Momma Bear's arrival ended the meeting. Animals willingly traded the monotony of the meeting for the action of searching for the missing cubs.
Birds flew through the forest; rodents scoured the trees and ground; deer and wolves scanned the streams and dense woods. The animals had broken into search parties, Robert Kat the bobcat slinked off by himself to search; Cougar took her time getting up from the rock, but eventually helped in the search. The twilight came alive with shouts of "Griz! Joe Bear!"
Silas had taken off with Mitch, Mack Starling, and Ziggy Chickadee. They flew a tight pattern, cutting across the scar in the trees where the stream ran, then circled above the Bear Cave, beginning a search grid heading outward.
"Her bears are missing, and big momma didn't see them go?" Zig said. "Thought her protective hormones were still raging."
"They'll turn up," Mitch said. "Two loud cubs — we’ll find them fast. It’s obvious what happened: Momma Bear overslept the start of the meeting, the cubs got bored, wandered off … we'll find them rough-housing in minutes. Promise."
Mack Starling took point formation. "Tell you what: Momma Bear didn't come a second too late. Silas here was about to get Council Perch, show the rest of us up."
Silas cawed. "Ugh … Guys, we have cubs to search for."
"Don’t get all modest on us now, stud. We all saw you with Rose Hot-Stuff, working the crowd. Mr. and Mrs. Council Perch."
"Shut it, Mack. She's just a friend."
Mack made an agreeing sound that wasn't agreeing at all. Silas searched for a subject change. He remembered as the clearing had begun to empty, the animals scattering to look for The Griz and Joe Bear.
"Guys, you get a look at any of the animals in the darker side of the clearing, when we were leaving?"
"You mean Fox," Mitch said. "Silas, I know you and Fox —"
"Fox, Tony Crow, Brandon Weasel,” Zig said. “You're talking about that bunch of pluckers, ain't cha?" Zig said. "I saw 'em, alright. Sitting all relaxed like they were getting ready to watch the Bills play the Jets. I hope Mitch here is right — ten to one he is, and you won't find me betting against him — and we'll find the cubs safe and sound, biting wings off dragonflies. But I'll tell you what: That smile on that fox does nothing to help me roost easier. That creepy motherplucker's up to no good, I'll promise you that."
Silas did not know what type of birds the Bills and the Jets were, but Zig had pulled the worm out by the head. While all the animals were mobilizing to find the cubs, Fox was with his posse, looking unsurprised by the news.
"He was listening to that slimy weasel tell a joke. I was right down there on the knoll by the Perch, going to talk to Barnes about declining the nomination —"
"You weren't going to decline…. We want you to run —"
"Mack, that's not the point. I was close to Fox when Momma Bear came in. I saw his expression. He wasn't even surprised. Laughed. I actually heard him laugh, guys …”
"What are you saying?" Mitch said. "Fox took the cubs? I wouldn't put it past him. He's done sick stuff before…. We all know he's twisted, wagering your brother's life like that … trying to kill Colin Squirrel. But two bear cubs? That's too high up the food chain, even for Fox. Each one of those cubs is already as big as he is."
"I don't know. Maybe your right and we'll find them. But it's a lot of animals looking for them now. If we don't hear something soon…."
A large colorful bird rose from the edge of the forest to join them, bright gold, red and white. Flash Goldplume hailed them as he approached. "Bears or no bears?"
"No bears."
"You feather brains needed my sharp eyes, that's why. Probably right under your beaks this whole time."
"Scared away by your loud one, more likely," Zig said.
"I was just searching with Rob Robin and Rose Topbranch," Flash said. "Lot of good that did. Silas, your girlfriend was asking about you —"
"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!"
The other birds cried laughter.
Their perimeter widened and widened, crossing paths with other search parties, who also came up empty. After over an hour of flying, the sun was setting. They were circling around for one last pass when Hawk Cooper intercepted them.
Silas knew Cooper was harmless, at least when he was on duty, but when he flew toward them, Silas felt a wave of fear that probably had to do with the hawk being a bird of prey. Cooper flew circles around the group.
"Gents, I need you to come with me,” Cooper said in his heavy Texas drawl. “Found something. Actually, it's Silas that I need —"
Flash picked up. "Is it they cubs? You found them?"
Silas didn't know what the patrolbird meant, needing them to come with him. Was it Crystal? She would be on the eggs…. Hawk couldn't think Silas, a robin, had anything to do with the bears missing….
"Not the cubs," Hawk said. "It's — Damn it, just c'mon." He took off, Cooper's broad wingspan making it hard for them to keep up.
Hawk took them to a grove of elms close to the Bear's cave. Hawk landed on the ground, bumping importantly through a circle of animals gathering around one of the large trees. Wesley Barnes was frowning grimly at the tree; Rex Washer was doubled up against a tree, a hand pressed against the trunk for support as he vomited; the human forest ranger was there, her flashlight on, pointing at the tree.
Mack whistled. "Holy jumpin jiminy junebug …"
Where the flashlight shined on the tree, pinned to the trunk through his hands and feet in a crucifixion, was Peter Mole, the Council Member who was not at the meeting. His pale bare hands reflected the beam from the flashlight.
Above Peter Mole’s body on the trunk, in large shiny letters, was a message written for Silas.
* * *
Wesley Barnes slammed his wing down on the table, rattling jars of ink. “What in the hoot do you mean, you don’t know what happened?”
They were in the loft of the abandoned barn where Wesley Barnes lived and worked. Silas had never been here before, nor had he ever desired to visit the place. Old farm equipment rusted outside the building, standing in tall grass where the forest had begun reclaiming the field; weathered planks unhinged from the other wall boards; human teenagers had come by to graffiti a love note on the barn door: “Joey likes dick”. Silas did not know who either Joey or Dick was, and while glad there was affection between them, he thought relationships should be kept more private.
Despite the haunted house decor of the barn’s exterior, the loft was alive with activity. Patrol animals and Council members came and went at all hours, Barnes a notorious workaholic and taskmaster. The interior was lit by the warm glow of a light bulb hanging from the rafters. Silas didn’t understand why someone would want to simulate the sun as humans did, throwing off sleep schedules, but he also wasn’t nocturnal, nor as big a reader as Barnes, who was clicking his talons atop his long wood table, stacked with papers and jars of ink, as his big yellow eyes bored into Hawk Cooper.
Hawk sputtered. “Buh. Uh … I … Well, Perchman Mole wasn’t at the Forest Council meeting … Henrietta Fields found him on the tree —”
“Yes, Cooper, we know that,” Barnes said. Even his beak moustache seemed to frown annoyance. “Mole didn’t pin himself on the tree, after writing those words in his own blood.… We need answers as to who did!”
“Perchman,” Hawk said, “I’ve been patrolling the forest for years. I’ve seen some things — coming by the carcasses Cougar leaves ain’t a pretty picture, for one example, but that’s nature — but this … this ain’t like that. Animals just don’t kill each other for the sake of just killin’.”
Silas was on a hay bale in the back, near Henrietta Fields, the mouse who found Pete Mole. She was still shaking, shocked by what she found. Don Quail was by her, trying to comfort her, but he was shaking even more than Henrietta. Rex Washer spoke up.
“Whoever it was didn’t even take a bite at poor Pete. Not even a nibble mark trying to eat him, just one wound in his neck where the killer got the blood to write on the tree. And pinning him up like that … writing.… Whoever did that writes as good as you, Barnes …” adding under Barnes’ withering look, “Not that you had anything to do with it.”
“How did that go again?” Mack Starling asked. His eyes were slits, a worm’s hips away from falling asleep. Mitch, Ziggy and Flash were there as well; only Flash seemed awake, used to odd hours when living in a human’s house. “Some message about Silas, right? Talking about how he’s the bird for the job to find The Griz and Joe Bear — just like he’s gonna get the Council Perch … probably crack this Peter Mole thing open easier than a warm sunflower seed, too …” Mack’s head was sinking into his body, nodding off. Silas wanted to hit him with his wing, knock him off the bale. The last thing he needed was to get caught up in this.
“Yeah, Oaktree? What makes you think your such a hotshot, huh?” Hawk Cooper said, half unfolding his wings. “Just because you’re popular running for Council Perch, you think you can do everything else, too? I’m patrolbird here —”
Barnes gave a quick scream, quieting Hawk, jolting the other birds awake. He turned his lamplike eyes on Silas. “Silas Oaktree, yes …” Barnes’ claws and beak scratched through his papers. “Moved here two years ago, shows up with a wife, no flock.… You drag in with you into our forest a brother who is in the drug trade, and then you wanted a branch in one of the best trees in the forest — which you got. With my stand against the poison plant problem, I’ll admit, didn’t approve your move here, except one of the animals vouched for you. Seems you were popular even before moving here. Says here,” Barnes traced down the paper with a talon, “you came from the Daniel Boone Forest by Williamsburg, left after your home and the surrounding area was burned down —”
Silas swallowed. He didn’t know Barnes had a file on him. And who had vouched for him? “It was an out of control campfire, some kids —”
“— That’s what you said in your interview when you moved here, yes.” Barnes leaned forward, his shadow on the back wall growing. “I hear a lot of things, Oaktree. A lot. These old ears pick up all kinds of things. Some facts, mostly rumors … forest drivel. One of those rumors I heard was the fire in your old forest wasn’t caused by some careless humans. I heard it was arson — by a forest animal.”
Don Quail’s voice stuttered alive. “Barnes, be se-se-serious! An animal, starting a forest fire! Why, that’s more preposterous than an anim-ma-ma-mal … ki-killing another animal — for no re-re-reason! I knows humans and dogs hunt my sp-sp-sp—” His voice was high and strained. “—Species,” Quail finally got out. “But that’s to eat! Or sp-sp-sp-sport! But animals don’t ki-kill just, be-be-be-be —” He gave up the word as a bad job. “It’s not na-na-na- … natural!”
Barnes kept his eyes locked on Silas. “Not natural, no. Nothing about this is natural. Even among humans, this behavior is not normal. Murder, arson — it’s crimes against nature that no animal in his right mind would commit. I’ll admit, even with my reading and experience, I have no knowledge of acts such as these.… You, Silas, you — You haven’t said anything substantial about your past, coming here with a miscreant brother, and still I turned the my head one hundred eighty degrees the other way. I’ll admit, I’ve heard you’ve already done some measure of good in the forest — well spoken of by some, like Momma Bear —”
“Yeah, he’s not all dirty feathers and poop,” Rex Washer said, smiling. “Made some enemies, though. Fox, for one — that makes Silas good in my books.”
Barnes looked annoyed at being interrupted, unaccustomed to breaks as he spoke in marathon blocks. “Whatever the case, and I don’t know if it true or not, but I heard Silas Oaktree here has some experience in these matters. That it was an animal responsible for burning his old forest down, and Silas was the one who found out, and stopped him. You were even in the human newspapers —”
“That was … I didn’t want to be in the paper … I just wanted —” Silas felt flushed with embarrassment as all the animals in the loft looked at him, some in wonder, others incredulously.
Barnes studied him. “Oaktree, I don’t know if we are lucky to have a bird like you around when these abominations against nature come up.… Or, I don’t know if these abominations come up because you are here —”
“I didn’t have anything —”
Barnes held up a wing. “Either way, we only know two things. One, you are the only animal in this forest who has dealt with something similar to the murder of Peter Mole, at least in terms of the heinousness of the act. Please, do not interrupt. And second, the killer singled you out, Oaktree, by name.”
Barnes picked another sheet of paper off his table, holding it up in his beak for Silas to see.
Silas already knew what it said, Barnes having transcribed the message on the tree all of them had seen. Barnes had written:
SILAS SOLVES THE CASE OF THE MISSING CUBS WHEN HE —
I(G)HTSSSE(L)
The second and last letter of the random letters under the message were circled.
“What does that mean, Silas?” Mitch asked. “So whoever did that to Pete also took the bear cubs?”
Silas shrugged. “Don’t know. Seems like it. Except I don’t know who killed Pete Mole, or what happened to the — Wait a second.… Of course!” Silas told the room about visiting Momma Bear by the stream before the Forest Council meeting, his run-in with Fox.
“He was threatening Momma Bear, looking at the cubs! He was practically licking his chops! I’m telling you, Fox has done things like this before. He loves issuing challenges, putting animals’ lives on the line for his games. Fox did it to my brother a few months ago.”
“The pebble in the soda bottle,” Flash said, “We heard.” He shuffled his feet, looking doubtful. “I’m not saying it couldn’t be him, you’re right, Silas … it’s just … two bear cubs? How could he take them right out from under Momma Bear’s nose? It would probably have to of been a bigger animal —”
“And Fox was at the Forest Council meeting, same as us,” Mitch said. “He was there in the shadowed part of his clearing.”
Silas clicked his beak. “He could have ducked out before the meeting when we were all jawing, killed Mole, then ducked back into the crowd like he never left…. Wait — the stream! He came out from behind the trees near the spring, when I was with the Bears! We were really close to the elm grove where Mole was pinned, and the Bear Cave was nearby, too! He would have had time to do both before the meeting, kill Mole and kidnap the cubs, then used the meeting as an alibi where we all saw him, when he was sure Momma Bear would have just enough time to wake up and come to the meeting to tell us her cubs were missing! It’s the perfect cover!”
Mitch looked unsure. “Maybe…. But then where would Fox have taken the cubs? And why would he do it all in the first place? Don’t look at me like that, Silas! He’s a slimeball, I know! I’m with you! Just — usually he wagers directly with his victims, doesn’t he? He challenges the animal, puts a price on winning, a price on you losing, which he’s working for — and does it that way. I’ve never heard of Fox operating another way.…”
“There are the elections coming up,” Flash said. “For Council Perch. Fox nominated himself to run. Now with Pete Mole gone, there’s two perches open. Maybe he’ll use the cubs as leverage on Momma Bear — maybe on the rest of us — so we don’t oppose him. You know he’s never been one to fight fair.”
Finally, Silas was hearing some sense. “That’s right! Fox is always looking to bite from behind. He wants on the Council, probably to take over the Council, and have the run of the forest. He’s already wrapped up the poison plant business. No offense, Top Perch Barnes, even with you cracking down on it, Fox is stronger than ever. I know because my brother is involved in — well, anyway … Fox is not going to rest until he sees the rest of the forest under his dirty paw. I say the first animal we look into is Fox before we look anywhere else.”
Silas was out of breath; he wiped some spit off his beak. Barnes studied him for a long moment. Then he opened a glass topped jar of ink, wider than it was tall. Barnes dipped the his beak in, then began tracing along the bottom of the paper. No one spoke as he worked.
Finally Barnes dipped his beak in a bowl of water, agitating with his face, wiping himself dry on a splotched cloth lain out on the table. “I’m no fan of Fox myself, Oaktree.” Barnes’ tongue darted out to catch a drop forming on the tip of his beak. “But your friend Mitch Birdsly might have a point. Fox has not been known to operate like this, and Goldplume may also be right: Fox certainly has the motive to pull off one of his schemes, especially with the elections coming up by next full moon. As a Council Member and Top Perch, I should stay impartial to the candidates and the elections. But as you said, Oaktree, Fox is up to something, and for the good of the forest, we cannot just sit by and do nothing.
“Two missing Bear cubs, a murdered Council Member.…” Barnes shook his head. Which, in his case, meant whipping it in full-circle clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. Silas was getting dizzy watching. Barnes sighed and went on. “To top it off, the murderer — we will not name names until we can prove who it is — decided to single you out, Oaktree. With a riddle, no less. ‘Silas will solve the case of the missing cubs when he —’ The sentence written above Peter Mole was not finished, and it was followed by a string of letters. As we have little time — an inconsolable Momma Bear is waiting for me downstairs, as is the Mole family — I took the liberty of unscrambling the letters.”
Barnes held up the piece of paper he had written on. It said, in dripping black ink:
SIGHTLESS
“ ‘Sightless’?” Zig Chickadee spoke for the first time since they arrived in the barn loft. “Does that say ‘Sightless’? It’s been a while since I’ve read anything.”
“Yes it does,” Barnes said. “Meaning blind. A riff on the fact our late Council Member was visually impaired, no doubt.”
Silas felt a chill run up from his tail to his head. Sightless? What kind of crazy game was this killer —- Silas would bet a bog full of worms it was Fox — playing at? Why did he single out Silas? Why not a direct challenge like before?
Hawk Cooper said, “We send out a patrol of some of the bigger mammals to pick up Fox already. Robert Kat and some of the wolves.” He turned his head so one beady eye looked snidely at Silas. “That’s what real police work is about. Getting things done, not just standing around pointing wingtips.…”
Silas puffed up his red breast, posturing; he would wipe that beak off Cooper’s face.
Flash and Mitch held him back; Mack chirped in his sleep.
Barnes went on like nothing happened. “Good. Silas, I know you are an early bird, but you are the only animal with experience in this sort of thing. That, and you seem passionate in your theories on how Fox works. I don’t know what we will be able to prove, but you are to go with Cooper here. You are to observe — just observe — as Fox is questioned. You have a history with Fox — we do not need you getting hurt. I hear you have a brood on the way, and if you are to run successfully for a Council Perch, you should do your best to keep safe. Stay behind Patrolbird Cooper.”
Silas displayed his breast more prominently. He was furious Barnes would treat him like a hatchling, like he couldn’t take care of himself — all while asking for him to work on the investigation. Hawk Cooper was positively preening with delight.
Barnes ended the meeting, flying out the loft doors and down to the lower level, where Momma Bear could be heard sobbing long lowing grunts.
“Come on, Oaktree,” Cooper said. “We don’t have all night. You can watch how us patrol animals get a confession.”
As Silas contemplated a second murder in the forest that night, he saw the paper with the clue on Barnes’ table. He flew down, using his beak and feet to crease and fold it, clutching it in his feet.
Sightless.
They flew out into the dark.