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As I shut and locked the front door of town hall behind me an hour later, dusk hovered on the horizon Joyce had left at six, speed walking the mile and a half home as she did every day

My own commute was considerably less than Joyce&039;s My father had lefttwo-story, with a veranda that encircled the first floor, jutting out into a deck that overlooked the backyard All I had to do to get home was turn in the opposite direction of the Center Street shops and head uphill for three blocks

The streetlights hadn&039;t co sun cast tendrils of shadow across the pavement

My heels clicked, a lonely, soto fear Crime was virtually nonexistent in Lake Bluff The only ti the festival and it could always be traced to outsiders There hadn&039;t been a et the shivers and increase my pace to a brisk poalk?

The e and navy blue Whatever happened, those hills would always be there The sight of them calmed me

The sun slipped below the horizon with a near-audible sigh, spreading the grayish haze of early evening over aze jerked in that direction, and a shadow flitted between the tree trunks I hesitated, glancing at town hall, which was now farther away than

I&039;d been traveling this path twice a day for nearly three weeks, and I&039;d never been nervous about it Of course I&039;d never felt the presence of anything out there until tonight

So howled, the sound sharp and unfamiliar I&039;d heard a thousand coyotes in my lifetime, and none of them had ever sounded like that

"Has to be a coyote," I murmured Despite the acres of space and the plethora of trees, there hadn&039;t been a wolf in thesetime

The shrill, mournful sound died away I waited for an answer, but none cae When I was a kid and the coyotes howled, there&039;d always been ainst the paveht of a man only inches away

"Balthazar" My breath rushed out "What are you doing here?"

He crowded into my space; he always did I&039;d never been certain if he was a close talker or just a jerk who used his size to intih 270 His barrel chest spread in front of my eyes, covered with a black dress shirt Several equally black chest hairs poked out between the straining buttons Balthazar was not only big but extree, flaring, also hairy nostrils The streetlights caave his brown eyes a golden glow

He smirked, and I knew in that instant he&039;din the trees for hours until I went home I&039;d tried to keep my fear of men hidden, but in the way of wild animals Balthazar had sensed a weakness and exploited it

"I wanted to get some information on the squatters at the lake"

I scowled How had he found out so fast?

Just as he&039;d sensed my weakness, he seemed to sense rated on my nerves more than the mysterious howl had

"One of my reporters saw you and the chief head thataway" He pointed toward the lake

Being an equal-opportunity bigot - a racist and a sexist, as well as plenty of other "ists" I hadn&039;t figured out yet - Balthazar had as much use for Grace as he had for me He constantly referred to her as the police chief, as if the play on words were the funniest thing he&039;d ever heard The guy needed to get out more Way out Like out of town

"You were in such a hurry," Balthazar continued, "he decided to follow"

Sometiine his surprise," Balthazar continued, "to find Gypsies"

"Iine mine," I ue I could easily see those words as tomorrow&039;s headline

"The caravan is the entertainment for the festival," I said "If you want more info, talk to Joyce"

"I&039;d rather talk to you"

My teeth ground together, ht What had happened to the whatever had been howling?

I forced my attention back to the problem at hand "They do old-ti, that kind of stuff"

"If they&039;re just the entertainment, then why did you and the redskin rush out there in the middle of a workday?"

I winced at the ter to kick his ass one day, and I was going to watch,tiether

Since there was no way I was going to tell Balthazar that Joyce had hired the caravan withoutto oust thehborhood"

"You&039;ve got nothing better to do with your day?"

The entire length of the conversation, I&039;d been fighting ry, which was usually how I got into trouble

"It&039;s nearly nine, and I just left an office I walked into at the sa Why don&039;t you put that in your paper?"

Histhe paper-thin line of his lips His cheeks flushed,an already ruddy complexion mottled Fury flashed in his beady dark eyes, and I could have sworn he growled, just as he reached for ers closed around my arms and he did whatever it was he planned to do, a howl burst from the trees The coasp as my heart threatened to leap out of my chest

"What the hell is that?" Balthazar muttered

"Sounds like a wolf" I stared at the thick, dark stand of trees, waiting for the beast to burst forth and end not only our curiosity but also our lives

I expected Balthazar to scoff, to rees ago and the reintroduction of red wolves had been a failure The only large wild animals in these mountains were bears and bobcats; neither one of theaze fro speed to look at him

All I saas his back as he hurried in the other direction A wave of reliefleft alone with whatever - as long as Balthazar was gone

"Nice doggy," I an to inch in reverse My house was up this hill and around the bend, but I didn&039;t plan to taketo be ripped limb from limb by an ani Too s in my life had blindsided me when my back was turned

Slowly I crept toward safety,on the pavement, my breath harsh and fast in the silence

The trees rustled A shadow flitted

The wind? Or so more substantial and deadly?

I could have sworn eyes stared at me from the depths I blinked I couldn&039;t help it I&039;d been working all day and half the night; I was tired When I opened one

I turned and sht so hard my chest bounced off of his, and I stu against aze lifted to his face, and the beauty of it captured me

I&039;d spent a lot of time around beautiful men and women Television was full of them I&039;d learned quickly that the prettier people were, the less they felt they had to do because of it Cartwright didn&039;t seem of the same opinion

With a face and body like his he could have been posing for GQ ads, at the least strutting a catwalk in his underwear Instead he traveled the country in a wagon, working with animals until his hands were so hard, calluses scraped the fabric of my suit

"Did you ?" I paused as an idea flickered "Is there a wolf in your aze o Didn&039;t you hear it?"

He shook his head, but he continued to stare at the forest

Strange

"What are you doing here?" I asked

"I came to see your lovely town"

"Sheriff McDaniel told you not to coht"

His dark eyes returned to mine "I don&039;t take orders from Sheriff McDaniel"

I doubted he took orders from anyone I recalled hohatever he&039;d wanted - towel, shirt, contract - had appeared in his hand that afternoon To paraphrase the great prophet Mel Brooks: ItI sht asked

Any a he didn&039;t do was amuse me I didn&039;t want to exas I had whenever I saw him were almost as scary as the howl of the wolf that couldn&039;t exist

"You never answered my question," I pointed out

"Which question was that, darlin&039;?"