Wolftown, Part Nineteen

“It’s a böxenwolf transfiguring. The skinny wolf is attacking him,” Schuster radioed. He worried that specifically identifying Ms. Brown as a böxenwolf would overwhelm the deputies. He yelled, “Ms. Brown, get off him! Sir, stop biting her!”

“They can’t listen to you,” the deputy said.

The fat böxenwolf rolled on the ground, making a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan, and as if a wolf cursed in English. Blood trickled, and yellow pus oozed. He snapped at Ms. Brown’s side, but she jumped over him.

“Olsen, tell a Happy Howlers employee to secure their skinny wolf,” Chief Deputy Swan radioed. “We can’t move in until he does.”

The deputy closest to Schuster knelt.

Schuster had joined the Wolftown Police Department, and though the Wilde County Sheriff’s Department technically held authority over the city police, the two departments generally operated separately. He thought the böxenwolf’s actions justified firing at him, but the other deputies seemed prepared to shoot anything that surprised them.

Ordering the böxenwolf and Ms. Brown to cooperate, Schuster advanced. Shooting the böxenwolf while he and Ms. Brown fought could be less dangerous for Ms. Brown if Schuster were immediately next to him. Also, the wolf strap healed him so quickly, Schuster had less time than usual to restrain the böxenwolf.

“Hey, wait,” the deputy called.

Schuster ignored Chief Deputy Swan.

Chief Deputy Swan radioed Sheriff Jordan: “Were you serious about saying if we see an actual böxenwolf, don’t approach it?”

Sheriff Jordan radioed, “Keep your distance from confirmed böxenwolves.”

During the radio messages, Ms. Brown ripped part of the wolf strap from the fat böxenwolf. Although Schuster expected the böxenwolf to transfigure into human form, he remained in a monstrous form. She ran towards Schuster.

“You’re going to get bitten!” He shot Ms. Brown once.

“Deputy, stop! Don’t shoot the damn wolf! Or when someone is that close to her!” Schuster yelled while Chief Deputy Swan threatened dire consequences for anybody discharging their weapons again without authorization.

Ms. Brown dragged one leg behind her, and Schuster darted forward.

“She’s going to bite you!” the deputy said.

She had dropped the scrap of wolf strap on Schuster’s foot and was cowering behind him, and Chief Deputy Swan was grudgingly approaching them.

Chief Deputy Swan reminded Olsen that somebody needed to collect the wolf.

“I’m working on it,” Olsen radioed.

When Ms. Brown ran to him, Schuster only remained in place because Wayne had told him several times since childhood, “Don’t run from a wolf. It will catch you and eat you.”

Grabbing Ms. Brown by the scruff of her neck, Schuster yelled. “Look, I have her under control! She’s not a threat! Watch the monster! He’s the highly dangerous one!” Aggravated, but not loudly, he said, “Get on the ground. Keep your paws where I can see them.”

Ms. Brown lay on her good leg, panting and whining. Schuster pinned her with one knee.

“You’re going—” the deputy said.

“I have to restrain you before the deputies shoot you,” Schuster said.

Ms. Brown craned her neck for the wolf strap as Schuster held her front paws together and began winding paracord around them.

“Stop, stop. It will keep you alive,” Schuster said.

She scrabbled a bow knot with her foot, complaining about something.

“People are going to freak out if you do that,” Schuster said, but unwound the paracord; her wolfish wrists were much smaller than her human wrists, and he worried the rope would break her skin. He radioed, “The skinny wolf is probably about to turn into a lady. Don’t shoot her. She’s not going to attack us.”

“What?” the deputy asked.

Chief Deputy Swan watched Ms. Brown transfigure from wolf form to human form, and he aimed his gun at her. Schuster shielded her, radioing for an ambulance.

“She isn’t a threat. Take the wolf strap away from her, and she won’t transfigure.” Schuster offered it to Chief Deputy Swan and started emptying his raincoat pockets.

“I’m not dying as a böxenwolf,” Ms. Brown grumbled.

“Okey-dokey, don’t get scared, sir. I’m throwing the wolf strap to you.”

Chief Deputy Swan lowered his gun. He pointed from the male böxenwolf to the female böxenwolf and stuttered as Ms. Brown pulled on Schuster’s raincoat.

Schuster handcuffed her, asking, “Where are you shot?”

“My hip, but I think it stopped bleeding,” she said. “You have to go get him. He’s really weak, but he’ll heal.”

“Stop staring at her,” Schuster snapped at the kneeling deputy.

“Hey!” the deputy said.

He began first aid. “Watch the monster. She isn’t a problem right now, but he is.” Schuster began first aid and pitied Chief Deputy Swan, who had yet to express a coherent thought. “Why do you and him look different?”

“No idea,” Ms. Brown said.

Olsen radioed, “Wayne seems to think it isn’t his problem anymore, but a John Dalton is willing to do it. I’m verifying what ‘it’ is. And there’s a lawyer here saying he’s a wolf’s lawyer, and the general consensus seems to be that the wolf needs one. Do I proceed?”

Chief Deputy Swan hesitated. “Never mind. The wolf is gone.”

“Whatever. Close enough,” Ms. Brown said.

Ms. Brown’s gunshot wound and the shallow bites had scabbed before she removed the belt, but barely. Her hip hurt, and the bullet entered her buttock and exited through her lower back.

“More here?” Chief Deputy Swan waved vaguely.

Chief Deputy Swan told the other deputy to move back, but Ms. Brown said, “Hurry before he gets better.”

“Are there more böxenwolves?” Schuster asked.

“He’s got one strap and that one is the other one,” Ms. Brown said.

“Why didn’t he transfigure into a human when you ripped the strap?”

“It hasn’t happened before.”

“Is the wolf strap healing him?”

“Maybe slowly.”

Schuster radioed, “Part of the wolf strap got torn off, but maybe the rest is having an effect on the suspect.” He asked her, “How did you get out of the bathroom?”

“I slipped the cuffs and unlocked the door,” Ms. Brown said. “You’re welcome.”

“So, your arms and hands are okay?”

Olsen repeated himself, and Chief Deputy Swan told him and Zimmer to bring a portable stretcher from the ambulance.

“Yeah,” the lady said.

“Did you injure that?” Chief Deputy Swan pointed at the böxenwolf.

“On his side, and I got close to his backbone. You have to go after him. If he gets away again, I’m not going after him,” Ms. Brown said.

“Take it easy,” Schuster said.

“Is she the witness about the wolf attacks? The one saying they were using the sewers?” Chief Deputy Swan asked.

Ms. Brown glared at him, and Schuster thought, Why would you say that in hearing range of the guy who says he will kill her if she gives information to the police?

The male böxenwolf roared. He jumped but aimed at the böxenwolf. Chief Deputy Swan reminded the deputies to hold their fire. Sheriff Jordan had promised that Ms. Brown would never be transferred to Wolftown Police Department custody, but that she would be detained for a police investigation and her own protection.

“I detained Ms. Brown under suspicion of breaking and entering Mr. McDowell’s wolf museum,” Schuster said.

“Right. Yeah.” Chief Deputy Swan flipped through his notebook. “Oh, yeah. Oh, no.” He swore under his breath.

“I haven’t had an opportunity to run a background check on her yet,” Schuster said.

The male böxenwolf wobbled to his hands and feet and turned to face Schuster and Ms. Brown. His arms and legs were of equal length. She scooted further from the male böxenwolf, and Chief Deputy Swan hauled her several feet back. He hurried Olsen and Zimmer.

“Get on the ground or I will kill you,” Schuster ordered.

The deputies also told the böxenwolf to comply, but Chief Deputy Swan told them and Schuster to wait until he behaved aggressively.

The böxenwolf stepped one hand and one foot forward and was lifting its other two limbs, growling. He moved so slowly, Schuster finally had an opportunity to aim carefully.

Fairly certain that the böxenwolf had fled Happy Howlers because he thought Schuster intended to kill him, Schuster said, “Get on the ground or I will shoot you in the brain. Do you really think the wolf strap can keep you alive after that?”

The böxenwolf lay down, failing to turn a collapse into a coordinated movement. It relieved Schuster; half the böxenwolf’s face would be unrecognizable in human form and Schuster thought a gunshot wound to the other half might interfere with identification. He doubted he could aim at the mangled side.

Olsen and Zimmer arrived with the stretcher.

“Hey, officer, are you sure I should go with them?” Ms. Brown said. “Guess why I don’t think so.”

“You’re still being detained,” Chief Deputy Swan said.

“Your lawyer will be with you, so it will be fine,” Schuster said.

The böxenwolf heaved itself so that he faced away from the deputies, as if he intended to run into the woods.

“I’m pretty sure I’m screwed either way.”

“Take it easy. It will work out fine if you stay in the county sheriff’s custody.”

Ms. Brown tolerated Olsen and Zimmer placing her on a stretcher, and they took her to the ambulance, which left a few minutes later. Olsen and Kevin accompanied her.

“If he runs, keep up with him, and slow him down if you have to, but keep your distance from him,” Sheriff Jordan radioed.

The böxenwolf fiddled with the wolf strap.

Sheriff Jordan reached Happy Howlers, looked at the böxenwolf, and spoke with the other deputies and Schuster. Chief Deputy Swan and two other officers guarded the böxenwolf.

Because Schuster had the most experience with böxenwolves and his encounters had not yet hospitalized him, Sheriff Jordan told him to help plan. It surprised Schuster. Technically, he had fought a böxenwolf, but at the time, he identified it as a wolf, and he thought several hours speaking with one böxenwolf did not qualify him as an expert.

By questioning Ms. Brown through the EMTs, Sheriff Jordan had learned that the male böxenwolf bit shallowly and released her quickly, in pain. Schuster said that when the apparent wolf (probably the böxenwolf) bit him and Foster, the wolf bit and held like a K9 dog, and according to Wayne, with force equal to a wolfdog. Wayne reluctantly speculated that, although the blunt teeth confused him, the böxenwolf bit Ms. Brown as forcefully as a human.

Sheriff Jordan said, “Corey Brown unexpectedly draining the man’s abscess wouldn’t fix his jaw pain. He clearly doesn’t have any more weapons with him. His claws are dull. He has average senses and muscle function for a person or a wolf, so tasering will probably incapacitate him. We just have to respond to a slippery naked person, and everybody does that sooner or later, although this situation is very unusual. It’s not unheard of for a person to attempt to bite us, and we’ve got hoods. So, it could be worse. The locations of a böxenwolf’s anatomy change when he turns into a human, and Corey Brown says it can affect where an injury is. She says the wolf strap will heal him as long as he wears it. I’m concerned that if we turn him into a human, he will bleed out, so he has to be in the ambulance as soon as possible.”

Sheriff Jordan assigned himself and the less jittery deputies to arrest the suspect, and he accepted Schuster as a volunteer. The K9 team’s dog handler, Zimmer, participated without his partner, whom he locked in their vehicle. One deputy was Schuster’s high school friend’s dad, Terry.

The Sheriff’s Department and Schuster advanced on the suspect, and once within range, one deputy tasered him, then four deputies wrestled his arms and legs. Schuster tackled him to remove the wolf strap. On the basis that he might dodge bites, Zimmer forced a spit hood over the böxenwolf’s head; he also monitored the böxenwolf for suffocation.

The suspect stank of pus, blood, and days of running through the streets, sewers, and woods. Everybody lost their grips from his sweat, blood, and the mud, and slipped and skidded. The böxenwolf scratched with long, cracked, filthy nails.

The deputies and Schuster ignored the suspect’s complaints, swearing, groans, and wails, until Zimmer said, “He has dog shoulders. You’re going to break them or something. Stop yanking his arms like that.” He and another deputy handcuffed the suspect’s arms in front of him and pinned them three inches deep into the mud.

Simultaneously, Schuster untied the wolf strap and gathered the ends. He tugged them together and each end individually and yanked one end from under the böxenwolf. Schuster systematically pulled them again.

“We have to get him on his back,” Zimmer said.

To subdue the suspect, a deputy tasered him again, but one probe shocked the suspect, and the other probe shocked Terry. He dropped the suspect’s leg, but Sheriff Jordan grabbed it. Some of the deputies tried to roll the böxenwolf the opposite direction, some waited, and some rolled him in the original direction.

“Are you okay?” Schuster asked Terry, as a deputy said, “You’re in the way.”

Terry responded with great indignation, and Schuster moved to the opposite side.

Schuster moved to the opposite side, saying, “Sheriff, the wolf strap is stuck to him.”

“Get his other leg,” Sheriff Jordan said.

They cuffed the böxenwolf’s legs.

The deputies successfully tasered the suspect and rolled him onto his back, while Sheriff Jordan yanked the wolf strap several times.

To see better, Schuster lay on his stomach and shoved the böxenwolf’s flab upwards. The böxenwolf twisted and leaned back.

Schuster, Sheriff Jordan, and the others pushed the böxenwolf onto his side and, with nothing to brace against, fought to hold him in position. Chief Deputy Swan and another deputy joined the struggle.

“What’s up?” Sheriff Jordan asked, lying down.

“There’s a furry or hairy patch on his skin, and the side of the wolf strap that should be leather. The rest of it is leather.”

Sheriff Jordan rinsed the mud off the wolf strap. As he pulled the strap taut, the furry patch of skin stretched and wrinkled like skin, and Schuster gathered up the loose sides of the wolf strap.

“Maybe if you cut it away without cutting him, it will fall off or peel off or something. Wait, not you. If it goes wrong, you don’t need another reason to be written up,” Sheriff Jordan said.

“Okey-dokey,” Schuster said, relieved somebody else would take responsibility for a problem nobody trained for.

“Hold still,” Sheriff Jordan told the böxenwolf.

As expected, the böxenwolf ignored him. Sheriff Jordan sawed with his knife, pointing the blade towards himself, since the alternative directions would injure either the suspect, Schuster, or a deputy. He trimmed as close to the skin as he dared and accidentally cut the böxenwolf. Schuster wondered if he scabbed quickly because it was a shallow cut or if the wolf belt healed him.

Despite the trimming, the böxenwolf had four digits and one dewclaw on each limb, and a human-skinned tail.

“It looks like we have to take him to the hospital like this,” Sheriff Jordan said. “The doctors will figure it out.”

“Can I go?” Schuster.

“The deputies will go with him. You and I have to warn the EMTs and the Oneida Community Hospital, and Sheriff Sommers.”

Before leaving, Sheriff Jordan informed the böxenwolf that he seemed to be part-human, part-animal, rather than like a human temporarily resembling an animal. Although willing to assume the böxenwolf was human, Sheriff Jordan threatened him that, if the suspect assaulted any of the medical personnel, Sheriff Jordan would consider him animal-like and personally hog-tie him, cram him into Wayne’s wolf cage, and transport him to the veterinarian.

“Hospital,” the böxenwolf said.

“You’ll be there as soon as possible.”

The böxenwolf refused to give his name.

Sheriff Jordan explained he had reasonable suspicion that the böxenwolf committed assault on law enforcement, and then he arrested the böxenwolf.

Through the tussle, Schuster thought through the böxenwolf’s speech patterns, which strongly reminded him of Dennis Laufenberg. Few people swore and insulted as fluently as him, and he might have been more specific than a person unacquainted with local and county levels of law enforcement.

“Did you see his eye color?” Schuster asked Zimmer.

“One was green, and one was kind of…wolfy green.”

Dennis Laufenberg had green eyes and an appendectomy scar, which Schuster found. The böxenwolf had a bald spot, like Dennis Laufenberg, and shaggy grey, black, and dark and light brown hair. Although Dennis Laufenberg had brown and grey hair, the fat wolf in the Wolftown attacks had black, brown, tan, and white fur. Because few people had green eyes, an appendectomy scar, and a bald spot, and weighed over 300 pounds, Schuster thought Sheriff Jordan arrested Police Chief Dennis Laufenberg.

Next part coming July 18, 2025.