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The child was little, probably no more than five or six. Even from this distance, Ellie could see how spindly and thin she was. Her long dark hair was a filthy mat, filled with leaves and debris. Tucked in her arms was a snarling puppy.
Ellie reholstered her gun. “Stay here.” She started forward then stopped and glanced back at Peanut and Cal. “I mean it, you two. Don’t make me shoot you.”
“I’m glue,” Peanut said.
“Superglue,” Cal agreed.
Ellie could hear a flurry of whispering as she strode through the four-way stop. As she neared her destination, she took her glasses off. She hadn’t come to the point where she trusted the world as seen through a lens.
About five feet from the tree she looked up. The child was still there, curled on an impossibly high branch. Definitely a girl. She appeared completely at ease on her perch, with the pup in her arms, but her eyes were wide. She was watching every move. The poor kid was terrified.
And damn if that wasn’t a wolf pup in her arms.
“Hey, little one,” Ellie said in a soothing voice. It was one of the many times she wished she’d had children. A mother’s voice would be good right about now. “What are you doing up there?”
The wolf snarled and bared its teeth.
Ellie’s gaze locked on the child’s. “I won’t hurt you. Honestly.”
There was no response; not the flinch of an eyelash or the movement of a finger.
“Let’s start over. I’m Ellen Barton. Who are you?”
Again, nothing.
“I’m guessing you’re running away from something. Or maybe playing some game. When I was a girl, my sister and I used to play pirates in the woods. And Cinderella. That was my favorite because Julia had to clean the room while I put on pretty dresses for the ball. It’s always best to be the older kid.”
It was like talking to a photograph.
“Why don’t you come on down from there before you fall? I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
Ellie talked for another fifteen minutes or so, saying everything she could think of, then she just ran out of words. Not once had the girl responded or moved. Frankly, it didn’t even appear that she was breathing.
Ellie walked back to Earl and Peanut and Cal.
“How we gonna get her down, Chief?” Earl asked, looking worried. His pale, sweaty forehead pleated into folds. He nervously smoothed his almost bald head, reemphasizing the red comb-over that had been his look for more years than anyone could count.
Ellie had no idea what to do. She had all kinds of manuals and reference books at the station, and she’d memorized most of them for her captain’s test. There were chapters on murder, mayhem, robberies, and kidnapping, but there wasn’t a damn paragraph devoted to getting a silent child and her snarling wolf pup out of a tree on Main Street. “Anyone see her climb up?”
“Mrs. Grimm. She said the kid was up to no good—maybe lookin’ to steal apples from the barrels out front at the market. When Doc Fischer yelled at her, the girl ran across the street and jumped into the tree.”
“Jumped?” Ellie said. “She’s twenty feet in the air, for God’s sake.”
“I didn’t believe it either, Chief, but several witnesses agreed. They say she ran like the wind, too. Mrs. Grimm crossed herself when she was tellin’ me.”
Ellie felt the start of a headache. By suppertime the whole town would have heard the story of a girl who ran like the wind and jumped into the uppermost limbs of a maple tree. No doubt by then they’d say she could shoot fire from her fingertips and fly from branch to branch.
“We need a plan,” Ellie said, more to herself than anyone else.
“The volunteer fire department got Scamper outta that Doug fir on Peninsula Road.”
“Scamper’s a cat, Earl,” Peanut said, crossing her arms.
“I think I know that, Penelope. It ain’t like we got a protocol for kids stuck in trees. With wolves,” he added for good measure.
Ellie touched the officer’s arm. “It’s a good idea, Earl, but she’s terrified. If she sees that big red ladder coming at her, she might fall.”
Peanut tapped her long, star-spangled purple fingernail against her teeth. A sure sign of deep thought. Finally, she said, “I’ll bet she’s hungry.”
