Kate had just finished talking to Doug, taking down all the names of customers who'd bought dogs in the last month, when she heard Nick's voice coming from upstairs: "But if I can't fight it, what am I supposed to do?"
He had to be screaming for her to be able to hear him.
Kate bounded up the stairs, pulling her gun out in the process.
When she got to the kitchen, she expected Nick to be held at gunpoint.
She expected to find him on the floor, bleeding.
She expected Perez standing over him with a knife.
What she didn't expect was Perez, standing a few feet away from his kitchen table, slightly out of breath, with a wolf by his feet.
It was lean with thick, light-brown fur and piercing amber eyes.
Perez had his arms raised in surrender. She was pointing a gun at him, after all.
Holstering it, she asked angrily: "Where's Nick? What happened?"
The wolf next to him tilted its head curiously to one side.
"Nick, right.. uuh.. he went outside. You just missed him."
"I heard him yell three seconds ago. From inside. What happened, Mr. Perez? I'm not going to ask again."
Kate took a step forward, putting her hand on her gun as a warning. Perez' eyes widened.
The wolf, maybe sensing the rising tension in the room, growled quietly. Its whole body became still and rigid while it bared its teeth at Kate.
Now it was her turn to swallow, adjusting the hand resting on her gun.
Perez crouched down next to the animal.
"Easy, cub. She's your- she's a friend."
Without warning, Perez loudly snapped his fingers in the air, causing the wolf's attention to shift from Kate to him.
"What are you doing! Do you have a death wish?" She found herself walking backwards, her breathing faster than she would've liked.
Now that he'd gotten the wolf's attention, Perez proceeded to stare at it. The animal didn't stop snarling, showing off its canines in all their perilous glory. Perez never averted his gaze, though.
After a while, the wolf actually went silent.
Kate had a hard time believing her eyes at that moment, but they weren't betraying her: the animal stopped protesting, lowering its head in obedience.
"That's good, cub."
Perez held his hand out, testing if the wolf would bite it off or not, Kate figured, and when it did no such thing, he buried it in its fur. The wolf yelped excitedly.
It lay down on the ground, panting happily while Perez continued petting it.
"This is all very cute, but if you don't tell me where my partner is right now, I will be forced to arrest you."
Perez and the wolf looked up at her simultaneously.
Kate stayed where she was, keeping a good distance between her, the wolf and the crazy man next to it.
"I'm sorry," Perez apologized, "this is Nick's dog."
"First of all, you didn't answer my question. Secondly, that looks more like a wolf to me."
"It's a.. mixed breed."
Perez gave a quick glance in the direction of the wolf he was still stroking, then he got up from his crouching position.
The wolf's gaze followed him for a second, not wanting him to stop.
"Nick and I know each other from school," Perez lied, "and I still look after his dog sometimes. He dropped him off yesterday. I told Nick to wait here while I'd go and get him."
Perez walked over to a cupboard in the corner, opened it and pulled out a piece of dried meat.
The wolf's ears perked up and before Perez could close the distance between them, the animal was already running towards him, it's momentum sending it flying into his leg when it tried to slow down.
The wolf shook his head slightly, a gesture that, if it'd been human, Kate would have categorized as embarrassment.
She found herself smiling because of how adorable it looked.
Don't let the wolf distract you, she told herself. Kate had a partner to find here, after all.
"Keep talking," she grumbled.
Perez looked up at her, the wolf gently taking the meat from his hand in the meantime.
"When I got back, Nick was still here, but.. um.. a parrot had flown in. From the window. Did you know I also keep parrots? Fascinating creatures. Anyway, Nick was a bit scared because it was attacking him, just a little bit, and I told him he shouldn't fight it. Then he asked me what he should do if he couldn't fight it. That's probably what you heard, right?"
"He screamed."
"Yeah, he has a fear of birds, apparently. Well, anyway, I told him he should go outside and the parrot would follow him. Maybe he's by the cages now."
The wolf had finished eating, trotted to the kitchen table and lay under it. Suddenly it seemed tired, resting its head on its paws.
Kate bit her lip, thinking about Perez's story. It sounded made up. Maybe he was holding Nick in his basement somewhere.
"So you're telling me," she began, "that if I were to go outside right now, Nick would be there."
"As far as I know."
"Then it wouldn't bother you if you went outside with me to check, right?"
"No. Let's go outside." Perez smiled and led the way.
Yellow eyes followed Kate from under the table as she walked after Perez.
****
What did you think? :D
Perez is such a terrible liar, right?
Nick is so adorable when he's a wolf!