Linwood Barclay - Lone Wolf

“What’s this about?” Timmy asked.

“Your dogs got a bit out of control today,” Orville said.

“Wendell told me.” Wendell nodded at this. “Didn’t he say he was sorry?”

“Well, you see,” Orville said, feeling his way, “it’s not just a problem of an apology.”

“What then?” said Dougie.

Charlene, in a grease-stained football jersey, had come out onto the porch to see what the commotion was. I could make out May Wickens at the window.

“Those dogs are dangerous,” Orville said.

“Did they bite anyone?” Timmy Wickens asked.

“No, no they didn’t.”

“Well then. Every dog’s allowed its first bite, and they ain’t even done that yet.”

“They’re vicious animals, Mr. Wickens. If you can’t control them, the town will seize them.”

Timmy bristled. “Will they now? I’d like to see them try something like that.”

“It won’t be necessary so long as you keep them tied up,” Orville said.

May had stepped out onto the porch, walked over to the railing. Our eyes met.

“Hello, ladies,” Orville said. “Nice to see you.” Charlene glared at him. There was something in May’s expression that seemed to reach out. Orville looked directly at her. “How are you doing, Ms. Wickens?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said quietly.

“Everything’s okay with you, is it?”

Timmy face darkened, and he looked from Orville to his daughter and back again. “Yes,” May said. “Everything is fine.”

“That’s terrific, I’m glad to hear that. That’s wonderful.” Orville cleared his throat nervously. “Well, that’s good. Isn’t that good that everyone’s fine?”

“Is there anything else?” Timmy asked.

“Well, as a matter of fact,” Orville said. “I wonder if you’d mind if we just had a look around the place?”

Whoa. I couldn’t believe it. Maybe Orville actually had some balls. One, at least.

“What?” said Timmy. “You want to search my place? On what grounds? Do you have a warrant for that?”

“He doesn’t really need one,” I said. “Because this property belongs to-”

“Hey, look,” said Orville, “I just wanted to look around, that’s all. You don’t have anything to hide, do you, Timmy? Because-”

“Ha-ha!” said Wendell. “I got it!”

He’d come up around Orville from behind and grabbed the police chief’s gun right out of his holster. Orville must have failed to snap the safety cover back on after the dog incident, making it easy for Wendell to snatch. Wendell waved it playfully in the air, dancing as he did so.

“I got your gun! I got your gun!” He singsonged, like he was chanting a nursery rhyme.

“Hey!” Orville said. “You give that back!”

Dougie was laughing, and Timmy had a big smirk on his face, too. “Hey,” Wendell said, pointing the gun at his brother. “I’m gonna shoot ya!”

“No!” I said.

“Bang!” Wendell shouted, and Dougie dropped to the ground comically, engaging in a set of ridiculous spasms on the grass.

“You got me!” he cried.

“You give that back to me right now!” Orville said, running after Wendell, who’d begun skipping away. Dougie was back on his feet now, running behind Orville.

“Here!” Wendell shouted at Dougie. “Catch!”

Dear God no.

Surely they would have enough sense not to toss around a loaded gun. But they did. It sailed through the air, up and over Orville, who reached futilely into the air to catch it. The gun arced earthward, and Dougie caught it handily, running off in the other direction.

“Now, boys,” Timmy said, smiling. Charlene was laughing now, too. May was the only member of the Wickens family not to find this amusing. She looked on in horror. Jeffrey slipped outside and sidled up next to his mom.

“What are they playing?” the boy asked.

“Go inside right now,” she said. May must have known what could happen if a loaded gun landed on the ground. “Now!”

Orville was running back and forth between Wendell and Dougie as they tossed the gun between themselves. “Stop it!” he shouted. “Stop it!”

“Come on, fellas,” Timmy said. “You better give him back his gun.”

But the boys paid him no mind. It was Charlene who brought things to an end.

“Boys!” she bellowed. They both whirled around and looked at her. She smiled at them. “I think it’s time to stop.”

“Do we have to?” Wendell asked. He and Dougie looked so terribly disappointed.

“Your mom’s right,” said Timmy. “Time to call it quits. So long as Orville here agrees to one condition.”

Orville stared at Timmy.

“Chief Thorne, I’ll ask my boys to give you back your gun, but you’re going to have to promise to leave us alone.”

Orville said nothing. Timmy walked over to Dougie, the current possessor of the weapon, and took it gently from his hands.

“We were just having some fun,” Dougie said.

Then Timmy slowly walked over to Orville, and before handing him the gun, he leaned in close to the chief’s face and said, “Now, Orville, you just walk away, now. Okay?”

Orville stared into Timmy’s face.

“You understand, Orville?” Timmy said, smiling. “Just. Walk. Away.”

Orville, his face ablaze with shame, took the weapon and slid it back into his holster. Then he turned and started walking back to the gate.

“Hold on,” I said. “Aren’t we-”

“You better go with him,” Timmy said, feigning concern. “You know what? Take him into town, get him an ice cream. Make it all better.”

Orville was moving so quickly I had to run to catch up with him. “Orville, wait,” I said. He was out the Wickenses’ gate and walking down the hill toward his patrol car. “Would you hold up for a minute?” I shouted.

He stopped abruptly and whirled around. “You wanna make a joke? You wanna have a good laugh? Go ahead. Laugh. And then just keep the fuck away from me.”

“Orville,” I said. “Listen, I don’t know what to say.” And I didn’t. I knew I didn’t want to make fun of him. I had no smartass remarks ready to go. Maybe, being a cop in Braynor, you didn’t have to deal with that many like Timmy Wickens. And when you ran up against one, you didn’t know what the hell to do.

It was clear Orville Thorne wasn’t much of a cop. It wasn’t that he was a cop on the take, as far as I knew. I’d had to deal with at least one of those in the past. Thorne just didn’t have the stuff. Which made him, in many ways, a lot like me. At some level, I was sharing his shame.

“Why don’t we go talk to my dad,” I said gently. “Those guys, look, those guys are nuts. If I’d been you, I don’t know what I would have done. I mean, it wasn’t like you could just shoot them all dead, as much as you might have liked to. We just, we just need to figure out another way to-”

“Shut up, Walker,” Orville said. “Just shut the fuck up.”

I felt badly for him. You couldn’t watch someone get humiliated like that and get any pleasure out of making it any worse. Orville Thorne knew what he’d failed to do, and he didn’t need me to remind him of it. Back up the hill, beyond the gate, we could hear Dougie and Wendell laughing, making whooping sounds.

“Orville,” I said, “I have a friend coming up, someone who’s had some experience dealing with all kinds of things and-”

“That’s great,” Orville said. “It’ll be great, won’t it, to get someone up here who knows what he’s doing. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Someone who can show me up real good.”

I held my arms out at my sides in a gesture of surrender. “I’m not trying to give you a hard time. I’m just saying this guy might be able to give all of us some ideas about a fresh approach, is all.”