Page 11 of Lone Wolf

“Was the leash gone, too?”

“No. It was there. And his collar. Just empty.”

“So he slipped the collar.”

“And that’s got his tags and everything so no one’s gonna know how to call us.” Sofia sat up out of her stretch and hugged her knees, her cheeks flushing.

Moving quickly to avert a breakdown, Andre smiled big, clasped his hands, and rubbed them together like a waiter about to recommend the Parmesan-crusted sand dabs. “So, Evil E. Where we gonna start?”

Evan asked, “Is the dog chipped?”

“Nah,” Andre said. “I found him on the street behind a dumpster.”

“Well, we should start at the pounds—”

“Seriously?” Sofia said. “I’ve already checked them, like, a hundred times.” She side-eyed her father. “I thought you said he was good at this.”

Evan pushed through: “I’ll go over to the apartments then and look around.”

“Hang on.” Sofia popped up in a single motion, a jack-in-the-box exploding. “Mom had flyers made for me at work.”

Brianna, head still down: “Though no one’s gonna mention unsanctioned use of the office copy machine to Mr. Olmeda at the holiday party.”

“Mom, come on. Let’s get ’em from the car.”

Brianna shoved out from the desk and followed her daughter out. At the door, she looked back at Evan and Andre. “Don’t you two do anything dumb, you hear?”

The door closed, an awkward silence asserting itself. Evan glanced out the window. Debris littered the sidewalk across the street, a rusty shopping cart on its side, someone’s life possessions spilled across the cracked concrete. The pandemic had been brutal for the city’s residents, homeless encampments springing up all over, humans washed up beneath every underpass and scattered across every sidewalk. So much suffering forced to the surface, and yet he was here, in hot pursuit of a pet.

“You seem tense, man,” Andre said.

“I’m not tense.”

“You know who says that? Tense people, that’s who.” Andre sucked his teeth, flicked his chin. “You got to let go and let God, you know?” He tilted his head, studied Evan. “What?”

Evan said, “I forgot how quickly you annoy me.”

“Nah, man. The annoying Christians are the ones who’ve been Bible-thumping their whole lives. You wanna know if Jesus got anything interesting to tell you, find a fuckup like me who found God ’cuz he had to. See what that dude knows.”

“Leviticus 17:11?” Evan said.

“Huh?”

“Nuthin’.”

Andre’s grin was so good-natured it made it slightly less easy to stay aggravated with him. “Look, man. I wanna thank you, showing up for Sofia like this. That dog, man. He’s everything to her. I got him for when I can’t be around, you know? I’m busting tail, working three jobs, tryin’a make good. It’s hard out there, man. It’s hard.”

Evan said, “Right.”

“And I’m still trying for Bri, but you know what she told me? She wouldn’t get back with me if the world was flooded with piss and I lived in a tree.”

“Cold.”

“Women are like that, man.”

The front door flew wide and Sofia ran in cradling a phone-book-thick stack of photocopies. “You can put them up for me.”

As Brianna resumed her position at the desk, Sofia thrust the flyers at Evan. He stared at them.