Cry Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

at the man in charge of the county’s animal population. Charles Browder had a thick, muscular build that made him resemble a wrestler more than a county official. He reminded her a little of the wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. “How long have you been receiving calls about this?”
    Browder shrugged. “Couple of years, maybe three. The reports tell ya.”
    She made note of a few of them. As he excused himself to answer a phone call, Andrea glanced around the small, windowless office that was nothing more than a back room in the county’s animal shelter. The distant sound of doggy yapping and whining cats was constant, thanks to the nearby kennel that housed rescued and stray animals.
    Andrea sighed and smoothed out a crease in the black pantsuit she’d changed into before coming here. She would have liked a pet. She had a small condo near Miami that she considered her home base. But traveling so often, she knew she couldn’t keep a plant alive, let alone a dog or a cat.
    She pulled out a pen and positioned her notepad on top of the werewolf file when Browder replaced the phone. “So what exactly does an animal control officer in Glynn County do, Mr. Browder?”
    “Aside from the obvious, I investigate cases of abuse, rumors of puppy mills, that sort of thing. If folks or the po-lice need help handlin’ an animal, they give me a call.”
    “And I suppose werewolves classify as animals.” She made a short note of his job description, even as she smiled at the idea.
    “Let me get one thing straight. I don’t think this is actually a werewolf.” He leaned forward and propped his elbows on the desk. “Probably just a bear, maybe a ky-oat, and a big one at that.”
    “Really? So there are bears and coyotes in the area?”
    He shrugged. “We have seen one or two bears in the county before. They tend to wander down from the mountains every now and agin, so seeing ’em ain’t as rare as you’d think. Now wolves, they ain’t common, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks have hybrids as pets. We’ve also got ourselves quite a growin’ ky-oat population in this area.”
    She remembered some of the details she’d picked up skimming his reports. She looked him in the eyes. “Most of these sightings describe the animal as walking on two legs. Where I come from, wolves and coyotes don’t exactly walk on two legs.”
    “They don’t around here either.” He chuckled. “That’s why I tend to think it’s just a bear. Folks can let their imagination get carried away when they see somethin’ they don’t expect to see. There are all sorts of explanations for somethin’ like this, Miss Lockhart. But a werewolf?” He shook his head. “Ain’t no way.”
    She agreed with him, of course, although she tried hard not to show it.
    Still, it was fascinating that some people in this small town thought they were actually seeing one. Reed seemed like a credible enough eyewitness. The fact that the county animal control officer even had a werewolf file meant there was a story here after all.
    Heaven help her, but Andrea was intrigued despite herself.
    “Have you seen this picture before?” She reached into her bag for the photograph she’d been handed when given this assignment.
    An intern had somehow acquired the photo, and truthfully, Andrea had no idea if it was legitimate or not. She couldn’t spot any obvious manipulations, but hey, she’d been fooled before.
    Browder looked over the enlarged and slightly blurry picture of what appeared to be a werewolf-like creature walking along the edge of a cornfield and seemed amused by it.
    “Nope.” He handed the picture back to her. “Never seen it before. Mind if I ask where ya got it?”
    She shrugged. “ I got it from my editor, and it’s why I’m here. We’d like an article to go along with the picture before we publish it. Of course, that’s only if it’s not a fake.”
    Browder nodded, looking both surprised and a tad impressed. She read him like a