Part 4
Daniel kept one hand against the door.
“What kind of complaint?”
Cole glanced toward the room behind him. “About a large female canine and two young animals being kept near the forest boundary. I’m assigned the wildlife side of a joint animal-control inquiry.”
“They’re dogs.”
“I need to establish that for the record.”
Daniel stepped aside, though not far enough to make it an invitation to wander. Cole entered and stopped when Tess moved in front of her puppies.
She held her tail low. The folded ear flattened against her head, and the muscles along her back went tight. Otis tried to look around her leg. Without turning, she nudged him behind her.
Daniel put down the towel he’d used to wipe his face.
“Tess. Stay with me.”
He knelt beside her. Her eyes remained on the uniform.
Cole didn’t reach toward her. “The report described possible wolf-dog crosses. There have been animals dumped in this part of the county by people breeding them illegally.”
“She’s a German shepherd. So are the pups.”
“Then a veterinary assessment and the ordinary records should settle it.”
“I found them freezing in a ditch.”
Cole took a notebook from his pocket but didn’t open it immediately.
“Do you have anything from before that? A chip scan, vaccination record, a previous owner’s details?”
“No.”
“Anything since?”
“The roads have barely been open. I’ve been keeping them alive.”
Tess’s breathing had quickened. Daniel rested a hand against her neck and felt her trembling beneath the fur. He had seen her wary before. This was different. The man had done nothing but stand there, and she seemed to be measuring every possible way out of the room.
Cole watched her, then moved back a step.
“Mr. Mercer, an unsupported report isn’t a finding. But I can’t close an inquiry with nothing documented.”
“Who made it?”
“I can’t give you that information.”
Daniel stood. “They saw a dog in a window and decided she was a wolf?”
“I don’t know what they saw. I know what I’m required to check.”
The notebook opened. Cole turned to a clean page.
Daniel looked at it with an anger that surprised him. There was room on that paper for dates, descriptions, an address. Nothing about the frozen fur coming loose beneath a damp cloth. Nothing about how little Finn had weighed inside Claire’s scarf.
“What happens now?” he asked.
“You have seventy-two hours to get an examination and whatever evidence of prior ownership can be found. If they’re domestic dogs being safely cared for, we can resolve the wildlife concern.”
“And otherwise?”
“They’ll go to the county facility for assessment.”
“All three together?”
Cole hesitated.
Daniel’s voice dropped. “Answer me.”
“They may have to be housed separately during parts of the evaluation.”
Tess made a low sound and moved backward until the puppies were against the hearth.
Daniel put himself beside her rather than between her and the officer.
“She nearly died holding them together.”
Cole closed the notebook. “I can see what she means to you.”
“No. You can see bowls and blankets.” Daniel swallowed, working to keep his voice level. “I carried these three in here. I sat beside her while she fought for breath. They live here with me.”
For a moment, Cole looked toward the floor.
“Then help me put that on a legal footing.”
He handed Daniel a card with a number written on the back. The deadline was before noon on the third day. He repeated it once at the door, without raising his voice, then stepped onto the porch.
Daniel watched the uniform disappear down the steps.
When he turned back, Tess was pacing.
She checked the back door, returned to the puppies, and checked it again. Daniel called the nearest veterinary clinic. No answer. The next town’s line went to voicemail, with a message about storm staffing and delayed appointments.
He left his name and number, speaking too quickly, and tried another listing.
Tess stopped beside the mantel as he took down the broken collar. The leather offered nothing useful. The ring was there; the tag was gone.
“We’ll get it done,” he told her. “You don’t have to worry about him.”
She watched his face but didn’t come closer.
Daniel searched the desk for the county directory, then realized Evelyn would know who to call. He was looking for the scrap where he’d written her number when he heard the back latch lift.
Cold light spread across the floor.
Tess stood at the open door. The old latch hadn’t caught cleanly for months; Daniel had meant to fix it. She had pushed at the loose panel until it gave.
“Tess.”
She nudged Otis forward, then Finn.
Daniel took two quick steps.
The dog flinched.
He stopped with his hands half-raised. For one long second, she looked at him from the doorway, her body already pointed toward the woods.
“Come back to the fire,” he said.
She turned. The puppies stumbled after her across the packed snow near the porch, then followed the shallow track toward the trees.
Daniel reached the doorway as the last dark shape disappeared beyond the clearing.
He called her name. The woods gave him no answer.
Three trails marked the snow. He stared at them for only a moment before turning for his boots.
The storage chest held his old climbing kit, rope, harness, and a folded emergency blanket. He put them in a pack with the flashlight, took the leash he’d bought but never used, and pulled on his parka.
Evelyn arrived while he was checking the light. She had seen the back door standing open from the road and come up the path with a lantern.
Her eyes went to the empty rug.
“They left,” Daniel said. “She took both of them.”
Evelyn set the lantern on the table. “How long?”
“Minutes.”
“Then don’t lose any more.”
“You can’t—”
“I’m staying.” She took a split log from the box. “Somebody has to have this place warm when you get back.”
Daniel reached for the door.
She caught his wrist, her mitten small around the bare strip above his glove.
“Watch the ground, Daniel. The ground in front of you.”
He looked at her.
“Not that other road.”
He nodded, once, and went out.
The tracks were easy to follow at first. Tess’s feet broke through the fresh powder, and the puppies’ smaller prints crowded the path she made. They had gone downhill through the firs, crossed the narrow frozen creek, and turned toward the ridge.
Daniel knew that ridge. He’d been warned away from it as a boy, long before leaving for the Navy. Loose stone lay beneath the drifts, and the trees at the edge grew out over a ravine that couldn’t be seen until a person was nearly on top of it.
He moved faster, then forced himself to slow enough to read the trail.
The light was fading. New snow settled inside the smallest prints. He kept finding places where Otis had veered aside and scrambled back, while Finn’s steps stayed close to his mother’s.
A beam moved through the trees behind him.
Daniel turned sharply. For a moment, he thought Evelyn had ignored him.
“Mercer!”
Cole emerged between two firs, wearing a heavier field coat over his uniform. A second rope hung across his shoulder. He was breathing hard.
“Mrs. Brooks called the station,” he said.
Daniel’s hand tightened around the flashlight. “If this is about your deadline—”
Cole shifted the rope so Daniel could see it.
“Show me where they went…”
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