The Mystery at Sag Bridge

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Cora and Cisco wasted no time but took the shortest route off the cliff, even though the animal was gone.

As they went down the cliff steps, the man they had seen training earlier passed them on his way up. Cora called after him, "You should avoid the woods above the cliff. We just saw a big menacing animal there."

"Really?" the man stopped, turned around, and inquired, looking interested. "What was it? A deer?"

"Oh, no-not a deer. It looked like a wild dog or wolf."

"There's no wolves around here." The man's eyes shifted away from Cora, apparently deciding she was odd.

"No, that's what I thought too. Nonetheless...."

"Did it attack you?" he asked, edging away.

"Uh...no. But I'd be careful anyway," Cora said in a weak voice, face red.

The man gave Cisco what seemed to be a pitying look and went on up the steps.

"You told that guy the animal was menacing. Did you think it was? Did we blow this out of proportion?" Cisco asked.

"Well, I felt terrified up there. Now, I don't know. Sometimes it seemed like, whatever it was, it was playing with us. But there was that following part and the shaking in the trees. I couldn't tell the guy about that. He'd think we were nuts," Cora said.

"I suspect he thinks that already," Cisco said, smiling in her direction.

They trudged toward a two-lane road to avoid the woods. It was a roundabout route to where their car was parked, with late afternoon traffic, but safe. Gradually they calmed down and discussed their impressions of the incident, as they walked at the side of the road at a moderate pace.

"I feel dazed, even now. Like I'm going to wake up soon." Cora's eyes were focused on the road ahead.

They walked in silence, deep in thought. "I don't think that was a dog," Cora said after a while.

"Why not?"

"It didn't look like a dog. It looked and acted more like a wolf."

"Wolves and dogs look a lot alike, don't they? Besides, there aren't any wolves around here, remember?"

"Well, you do at least agree it wasn't a coyote, don't you?" Cora stopped, turned to Cisco and searched his eyes.

"Yes, you're right there." He reached for her arm and pulled her along. "I've seen enough coyotes around the house, and that was definitely not a coyote. It outweighed a coyote by more than fifty pounds, and the color was all wrong. This thing was gray, not tan."

"I told you before I saw wolves near here, from the car. You never believed me, so I did some research, checked out behavior and physical differences."

"And?" Cisco asked.

Cora's voice became more confident and less shaky as she backed up her reasoning with facts. "For one thing, people most often tend to confuse German Shepherds or huskies with wolves. German Shepherds have more black and brown in their coloring, and a longer nose, and their ears are taller. They can have some grey, but it's usually mixed with black and tan."

She was walking briskly now, poles clicking as they struck stones along the shoulder of the road. "Huskies do look more like wolves, but Siberians have a white mask and blue eyes, which distinguishes them. The Alaskan huskies are smaller and their tail curls over their back. Wolf eyes are brown or yellow, and their tails don't curl. The animal we saw was all gray, with yellow eyes, a short nose, short pointy ears and a low tail."

She glanced at Cisco to see if he agreed with her. "They don't look that much alike when you really pay attention. We got a good look today, staring at it for so long."

"Could be a mixture," he argued.

"True. But habits are different too. A dog wouldn't be living in the forest and catching its own food. It would hang around close to homes and raid garbage. And dogs growl, but wolves stalk silently, and the one we saw was silent-they're hunters, right? Now that I'm thinking about it, it's a good thing we didn't turn our backs on it," Cora said, waving a finger in the air, pole swinging from its strap around her wrist.

"Why's that?" Cisco asked, turning toward her.

"Because wolves hunt by chasing down fleeing prey from behind."

"Uh-yeah-good thing we didn't do that," he agreed, reaching over to pull her off the road as he spotted a car that was traveling too fast. "I'm not sure I agree with all your points. Garbage isn't far away-a dog could live in the forest but raid home garbage cans after dark, for instance. And, if it's a wolf, how did it get here?"

"I read wolves can travel up to five hundred miles to search for food or a mate. There are gray wolves in northern Wisconsin and in the UP. That's less than five hundred miles, so it could happen, right? They follow high tension electric wires, because it's faster."

"Well, we know it's a female, that was obvious," Cisco said with a chuckle. "But how do you explain the shaking trees in the forest? A wolf wouldn't be powerful enough to do that. Maybe something else shook the trees?"

"Two things, you mean? The wolf and something else? Or something more than a wolf? Maybe...." They came to the entrance to the parking area and turned into it.

Cora stopped and put her hands on the roof of the car, looking over it at Cisco. "Did you get the impression it was intelligent? The way it followed and stared, and it looked like it was playing with us, don't you think? Don't you wonder about that? I get the sense this was personal, not an accidental encounter. Like it wanted something from us."

"Well, that could be your imagination," Cisco suggested, reaching into his pocket for the car keys.

"Could be. Or I could be right. Whatever. But it's messed up my appetite for walking in the woods. I hope I can get over it. I like our walks in the woods."