Read Online The Ultimate Werewolf by Byron Preiss (ed) - Free Book Online

in Sweden but raised in upper New York, wouldn't let her."
    "I’d’ve  thought you'd've put it up on the wall above the fireplace mantel in your house."
    "Not many people'd see it there. Here, my patients can see it while I'm examining them. Makes a good conversational piece."
    The sheriff whistled softly. "He must've weighed at least a hundred and eighty. Hell of a big wolf!"
    The doctor smiled. "About as big as the wolf that's terrorizing the county. But what would a wolf be doing in the Ozarks? Hasn't been one here for fifty years or more."
    Yeager turned slowly. He was smiling rather smugly and without any reason to do so. Unless . . . Varglik's heart suddenly beat harder. He should not have been so bold. Why had he mentioned the wolf? Why steer the conversation to it? But, then, why not?
    "It's a wolf, all right! I don't know how in hell it got here, but it's not a dog!"
    "O.K." Varglik said. "But it had better be caught soon! The cattle, sheep, and dogs are bad enough! But those two kids!" He shuddered. "Eaten up!"
    "We'll get him, though he's damned elusive so far!" the sheriff said. "Tomorrow morning, most of the county police, thirty state troopers, and two hundred civilian volunteers will be beating the bush. We're not stopping until we flush him out!"
    Yeager paused, glanced sideways at the skin, then turned his head to face Varglik. "The hunt won't stop, day or night, until we get him!"
    "Even the tourists are getting afraid," Varglik said. "Bad for business."
    The sheriff turned to the pelt again. "Are you sure it's not artificial and you're not putting me on?"
    "Why?"
    "I don't know for sure. A minute ago, while I was looking at it, it suddenly seemed to glow. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. It had, still has, a light, very dim but a definite glow. I . . ."
    "Aha!"
    Yeager jumped a little. He said, "Aha?"
    Varglik was smiling as if he were trying to conceal something behind it. His mirror image showed that too plainly. He uncreased his face.
    "Sorry. I was thinking of the results of an experiment I made recently in my lab. I suddenly saw the answer to something that's been puzzling me. I apologize for not giving you my complete attention. It's rude."
    Yeager raised his eyebrows. He was as aware as the doctor that the explanation was dragging one leg far behind it. But he said nothing. He put on his Western hat and started toward the door. Hebe, Varglik's receptionist and nurse, appeared in the doorway.
    "Phone call for you, Sheriff"
    Yeager went into the front office. Varglik followed him to the office door and listened. Evidently, the wolf had gotten to Fred Benger's cattle last night and had killed four and crippled five. The Bengers had not heard anything, and the parents had not discovered the slaughter until they had returned from shopping in town. From Yeager's questions and his responses, Varglik deduced that the two sons were supposed to have put the cattle in the barn in the evening before milking them. But they had fallen asleep—passed out was closer to the truth— before the storm started. Old Man Benger's threats to kill his sons screamed from the phone. But he, like everybody in the county, knew that they were on drugs and were not to be trusted.
    "I'll be right out," the sheriff said. "But don't tramp around the pasture and mess up the tracks."
    He hung up and charged out of the office.
    "The bastard knows!" Varglik muttered. "Or he thinks he knows. But he must also be suffering great doubt. He's very rational, not the least bit superstitious. He's struggling as much as I once did to believe this."
    For years, both in his Manhattan office suite and in this Ozark office, the wolf skin had hung where his patients could see it and he could observe their reactions. Yeager was the first to see its glow! The first to comment on it, anyway. Only one kind of person could see the light. His father would call the person Kvallulf. The Evening Wolf. His mother would name him Ihmissusi.