The Wolf in the Cabin

Troy

“So there was a wolf involved?” The policeman asked, sighing through his nose.

“Yeah, a big one, and it killed our fiend!” Troy kept touching the shaky tips of his fingers together under the metal table. When he looked down at it, he could see Ben’s blood on the left side of his jeans. 

Officer Haemon turned and looked at the one-way mirror behind him, staring at the turquoise eyes of his own reflection. “There are no wolves around these parts, and no footprints were found near the crime scene, so listen to me… Trevor?”

“Troy.”

“Listen to me, Troy, I don’t have time to play games. We know that you and your friends were the only ones inside that cabin. There’s no sign of forced entry, or of any outside interference. That means either you or one of your friends is guilty, so don’t try to feed me this bullshit wolf story again. Tell me the truth, Troy.”

“I am,” the young man said. “It wasn’t any of us who killed Ben, it was this… wolf, this big brown wolf.”

Troy knew the officer wasn’t convinced just by looking at the annoyed look on his face, but he didn’t know what else to say. He would believe the truth even less, he thought. Coming up with a new sequence of events was not an option—none of his friends would corroborate it. His only alternative was to stick to their rushed plan and hope it works. 

“Tell me about Julia,” Officer Haemon said after a brief silence.

Troy’s eyes began to water; his lips began to quiver. “She was… she was my girlfriend,” he managed to say between sobs. 

“I know that already; I have Facebook.” The policeman leaned on the table. “Tell me about your relationship with her. What was she like, what did you do together, what did you talk about?”

“We uhmm… we…” Troy broke out crying. 

“It’s okay, we can skip that for now,” Officer Haemon said after waiting in vain for a couple of seconds. “Just tell me who killed her, and you’ll be excused for now.”

From time to time the young man wiped his face on the long sleeves of his blue shirt, leaving a dark and glossy stain around his wrist. His gasps echoed in the otherwise silent room, furnished by a single metal table bolted to the ground and the one-way mirror on the wall opposite him. The only source of light was a flickering lamp hanging in the middle of the ceiling. 

Troy took some time to think over what to say next. He remembered hearing Anna shouting:“the truth,” but not the rest of the sentence. Was she telling us to tell the truth or not to? Even if he knew what she meant, there was no way to be certain whether the rest did as well—they were later taken to the station in separate vehicles, and haven’t been allowed to communicate since.

“Did the wolf blow her head off with a shotgun?” Haemon focused on Troy’s downcast eyes as he spoke.

“No, that was… well, that was me.”

Megan

“Your friend Troy told me a stranger broke into the cabin and killed both Julia and Ben. Is that truly what happened?” the handsome officer asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Megan said, her eyebrows tilting down under her frown. 

“You don’t think so?”

“It was a wolf who killed them.”

“The two of them?” 

“I mean, not both of them.” Megan gazed down at her lap for a moment. She still felt tipsy from the Prince Igor bottle she had finished by herself throughout the night. The glaring light above the table distracted her from focusing on Anna’s instructions before they were taken. Why does it have to be so bright? She considered complaining about it, but thought better—she didn’t want to give them a reason to pin this whole incident on her; the dry blood stuck beneath her fingernails was incriminating enough. “The wolf killed Ben.”

“And who killed Julia?”

“That was…” again, a silence ensued. “Yeah, that was the guy Troy might’ve been talking about. He came in through the window with a shotgun and… you know.”

“No, I don’t know,” Haemon said with a side smile. “That’s why I’m asking you.”

“He shot her in the head, okay?” Megan snapped. “Happy now?” 

“That’s not the word I’d use.” The officer looked through the pages of a notepad, licking the tip of his fingers before touching the papers. “Here. You see, Megan, I lied to you. Troy’s statement was that a wolf killed Ben, like yours, but that it was him who killed Julia, not a stranger.”

Megan stared at the officer in silence, wide eyed and frowning. Shit. Her palms started to sweat, leaving wet prints on the metal table whenever she lifted her hands. Was that what Anna told us to say? At the time she couldn’t distinguish her friend’s words because of the drowning noise of the police siren, and she could discern no clue from Anna’s facial expressions as she was led into a cruiser. It all had happened in an instant. Megan then reflected on how no one had read her or any of her friend’s Miranda rights—as far as she knew. “Am I under arrest?” she asked.

“No, you are being held under suspicion.”

Megan considered her situation, thinking back on her high school Law class while her forehead folded into a frown. “I wish to speak to a lawyer.”

“Why?”

“I would like legal representation before answering any further questions.”

Haemon sighed. 

Denver 

“I’ll make this simple,” Haemon said as he sat across the table from the young man. “First, let’s start with Ben. Who killed him?”

“A wolf did,” Denver answered almost immediately. He sat with his butt cheeks halfway out of the chair, taping his foot frantically. “Ripped his guts out right in front of us. It was tall and bulky, bigger than any wolf I’ve ever seen. It looked almost—nevermind. In any case, a wild wolf killed Ben.”

Haemon rubbed his nose and eyes with his right hand. “Okay, let’s say there was a wolf. What happened to it?”

“Troy shot it in the head with the shotgun,” the young man said, grimacing soon after. 

“What happened to the corpse? We didn’t find anything in the house or near it.”

“I don’t know, maybe they got rid of it.”

“Alright.” The officer wrote on his notepad. “Now what about Julia?”

“She uhmm…” Denver kept his eyes shut as he considered the question. “I don’t know what happened to her, sorry.”

“You don’t know?” Haemon raised his eyebrows and lowered his head. “How come?”

“I wasn’t there when it happened.”

“Right. Didn’t you say the wolf ripped Ben’s guts right in front of you though? I believe you used the word ‘us.’”

“I misspoke, sorry.”

“Of course. But what about your friends? Did they say what happened?”

“There wasn’t enough time, you guys arrived too fast.”

“We take pride in our quick response time. A local resident heard the initial screams and called us, and we went right away. Now, what’s interesting is how this witness mentioned there were about five minutes between the first scream and the gunfire. Since both incidents happened in the living room, how come you weren’t there when Julia was shot? What did you do after you heard the scream?”

Denver stared straight at Haemon’s eyes, keeping eye-contact for a few uncomfortable seconds. “I was out in the woods, so I didn’t hear the scream. I only heard the gunshot.”

“How convenient for you.”

“What are you insinuating, huh?” Denver rose from his seat, knocking the chair behind him. “Do you think I killed my friends, is that it? Why the hell would I do that? I’m trying to mourn their deaths, and you’re sitting there accusing me of murdering them? Really? Do you take pride in that?”

“Denver, please calm down. Take a seat.” Officer Haemon motioned towards the tumbled chair. “I’m not accusing anyone of anything. I’m simply asking questions.”

“Yeah, bullshit.”

“I won’t ask again. Sit. Down.” Haemon’s voice was rough. The young man stood still, staring at the officer with a smile. A second later, Haemon was out of his chair and inches away from Denver “Lying to an officer of the law is a crime, and you have lied to me constantly since we started talking. You said you didn’t see what happened, that your friends didn’t have time to tell you, and yet you told me Troy shot the wolf. How would you know that? Your claim about being in the woods is easy to investigate, and I’m sure you wouldn’t like the results. I could arrest you right now if I wanted, regardless of your involvement with these murders, so I suggest you sit your ass down and start telling the truth.” 

Denver looked at the door, then at the chair, then back at the door. In the end, he sat down.

“Now, where were we?” 

Anna

“We were all drinking in the living room,” Anna started, “then all of a sudden this wolf came charging in through the door and attacked Ben. Most of us just stood there, not knowing what to do, but not Troy; he ran towards the fireplace and grabbed his grandpa’s shotgun. When he came back, the wolf jumped on him, knocking him back and causing the gun to fire. Unfortunately, it hit Julia.” She paused to wipe the tears off her eyes. “The wolf ran away, scared of the shot. Soon afterwards, you guys arrived. That’s everything.”

Office Haemon finished writing on his notepad before looking up at Anna. “Alright, thank you. It’s nice to get a statement that makes sense based on the evidence. It’ll help speed things up—or so I hope. There’s only one problem with your story.”

“What’s that?” She said, struggling to hide her anxiety.

“It doesn’t match your friends’ statements. Actually, none of your stories match. The only thing you seem to agree on is that there was a wolf involved, so let’s talk about that. Tell me more about this wolf.”

“There’s not much else to say. He was big, bulky, had brown fur.”

“You said he came in through the front door?” Haemon said after flipping through his notes.

“Yes.”

“How did he manage to open the door?”

“We must’ve forgotten it open.”

“Right.” The officer kept turning the pages on his pad, occasionally looking up at Anna. “And he ran away?”

“Yes, after the gun fired.”

“We didn’t find a single paw print either around the cabin or inside it. Plus, there are no wolves in these parts. So you see, that makes it hard for me to believe you. On the other hand, all of you seem to believe it was indeed a wolf who killed your friend Ben. Based on his wounds, that doesn’t seem too far fetched to me. However, your friend Denver told me that Troy shot it in the head. So tell me, Anna, please, what really happened with this wolf?”

The girl moved her jaw up and down as she chewed her gum, contemplating the policeman before her. “I told you the truth,” she said.

“No, you didn’t; none of you did. Now, this case can get bigger. It can go to court, and you and your friends might end up going to jail. Do you want that?”

Anna lowered her head and crossed her arms in silence.

“Now, I believe you’re innocent, I truly do. But I know you’re lying to me, just not why. As an officer of the law, Anna, I suggest you tell me exactly what happened so we can both go home.”

The hissing of the air vent was the only sound in the room. Anna could feel her own blood pulsating in her head as she considered the officer’s request. Should I try to tell the truth? That was the question she kept asking herself from the moment she saw the red and blue lights piercing through the dark forest. 

When she was young, her mom used to say that lies brought nothing but future problems. Anna still remembered the day when she dropped her mom’s glass cookie jar on the ground, shattering it to pieces. There was about an hour left before her mom finished working, so she swept the glass and threw every shard out as quickly as she could. She cut herself a few times in the process, but succeeded in cleaning out the mess before hearing her family’s Sedan parking on the driveway. It didn’t take long before her mom noticed the missing jar. When asked, Anna had said she didn’t know what happened to it. The next day, her dad found a small piece of glass under the fridge; soon after she was grounded. According to her mom, it would’ve lasted only a few days, as opposed to a week, if she hadn’t lied about it. Ever since she has been honest—for the most part. 

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth,” Anna said with a sigh. 

“Try me.”

Haemon

Haemon sat across the table from his Commander, notepad in hand. 

“What did you find?” Commander Johnson asked from behind his stacks of paper. 

“Well…” The officer stared at the words in his notes, trying to think of the best way to explain the case. After his last interrogation, he had little time to ponder over the information he gained. There were six missed calls from his wife by the time he left the interrogation room, plus close to a dozen messages. He called her back, then spent the next hour trying to explain to her how it wasn’t his fault he would be late for dinner, that it was his duty. Soon after the call was over, Commander Johnson summoned him to his office to talk about the case.

During his walk over—as short as it was—Haemon struggled with the same dilemma as the kids he interrogated: Do I tell the truth or not? He wasn’t even sure what the truth was. Anna’s story was hard to believe, but at least it made sense based on the evidence. Even though the other statements were obviously false, they helped Haemon piece out the case. Anna had given him the instructions to the puzzle, and so far the pieces were sticking together perfectly—but the image wasn’t yet complete. 

“Well?” Commander Johnson said. 

Haemon took a deep breath. “Do you believe werewolves are real?”

THE END