Solomon opened his eyes and saw the policeman that stood a few feet away. He was a middle-aged man, who looked to be in his forties, with a small paunch, and dark salt-and-pepper hair.
“Oh. Hello officer.”
“Hello yourself,” the man said, not unkindly. “Can I help you?”
“No, but thank you. We’re fine. Just looking for a place to bed down for the night.”
“Not here you’re not.”
“Ah. Well, the thing is, sir, that we really don’t have anywhere else to go.”
The officer considered this.
“You don’t have any money? No one around to take you in for the night?”
“No, sir. We were passing through.”
“To where?”
“I have no idea,” Solomon said. “At the moment, we’re kind of wandering.”
“So you’re a vagrant. Where did you come from?”
“That’s the thing. I don’t know.”
“Mm-hm. You don’t know.”
“No, sir. I have no idea. I woke up yesterday morning, in an alley, near a dumpster. I don’t know how I got there, or anything about what happened to me before, or who I was. Who I am, for that matter.”
The officer squatted down, and absently reached out to rub the Hound, who suffered it tensely for a moment, but then relaxed under his hand.
“Really?” he said. “Well, what about a name? Got one of those?”
“Solomon. It’s one of the only things I do know.”
“Well, here’s the problem, Solomon. We don’t have a vagrant problem here in Martinsburg, and we don’t want one. Plus, your dog here needs to be on a leash. Vicious thing that she is.”
He smiled as he said this last and rubbed the dog a little more vigorously.
“We didn’t mean any harm,” Solomon said. “We can move on, no problem.”
“Now, hold on a minute. I said we don’t have a vagrant problem, and I don’t think we have a problem now. I haven’t always been a small-town cop. I’ve done a little work in bigger cities too, and have some experience with homeless folks. Most of them have been decent people, but a lot of times, there’s been some problem as well. I don’t think there is with you, other than the memory thing…if you’re telling the truth about that. Something tells me you are though.”
He pursed his lips and looked down at the Hound, then at Solomon.
“How about her? What’s her name?”
“Matilda?” Solomon said.
The dog glanced at him, then laid her head back down to receive more attention from the officer.
“Seems not,” Solomon said. “I actually don’t know her name. We just met the other day.”
The cop nodded. “Okay, that’s weird, but whatever. How about if you come with me? You can bring her with.”
He stood up and extended his hand to Solomon, who grabbed it and let the officer pull him to his feet. Automatically, he gauged his strength against the cops, and knew that he was significantly stronger, and that there were several ways to turn the friendly gesture into a combat move if he so wished.
“Whoa. You’re a tall one, aren’t you?”
Solomon stood at least a head taller than the cop, who measured a little over six feet himself.
“Yeah,” Solomon said. “I think I always have been.”
The absurdity of the comment made him laugh, and after a second, the officer joined in.
“I would imagine you have been,” he said. “Tall and thin. I bet you’re hell on the basketball court.”
Solomon shrugged. He had no idea if he was or not.
“Alright, let’s head on over this way.”
They walked across the park to a large stone building across the street. A broad flight of stairs led up to glass doors, which the officer unlocked.
“Oh, by the way,” he said, as he led the way into the building. “You can call me Ed. I’m the local sheriff, which means I spend a lot of my time catching idiots who didn’t realize they had too much to drink before getting behind the wheel. Or busting the kids who want to experiment with pot. That sort of thing. Not much real crime around here, which is fine with me.”
Ed opened the doors and motioned for Solomon to go in.
“I can’t let you sleep out in the park. But, I can put you up in here. It’s against all sorts of rules, I’m sure, but screw it.”
He led the way down some stairs and along a corridor until they came to a door with a clouded glass panel set into it. It read “Sheriff’s Office” in black, block letters across it. Ed unlocked this door as well, and opened it for Solomon.
Inside was a small office with a couple of desks and chairs, some filing cabinets and a sofa. There was a coffee pot on a counter along one wall, with a narrow window set above it, looking out onto a street level view.
“Be it ever so humble,” Ed said. “This is where I work. Steve is my deputy, but he’s off duty now, and won’t be in until tomorrow morning. I’ll let him know you’re here in the unlikely event that he comes in early. Probably won’t happen. He’s got a new baby at home and isn’t getting much sleep these days.”
Solomon looked around.
“You want me to stay here? Am I under arrest?”
“Nope, not at all. As a matter of fact, I’m not even going to lock the door, so that you can go use the bathroom when you need to. But I thought that old sofa might be a little more comfortable than the ground.”
“Oh. Thank you. I appreciate the hospitality.”
“Not a problem,” Ed said. “I don’t know what it is…there’s something about you though. Something that makes me comfortable doing this. I’m not going to have cause to regret it, am I?”
He looked at Solomon with a raised eyebrow.
“No, you definitely aren’t. We’ll bed down here tonight, and be out of your hair bright and early tomorrow. No problems from us.”
“Good…now, one other thing. When’s the last time you ate? Either one of you?”
“I guess that would be two days ago. A kind woman gave me a sandwich and a can of soda. Other than that, we’ve been moving along. When I woke up in that alley, I didn’t have anything on me that you don’t see. No money at all, so I haven’t been real sure what to do. It’s one of the reasons we’ve kept walking, I guess.”
Ed nodded as he spoke.
“Kind of thought that might be the case. A guy, even one as skinny as you, needs to eat. Let’s do this. We’ll go grab something at Minnie’s. Local dinner. Good food, good people. After that, we’ll get something for Lucy?...no, not Lucy, I guess…and then get you settled.”
Solomon shuffled his feet and looked at the ground. “Well, that sounds great…but I can’t pay for…”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ed interrupted. “My wife is always telling me that I should be a better neighbor. Guess this counts, huh? Come on, we’ll let Betty?....Nope…stay here, and we’ll be back soon.”
“You okay with that, girl?” Solomon asked the dog, who promptly jumped up on the sofa, turned about three times and tucked herself into the corner. She took up a cushion and a half out of the three.
Ed laughed. “Looks like you’re going to have to argue with her about who gets the couch and who has to sleep in a chair.”
The food at Minnie’s was as Ed had advertised. It was good, filling and there was plenty of it. Solomon ate a burger and fries, and at Ed’s insistence, wolfed down a second plate full, followed by two slices of apple pie and several cups of coffee. Ed laughed as he watched him eat.
“I guess it has been a while for you. You sure you’ve had enough? It’s no problem if you want something else.”
“No, thank you. This is more than enough. I’m not quite sure how to say thanks…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad to do it, and I think it did Minnie’s heart good to see someone enjoying her food that much. What do you say we get something to bring back for your dog?”
“That’s very generous of you. Thanks.”
Ed called out to Min
nie and asked her to come to the table.
She was a short, round woman, with a big pile of reddish, brown hair on the top of her head. When she spoke, it was with a soft, sweet voice, that would suddenly rise into a yell when she called an order in to the kitchen.
“What do you need, honey?” she said to Ed when she approached.
“Minnie, this is Solomon. He’s passing through, but I’m kind of hoping maybe we can find a reason for him to stick around. In the meantime, he’s got a beautiful dog with him who’s about as hungry as he was. Since the nearest open store is a good half hour away, I thought I’d see if you had anything laying around that we could take to get her through the night.”
“Are you calling my food fit for a dog, Ed?”
“What? No! Of course not! I was…”
Minnie started laughing. “I know what you’re doing Ed, and yes, I’m sure we can find something. Give me a minute. Nice to meet you Mr. Solomon.”
“Just Solomon, please,” he said. “And thank you.”
She smiled at them both and moved away.
“Minnie is good people,” Ed said. “She’s got a heart of gold, so she’ll fix something up.”
“This is really wonderful,” Solomon replied. “But…what did you mean you hoped I’d find a reason to stick around?”
“Ah, hell, I don’t know.” Ed seemed slightly embarrassed. “I’m not sure where that came from. But, you know, if you wanted to settle down in one place for a while, see if you can start to remember things…well, there are worse places to do it than Martinsburg. That’s all.”
Solomon nodded, looking out the window at the small town.
“Maybe I can.”
CHAPTER 5
Being awake a large part of the night had made Lacy’s day go by slowly. Not that being a book-keeper for a construction company was ever very exciting, but it paid the bills and usually she was able to muster up at least a semblance of enthusiasm.
She had returned to the back windows the rest of the night, turning off the kitchen light so there was no reflection in the glass, and peering out into the darkness, trying vainly to see if someone was sneaking across her back-yard. Of course, she never did, and when she would turn on the rear floodlight, she’d see nothing then either. She kept telling herself that nothing was there, to go read a book, or watch television, but that scrap of cloth kept preying on her mind, and she’d find herself back at the kitchen window.
Finally, at around midnight, she turned off the television that she wasn’t really watching, made sure all the doors and windows were locked and went to bed. In the darkness, every sound, every creak of the house, became ominous and the sound of stealthy footfalls in the hallway. She would doze off, sleep lightly, and then wake up, eyes wide and staring into the dark, listening for the noise that had awakened her. It was a long, stressful night, and it took a toll on her today.
The guys at the job were always joking around and teasing her, which was to be expected at a place like that. That was fine. Lacy was tough and able to give as good as she got. They knew it, and knew what they could get away with and what crossed the line. Today though, she snapped at unwanted comments or jokes, and knew that the “that time of the month” remarks were making the rounds. Honestly, she couldn’t have cared less.
The problem was that as tired as she was, and as much as she didn’t really feel in the mood to be in the office, she was scared to go home. And that thought pissed her off. It was her home, dammit! No shadowy figure and stupid scrap of cloth was going to keep her from it. She was trying hard to make it her own, and establish her own routines, now that Luke was gone. She was starting to enjoy her life again, and refused to be scared off.
She had thought about calling Ed and telling him about the shadowy figure, but decided against it. What was she going to tell him? “Gee Ed, I don’t know what it was, but it couldn’t have been a bear because there was this piece of cloth, which means it was wearing clothes.” He’d laugh her out of the office.
And that was saying something. She had actually gotten to know Ed quite well over the last few years. Unfortunately, it wasn’t under the best of circumstances. As Luke had gotten worse, the delusions had become more frequent and the drinking increased, to the point that people in town had called on Ed to corral him on more than one occasion. Lacy had had to come and pick him up on several of those. Ed was a good man, and hadn’t wanted to arrest Luke, recognizing that something was wrong, and that he wasn’t just another drunk.
She knew that he caught some flak for that, too. There were plenty of people that thought he was being too soft, too lenient on the town maniac. But Ed had ignored them, and tried his best to help, right up until Luke had run off and stayed away. Since then, he had checked in on Lacy now and again, to make sure that she was doing okay and holding up.
Yeah, Ed was good people all right. So there was no way she was going to him with this. It would make her look as crazy as Luke was.
The day dragged on, and Lacy’s thoughts kept turning to her home, and what she could do. When it was finally over, she said goodnight to her boss and walked slowly to her car. Part of her was thrilled to be going home, where she could relax, another part was terrified, and yet another part, which was growing, was angry. By the time she pulled up the steep driveway that led to her house, the angry part had taken over.
She changed into old, grubby, work clothes, which she often wore when working in the garden, or outside, or if she was fumbling her way through some home repair. Luke used to laugh at her, and tell her that no matter what she wore, she was always sexy to him. Often enough, he set about trying to prove it to her. She made a wry face at the memory of better days, and went out to her shed.
When they had bought the place several years ago, it came with a good sized shed off to the side of the property. The previous owners had left all sorts of stuff piled in there. Luke had always said that a lot of it was good, and he’d find uses for it. He had shoved it all to one side and made room for their lawn mower and yard tools, and there the pile had stayed. He had never gotten around to going through it, and Lacy had gotten used to seeing it there and never even thought about it.
Now though, she was pretty sure she had seen something in the pile of junk that she wanted. She started rooting through it, pushing aside scraps of wood, broken hand tools, hunks of wire and pieces of metal. An occasional spider scrambled to get out of the way, and she had to stop to sneeze a few times from the dust she raised. Finally, she found it. A length of stout metal pipe, thick walled, and about three feet long and an inch or so in diameter. It fit nicely in her hand, and had a good heft to it.
She wasn’t entirely sure why she thought this piece of pipe would be what she needed, but she remembered seeing it once when Luke had first started moving all the junk to the pile he made, and thinking to herself that it was the perfect size to brain someone with. The thought had startled her, since she was normally a very non-violent person. Now though, she was glad that she had remembered it.
She pulled it out of the shed, wiping off the cobwebs as she did, and carried it with her back to the house. Inside, she dug through the junk drawer in the kitchen and found the flashlight. Of course, the batteries were dead, so that was the next hunt, which proved a little more difficult. She finally found them in a box filled with batteries and extension cords at the back of a closet. How they ended up there was beyond her, but things like that happened. The flashlight worked perfectly after she installed them, and she was ready for night to come.
The rest of the afternoon and evening she occupied herself as she always did. She worked in her garden, although her eyes kept going to the compost pile. She made sure that she added to it, including a couple of tomatoes that were perfectly fine. After dinner, she watched the news, went upstairs to her bedroom and changed her clothes again. There were some brambles near the compost pile and she didn’t want anything to slow her down, so she donned heavy jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, knowing that she would be s
weating in the warm summer air, but willing to put up with it. She laced her feet into her sturdy work boots.
Going outside again, she settled down next to the pool, sitting on the ground in its shadow. The sun was heading down, and already the woods beyond the house were starting to darken. If whatever it was came back tonight, she’d be ready for it.
Quicker than she would have thought, the sun dropped down behind the hills and the yard sank into deep evening colors. The woods behind the compost pile were quite dark now, and Lacy stared into them, peering at anything that she thought she could see move and listening as hard as she could.
Her vigilance paid off. A dark shape detached from the deeper shadows of the woods and slowly made its way to the compost pile. She could see it well enough to know that it did move on two legs, but walked with a hunched over, shambling motion. For having such an awkward looking gait, it moved through the forest silently, regardless of the sticks and dead leaves it must have walked over.
Lacy felt a tingle down her spine as it approached, and knew that the sweat running down her face wasn’t only because of the heat. Her heart was hammering against her chest and she felt a strange sort of disconnected feeling, like what she was seeing couldn’t be real.
But it was, and she steeled herself, determined that she wasn’t going to live in fear in her own house. When the figure reached the compost pile, Lacy carefully rose to her feet and started forward, the flashlight in her left hand, and the pipe clutched tightly in her right. She had made it close to the thing last night, and tonight, no misplaced rock in the yard was going to interfere.
She snuck forward, going to the edge of the yard far to the right of where the compost pile lay, and worked her way back, trying to stay out of the figure’s sight. It seemed to be working. Whatever it was, it was eating the tomatoes that she had put there, as well as the spoiled stuff.
When she was a few yards away, she turned on the flashlight and aimed it at the figure. The beam of light hit it, and it raised its arms against the brightness. It was a human after all, with dirty, emaciated arms and legs. Tatters of clothes hung from its gaunt frame and its hair was filthy and matted. From beneath its raised arms she could see a scruffy beard, the remnants of compost pile scraps hanging from it.
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