that body outside of your office, your gun stashed nearby, and a sizable amount of money wired to your bank account. You’re screwed.”
“What do you want?” asked Wolf as he sat down in his old wooden chair.
“I want you to run, Wolf. Run fast and don’t look back. We’ve already called the police and they should be at your office in ten minutes. Tomorrow, if you haven’t been caught, we’ll contact you again. You’ll find another cell phone stashed at the corner of Walnut and Vine. You’ll need it,” the voice on the other end of the phone said and then hung up.
Wolf dropped the phone. “C’mon Grendle,” Wolf said as he shut the door to his office.
His office was a low rent room in a broken down building. Wolf’s long steps carried him down a hallway of peeling paint and water-stained floors. The entire building smelled of mildew and musk.
Just as his hand reached for the half-broken knob of the front door, the lights of a cop car flashed through the window.
“Ten minutes my ass,” he growled as he ducked back down the hallway and charged towards the back door. “Usually takes you guys hours to get to a crime. Never felt so special...”
He darted out the back door and into the grimy, crowded alley between his office and the local music bar.
“Stay here Grendle,” he said, slipped into the bar through the back door, and glided into the crowd.
As he walked through the place, he dropped his tan trench coat to the floor and kicked it under a table. Then he picked up a blue wind breaker he spotted slung over the back of a bar stool. He slipped into the men’s room and stashed his fedora in the locker that served as a closet for supplies, pushed it far into the back and hoped it would be there when he got back. As he stepped back out of the bathroom he looked around and saw a ball-cap and an umbrella near the front door.
“Well, I always did like a rainy day,” he mumbled as he grabbed the cap and umbrella and headed out into the gently falling rain outside. He pulled the cap down tight over his eyes and kept the umbrella low as he walked briskly away.
“Keep it steady, Wolf, don’t run, don’t walk too fast. You’re just another guy leaving the bar,” he thought as the distance between him and the flashing lights of the police car steadily grew.
After he’d left the police car, his office, and the dead body about a quarter of a mile behind, he let out a low whistle. Within a few seconds, Grendle was walking at his side again.
“Good dog,” he said as he patted the Labrador on the head and kept walking.
“Okay, Wolf, who would have this much against you and the resources to pull off something this big?” he wondered to himself as he wound his way through the filth covered streets of Heartbeat.
For the rest of the day Wolf slipped in and out of alleys, shadows, and businesses easily as he avoided cop cars and the few city security cameras that hadn’t been smashed by gangs and kids over the years. He made his way to an old overpass that he knew the cops avoided and staked out a corner of it to rest for the night.
“I don’t think there’s anyone alive with that much of a grudge against me, Grendle, but someone obviously worked this out in advance. Stole my piece from my office. Knew where I keep it. Knew I don’t use it anymore. Even knew I wouldn’t notice it was gone right away. It’s gotta be someone close,” he said to Grendle as the dog cocked his head and seemed to be listening intently. “Yeah, you’re right boy, I don’t have enough close friends left for any of them to be suspects.”
Wolf settled down for the night, sleeping with his back to the wall and his belly to Grendle. He knew that if anyone tried anything the old Lab would tear the bastard apart. He felt as safe as he could knowing that all of the crooked cops in Heartbeat were looking for him, that someone who knew him well was trying to frame him, and that he’d be lucky to make it through the next day.
“Sweet dreams, Pup.”
