Macster - The Missing Links

"Provoked you to what?" the Judge was demanding suspiciously.

Wolf froze. "Provoked me to nothing, Your Honor!" He glared at Betty. "But they sure were tryin'!"

Virginia nodded and turned back to the stand, and Tony recognized her determined look, when she was like a dog that would not let go of his favorite bone. "Miss Peep, I suggest that you and Sally Peep were the easiest shepherdesses in town!"

The courtroom erupted into astonished and angry cries, but Tony noticed several shepherdesses who were posing and smiling coquettishly, clearly proud of this fact. Some even looked offended that Betty and Sally had been given this title instead of them.

"Are you suggesting," the Judge snapped over the noise, "that an innocent young girl from this village might kiss a man before she's married?"

Virginia raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Well, a bit more than that, Your Honor."

Again the room was filled by furious faces and voices, and again the shepherdesses appeared inordinately proud. Tony chortled, inwardly pleased at this. Perhaps Virginia had a chance after all. If she could convince the Judge that anything Wolf might have done was only the result of Sally leading him on...

But the Judge turned a vivid scarlet and pointed angrily at the defense table, clearly asking Virginia to sit down. "You try my patience! You are just this far from being thrown on the bonfire with that filthy, murdering wolf!"

Slowly his daughter moved back to the table, face white, eyes wide, and throat fluttering. The Peeps cheered and hurled more insults, seeming to like this idea.

Tony turned on Wendell and nodded pointedly toward the room. This had escalated and now Virginia was in danger as well, if they did not find out the truth.

"Poor Sally wasn't screaming 'Wolf' at all, was she, Wilfred?" Tony asked, his voice full of vindication. "She was crying out your name. Wilf! Wilf!"

And with that cry a memory clicked into place in Wolf's mind--himself, in wolven form, leaping from the trees to attack Sally, only to see her sprawled in a bloody heap on the path already, with Wilfred standing over her. Himself, leaping on Wilfred, and the two of them grappling heatedly, his teeth tearing into the old man's flesh before he returned to his human form. That was how Wilfred had been at the scene so quickly, how Wolf had been there, and how he'd been able to be identified so conclusively as having been present.