Madison Layle - Falke’s Captive

Her eyes widened, and she struggled to hide her smile. She’d been afraid he would take over all the work on this project, and she might need his help with the oldest Falke, but last night made it obvious not everyone in the Falke camp held grudges. So, she said with much happiness, “I want to talk to the town vet, or vets—there’s only one clinic listed in the phonebook—and see if they know anything about Falke. I assume if he’s domesticated, he’d have to have a shot record or something the same as dogs need in a city. They might be willing to share any past medical data. We need to learn as much as possible about the cat’s history.”

Professor Whitmore nodded. “A good place to start. What did you find out about locations for the lab?”

Beth dug into her purse and pulled out a map she’d gotten from the state forestry representative.

She handed it to the professor after unfolding it. “This place,” she said, pointing to a location on the map, “is only ten miles from here. It’s a forestry base camp for fires that has electricity and well water. We can stay in town in comfortable beds for a while. At least until we play out the area and have to move again.”

“What about the pet puma? Won’t it have an impact on this area?”

“I thought about that. But I think it’s still worth a couple of days here at least,” she said, tapping the spot on the map, “especially if they usually keep it closer to town. I think the base camp a little farther away offers the best place to start. We can work outward from there and still be close enough to town to follow up on the Falke cat. I have identified five more possible spots too, but only one has electricity. We’ll have to run the generators on the others, which means hiking farther to be away from the noise.”

She felt as if she were rambling, so she stopped and waited.

The professor examined the map, then nodded. “Very good, Elizabeth. You’ve thought this out well.” He looked up at her. “Since you fixed the problems before I arrived, I’ll not question you on letting a cougar loose in my lab.”

Damn Tim! She hadn’t let anything loose. She kept her expression neutral, then gave a tight-lipped smile. “Thank you, Professor. Let’s just say that I learned a few things about cougars and captivity.”

“Oh?” He glanced back at the map.

She cast Tim a look of disgust, wishing she could shove him into the cage behind him. “They don’t like it much, sir.”

The professor chuckled. “No, I suppose they don’t.” He sobered quickly. “But it’s a good thing the one that got loose was somewhat domesticated.”

“Yes, sir, it is.”

“What’s the name of that store you said the brothers own?”

“Catamount Outfitters.”

“Yes, of course. All right then. Go on now. See if you can get any information from the vet. Tim and I will move the lab to your first choice location.”

“Thank you, Professor. I’ll meet you out there as soon as I know anything.” She headed out into the warm, early morning sunshine and to her Jeep parked next to the hotel.

“Lizzy, wait.”

She turned her head toward Tim as he approached her vehicle. “What?”

He halted at the ticked-off look she gave him. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was a secret or anything.”

She sighed. “Of course it wasn’t a secret, and I would have told him eventually, but you tattled, and that’s not cool.”

“Sorry.” He did look contrite, but then went and ruined it by saying, “I’ll buy you dinner to make up for it. Okay?”

The hopefulness in his expression had her shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it, Tim. No harm, no foul.”

“You sure? I heard of a place that does great steaks, and since I didn’t get you your fast food yesterday—”

“We’ll see,” she said, trying to gently brush him off. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she didn’t see him the way he obviously saw her.

“Oh, hey, I got the camera installed last night.” He glanced up at the window above them—of her room—and her insides tumbled. Had he been out in the lab when she’d been upstairs with Kelan and Reidar? She tried to recall if the curtains had been opened or closed, and couldn’t remember.

“Yeah? That’s good. Thanks.”

“Yeah.” He moved his attention back to her. “I’ll help you install all the software on your computer tonight…if you’re not busy.”

She swallowed hard when his gaze slipped to her hotel room window one more time. Though he hadn’t admitted seeing her, his tone and actions had her experiencing an emotion very close to embarrassment for getting caught being naughty. She wanted to know if he’d seen something, or whether her mind was playing guilty tricks on her, but she didn’t have the guts to ask outright, which would amount to a confession.

“Thank you, Tim. That’d be nice. I’ll see you guys up at the base camp in a while. I can bring my laptop, and you can do it then.”

“Oh. Okay. Sure,” he said backing up a few steps so she could get into the Jeep. “See you in a while.”

“Tim,” Professor Whitmore called. “Let’s get a move on. I’d like to get a lay of the land.”

Tim turned away, and Beth closed herself in the silent safety of her Jeep. Damn, damn, damn. Her tryst with the brothers was supposed to be her secret. Not something she needed Tim knowing about.

Maybe he hadn’t known. Maybe…Oh, hell, what did it matter? What she did on her time was nobody else’s business but her own. But if he did know or suspect, she didn’t owe him any explanations. He was just her lab partner.

And his talk of dinner made her realize she was hungry.

Beth started the Jeep and drove the two miles to a greasy spoon diner that promised breakfast for

$2.99. She doubted the town’s one and only vet was open at seven-thirty in the morning. Grabbing a newspaper off the rack just inside the diner’s front door, she sat herself—as the hand-written sign instructed—turned the coffee cup right side up on the table and glanced around at the dozen or so other patrons. Old men, most of them, wearing jeans, overalls and baseball caps of various colors and cleanliness. Locals, she surmised.

She smiled at a couple who glanced her way, and one raised his coffee cup in silent salute.

Leavenworth was such a friendly town. A nice place to raise a family.

Her eyes widened at her wayward thought, and she opened the newspaper to occupy her brain.

“Hey there, honey.”

She glanced up to see a man in his sixties, wearing an apron smeared with God only knew what, and a carafe of coffee in his hand.

“Hi,” Beth said.

“You want a menu, or the special?” he asked as he poured coffee for her.

“Uhh…”

“Take the special,” someone called from another table, and everyone else laughed.

“I guess the special,” she said, worried now about what she might be eating in a few minutes.

“Good choice, since that’s all I make.” The old waiter/cook sauntered toward the doorway to the kitchen.

“Don’t mind him,” another man said from two tables away. “He’s had a bug up his butt since his wife left three years ago. You get the eggs special for breakfast, cheeseburger, fries and soup for lunch, and whatever he decides to make for dinner.”

Half of the other patrons had plates of food in front of them, so she assumed they deemed whatever the special was as edible. “Three years is a long time…” And these were a lot of people eating the same thing every day.

“In this town time doesn’t mean much. Not to our generation.”

She smiled at that.

“Yep. We move at a lot slower pace than you young’ns,” another said. “Say, you just passin’ through?”