Tim Shaw did not know pain or fear. Raised in foster families since the tender age of six, he always had to fend for himself. And that’s precisely what he would have to do once more, should the court find him guilty. 30-year old Tim had been a skilled burglar for more than seven years and had avoided being arrested. In a bad twist of fate, however, he fell into a trench, as he made his way out of the last house he had broken into, a luxurious mansion in Southampton.

The police had found expensive jewelry in his possession, along with more than fifty thousand dollars in cash. He and his sister Caitlin expected the worst. More than likely, Tim would serve a long prison sentence. But, it was one of the few times in his life that he would actually get lucky: the court-ordered parole sounded like music to Caitlin’s ears, while Tim remained expressionless, as the judge announced the conditions of his parole. Of course, he liked the fact that he would stay out of prison, but the verdict also meant that he had to find a real job; for Tim, this was worse than being incarcerated. By no means was he lazy; however, he knew that he would have to get by on minimum wage, and in his mind, this was a much greater punishment.

Caitlin managed to find him a decent job as a security guard through Paul Jitter, her college biology professor at a research facility in Green Mountain National Forest, Vermont. At first, Tim didn’t even want to hear about it, but he changed his mind, when Caitlin informed him that the facility was massive and that he could stay in the basement, rent-free, along with the rest of his colleagues. Living in the wild had always appealed to him. The New York City native would have to become a mountain man, but he would be close to his favorite beast: the grey wolf.

As a rookie security officer, Tim was introduced to the head of the facility, Paul Jitter and his fiancée, Dr. Josephine Taylor. Straight away, he thought there was something amiss. She was very pretty and young enough to be his daughter. In fact, the 5’7”, slender brunette was two years younger than Tim himself.

“What did she see in him?” This simple question popped into his mind, as he laid his eyes on her. However, Tim did not pay much attention to it. His experience with women had taught him that they were much more complex than men. It could be a number of things and he would not speculate. The idea of a man in his early sixties marrying a 28-year old felt unnatural, but he had to focus on learning the ropes in his new job. It was not complicated; he only had to check a number of areas every few minutes, day or night. Tim discovered that it would be rather boring and uneventful. The test subjects that intrigued him the most were located in labs, locked up in cages: many different animal species, but mainly chimpanzees, the subjects of Dr. Taylor’s research.

At the end of his first shift, on a cold, snowy, late-February night, as Tim was making his way towards the stairs that led to the basement, his ears picked up the sound of a loud, wolf’s howl. He stopped just before the top landing and looked outside through the glass. The dim sidelight and the heavy snowfall did not make seeing anything easy. Still, he was able to catch a glimpse of a big, grey wolf a few feet away from the barbed wire fence. Their gazes met just before the beast was joined by two, smaller, black wolves. But then another sound drew their attention: a loud cry of agonizing pain. Almost simultaneously, the wolves turned their heads to the left and ran hurriedly towards the sound. Curious about the origin of the sound, Tim flipped around and sprinted across the massive hall. He couldn’t wait for the power doors to slide open sideways; he was so impatient that he banged his hand against the panels of the first and the second door that he came across.

The freezing cold wind hit him in the face, as he stepped outside. His visibility was quite poor; Tim could barely make out the parking lot that began only a few yards to the left. It was almost empty, but there was someone lying on the snow, almost in the middle of the lot. Much to his disappointment though, the wolves got there before him. The grey wolf had already snapped his jaws shut over the unknown man’s throat. He was twitching and had put both hands on the animal’s snout and was trying to push him back, but was failing miserably.

“Hey!” Tim cried, his stentorian voice echoing in the wilderness. The two black wolves quickly fled in the direction from which they had come and the grey wolf quickly followed their actions. Tim rushed towards the wounded man, pulling a flashlight out of his coat pocket. As he approached the man, however, Tim realized that he was not moving anymore. He dropped to his knees beside him, pointing his flashlight at his face. It was none other than Paul Jitter. His eyes were closed, his grey hair was covered in snow and his blood had soaked the snow underneath his head. Tim would not lay a hand on his bloody throat. Instead, he grabbed Paul’s right wrist and placed his thumb and third finger on the inside of the wrist below the thumb. The unfortunate man had no pulse. Then, Tim let go of his wrist and put his right palm on his chest. His heart had stopped.

“Tim!” His colleague Tina’s squeaky voice filled the air, as she ran towards the scene. “Tim, what happened?”

“He’s dead,” he croaked, slowly standing to his imposing, 6’2” height.

“Oh, my God!” she whispered, as she pointed her own flashlight at the face of the man on the ground. “Tim, that’s our boss!”

At that moment, the sound of sirens tore through the night. Tim gazed into the horizon, completely ignoring Tina’s continuous requests to elaborate on what he had witnessed, deep down knowing he was in trouble. The police would definitely run a background check on him and he would soon become their number one suspect. They didn’t have to prosecute him; should he be arrested, he would go to jail automatically, because an arrest would violate the terms of his parole.

“Good luck getting out of this one. Damn… I’ve only been here a couple of days and somebody’s dead. Who wanted you dead, old man? What did you do?”