The Mystery at Sag Bridge

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Father McGrath had lost consciousness. Cora and Cisco watched anxiously, relieved to turn his care over to Jean's experienced hands. In rapid succession, police and paramedics arrived, questioned Jean, stabilized the priest, and loaded him into an ambulance.

Cisco put an arm around Cora and pulled her to him after the ambulance left. "Are you okay, Hon?" he asked, holding her and rubbing his cheek against her hair as they stood in the driveway. Cora nodded her assent, despite her tears and shaking hands and legs. Her gaze kept going back to the blood on the ground beside Father's car, darkening near the still-open car door.

A police officer, a large man with a crew cut and oval wire-rimmed glasses, walked around the priest's car, closed the door, examined the ground and made some notes in the notebook he carried. He approached Cora and Cisco. "I'm Officer Jeff Rogers," he said, addressing Cisco. "Did you see what happened?"

"Yes-we both did." Cisco described the attack and told him the animal ran away after Cora pulled it off the priest.

Officer Rogers eyed them for a moment, looking first at Cisco, then at Cora. "What kind of animal? A big dog? Can you describe it?"

"Uh...about a hundred pounds, grey, pointed ears, thick fur, wild and mean-looking."

"Your wife's pretty brave to grab it like that," the officer noted, looking at Cisco and rubbing his chin.

"I tried to stop her, but she pulled away...I went for something to hit it with."

"His golf club," Cora said, blinking.

"Have you seen this dog around here?" Rogers pressed.

"Uh...," Cisco glanced at Cora. "No."

Rogers raised his eyebrows. "Why did you hesitate?"

Cisco squeezed Cora's arm, nodding to show he would support what she said.

Cora hesitated, then went on in a rush. "Officer, this will sound crazy, but we think the animal might be...uh...a wolf."

"A wolf," Rogers repeated, eying Cora over the rims of his glasses.

Cora felt her face turn red, and set her jaw defiantly. "I'm probably wrong. I think I've seen one around before-a number of times." She crossed her arms and looked at Cisco for encouragement.

"If you thought it was a wolf, why'd you pull it off?" Rogers asked.

She shifted her eyes away and then met his gaze. "We had to stop it. It seemed like the only way."

Rogers put his pen in his pocket and scratched his head. "Okay," he said. "Looks like the animal's gone, but we'll canvass the neighborhood and issue a lookout for it. Here's my card, and I'll get back to you if we have more questions." He handed a card to Cora, and leveled a look at her.