Harvest Moon

by Helena Shaw

Behind the small house she rented was a rusty old dumpster that she and a few other houses shared. It had a bit of a smell in the summer, but it meant cheaper rent, so she put up with the occasional night of pungent odor.

  Her mind was so focused on not focusing on any one thing that Dawn almost missed seeing them. To the left of the dumpster, through the siding of her cabin, were five deep gouges carved into the wood.

  “What the hell?” Dawn muttered to herself as she leaned down to examine the marks. They were deeper than they appeared on first glance, ragged and fresh.

  Dawn’s chest tightened as she examined the scratches. Do bears have five claws? she asked herself. It would make sense. A dumpster full of trash was a prime target for a bear. Even Jim said that when he was a kid, it was a dumpster that the bear was going for. It had to be a bear.

  So why were the scratches more suited to the shape of a human hand than a bear paw?

  Dawn quickly tossed out her bag of trash and jogged back around to the front of the house. It had to be a bear, nothing else made logical sense. She had to keep telling herself that.

  Still, she wondered as she made her way to the bar that afternoon. If it was a bear, she hoped that Jim’s theory that hunters would arrive in town soon would hold true and they would put an end to the bear that had killed the hikers.

  She realized as she walked through town that she didn’t put Courtney in the same lot as the other missing women. In her heart, she still blamed Gavin Mosley, the ball player that Courtney had last been seen with. Despite what the feds said, despite the fact that the body in town had been mauled by an animal, Dawn was certain that Mosley was to blame, and there was little that could sway her heart.

  The bar was empty when she finally arrived, and for once, she was glad of it. She’d done the thing she’d told herself not to do and dwelled on Courtney’s disappearance, turning her already apprehensive mood into one of bitter sadness.

  “Hey, Dawn,” Jim said as he looked up from the table he was moping at.

  “Hey,” she said as she hung up her coat. “Um, you didn’t hear sirens earlier today, did you?”

  “Sure did,” he said. “I have to admit, I feared the worse and thought it might be Courtney, poor girl.”

  “Did you hear anything?” Dawn asked, her heart clenching in her chest at her friend’s name.

  “Nah.” Jim slowly shook his head. “But I’d like to think we would have heard something, if it was.”

  “Yeah,” Dawn agreed. “That’s kind of what I thought.”

  After a couple of hours at work, part of Dawn wished she’d had just stayed home. No one was coming in, rumors of wild bears killing people in the streets were starting to circulate, and there wasn’t much for her to do but sit at the bar and drink beers with her middle-aged boss. Clipped conversation flowed like the rusty old taps of the bar, and every so often, Jim or Gabe would repeat, “We would have heard something by now, if it were her.”

  Dawn was getting sick of the moping. With no customers to distract them, all they could do was entertain each other, and they were all doing a pretty poor job of it. Jim was half drunk before what would have been their regular dinner rush, Gabe was making nachos for them to snack on, and Dawn was on her third beer of the day.

  She told herself the reason she stayed was to be there if any customers did show up. That, and she was there to help keep poor old Jim company while he moped. He seemed more beat up about Courtney’s disappearance than anyone.

  But she knew the real reason she stayed as long as she did: she wanted to see Agent Nash again. She wanted to have him walk through the double doors of the bar, his green eyes looking only for her. In her mind, she let herself pretend she served him a beer while he smiled at her and offered to keep her safe another night.

  “Stop it,” she said to herself to kill the fantasy, but then she quickly remembered she wasn’t alone.

  “Huh?” Jim said, his voice touched with a bit of a slur.

  “Nothing,” Dawn stuttered. “Just… I need to stop moping around, is all.”

  “We all do,” Gabe said as he set the platter of nachos down for them to share. “Just think, tomorrow, the hunters will be here.”

  “How can you possibly know that?” Dawn asked as she took a nacho and popped it in her mouth. The cheese was gooey and warm and went all too well with the beer she was working on.

  “Simple,” Gabe said. “It’s been a few days already, and word has probably gotten out. Give some guys a few days to schedule off work, travel time, you know the drill. They’ll be drinking here tomorrow night.”

  “Sure they will,” Jim laughed, his belly shaking as he did.

  “Hell,” Gabe went on as he pulled off a stringy glob of cheese and gobbled it up, “just you watch, I bet some of them walk through those doors any minute now!”

  No one expected him to be right, least of all Dawn, but all three of the slightly buzzed staff members of Jim’s bar jumped when the double doors swung open and someone stepped inside, bringing the cold November air in with them.

  For a fleeting moment, Dawn thought it Agent Nash. The broad shoulders and confident gait nearly had her fooled. But as her eyes trailed up, her excitement turned to disappointment, and then blinding anger.

  “What are you doing here?” she spat at Gavin Mosley. The only thing that kept her from leaping to kick him out was Jim’s hand coming to rest on her shoulder.

  “Please,” Gavin said, his big brown eyes pleading with them. “I came here to talk to you.”

  “About what?” Dawn shot at him. “Unless you’ve come to tell us what you did to Courtney, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “Hush,” Jim tried to silence her, but she could see the anger in his eyes too. Mosley had walked into a snake pit, and she could only hope that Jim would give in to his own anger.

  “That’s why I came here,” Mosley said as he ran his fingers through his thick, dark hair. “I know you guys think I was involved, the cops did too, but I promise you, I had nothing to do with it.”

  Dawn was about to call him out on his lies. Her accusations were fresh on her tongue and she was ready to unleash them, but it was Jim who spoke first.

  “Okay,” the big man said. “Have a seat.”

  “Jim?” Dawn questioned him, but her boss only shook his head and turned his attention to Mosley.

  “I don’t really know where to start,” Gavin said as he awkwardly fidgeted while his eyes stayed focused on his lap.

  “How about with you leaving the bar that night?” Jim said, his voice smooth, but Dawn knew an angry Jim when she saw it. His cheeks were flushed red and he was breathing hard enough that wisps of his beard moved with each exhale.

  “Okay,” Gavin said as he took a nervous breath. “I admit, leaving with Courtney that night looks mighty suspicious. I don’t really know what I was thinking, asking to take her home like I did. I guess it’s because I’m new in town and I don’t really know anyone. Courtney seemed sweet, and she laughed at my stupid jokes. The bar was empty, and I thought it would be cool if she took off early.”

  Dawn seethed as she listened to his lies. There was a sadness that surrounded his big doe eyes and his voice lingered with a touch of country drawl, but she saw through it. She wouldn’t let herself be blinded by his act.

  “We were there,” Dawn shot at him, but Jim’s hand found hers and silenced her once more.

  “I know, I know,” Mosley said as he nodded. “I won’t lie to you guys, and I’ll tell you what I told the cops. There’s no sense in me denying that I thought that maybe Miss Frey and I might… well… you know. But the moment I got in the car, I realized I was just a tad lonely and that I might be taking advantage of the girl. So I drove her home.”

  “She never got home,” Gabe reminded him.

  “And that’s my biggest regret,” Mosley said as he hung his head. “I dropped her off and drove away without making sure she got inside her house. I didn’t know about the animal attacks or the missing hikers.
If I had, damn it,” he said as his fist met the table, “I would have made sure she’d gotten inside. So yeah, I guess it’s my fault she’s missing, but I didn’t kill her.”

  With that, his shoulders slumped and he rubbed at the corner of his eye with his thumb. Dawn was about to call him out on his ludicrous display, but Gabe opened his mouth first.

  “Damn,” Gabe sighed. “That’s a lot to have sitting on your shoulders.”

  “It can be,” Mosley nodded, his brown eyes glassy with the threat of tears. “I don’t mind the cops’ questions, or the feds poking around my house. I didn’t do anything, and I’m happy to prove that, but I know in my heart that I’m responsible because of my inaction.”

  “Please,” Dawn rolled her eyes at the melodrama.

  “I know you might not believe me,” Mosley said. “But I figured I should at least man up and come talk to you folks.”

  “Aw, now Dawnie just misses Courtney,” Jim said. “We all do. That was quite the convincing story you told, and I think it wise for the three of us to ruminate on it before we give you a pardon.”

  “That’s fair,” Mosley said with a nod. “I, uh, guess I’ll get going, then.”

  Jim, ever the gentleman at heart, rose to show him out. He put a burly arm around the baseball player as they walked and whispered, “Don’t worry about Dawn there, she’ll come around. She’s got a good heart.”

  Dawn knew that Jim thought she couldn’t hear him. Most people never thought she was listening, but she always was, and now she was fuming. It didn’t matter how convincing Gavin Mosley’s little show was. In the end, the man was still responsible for Courtney’s disappearance.

  And, as Dawn was starting to accept, her death.

  As hard as it was to swallow, Courtney had been missing for days. One day was one thing. Maybe she really had run off with a guy or back to Chuck or something, but she would have called. It wasn’t like her not to call. In the back of her mind, that sour thought was digging a little hole and it wouldn’t go away, no matter how hard she struggled to shut it up.

  She might not have been the only one feeling that unwelcome dread. Gabe refused to meet her eyes once Mosley left, and Jim, well… Jim looked like a mess.

  “Goddamn it,” Jim sighed after he finished his beer. “Goosemont is supposed to be a safe town, a quiet town. Now, all this.”

  “You can’t possibly believe him,” Dawn said, fighting her own frustrated tears. She was frustrated with her boss, frustrated at no one agreeing with her that Gavin Mosley was a killer, and frustrated that even she had to admit his tears might not have been entirely crocodilian in nature.

  “He looked so sincere,” Jim mumbled. “Damn it all to hell, why did this happen here?”

  For a second, Dawn wanted to tell them it was her fault. Bad luck seemed to follow her, but usually it had more to do with the wrong kind of cops, the crooked kind, looking for her, not her friends getting mauled by bears.

  “Luck of the draw,” Gabe answered for her. “Sometimes nature likes to remind us who’s the boss.”

  “That may be,” Jim sighed. “But this Sunday, I think I’m going to head to church. Ain’t been in twenty years, but I think a little prayin’ might do my old soul some good.”

  “I think I’ll join you,” Gabe said. “Bring the wife and kids. Any little bit helps.”

  That was when they both turned their heads toward Dawn, but she skirted their gaze. Church wasn’t for her. Praying wasn’t for her. She lived in the here and now, and with all she’d seen, it was too hard to believe that there was someone up there looking out for people. She’d also seen enough bad that she didn’t need to believe in a hell below, either. People were capable of enough hell on their own.

  “Well, kids,” Jim said as he pushed himself up from the table. “It’s getting late, and I think we’re all just making ourselves blue. I think it’s best we pack it in and try again tomorrow.”

  “I’m on board with that,” Gabe said. “I turned the oven off after I pulled out the nachos.”

  “You two head on out, then,” Jim said as he stroked his beard. “Maybe tomorrow your prediction will come true and we’ll see those hunters we’ve been waiting on.”

  Gabe smiled at that. “You’ll see. Come noon, this place will be full of men in camo with guns slung over their backs.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Dawn said, unable to hide the roll of her eyes at his insistence. “How about we make the walk home together? After everything, I think I could use the backup.”

  “I was going to suggest the same thing,” Jim agreed. “I couldn’t stand to see you go, too.”

  “Thanks, Jim,” Dawn said as she gave him a hug. “And I’ll think about church.” Not for herself, but she knew being there would help Jim. The way his eyes lit up when she said it was enough proof that she was right.

  The temperature was hovering near freezing when Dawn and Gabe left the bar. The wind had mercifully slowed, but it was cold enough that the beginnings of frost were starting to form on the grass edging through the sidewalk, and Dawn let herself shiver.

  “Cold night,” Gabe said, more to say something than to actually make note of the temperature.

  “Yeah,” Dawn nodded. “Listen, you didn’t really believe that Mosley guy, did you?”

  “Come on,” Gabe groaned. “Let it rest. The guy was beating himself up over it. He looked a wreck. Besides, I’ve watched enough baseball to have heard of the kid. He’s a good guy, did lots of charity work in his day, too. No one ever had a bad thing to say about him, and with his career ending shoulder injury, everyone said it was terrible for something like that to happen to such a nice guy.”

  “I guess,” Dawn relented. “I just... something doesn’t seem right.”

  “It’s an easy answer,” Gabe said as they walked down the main street of Goosemont. “But that doesn’t make it the right answer. He’s a good guy. Maybe you should talk to him, one-on-one, and see what I mean. Hate does nothing but hurt yourself.”

  Dawn didn’t know about that. Hate and anger had kept her alive, along with a good dose of fear and precaution. She wasn’t about to go changing that over a few tears from a grown man.

  “Think about it,” Gabe said as they stopped in front of Dawn’s tiny house. “Give the guy a chance before you judge him. Innocent until proven guilty, and all that.”

  “Fine.” She eased up a little. “I’ll try.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Gabe said with a smile. “Try to get a good night’s sleep.”

  “Thanks,” she said as she let herself into the house.

  From her kitchen window, Dawn watched as Gabe made the final twenty or so feet to his own house. Once he was safely inside, she finally let herself relax some, but the moment she did, the dreadful thoughts returned, and she found herself reaching for the whiskey to quiet them down.

  “Goddamn it,” she muttered as the second shot burned down her throat. All she wanted was to settle her mind, but the alcohol only seemed to be making things worse. The only thing she could say to its benefit was that at least it was making her sleepy.

  Before she made her way to her bed, Dawn pulled out a butcher knife from the block on the counter. It wasn’t much, but at least it could provide some much-needed piece of mind and she carried it with her into her bedroom.

  Chapter Eight

  Sun poured into the windows of Dawn’s little house, but it betrayed the cold that was outside her door. Even with the noon sun shining bright, the November wind was crisp and could cut to the bone if one didn’t dress accordingly.

  Despite it being her first day off in a week, Dawn was getting ready to head to Jim’s. She tried to occupy herself with things to do around the house, but nothing was working. Every moment her mind was left unoccupied was a chance for it to remember that her best friend was missing, that the only suspect seemed like a total dead end, and there was a murderer, or a bear, or something, that had been prowling around her house at night.

  The streets of
Goosemont were dead, even at noon. It wasn’t the cold that was keeping the residents indoors, but rather the same threats that loomed over Dawn. Parents escorted their kids to school. If people did go out, they drove, and no woman felt safe while alone on the street.

  It seemed that Dawn was the only one who realized that, chances were, nothing would happen in the center of town during the middle of the day. Still, anxiety touched her gut as she locked up her house and let the cold air sting her cheeks and chill her still-damp hair.

  Nothing will attack you in broad daylight, her mind assured her as she made her way toward Jim’s. No person will, either.

  Still, the streets were so eerily quiet that she picked up her pace as she walked the few blocks to Jim’s. She was hoping to see truck after truck parked outside the bar on her way in. Her eyes searched for gun racks and boastful bumper stickers to indicate that hunters had finally arrived, but there was nothing. The place was as deserted as ever, and Dawn sighed as she stepped inside.

  “Dawn, honey,” Jim said as he rose from the table he was reading the paper at. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah,” she said, though it was only a half truth. “Just didn’t feel like being alone at home. My mind was getting away from me.”

  “Well, you’re always welcome to my company,” Jim said with a weak smile. “Don’t know how much good that’ll do ya today.”

  “It’ll be plenty good,” she told him as she sat down at his table. “Any sign of anyone coming in?”

  “Nothing yet,” Jim said as he sat back down.

  “Just you wait,” Gabe said as he stepped out of the kitchen, beer in hand. “Tonight, they’ll show. It’s been enough time. I’ll bet any one of you fifty bucks that we’re swamped tonight.”

  “You’re on,” Dawn said. Not because she really wanted to bet, but at least it was something to get their minds off what was happening in town.

  “Well, I hope they show up soon,” Jim said as he tucked his thumbs in his belt. “I can’t afford many more nights like last night. You two are going to drink the bar dry without anything to do.”