Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,34
to his office in his SUV. Helen sat up front, and Jim took the back bench seat. Joe gave Helen an informal tour of the town on the way from the airport to the mayor’s office, which she seemed to enjoy. Big Wolf really was a pretty little town.
When they finally were ensconced in Joe’s office, with the door shut and the map of the town spread out on Joe’s wide desk, Jim really went to work. Helen sat nearby, watching but not commenting much.
“This is the current boundary of Pack-owned land,” Joe explained, pointing to a rough circle centered on the town of Big Wolf. “This area I’ve color-coded green is one large ranch that now belongs to a Pack member’s mate and will eventually come to the Pack through their children.” Joe’s tone was laced with satisfaction as he pointed to a very large tract of land on one side of the town. “These yellow areas are owned by non-magical folks who have mostly been either friendly or neutral in their dealings with us.”
“I’m guessing the red area is what you want me to check out,” Jim jumped ahead, but Joe didn’t seem to mind. The Alpha nodded.
“The red area has an old feed mill smack dab in the center of it that is pretty much derelict. The whole parcel—which used to be a working ranch, then became a feed lot for a while about fifty years ago, and then fell into disuse when the cattle market had a downturn—was purchased recently by some folks from California.”
Joe took a stack of eight-by-ten aerial photographs out of a folder and scattered them over the map. Jim could clearly see a very large old building. It was weathered, and parts of it didn’t look all that stable. Joe had photos of the area, including the access roads, parking areas and other buildings on the large tract of land. Jim studied them as Joe continued to talk.
“I’ve looked into it, and something about the entire transaction smells off to me. If I had known the land was up for sale, I would’ve bought it for the Pack, but the whole thing was done without anyone knowing until the deal was done. Just a tad too clandestine to be legit, to my mind. Of course, I’ve had people checking out the place as best we could, but they found nothing. I even went over there, in person, hoping to introduce myself to our new neighbors, but no one was about. Or, if they were, they didn’t come out to see me. I left, feeling itchy about the whole place, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was about it that bothers me. The old mill has been there for a long time. It’s an old building with a lot of nooks and crannies. It’s also huge. At one time, the feed lot was one of the largest in the state.”
Jim studied the map and the accompanying aerial photos. The building was definitely of a bygone era and looked somewhat shaky in places, but there were also signs that someone had been fixing things in certain areas. There were a lot of tire tracks in and out of the place, and the paths into and out of the feed mill’s doors were showing signs of lots of recent activity.
“How old are these images?” Jim asked.
“About seventy-two hours. I have someone going up tonight to do some thermal imaging, to see if there’s anything new we can learn,” the Alpha replied.
Jim looked up from studying the photos and met Joe’s gaze. “I’d like to see those.”
“Sure thing. I figured you might want to do some recon tonight, and we can reconvene in the morning to compare notes and go over the results of the imaging.”
“That’s a good plan,” Jim agreed. “And, yes, I do intend to do a little prowling tonight.”
“I’ll inform Shane. He’s our new sheriff. Good fellow, from out West, originally. He’s out dealing with some youngsters who’ve been giving us a bit of grief lately, or he’d have come with me to meet you at the airport.”
“I’ll try to drop by the sheriff’s office later,” Jim replied easily, not offended by the other man’s need to deal with Pack business. “I may need him in an official capacity, if things get interesting.”
Joe chuckled. “I think you two will hit it off. He’s ex-military, too.” Joe started to roll up the big map since Jim was finished looking at