Winter of the Wolf Moon by Steve Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page A

gets up here. It’s one of the only things I like about this place.”
    “Too bad that full moon isn’t out tonight,” I said.
    “That’s one of my first memories,” she said. “Looking out a window and seeing the snow glowing in the moonlight.” She didn’t say anything for a long moment. The silence was as complete as the darkness. “I’m sorry,” she finally said. “You don’t want to hear all this. I start talking about the strangest things when I’m tired.”
    “I don’t mind,” I said. “But you’re gonna get cold soon.”
    We made our way through the snow to the front door. She shifted the bag on her shoulder.
    “I wish you’d let me carry that,” I said. It was all I could do to keep myself from wrestling it away from her.
    “No thanks, Sir Galahad.”
    I unlocked the door and let her into the place, flipping on the lights. It was the second cabin my father had built. He thought the first one looked a little too rough and dark on the inside, so he used unstained white pine for the interior walls. It made the place look a lot bigger than it was.
    “Wow,” she said. “This is nice.” There were two sets of bunk beds on opposite walls. She put her bag down on one of the lower bunks and climbed halfwayup the ladder into the loft. “This place sleeps, what, about eight people?”
    “Six is comfortable,” I said. “Eight if everybody likes each other.” I started the woodstove. I had already had paper and logs in there, figuring I’d have paying guests from downstate that night. “I’ll get this fire going. There’s electricity for the lights and the water, but this is the only heat. There’s no phone. You can use mine in the morning if you want.”
    “No problem.” She poked her head into the bathroom. “You’ve really got hot water in here?”
    “Eventually,” I said. “It’ll take a few minutes to get going. I have to go turn the water on.”
    I went back outside and around to the back of the cabin. There was a little door that opened up to the crawlspace. All I had to do was shimmy my way under the cabin, wondering what sort of creatures were down there this time. I’ve seen plenty of mice under the cabins, along with a few bats, a raccoon, a possum. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but if I don’t keep the water turned off when the cabin’s empty, it freezes in the pipes.
    When I turned the water on, I backed my way out the door, brushed myself off, and went back inside. I tried not to drip snow all over the place, because the puddles dry on the white pine floor and it looks like hell. It was the only mistake my father ever made when he built these cabins.
    She was leaning against the sink, her coat unzipped. She didn’t look ready to get completely comfortable yet. I couldn’t blame her. No matter how much she said she trusted me, it must have felt a little strange to be here.
    “You got all dirty,” she said. She was holding something in her hand. It was round and black. It looked like …
    “Is that a hockey puck?” I said.
    “Yeah, here,” she said. She tossed it to me.
    I caught it and looked at it. There was a white circle on one side, and on it a red wheel with a wing coming off it. It was the Detroit Red Wings logo. Beneath the logo there was an autograph. Gordie Howe.
    “Is this real?” I said.
    “Yes,” she said. “Ever see him play?”
    “Sure, at the old Olympia Stadium.”
    “Lonnie says he was better than Gretzky.”
    “He’s right,” I said.
    “You can keep it,” she said.
    “I can’t keep this,” I said. “It’s probably worth a lot of money.”
    “I know,” she said. “It’s all I can give you right now for helping me.”
    “Where’d you get it?”
    “It’s Lonnie’s,” she said. “It
was
Lonnie’s. The last thing I did before I left, in fact I was out the door already, then I came back in and took that stupid hockey puck. God, he wouldn’t even let me take it out of the little plastic case. Think how mad he’s