After saying good-bye to her wife, Francis made her way to the police station where Claire was being held. After talking with the officer in charge, Francis made her way to the interrogation room, waiting for Claire to arrive. She opened the file that Samantha had on Claire and started to read the details.
Meanwhile, the officer (not Ryan), opened up the cell door and called out, "Claire Robertson? There's someone who wants to see you." Claire was confused at first. Who would want to see her? A lawyer? Over a trespassing case? Claire picked herself up off of the bed and started to follow the officer to the interrogation room. The officer opened the door to the interrogation room and escorted Claire in.
Francis looked up from her reading materials and saw the poor girl. She was still wearing the same clothes from last night, but her hair was a mess, her eyes were red and puffy, and it looked like she didn't sleep well last night. And to top it off, Francis knew that Claire had no idea of the gravity of the situation she was in.
"Claire Robertson I assume?" Francis asked. Claire just nodded her head. "Please have a seat. I'm Francis Twist. I'm the town therapist and psychologist. I'm here to ask you a few questions. Please, I'm not here to scare you or hurt you or anything like that." Francis looked up at Claire, and she could see and smell the fear and nervousness coming off of Claire. "I want you to relax. I'm not going hurt you or anything like that. I just want to get to know you a bit better. Is that all right?" Claire looked at Francis and simply nodded her head. Francis could see Claire relax a little bit. "So, I understand that you're from the University of Oregon. That's a bit far off from here. Could you tell me why you came to Moon Lake, especially at this time of year?"
"Well," Claire started, "I wanted to get some pictures of some animals around here. Birds, squirrels, deer, and maybe even a wolf or two."
"I see." Francis started to make some notes on her pad. "Why do you like taking pictures of animals?"
"It's something that I picked up as a kid. My mom gave me a camera for my thirteenth birthday, and I decided that I wanted to take pictures of the wild animals around there."
"And where was this?"
"In the middle of nowhere, Alaska. Our house was about 60 miles north of Fairbanks."
"So, you were surrounded by wilderness I take it?"
"Yeah, and as a kid it was boring. Photography was a hobby I picked up to keep things interesting. I liked to hunt, but with a camera. My brothers, on the other hand, liked to hunt with rifles. My dad taught them that. He tried to teach me, but I didn't like killing the animals. I learned to shoot just enough to defend myself, but my brothers were the real hunters."
Francis made a few more notes in her pad and then asked, "And I take it your mother taught you how to shoot with a camera?"
"Well, yeah. My mom really didn't like it when my dad went out hunting, but she understood why he did it. She was a real animal lover, though. Put a black hair wig on her, and you'd think she was Snow White or something." Claire chuckled, "But for me, it was all about the adventure. Finding new animals to take pictures of was part of the fun. It was like being in a real life Pokemon game, only capturing animals with pictures instead of pokeballs."
Francis smiled rather amusingly. After making a few notes, she asked, "So, why did you come down to Oregon?"
"Well," Claire said as she thought for a moment. "I wanted to get away. I mean Alaska's nice and all, but I wanted to see the world a bit. I had to get away from Alaska, even if only for a few years. Maybe even find a boyfriend or two."
"Oh?" Francis said as she raised her eyebrow.
"Well, yeah. Being in the middle of nowhere means that I really didn't get a chance to talk to kids of my own age, brothers not withstanding. I left Alaska for a chance to fall in love, maybe even get married."
"Interesting," Francis jotted down in her notepad. "So, what are you studying?"
"Well, I haven't really decided yet. I just finished my first semester there, so I took some gen-ed classes. I thought about studying veterinary studies, but my freshman biology course convinced me otherwise. I think I'll study journalism instead. It'd go well with my photography hobby. I'm thinking maybe becoming a nature photojournalist."
"Mmmm..." Francis thought for a moment before asking, "So, why did you come to Moon Lake?"
"Well, I heard from some of my classmates that there were unusual animals down here, and I thought to myself what better adventure like that. Maybe I could discover some new species of animal or something like that, and I'd be famous."
"Hmmm..." Francis frowned a little as she wrote a few things down. "So, why did you come here while the park's closed?"
"Well, I always thought it was part of the adventure. My dad was the avid outdoorsman, and he would do stuff like this all the time. While I didn't like his love for hunting, I did love his sense of adventure. We would go camping out in the middle of nowhere, and see if we could avoid the rangers. We succeeded, most of the time." A smile crept on Claire's face as she remembered the memories.
Francis nodded her head a bit as she wrote a few more things down. "So, Samantha told me that you saw some wolf creatures?"
"Well," Claire tried to think, "to be honest, I'm not sure what I saw. I mean I remember seeing something weird and wolflike. Maybe they were two wolves fighting, and they happened to be on two legs or something. And maybe the humanoid features I saw were just tricks of my mind and the light. I mean, after all, wolves with hands? Standing on two legs? There's no way that can be right."
Francis made a few more notes, and then closed her notebook. "Okay," she said as she started to stand. "I think we're done here for now. The officer will lead you back to your cell."
"Umm..." Claire started to speak up, "Do you know when they'll let me out of here?"
Francis looked at Claire and responded, "I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. It's not up to me, but I'm sure Samantha will tell you what will happen to you."
With that, Francis left the room as the officer led Claire back to her cell. As she walked out of the police department, she pulled out her phone and dialed Martin's number. "Hello? Martin? This is Francis. We need to talk."