Beast

by Kate Harre

  The Sherriff almost cracked a smile. ‘Some of us weren’t destined to be domestic goddesses.’

  Turning back to the body, she crouched down to gently brush away a few strands of hair clinging to the dried blood of the wound.

  ‘Such a waste,’ she murmured under her breath. ‘Deputy, would you get the witnesses’ names and contact details? Then they can be on their way again,’ Sherriff Denton continued absently, her attention still fixed on the body before her.

  The dismissal was clear and, after giving their details, Annie and Karen didn’t linger. Their pace was brisk as they walked back to the car, the desire to be clear of the forest and away from the tragedy strong.

  When they arrived home, Annie shucked off her jacket and took over the pancake cooking, eager to keep her hands busy. Karen looked at her a bit queerly. ‘You still want to eat after seeing a dead body?’

  ‘It helps everything feel normal again. Besides, I’m hungry,’ Annie responded with a crooked grin.

  ‘I think I’ll have a strong coffee first… a really strong coffee!’ Karen snagged a clean mug from the dishwasher, placed it under the nozzle of the coffee machine and pushed the button with a sigh of anticipatory relish. Within seconds the smell of liquid gold permeated the air – okay, so maybe it didn’t resemble gold all that much but that was how they felt about caffeine in the Archer house.

  Annie flipped the perfectly golden pancakes and stored them in the heated oven to keep warm, nibbling on the first pale test pancake to satisfy the growls of her ravenous stomach.

  ‘I feel bad, Mum. They’re going to be looking for a human perpetrator and we’re the only ones who know they truth. I kind of feel like I should tell the Sherriff, so she doesn’t go off on a wild goose chase.’

  Leaning against the bench, Karen wrapped her hands around her coffee mug and met her daughter’s eyes. ‘Ask yourself this, honey – based on your past experience, do you think Sherriff Denton will believe you?’

  Annie’s shoulders slumped. ‘No. She’ll think I’m crazy, just like the cops in New York did.’

  ‘Trust in the investigation process. I’m sure once they’ve run DNA tests and done whatever else it is they do, they’ll figure out for themselves the culprit isn’t human.’

  ‘I guess.’ She set half a dozen rashers of bacon into the sizzling pan, instantly filling the room with the enticing aroma.

  ‘You need to play your cards close to your chest, honey.’ Karen sniffed appreciatively. ‘I think I may have regained my appetite.’

  Annie snorted. ‘I figured you would.’

  Chapter 2

  ‘Hey there, girl!’

  It was a bright, sunny Monday morning, full of promise – unlike the day before, which had seemed to drag as Annie tried to push Danielle’s death from her mind.

  She had been in Ridgeville for a little over three months now and was only just settling into her new life. Until the dreams had started, she’d had a large group of friends in New York, but they’d slowly disappeared as her behaviour had become increasingly unsettled and strange. She couldn’t exactly blame them. But it had naturally made Annie wary in her new school, reluctant to invest in the bonds of friendship if those friends were going to jump ship too.

  No longer needing to be part of the “in crowd”, Annie had signed up for a journalism class and now volunteered at the school paper, where she had met and connected with Chelsea, a fellow Senior. A born and bred local, she had happily taken Annie under her wing.

  Jogging the last couple of steps, Annie looped her arm through Chelsea’s. ‘You dressed to match the day, I see.’

  With a penchant for wearing bright colours, today Chelsea was dressed in lime green skinny jeans and a burnt orange sweater. She had matching lime green hoops in her ears, which stood out dramatically against her cloud of ebony curls. By comparison, Annie felt decidedly dowdy in blue jeans and a light blue cashmere jumper. How she’d turned out to be so reserved when both her parents were eccentric in their clothing choices, she didn’t know, but that was just the way she was.

  Thinking of Karen made her smile. While she hadn’t seen her this morning, the smell of paint drifting down from the studio loft was evidence enough of where she was. Karen had disappeared into her studio after breakfast the previous day and Annie hadn’t seen her since. Her artistic mojo must have made a welcome reappearance. Which kind of made sense; the heightened emotions and experiences of their Sunday morning were perfect fodder for an artist’s fertile imagination.

  Chelsea threw her arms wide. ‘Bright colours make me feel happy.’ She looked knowingly at Annie’s predictably conservative attire. ‘You should try it some time. A few more smiles would enhance your already gorgeous face.’

  ‘I smile!’ Annie responded defensively.

  ‘Not nearly enough!’ Tossing her hair over her shoulders, Chelsea turned to walk backwards in front of Annie. ‘Now about my theme for the week; I really think you’re going to approve of what I’ve picked this time.’

  ‘Uh huh.’ Annie wasn’t convinced. Last week’s theme had been about Connection and involved sitting at a different lunch table every day with students Chelsea didn’t have anything in common with and attempting to make a connection. Despite her protests, Chelsea had insisted Annie join her in her quest and it had been an extremely awkward, although sometimes enlightening, week. The Goth table had been the most challenging; while the Glee Club table had been the easiest for Annie, who was particularly familiar with the music world – something Chelsea hadn’t ferreted out yet. And if nothing else, at least Annie had got to know some of her fellow students a bit better… and learned which one’s to avoid.

  Chelsea ignored her less than enthusiastic response. ‘This week I have decided to give up men!’

  Unable to help herself, Annie burst into laughter. ‘Just for a week?’ An incorrigible flirt, Chelsea attracted guys like moths to a flame. Her bubbly, outgoing personality, wicked sense of humour and pretty face made her one of the most pursued girls in school, even though she wasn’t a cheerleader.

  ‘I’m only eighteen, Annie. That’s a little young to give up men for good!’

  Choking off her laughter, Annie wiped tears away from the corners of her eyes. ‘You’re right. But this is you we’re talking about and you do tend to go to crazy extremes.’

  ‘Not this time. I just think it would do me good to have a rest from dating for a while.’

  ‘Well, at least a whole week,’ Annie teased. ‘What’s brought this on?’

  Chelsea sighed mournfully and turned around so she was once again walking beside Annie. ‘I had the worst date ever on Saturday night. You know, guys at our school need to lift their game or the population of Ridgeville is going to die out!’

  ‘This was with Brendan, right? What did he do?’

  ‘We’re going to refer to him as “Bad Date Brendan” from now on,’ Chelsea said huffily. ‘And it’s more what he didn’t do. He took me out for coffee, or rather I took him out for coffee, since I had to pay for both of us!’

  ‘You’re kidding?’

  Chelsea shook her head. ‘Nope. I pulled my wallet out because I was quite prepared to at least offer to pay for my own drink, but he didn’t even make a reach for his pocket, so I had to fix it up.’

  Annie groaned, well aware Southern girls expected a certain level of old-fashioned tradition when dating and, liberated though she may be, Chelsea was no exception. ‘Oh that’s bad.’

  ‘It got worse,’ Chelsea shared fatalistically. ‘Now I know I talk a lot, but Brendan seemed to have completely lost his tongue. He only talked when I asked him questions and he never once asked me anything about myself. I mean does the guy want to get to know me or not? Seriously Annie, it was like conducting a job interview!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Chels.’

  ‘It’s only the most recent in a series of dating disasters.’ Chelsea’s usually sunny face was the picture of gloom. ‘So I’m having a week off dating and hopefully next
week I’ll meet someone who actually knows how to treat a girl right.’

  Annie bit her lip, holding back a smile.

  Waving her hand dismissively in the air, Chelsea brightened slightly. ‘Since we’re on the doom and gloom path, what’s this I hear about you stumbling across a murder?’

  ‘How did you know about that?’

  Chelsea grinned. ‘You’re not in New York any more, Toto. This is a small town and in small towns news travels fast, especially when they’re Southern towns!’

  Annie groaned and steered Chelsea towards the steps leading into the school grounds. ‘Remind me why I moved here?’

  Although a glance around her helped answer that question. In New York her school had been a multi-storey brick building with an indoor gym, the only outside area being the mesh-covered rooftop garden. Here, there were beautifully manicured lawns and sports fields every direction she looked, with scattered rose gardens and seated areas under huge trees. The school itself sprawled comfortably in its surroundings, its rendered exterior painted with inviting shades of yellow and cream. There was no comparison.

  ‘Beats me. While our little town does have its charms, I’d take the big city any day.’ Chelsea sobered. ‘I heard it was Danielle Kivington.’

  ‘Yeah, it was. I thought this kind of thing didn’t happen in small towns.’

  ‘Boy do you have a lot to learn. Weird stuff happens here all the time,’ Chelsea responded cheerfully.

  ‘Really?’ Annie muttered lamely. Maybe she would have to reconsider moving to Alaska.

  ‘Oh yeah. Not usually murders though. It’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those.’

  ‘That’s a relief!’ Annie’s tone was rueful, but she was completely serious.

  ‘That being said, just last year one of the guys in our class went missing,’ Chelsea said thoughtfully, holding back one of the big double doors leading into the main school building so Annie could precede her.

  For a girl from New York, that didn’t seem particularly strange and she said as much.

  ‘Yeah, but is it normal that a missing person report was never filed?’ Chelsea’s eyebrows lifted meaningfully. ‘We all saw Alex at Junior Prom and then he simply disappeared off the face of the earth. No one’s seen or heard from him since. And, even though his Dad upped and moved away, deliveries are still made to the house.’

  ‘Maybe he’s being home schooled or something?’

  ‘Alex was the most popular guy in school, Annie, and he thrived on the attention. He was like a King among commoners and even though secretly most of us couldn’t stand him, we all worshipped at his altar – figuratively speaking, of course,’ Chelsea explained, a dreamy smile momentarily covering her face. ‘I mean, he was so hot he sizzled! There’s no way Alex would have voluntarily given that kind of adulation up.’

  ‘That is a little weird,’ Annie conceded.

  Chelsea shrugged. ‘Par for the course in Ridgeville. There’s still a housekeeper in residence maintaining the house and the deliveries are probably for her. Poor woman though; that house is mammoth. There’s not enough money in the world to induce me to spend my life cleaning it!’

  Since Chelsea couldn’t even keep her bedroom tidy that was hardly breaking news. ‘So what happened to the boy?’

  ‘Nobody knows. A body has never been found, but then no one’s gone looking for one either.’ Chelsea glanced at her conspiratorially. ‘My theory is Mr Hamilton murdered Alex in a fit of rage and his body is buried somewhere on the estate. I never really liked Mr Hamilton.’

  ‘Clearly!’ Annie laughed. Chelsea had an imagination as vivid as her clothing. ‘Listen…’ Annie spun open her locker and grabbed Chelsea’s arm to stop her from moving on to her own locker further down the corridor. ‘…I was thinking about doing something in the school paper about Danielle. You know, like a tribute. Do you think Adrian would be up for it?’

  Adrian was a fellow Senior and editor of the fortnightly Ridge High News. He was also a bit of a stickler for doing things the right way and liked to be the one handing out the assignments, rather than the other way around.

  Chelsea rolled her eyes. ‘If we drop a few hints and let him think he’s come up with the idea, we should be able to swing it. He’s not really into emotional stories so he probably won’t want to do it himself.’

  ‘Cool.’ Annie glanced at her watch. ‘You better go or you’re never going to get all the way over to French in time. I’ll see you at lunch.’

  The Languages department was on the other side of the campus and Annie watched in amusement as Chelsea made a mad dash for her locker, dumping her bag in haphazardly, stopping only to grab the book she needed before racing down the corridor and out of sight. With her own History class just a few doors down, Annie had plenty of time to get her stuff sorted for the next couple of classes before the morning bell rang.

  *

  Annie’s last period was free for working on the school paper and she decided to take the “scenic” route home so she could visit the crime scene again. She’d told Chelsea a half-truth that morning about the tribute piece - which incidentally Adrian had come up with all by himself (or so he thought!) and promptly handed over to the girls. Annie was planning on using that as a cover to investigate what had really happened to Danielle. Maybe the police would eventually figure out it was some kind of bizarre animal attack, but Annie wasn’t going to wait for them to reach that conclusion.

  The route from school to the forest took her past the Hamilton mansion and after Chelsea’s story earlier in the day she couldn’t help but study it thoughtfully as she walked past. Set back from the road and surrounded by an intimidating concrete wall, it was nonetheless a breathtaking picture of historic North Carolina, its design redolent of Ancient Greek architecture with six granite Corinthian columns supporting the two-storey high portico and a further storey sitting above that. No stranger to the luxurious, sprawling homes of the rich and famous, Annie was still impressed with the elegance of the huge house.

  It didn’t take long to retrace her steps of the previous morning; the exact spot she had seen the yellow jacket was indelibly imprinted in her brain. The body was of course gone, but crime scene tape still surrounded the area where Danielle had died. Pacing carefully around the tape several times, Annie studied the ground, hoping for a paw print or some evidence of what she’d seen in her dream. There was nothing – perhaps not really surprising considering the ground was covered in a dense layer of leaves.

  She frowned. She’d never tried to conduct an investigation before and wasn’t exactly sure where to start. And how exactly did one track down a killer wolf?

  ‘Do you have a death wish?’

  Annie jumped and couldn’t hold back a squeal of fright. Clutching a hand to her rapidly pounding heart, she turned and squinted into the trees behind her until she found the outline of a man leaning against a thick trunk.

  ‘You again! How did you know I was here?’

  ‘You walked past my house. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where you were headed,’ he drawled, his voice deep and slightly gravelly, just as she remembered from the previous day.

  ‘So you followed me?’ Annie squawked, still put out by the fright he’d given her and wary of his intentions.

  ‘There’s a murderer on the loose. You shouldn’t be out here.’ She could hear the anger in his voice, as though he wasn’t happy at being forced to intervene.

  ‘Wolves are mostly nocturnal, aren’t they?’ she commented without thinking and then bit her lip in consternation.

  ‘Wolves? What are you talking about?’

  ‘Nothing. Never mind,’ Annie muttered hurriedly. Damn, he probably thought she had a screw loose. ‘How do I know you’re not the murderer?’

  He sighed. ‘If I was I wouldn’t waste time talking to you, would I?’

  ‘I guess not.’ Stupid comment again! She wasn’t exactly building a great picture of her intelligence. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘For w
hat?’

  ‘For following me to make sure nothing happened to me.’ Not that she thought there was any risk, but he didn’t know that. It was kind of sweet really.

  ‘Whatever.’ He paused. ‘You look too fragile to fight anyone off and I didn’t want it on my conscience if something happened to you… like the other girl.’

  Annie took a curious step forward, trying to make out his face. ‘Did you see what happened to her?’

  ‘Of course not!’ Outrage made his voice shake. ‘Look, I know you don’t know me, but I wouldn’t have stood by and done nothing if I’d known what was going on.’

  She shuffled forward a bit more, hoping he wouldn’t notice. ‘I didn’t mean to imply you would. I’m just trying to figure out what happened to her.’

  ‘Don’t come any closer,’ he murmured knowingly, straightening from his casual pose and shifting further into the shadows of the trees.

  Annie stilled, not wanting to frighten him off. ‘Why won’t you let me see who you are?’

  ‘I like my privacy,’ he drawled.

  ‘Won’t you at least tell me your name?’ she pleaded.

  There was silence and she started to wonder if he’d left, but she could still just make out his shape in the shadows. ‘It’s Alex,’ he said reluctantly.

  Alex? Surely he couldn’t be the same Alex she and Chelsea had been talking about. If it was him, why had nobody seen him for the past year? The thought intrigued her. It was hard to tell if he was the right age, but if forced to guess from his voice and manner she’d say he was somewhere in his late teens or early twenties. ‘I’m Annie,’ she offered belatedly.

  ‘I know who you are.’

  ‘You do?’

  She saw a faint movement and guessed he’d shrugged. ‘It’s not often big city New Yorkers relocate to the back of beyond. Your arrival spread like wildfire and even I heard about it.’

  ‘Oh. It seems unfair you know so much about me and I only know your first name,’ she said hopefully. But this time the silence remained unbroken. Squinting into the trees, she couldn’t make his shape out. He’d gone.