The Night Beat

Again for the record.”
    “Again, it’s noted. My question?”
    He sighed. Yeah, I was going to need to get used to hearing that. “Adlet was defeated centuries ago by Black Wolf and some of our more powerful witches and warlocks. Per the legends and Black Wolf himself, he and the others bound Adlet’s spirit and turned it into a totem. It was lost in one of the big battles from centuries ago, before you were born, let alone undied.”
    “Well, someone found it.” Interestingly, the SUVs weren’t following us. It looked more like they were creating a road block. To keep what beings out was the question. But not the question of the moment.
    “I’d like to know who.”
    “Tomio’s the one who pawned it over to Cotton, for whatever that’s worth. I’d like to know why.”
    “Oh, I know why.” Again, Ralph was all matter-of-fact. I wondered if what he really wanted to do was lecture at the University and he was just making do by lecturing to me. Probably. My taste in men ran to the intellectual side of the house.
    “Want to share?”
    “You don’t want to share your plan, I don’t want to share the why. Equality.”
    “Let’s try it this way. Until such time as someone higher up the chain of command shares with me that you rank higher, this is your impatient superior officer asking, Lieutenant Rogers.”
    “It’s low to pull rank.”
    “It’s also effective.”
    “Fine. The why is to destroy us, all werewolves, permanently. And this totem’s the most effective way to do it.”

Chapter 66
     
    “Huh.” I didn’t know what else to say. But memory waved a paw. “You know, Cotton had all these things appraised. By Benny the Fence.”
    “Who’s nowhere around here,” Ralph mentioned.
    Another memory reared its head. “Why was Bill Bennett, our dog-loving realtor, the only human not affected by whatever spell Hitler and the Three A’s had cast over all the Estates?”
    Ralph was quiet while I drove through the neighborhood. No one was out and about. It was night, but no lights were on.
    “He didn’t smell undead,” Ralph said finally.
    “Benny the Fence isn’t an undead. He’s a human who can see into the realms and who’s managed to stay sane.”
    “Wouldn’t he have looked and smelled like Benny the Fence to us? If that’s what you’re insinuating, I mean.”
    “Maybe. Maybe not. Nero’s got a warlock pal. Who’s to say Benny doesn’t have a lot of them?”
    There was one house with lights on. I pulled into the driveway and honked the horn. This was an instinct move and I didn’t argue with it.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Either asking one of the bad guys to take a drive with us or saving the only sort of good guy still here.”
    Bill Bennett came out of his house cautiously. I’d known in my gut it was his but it was always nice to be right. “Yes?”
    I rolled the window down a crack. “Hey, we met earlier, Sunday morning. I was in a better car. You petted my dog.”
    “Oh, the lady with the Russian wolfhound. Right.” He didn’t get closer.
    No time like the present to go for broke. “Benny, you want out of this mess, or at least a ride with the beings likely to protect you?”
    He jerked and looked around, but not at me. He stared at the car. “You a cop?”
    “Detective Wolfe, Prosaic City P.D. Night Beat.” I paused. “And, to reassure, Agent Wolfe, Major, Necropolis Enforcement.”
    He ran for the car and I just managed to unlock the door before he flung it open and himself into the backset. “By all the Gods and Monsters, get us out of here!”
    “Benny, welcome to the party, so to speak. Want to fill us in on what’s going on?”
    “Yeah. But who’s the dog?”
    “Wolf,” Ralph snapped. “I’m a wolf. A werewolf. You work with us all the time and you can’t recognize a werewolf?”
    “This is Ralph, he’s with Enforcement, too. Now, happy intros done, what’s going on, from your perspective?” I pulled out and considered. We had the guy who could actually tell us what these things were. Did I want to try to slide to the University, or did I want to go with the more exciting choice?
    “Something big. I don’t know what.”
    “Why were you jogging on Sunday when everyone else was mind-controlled to stay at home?”
    “I have a spell blocker, pretty powerful one. Good friend cast it on me. I didn’t even realize there was something going on until I got back and saw what had happened to the Little Church.”
    “Is your good