Chapter 11
That evening Justin was waiting on Henry’s porch swing when he returned from town and a stop at headquarters. He’d conferred with Greer and the team on their plans for the next morning when Lassen and Francis were due to arrive.
It was seven o’clock and twilight fingers were creeping down across the forest behind them. The park had a strangely alluring, primeval ambience with the whispering trees and empty sky, deserted as it was, not a park visitor in sight; the way it must have been eons ago before the forest had ever heard man’s voice or cradled his footsteps. The park had become a fit stage for the dinosaur that reigned over it. Henry and George had lingered on their return trip longer than they’d intended. Driving slowly to his cabin over roads covered in shady trees, Henry’s mind tried to make sense of things that didn’t lend themselves to making sense, such as monsters and fighting them.
Sorrelson had left a message at headquarters. Henry hadn’t had to guess what that message was, either. He knew before he read it. Sorrelson ordered him to capture the monster alive for delivery to the federal government, which was showing great interest in the creature for scientific purposes. Of course they would. Henry hadn’t answered Sorrelson’s summons as yet and wasn’t about to. And since Sorrelson wouldn’t show up in person as long as the monster was loose in the park, later Henry could plead ignorance saying he never got the message.
But he wasn’t happy. Now he had Harris, the Governor and Sorrelson working against him. They wanted the damn beast alive. Hell, let them bring it in then, he’d griped to George, who’d sat silently listening to his friend.
George dropped him off at his doorstep, saying he’d pick him up again bright and early the next morning and transport him to headquarters, and Henry went to meet the man lounging on his porch.
“So the hospital didn’t keep you, huh?”
“Nope, I didn’t let them. They bandaged up my bruised, not broken, ribs,” Justin lightly tapped his chest, “and I packed up and left.”
“Good. We’re going to need your expertise, so I’m relieved to see you’re fit for duty.” Henry settled on the porch swing beside him. He’d gotten a little sleep at Zeke’s house, but it hadn’t been enough, and his body and mind were still tired.
“You think I’m going to let a couple of sore ribs keep me away from the greatest event of the new millennium? No way.”
Henry regarded the scratches on Justin’s face and the bandage on the left side of his temple. “Looks like you’ve been in a scuffle.”
“That I have.” The young man grinned.
Henry had been lucky, too. He’d escaped their accident with just aching muscles and scrapes. He leaned against the swing, his sore back reminding him.
“I knew you’d come home sooner or later. So I’ve been waiting.”
“You were right. I could have stayed at the lodge, but what the heck, this place has all the comforts of home and it’s probably safer than the lodge or headquarters anyway. I can get in quick enough if they need me.”
Henry noticed how Justin flinched when the swing moved. “You sure you should have left that hospital?”
“I’m sure. Besides there were reporters nosing around at the nurse’s desk. I don’t know how, but they got word of something big happening out here. So I opted to leave while the leaving was good. I made sure I wasn’t followed, either.”
“Nothing’s going to keep them out, I’m afraid. Harris has been blabbing about the monster to the whole world. He’s probably waiting at the gate for the first tour group to arrive.”
Justin snickered, scratching his cheek. “I can see him doing just that. Maybe putting up a billboard announcing: This is the home of the famous Oregon lake dinosaur. The American Loch Ness Monster. Beware: Dinosaur may be hungry.”
Henry found that amusing and chuckled softly. It sounded like Harris.
“Speaking of our dinosaur. You think we’re safe here?” Justin asked. He was looking around as if he expected the creature to appear any second.
“Safer than if we were at the lake, not as safe as if we were a hundred miles away. But if the thing shows up I’m sure we’ll hear it coming.”
“No doubt.”
“So keep your ears and eyes open.”
“They are.”
“You see Laura and Phoebe before you came out here?”
“I did. I’ve come from Zeke’s. Saw them there. Must have just missed you. Ann said you’d been there all day eating and sleeping.” Justin grinned again, his gold-rimmed glasses glinting in the tawny light, his hair wisping around his thin face. “Ann mentioned you’d gone in to headquarters, but you’d be here later on.
“You feel better now?” It was Justin’s turn to ask.
“Somewhat better. I needed the sleep and the food. At least my brain doesn’t feel like wet cotton anymore.”
“I know what you mean. I caught some rest in the hospital. Woke up and realized I wasn’t hurting that bad; that I’d rather be here where all the action was and where I can help. Your wife, bless her heart, fed me leftovers.” Justin patted his stomach. “She’s a sweet lady, your wife. Not to mention that Zeke, boy, can that old man talk your arm off.” Justin shook his head but there was fondness in his voice.
“Zeke’s got stories to tell, all right. Working on that small paper brought him into contact with some strange tales and stranger humanity.”
“You know, your wife hates this arrangement even more than Laura…us here in the park and them in town.”
“I know. Ann feels as if she’s let me and the newspaper down, that she’s run away. She takes being a reporter seriously and can’t stand letting the greatest story of her career, as she tags it, slip through her fingers. But they’re safer there. I can’t be worrying about them every minute on top of everything else. It’d drive me nuts.”
“I know it would. I recall how upset you were last night when you thought the monster was heading towards Rim Village and the cabin. I know how you felt because I felt the same fear for Laura and Phoebe’s safety. But you’re right, we need less to worry about, not more.”
Ann had consented to stay put at Zeke’s this time, but made him promise he’d keep her updated on everything and get pictures if he could. She wanted an exclusive. She’d shoved her camera at him when he’d left and expected him to keep it in his car, and use it. Yeah, fat chance. He’d have a lot more on his mind if a photo opportunity like that arrived than snapping a picture. He hadn’t forgotten the reporters’ camcorder. George had stumbled upon it on their expedition that morning, scuffed up and dirty, but the video inside intact. Henry made a mental note to save it for Ann, and if it had anything on it, maybe she’d forgive him for sending her away.
“Ann’s worried about you,” Justin said, wincing again as he shifted on the swing. “She bribed me with food and chocolate cake so I’d keep an eye on you. Though, I would think it’d be the other way around. I’m no Indiana Jones, that’s for sure.”
“Neither am I.”
The two men sat there for a while as the gloom captured the sunlight, both lost in thought. Thinking about the night before. It was there between them, ghosts: the dead ones they hadn’t been able to save.
“I didn’t know those reporters long,” Justin confessed, “though I felt sorry for them. But I’d gotten to know those people at the dig really well. I liked them; they were my colleagues, too. Some of them were friends. There’s this empty hole here now.” Justin’s hand was on the space above his heart. “I can’t seem to find any amazement or mercy for that dinosaur after last night.
“Do you happen to know if Dr. Alonso and Tony Bracco have been found yet? They were still missing when I’d left for the hospital.”
“Sorry, they’re still unaccounted for. My men searched the area around the dig this morning and no sign of them, and they haven’t made it to the lodge or headquarters. We’re still looking, in case they’re alive.”
“God,” Justin lowered his face into his hand, “t
hey were good men. Had families waiting for them. They didn’t deserve to die like that. None of them did.”
Henry would have loved to take a walk in the woods to clear his head. It usually helped. But, under the circumstances, that was impossible. He had to remain at the cabin. It had a basement. A better defense than climbing up a tree or firing off a pistol.
“Greer said he can get us any heavy artillery we need,” he said to Justin. “All we have to do is put in an order. As our dinosaur expert, how big a gun do you think we’ll need?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. You and Greer give me a list and what each weapon is capable of killing and I’ll tell you if I think it’ll do the trick.”
“Sounds plausible to me. We’ll do that.”
“Sooner the better.”
“Couldn’t agree more.”
The two were quiet for a while, listening to the sounds of the woods. From far off came the call of a hawk and behind them the limbs of the trees knocked against each other in the breeze. No dinosaur sounds.
“This might not be the perfect time to tell you, with all that’s happened, people dying and all, but I have to. Now while I have the chance,” Justin’s voice had softened. “I want to marry Laura, when this is over. As soon as her divorce is final, that is.”
Henry’s mouth spread into a wide grin. Wait until he told Ann. “I thought so. You guys have been spending a great deal of time together. She’s happier than I’ve ever seen her, and Phoebe adores you, too.”
“Well, how do you feel about getting me as a son-in-law? I’m more than aware your daughter recently got out of an abusive relationship and I know it’s awfully soon, but I love her. I really do.” There was hesitation in the younger man’s words and the eyes behind the glasses were closely observing him.
He gently patted Justin on the back, not wanting to jar the boy’s ribs. “I say welcome to the family, young man. I heartily approve. You’re going to make a fine son-in-law. Especially after that weasel, Chad. There’s no comparison.”
“She deserves better than me, truthfully, but I’ll be the best husband I can be. I promise. She’s younger than me, but sensitive, smart. She has great potential if she’d put her mind to it. She could be, do anything. She’s one in a million.”
There, that self-modesty again.
“Yes she is, though I’m prejudiced, being her father.” It seemed odd, in the midst of the horror to receive such happy news. And Justin’s excitement touched him. Finally his Laura would have a chance at happiness–if he could keep Justin alive.
“Oh, Ann will be ecstatic. She’s been hoping you two would fall in love and get married from the beginning. You know that, don’t you?”
Justin smiled. “That was fairly obvious. Laura and I never minded. You see, I knew Laura was the one the moment I met her that first night at supper. Funny thing was, I never believed in all that nonsense, love at first sight, until I met her. Never had much time for relationships or love to be honest. I’ve always been too busy working, making something out of myself.”
His voice was serious as he said, “Too busy running away from my past.”
So Ann had been right about that, too. The boy was hiding something.
“You got skeletons in your closet?”
“Sort of. Family problems. I’ve been wanting to tell you about it for a long time, since family is so important to you and Ann.”
“Trying to prove something to someone, huh?”
Justin met his sharp gaze. “I’m that transparent?”
“To Ann you were.”
“You’ve got an insightful wife.”
“Not telling me anything I don’t know. She thought you were running away from something or someone. And while we’re on the subject, who were you trying to prove something to anyway?”
Justin didn’t answer immediately. Then in one breath, “My father. Nothing I ever did was right. He hated me. I mean hated. I never knew why, he’d never tell me, but he did.”
“Oh.” The pieces fell into place. Henry had had the same uneasy childhood and father. Nothing had ever pleased his, either. No matter what he’d done, it’d never been enough. Henry had spent half of his life trying to make his old man proud, until the old man had died.
“Where’s your father now?” Henry asked.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t spoken or seen him or my mother in over ten years, not even a phone call, since I ran away from home at seventeen.”
“That’s a long time to stay away from your family, son. Don’t you think your parents have been worried sick about you? Wondering how you’re doing or if you’re alive or dead?”
“Yes, a decade is a long time.” Justin stared off into the dark forest. Night had fully fallen. His shoulders slumped in that certain way Henry had come to recognize. “I know what I must have put them both through, too. My mother loved me, even if my father didn’t.”
“Your father probably loved you, too. Probably just couldn’t show it.” Henry remembered the bad times they’d had with Laura. What would he and Ann have done if their daughter had disappeared during that time and never come back? It would have broken their hearts.
“I don’t think my father loved me. I don’t think he knows how to love.” Justin paused thoughtfully. “He only loved money and what it could buy. Power it could bring. He worked constantly; was rarely home and when he was, we fought. I was supposed to do what he wanted me to do, not what I wanted. He expected me to become a lawyer! I’d rather be a trash collector.
“The way he was, the way our lives were, drove my mother into depression and she took a lot of prescription pills. She wasn’t there for me most of the time, either. She’d given up her life, you see, for him and there was never time for her in his. She lived in this fantasy world. And there wasn’t any room in it for anyone else. I can look back now and understand how lonely she must have been, how lonely I was. It underscored everything I did.”
Classic story. Henry had heard it many times when he’d been a cop. Uncaring, absent father and a pill, or other drug, addicted mother. “You were an only child, weren’t you?”
“I was an only spoiled-brat, stubborn-minded child. I wanted to get through to them in some way, hurt them. Running away was the ultimate punishment. I was immature. Cruel. Foolish. I never understood they had problems of their own and couldn’t see mine. As soon as I could, I got out. Changed my name so they couldn’t track me. Justin’s my real name, but not Maltin. It’s Stockdale. I had it changed legally when I turned eighteen. After months of drifting and acting like a bum, I got tired of my aimless life. I guess I’d already started growing up.
“I got a job, my GED, and later secured grants and put myself through college. I made something out of myself, what I wanted to be, and did it on my own. At first, to get back at them, but later, for myself.
“I’ve never gone home since. Afraid they’d shut the door in my face if I did. Lately, I’ve been thinking about them and about maybe calling them to start with.”
“What’s changed now?”
“I don’t know.” Justin was tapping the swing arm with his fingers. “I’ve grown up. Being here, meeting you and Ann, Laura and Phoebe and seeing what a good family could be like.
“And there is what’s happened the last couple weeks…the creature…the killings…it’s made me see how fragile and short life can be. Death, whether we want to face it or not, is around every corner. We need people to love and be loved by, we need friends, family. Not someday, but now, for we might not have tomorrow.” He released a held-in breath.
“It’s strange,” Justin said, “but I realized, after all these years, I’d become my father. All work and nothing else. I never reached out to anyone. Until now. Now I have Laura and Phoebe. I’m learning the responsibility of love and I suspect, perhaps, it wasn’t entirely my father’s fault. I wasn’t exactly a lovable kid. Heck, as a teenager I was horrid. I wish I could get back those years. Wish I had my family. Wish I had the guts to call th
em.”
“Well,” Henry proposed, “if you can’t manage that first phone call why don’t you send your father and mother a letter? That’s a start. If you know where they are.”
“Oh, I know where they are. They live in the same town, same house, but my father’s not in politics anymore. He’s got a regular nine to five job. I also learned they’ve been looking for me since I left, and I have a younger sister, Mary, who’s eight years old now.” He rubbed his eyes. “Both revelations shocked me.” He shook his head slowly. “The time I’ve wasted. But I’m scared to death to see them. What will they think of me after all these years? Do they hate me? Will they even want me to be part of the family again?”
Henry didn’t know what to say to him, so he said something he’d wanted to say since they’d escaped the creature the night before. “They’ll be proud of you, Justin, as I was last night. As terrified as you were, you were brave. Didn’t lose your head. They’ve got quite a son. A PHD and a hero, too. What more could parents want?”
Justin mumbled something and swung his head away. Then said, “I was too scared to do anything else but what I did. Did it without thinking. I couldn’t leave you to face that monster alone.”
“You’re just being humble. You were courageous, is what you were. I want to thank you for sticking with me.”
“You’re welcome.” Justin stopped talking as a plane flew overhead and shattered the silence of the evening.
There was a sudden noise behind them somewhere in the woods and Justin jerked around to look. “Did you hear that?”
“No. What did it sound like?”
“I don’t know. Something moving among the trees.”
They were silent for a while, anxiously listening. No further suspicious sounds came. Only the usual night’s chatterings.
“I guess it’s okay,” Henry concluded. “The monster isn’t coming for us. Not yet anyway.”
“You talked to your superintendent yet? Told him we’re not going to take the creature alive?”
“Not yet,” he hesitated, his irritation showing, “Harris and all of them are insane if they believe we can bag it, tag it and take it home like some cuddly overgrown koala bear.”
“What about his powerful politician friends?”
“Too bad. I don’t take orders from the Governor or his friends. I have to do what’s best for my park and my people.”
“Ah, but you don’t know what a plum for Harris’s career it’d be if he could bring the beast in alive. It’d make him famous. Wealthy. Two things he craves above all else. And I’m sure his politician friends think he’d then donate a fair share of that wealth to their reelection funds.”
“It isn’t going to happen,” Henry said. “Too many people have already died. We can’t fool around any longer. It’s either us or that monster.”
“Men like Harris don’t care how many lives are lost. Human beings are nothing compared to a live prehistoric specimen.”
“Not to me. Humans trump monsters every time. Besides, that creature is too damn intelligent. It won’t be easy to kill, much less capture. It has to die. End of debate.”
“I never thought I’d say I’d agree to that before. But I can’t stop thinking of those victims last night. That woman reporter. One moment she’s flirting with me and the next she’s dead. I’ve never seen anyone die like that.” His body shuddered, his eyes appraising the darkness, a grim curve on his lips. “So…just how are you planning on killing the monster?”
“In my life, I’ve done my share of hunting. Spent weekends with my friend, Redcrow, out in the back woods. He’s taught me so much. He’s tracked large animals and brought down mountain lions and grizzly bears or so he says. And there’re other hunters on our team. This beast, after all, is nothing more than an animal. Clever as it is. It can be put down with the right weapons.”
“If it lives beneath the lake how are we going to find it?”
“That’s where Jim Francis and Mark Lassen come in. We’ll have access to their aquatic biologist friends, and their submersible craft tomorrow.”
“Oh, Lord,” Justin blurted out. “Those things are nothing but claw-sized tin cans. Has this plan been thought out?”
“Yes, that could be a draw back. I never thought of it that way. A tin can,” Henry repeated. “But it beats going down in wet suits. We’d have no protection at all in them except, perhaps, spear guns. Though, Lassen and Francis claim their Deep Rover, that’s what they call it, is the swiftest craft around and it can out maneuver or out run anything in the water. Anything.”
“Or so they say.”
“It’s going to be a dangerous hunt, Justin, no matter which way we approach it. But we have to find the beast before we can destroy it, don’t we?”
“If it doesn’t find us first.”
A little bit later, Henry said, “Justin, there’s no sense in you going back to your cabin alone tonight. Not with that monster on the loose. You can bunk here. Got a spare room. And up in the hallway closet, top shelf, I have books on military weaponry; we can take a look at them.”
“Sounds good to me. To tell you the truth, I really didn’t look forward to traipsing back to that cabin through the woods alone anyway. With Laura and Phoebe in town, it’d be too empty. Not to mention, our nemesis could be anywhere. Wouldn’t want to bump into it in the dark.”
“No you wouldn’t.”
The two of them went in to look at the weapon books.
As outside the forest suddenly hushed for the night.
Dinosaur Lake Page 25