As Rachel Van Direstag went to her locker after the last bell of the day rang at Moon Lake High School, she contemplated her future.
Someone within her family had to comply with the town's Mandatory Were Law*, for Rachel's recent nightmare foretold of dire consequences if that wasn't done.
Having a personal interest in the subject herself, Rachel had started checking out the possibilities and narrowed it down to two.
A representative of one option was approaching her now.
"Hey," Megumi Tachibana said with a smile, drawing near her new friend. "How'd the rest of your day go?"
"All right. May have a line on a werebear through another classmate, but the earliest I'll be able to talk to him is lunch tomorrow, provided all the arrangements can be made," revealed Rachael.
"Jack something, right?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"Don't have any classes with him, but it's the best I could come up with on my own too," answered Megumi. "We may not have known each other that long, but I look out for my friends. Still interested in finding out all you can about werefoxes?"
"Yes," confirmed Rachael, closing her locker for the day.
"Okay. Either we can talk as we walk, or we can go back to my house and discuss the Skulk in earnest."
"Skulk?"
"That's the collective name for all the male werefoxes and the female werevixens. Kind of like a furry fraternity," explained Megumi.
"This is too important to me to let my folks interfere, especially if my dad tries something stupid like my nightmare warned me of. So let's start the discussion on the way to your place, and get into the heart of the matter there," suggested Rachel.
"Good. Just follow me," said Megumi.
And as she started leading the way out of the school and on the path to the Tachibana household, Rachel couldn't help wondering, Am I just desperate to become a were to prevent the choice being taken away from me, or is there something about Megumi that I just can't shake?
MEANWHILE, another member of Rachel's family was pondering a similar question.
What is it with that girl? Rob Van Direstag asked himself. It's bad enough I can't figure her out, but when Amy asked me over to her place, she should have at least told me where to meet.
"Oh, there you are. Waiting long?" the beautiful woman on Rob's mind asked as she approached him.
"No," Rob said.
"Good. Well, I promised to tell you all I could about weres, so let's get going," Amy said, starting to walk away from him.
But when she noticed he wasn't immediately following, she turned and said, "You coming, or do I need to leave a trail of bread crumbs for you to follow?" kidded Amy as she flashed him a killer smile.
"Lead the way," replied Rob, wondering just what it was he was getting himself into, and whether or not he actually cared as long as it gave him more time with Amy?
ELSEWHERE...
"I'm Detective Denny Miles, and this is my partner, Detective Miles Lukasky," the officer said, as the police men showed their badges to the lady seated at the desk before the Family Court division of the Moon Lake Court House. "We were told our information request has been approved concerning Alice Decroux."
"Yes. I've been expecting you," replied the clerk, rising from her chair. "After the Judge approved and signed off on it, I've prepared all the information for you," she revealed, before unlocking a file drawer from the cabinet behind her and pulling out a thick sealed envelope. Denny thanked her as Lukasky took the envelope and opened it.
Scanning the top sheets, he said, "There has to be almost 100 names here!"
"Decrux didn't have that many children," commented Denny.
"In each case the plaintiff, the defendant, and their respective attorneys are listed, as well as the child in question. If the plaintiff, in this case Alice Decrux, reappeared before the court in another matter concerning the same child, like requesting an increase in support or a question of custody or visitation rights arose, that is registered as a separate case from the original paternity issue," explained the clerk. "But I know I prepared a summary for you too."
"Well, I'm sure it's in here some place," said Miles as he kept reading.
"You know partner," began Denny, "we might have to widen our investigation to include paternal relatives too. Provided any of them are also were-raccoons," he realized, as Miles continued going through the pages.
"Here's the summary, toward the end of the report," Lukasky announced. "Alice Decrux is the biological mother of record on... 17 children, with Megan listed first, which makes her both the oldest and the only daughter."
"Busy woman," quipped Denny, considering the average were lifespan was 400 years and the ladies could easily bear children until sometime between 250 and 300.
Then something struck him as odd. "Wait a second. I thought Megan said there was a kid before her?" Denny asked, trying to recall past conversations.
"She did say as far as she knew. Besides, Megan is the only child Alice ever kept," his partner reminded him.
"But what are the odds that Alice only had one girl out of all those pregnancies?"
"Gentlemen, those are only the records the court has on file," the clerk reminded them.
"So if Alice was... err, active before getting the legal system involved, let alone outside of Moon Lake," said Denny, realizing that no matter how you looked at it, the investigation into who might want to kill Megan Decrux just got a lot more complicated.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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*Where one member of each new family moving to Moon Lake must join were society so that all had to share the burdens of protecting the town's secrets.—tmw.