“How did you kill Billy, though? I didn’t see any visible wounds.”
“It’s all Peyton’s doing. He tied that rope around Billy’s neck and it somehow choked the poor fella, but it’s just as well since there was just no way that I could let him go.”
“Poor Billy. He didn’t do anything to deserve dying that way, or any kind of way.”
Brent shrugged. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“What do you plan to do with us now?”
Brent leered at Tammy. “Hey, girl. How do you like me now?”
“I’d like you dead, actually. Lucky for you that my bow is way across the room.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way, Tammy. We could have a little fun before I have to kill you.”
“It would take more than a gun before I’d go along with that.”
Brent rubbed his chin. “I really wish there could be another way, but you found Billy’s body. If only you had stayed on the trail. We had planned to have a great show. Agnes’s last transmission back at the camp was priceless.”
Brent made my skin crawl. “What do you plan to do to us?”
“Well, after what happened last night, I figure that we’ll have to make it appear like Bigfoot ripped you from limb to limb.”
“We’ll drown them in the river,” Peyton said as he walked into the room. We can’t just cut them into pieces and make it look real. They’ll do a DNA analysis and that won’t ring true.”
I must admit that I liked the drowning scenario much better than being ripped limb from limb. “Why not just let us go? We won’t tell anyone about what happened here.”
“Not happening,” Peyton said. “Plus, after the other contestants recount their stories and the film footage of last night, Pierre will have to choke up the ten million dollars. It’s in the contract that we’ll be awarded twenty-five percent of the prize money. It just makes sense that Bigfoot did you in.”
“So you plan for Bigfoot to take the blame here? How on earth do you plan to get the other contestants to go along with you?”
“Seventy-five percent is still quite a sum of money,” Peyton said.
“But isn’t your getting a portion of that money a conflict of interest?”
“Pierre arranged the show this way. We need our cut too for leading a bunch of inexperienced people into the woods to hunt for Bigfoot. Once this story hits the airwaves, we’ll be famous. What other reality show can boast they found Bigfoot? Certainly not those fools from the Animal Channel.”
“None of the other contestants were back at the camp. What do you plan to tell them, or are they in on your scheme, too?”
“No, but they certainly played into my hands last night.”
“I didn’t see any of them back at the camp. I bet they might right now be at the sheriff’s department. I bet Sheriff Peterson is organizing a search party as we speak.”
“Good try. The other contestants are still locked up below ground at the camp. I told them it was for their own safety, and that we were planning to call Sheriff Peterson to lend us a hand. We’ll release them after you’re disposed of.”
“I suppose you think you’re pretty smart, don’t you?”
“What about what happened last night?” Tammy asked. “Did you stage that whole Bigfoot thing?”
“We had planned to, but I guess the real Bigfoot had other plans. The film footage was much better than we could have hoped for. Even our Bigfoot suit wasn’t half as good as the real deal,” Peyton went on to say.
“So you were the ones who were at my house?”
“Yes,” Peyton said. “It was very believable, wasn’t it?”
“And you did the same thing at other houses in the area, ten to be exact?”
“Yes, we had hoped that would create a buzz, but Sheriff Peterson obviously kept it under wraps. If only we had more time. I’m sure the residents would have started talking to the press.”
“So you wanted to create more of a buzz for your show?” Eleanor asked.
“Exactly.”
“I must congratulate you on your Bigfoot farce at my house. You sure made a believer out of me.”
“We aim to please,” Peyton said. “But enough talking. It’s time to get moving.”
We were led from the cabin and ushered toward the wetlands and the Au Sable River. Birds flapped their massive wings and rose to the air, while frogs croaked.
Eleanor and I held hands as we were heading toward our doom, our feet sinking to our ankles in the muck of the wetlands. After about five minutes, I heard the familiar whooping sound, but instead of being frightened, I felt calm. Was it too much to hope that Bigfoot would save the day and us? The further we walked, the more apprehensive I felt. Was this it for us? I wrinkled my nose as a stench wafted in the air, causing me to sneeze. I frantically glanced behind us, but so far no sign of Bigfoot. No sign of anything. Branches cracked beneath our feet as we continued toward the river, but the sound echoed like it wasn’t just us making that noise, like something or someone was following us. Two Great Blue Herons from their nest high above our heads went into flight with a whirl of their massive wingspan, like something had spooked them. Three whitetail deer zigzagged ahead of us, too, making their way through the white pines. It was deadly quiet now, not one bird singing, no cricket chirping, nothing. Just then, the familiar whooping sound split the quiet of woods again, the same sound that Eleanor and I heard before.
“That sounds like Bigfoot,” I said.
Tammy sneaked a peek behind her. “I think she’s right. You might as well just let us go now. You don’t want to make Bigfoot angry.”
Brent snarled. “Keep moving, Red.”
A chill crept up my spine as something quite large lumbered toward us, tree limbs snapped, and growls were heard, not to mention that God-awful stench.
Eleanor and I hugged each other tight, trembling.
“Get moving, grandmas, or I’ll shoot you where you stand,” Brent threatened.
“That would be hard to explain away, now wouldn’t it? I can’t imagine that Sheriff Peterson would buy that story. He knows us better—”
Peyton wrenched us apart and I screamed in pain. Something large and hairy came at us like a lumbering linebacker. Tammy pulled Eleanor and me with her, followed by a panicked Dixie. We waded through the marsh, hoping to put distance between us and Brent and Peyton who were now screaming like girls.
As we approached the edge of the mighty Au Sable, Curt and Curtis appeared from a clump of trees with rifles in their hands. Curt helped us conceal ourselves in the brush and placed a finger against his mouth in a shushing motion. He handed Tammy a pistol and disappeared, presumably to help his brother take on Brent and Peyton. I listened intently, but no shots were fired at first, but then two shots cracked off. I tried to catch my breath, unsure if we should move or stand our ground. The bushes ahead of us swayed and Tammy cracked off a shot that ricocheted off the trees.
“Watch out, little lady. You almost shot me,” Curt said as he stumbled forward. “You won’t believe what just happened.”
My eyes widened as I asked, “What? Did Bigfoot get Brent and Peyton?”
“I’m not sure what happened, but they sure are shaken up.”
“We heard a few shots. Curtis didn’t shoot Brent and Peyton, did he?”
“Nope, Brent and Peyton said they tried to shoot Bigfoot, but missed. They gave up right away when they saw us, rambling on about how Bigfoot almost tore them limb from limb.”
I laughed nervously now, and Curt helped us make it back onto the trail. We finally saw what Curt was talking about. Brent and Peyton were completely soaked in mud and smelled like they had peed themselves. I had to laugh about that after what they had intended to do to us.
“What happened to you two?”
“Bigfoot came at us is what. He knocked us down, and we landed in the mud. We were walking the wetlands, you know.”
I wiggled my toes that were in my soaked boots. “Tell me about it.”
“Bigfoot?” Tammy asked. “Sounds like you two have been taking a nip off Granny’s jug. I didn’t see any Bigfoot.”
I knew where Tammy was going with this. “Exactly. I can’t believe these two actually believe that Bigfoot exists. He’s a myth around these parts,” I winked.
“You saw him the same as us,” Peyton bellowed. “I know you did. Why else would you run off like that?”
“Besides the fact that you two were planning to kill us, you mean?”
Brent’s eyes were wide as Peyton’s. “We’ll be happy to surrender if you just get us out of these woods.”
I had the satisfaction of hearing them grovel firsthand. That’s a win-win in my book, but I’ll save the victory dance until we’re out of these blasted woods. “They killed Billy Matlin,” I told Curt and Curtis. The Hill boys jerked Brent and Payton up by the scuff of their necks. “Does anyone have a working phone? We’d better get Sheriff Peterson out here. I hate the thought of Billy’s body being way out here. I just can’t believe they killed him.”
“I never intentionally killed him,” Peyton said. “It was all an accident.”
“Tell it to the sheriff when you see him.”
Curtis made the call with his satellite radio and about an hour later we heard Andrew call out, “Agnes, where in tarnation are you?”
I met him halfway as he cleared the trees with a sea of deputies and troopers led by Sheriff Peterson and Trooper Sales.
Andrew hugged me tight and I wept into his neck. I then told the sheriff where Billy’s body was and how we had discovered it, only then to be confronted by Brent and Peyton who had planned to drown us in the river. Before anyone could stop him, Andrew punched Brent in the mouth, sending him flying to the ground. When he didn’t move, I figured he had been knocked out.
“That’ll be enough of that,” the sheriff said. He spied Curt and Curtis and asked, “How do they play into this whole scenario?”
“Actually, they helped us, and Brent and Peyton gave themselves up talking like a couple of lunatics.”
“Yeah,” Eleanor said with her thumbs hooked into her pant loops. “They claimed that Bigfoot tried to kill them. Can you imagine? Bigfoot.”
“The other contestants on the show were locked below ground of one of the cabins back at the hunting camp,” I added.
Peterson spouted off orders, and two deputies went off into the woods to check out the hunting cabin for survivors.
“How did you find this cabin?” Trooper Sales asked.
“We were looking for the other people from the reality show. The camp was quite a mess and we thought they might need help.”
“Agnes,” Andrew spat. “Why didn’t you just go back and call in the cops?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time I guess.”
“I swear, one day you’re gonna get yourself killed for sure.”
“I have to agree with Andrew. You should have called in the Calvary,” Sheriff Peterson said.
Eleanor and I trembled. “H-How long do we have to stay here? We’re soaked to our gills,” I said.
“Or our feet are, at least,” Eleanor added.
“What about us?” whined Peyton. “We’re soaked, too. Bigfoot knocked us in the muck.”
I rolled my eyes. “There they go again with their Bigfoot stories. Some people just never quit. They told us they have a fur suit and they’re the ones who terrorized me the other night and had you busy all night long, Sheriff.”
He nodded. “Thanks. Andrew, go ahead and take the ladies back. We’ll be in touch, unless you can think of anything else you haven’t told us.”
“Not that I can recall right now. Besides that, those two had planned to provide bogus evidence to prove Bigfoot actually exists, which would give them twenty-five percent of the ten million dollar prize offered.”
Peterson frowned. “So basically, this is all over greed? It’s a senseless loss of life. Billy didn’t deserve to die, and Tawas doesn’t need this kind of trouble. We run a clean town here.”
Trooper Sales gave me a quick hug. “Go on home now. I’d hate for my daughter to grow up without her eccentric great-grandmother.”
We left, all of us weary to the bone. We told Andrew what really happened and that Bigfoot had really saved our lives, with Curt and Curtis coming in at the last moment. We made a pact to never admit that we’d seen anything even close to Bigfoot. It was in the best interest of all the residents in and around East Tawas.
Epilogue
We gathered at Eleanor’s house for our after-case wrap-up gathering that had become the norm for us now. Andrew and I hadn’t talked about what had happened out in the woods, which was fine by me. He had eased up complaining about my investigative activities and we were in a much better place. We still hadn’t set a wedding date, but neither had Eleanor and Mr. Wilson, who happened to be currently dancing to tunes only he heard, swiveling his roller walker. Eleanor’s sister, Margarita, was tapping her foot in time to the movements of Wilson, earning her a dirty look from Eleanor, but lord knows Wilson only had eyes for Eleanor. Tammy and Dixie were here, too. They were arm wrestling. It’s not something I’m used to seeing women do, but as I’ve learned, Tammy is just not your run-of-the-mill woman. She’s strong and smart as a whip. It’s no wonder she managed to solve a murder case back in Bear Paw. Tammy and Dixie had been hanging out with the Hill boys of late, but it was an agreement between them that they’d just remain friends. Of course, it might have had to do with Tammy beating both of the Hill boys at their self-imposed archery competition.
When Sophia walked in the door with Trooper Sales, Bill gave them each a hug, stealing away baby Andrea whom I have rocked on my hip since she was about six months old. Sheriff Peterson strolled on the deck with the DNR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Derek smiled over at Bernadette Huntington, who I heard he had started dating recently. How that was going to work out I had no idea, but at least he had quit drinking. Derek’s partner, Patrick, cleared his throat. “The DNR and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have come to a mutual agreement to reveal the DNA analysis done from the Matlin place. Go ahead, Special Agent Dillard, since you were in charge of the analysis.”
“Go ahead. You DNR guys are quite capable of reading the results since this was a joint effort, even though we had a bumpy start.”
“Thanks, Duane.” He cleared his throat. “In the matter of the samples found at the Matlin place, it has been determined that the hair and animal scat found was from an undetermined source.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It’s an unknown species. We cross-matched it, but just couldn’t find anything that closely resembles it.”
“So, it could be Bigfoot?” Eleanor asked with a shake of her head.
Sheriff Peterson chuckled. “Please don’t open that can of worms again. All of the Bigfoot sightings have ceased to come into dispatch.”
“No more Bigfoot?” I asked. “What about all those big game hunters?”
“We have prevented any of them from causing any real harm. They have all since left town. I think they were just curious for the most part.”
“And what about Billy Matlin’s death?”
“He choked to death. We’re not sure if it was accidental, but both Brent and Peyton have been charged with murder. They pled guilty fairly quickly. Their only request was to serve their time far from Northern Michigan.”
“They still are trying to claim Bigfoot attacked them?”
“Yes, but nobody believes them and they both passed the psych exam. We had quite a bit of evidence on them since your microphone was running the whole time. It was stored on Pierre DePaul’s hard drive as part of the show.”
“Like an automatic transmission.”
“Yes. He’s still going on with the show, deleting some content and announcing that Brent and Peyton had a breakdown after seeing Bigfoot firsthand.”
“I suppose he’d have to say something. I can’t wait for the show to b
roadcast. We’ll be celebrities.”
We all took a drink of the wine that my daughter Martha brought us, and toasted to the imaginary Bigfoot, who I still continued to feed in a pizza box out in the woods. After all, he did save my life. Sure, the sightings had ceased to be reported, but I figure most folks around the Tawas area don’t mind so much that Bigfoot lives amongst them and neither did I, provided he stays deep in the wetlands and out of sight.
Interested in learning more about Margarita, Tammy and Dixie, check out Target of Death, A Cajun Cooking Mystery.
Target of Death
Chapter One
“Well, congrats, Tammy. We are officially in the middle of nowhere.”
I wrinkled my brow in irritation. “Not at all.” I rustled the map in my lap. “I think we’re almost there.”
Dixie rolled her eyes. “You said that an hour ago.”
“Remind me again why I brought you?”
“Because I’m your bestest friend in the world and you’d be lost without me.”
I smiled. How couldn’t I smile when Dixie said something that sweet? Most folks might think Dixie is an airhead on account of how her blonde hair was all teased and big, but she’s one of the smartest women I know—after me, that is. I had to chuckle at that. Seriously, though, I’m Tammy Lynn Rodrigue and I’m anything but the smartest woman on the planet. I quit using my real last name years ago to hide my family’s dark past. I’m from Estelle, Louisiana, and I was heading to Michigan to attend an archery competition, The Tournament of Trouble, in Bear Paw, Michigan. That is, if I ever found the place. Since I recently lost my job, I really need the prize money to keep a roof over my head and food in my belly. Oh, and did I mention that it was in the dead of winter? So much for wearing my flip-flops.
“It sure is snowing hard,” Dixie announced.
“I can see that. I sure hope we don’t —”
“Uh-oh. I so know you’re not finishing that sentence. It’s bad luck and you know it.”
“There is no such thing as bad luck,” I said, while crossing myself like Grandma always taught me to do—when she wasn’t going to church every dang day, that is. Since I wasn’t all that much of a Jesus freak, I rubbed my antler pendant that was attached around a black cord necklace for good measure. It was made from the antler of the first deer I ever killed with an arrow. I killed it on the first try, too. That made my dad pretty proud. Mama wasn’t too happy about it, though. She thought I should do more ladylike things, such as knitting. She kinda gave up after awhile, which made me happy. But it’s not like I’m all that much of a tomboy since every once in a while, I do like to dress up in pink, with green glitter eye shadow to accent my hazel eyes and red hair. I also love to wear heels on occasion, preferably in the form of leather boots, even though I much prefer the chunky heel type. They’ve come in handy a few times, too, like when a date got out of line. Oh yes, these boots were so made for walking all over you.
Madison Johns - Agnes Barton 06 - Bigfoot in Tawas Page 18