by Howe, A. E.
“The sheriff had a stroke and is at the hospital in Montgomery,” Blasko said, humoring them.
“We know that. Is he gonna recover?”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Blasko said.
“You need bigger ears,” the scrawniest of the old men said after he removed the wooden pipe from his mouth.
Blasko ignored him as Matthew smiled and came down the steps.
“What work are you doin’ for the baron tonight?” mumbled a man with a rather cumbersome potbelly.
“Daft old curmudgeons,” Blasko muttered when they were out of earshot.
“I thought you were done with me tonight,” Matthew grumbled, then asked, “How is the sheriff?”
“I haven’t heard.” Blasko had intended to ask Josephine about Logan until they’d become embroiled in their argument.
“Seems like it’s goin’ to be harder to catch this thing if leadership at the sheriff’s office is all up in the air,” Matthew said.
“We’ll find Tucker and ask him,” Blasko said, making the decision on the fly.
“He’ll most likely be over in the Handlins’ neighborhood or the area nearby. There was a big outcry from the folks livin’ there. Our faithful old friends on the front porch were tellin’ me about it before you showed up. Seems there were a couple dozen families at the sheriff’s office demanding patrols on their streets. The old guys said that everyone who’s ever been a deputy or part-time deputy has been called up to help.”
Chapter Fourteen
As Blasko and Matthew drew closer to the neighborhood, they saw several occupied cars parked on the side of the road, or driving aimlessly around the neighborhood. Twice they were asked to stop and identify themselves. The second time it was by Deputy Willard Paige, who reluctantly told them that Bobby had been at the Handlins’ house the last time he’d seen him.
Bobby’s car was backed into the driveway when they arrived. Blasko looked up at the porch, then put his hand on Matthew’s chest and stopped him, holding his finger to his lips and walking up to the porch alone. When he got to the foot of the steps, he stomped his foot loudly. Bobby, who had been sitting in a wicker chair pushed back in the shadows, jumped to his feet, holding his lever-action Winchester at the ready.
“What the hell?” he said when he saw Blasko.
“You shouldn’t sleep on sentry duty,” the baron said with the hint of a smile in his voice.
“And you shouldn’t be a smartass,” Bobby said grumpily. “I haven’t had a lot of sleep in the past twenty-four hours.”
“How’s Sheriff Logan?”
“They say they aren’t sure yet. But I got the impression talking to his daughter that they don’t think he’ll make a full recovery.” Bobby’s hand clutched the rifle more tightly. “Which means that, right now, it feels like no one’s in charge.”
“Aren’t you the senior deputy?”
“Most of the time, when the sheriff went out of town or was sick, he placed me in charge, but… not always. Everyone’s going along with me giving orders for the moment. That’s not likely to continue past a few days.”
“Someone spotted the monster last night after the attack on the Handlins,” Blasko said.
“Who?” Bobby asked, coming down the stairs.
“A cousin of Grace’s. He didn’t see much. The colonel and I told you how we tracked the beast to the garage. This man saw it go there and leave. Leave as a man.”
“I want to talk to him.”
“He doesn’t care much for lawmen.”
“Doesn’t matter what he thinks of me. I need to hear his description of this man… or whatever it is.”
“Average, around forty, naked except for something he was wearing around his waist.”
Bobby considered this. “Someone has to know something. If your husband comes home naked, you’re gonna notice.”
“He might not be married.”
“Doesn’t matter. Around this town, a neighbor or relative or someone is going to notice a guy walking around naked. Which way did he go from the garage?”
“East.”
“Let’s go.”
Bobby started for the car, then said to Matthew, “You stay here and tell anyone looking for me where I went. We should be back in less than an hour.”
“What do you expect to find? He’s not likely to still be walking around naked,” Blasko said as Bobby steered his car into the road.
“I just want to see the area. Maybe he was close to home at that point. That makes sense. Otherwise, someone would have come forward with a report of a naked man.”
“Maybe.” Blasko was unconvinced.
“Besides, I’m tired of sittin’ on my ass doin’ nothing. We aren’t gonna catch the beast by patrolling an area where he’s already killed. That’s what we did the first time around and what did that get us?”
“I’m not going to argue with you. That was the sheriff’s idea.”
“When he thought it was a wild animal.”
“So why did you order the patrols tonight?”
Bobby sighed. “We can’t ignore public opinion. There was a crowd at the office this afternoon and it got pretty ugly. If I hadn’t told them we’d have deputies out patrolling their neighborhoods, they’d’ve taken it upon themselves to do it. Which is not what we need right now.” He paused for a moment, then asked, “So why attack a boy out in the county and now a woman in the middle of town?”
“I suspect to sow fear. I encountered a beast like this back in my homeland and that’s what it did. Created an atmosphere of terror and took advantage when people made mistakes.”
“Mistakes?”
“One woman was killed when her son didn’t come home from his work before dark. She was so scared something had happened to him that she went out looking for him and was attacked by the beast. If she hadn’t been so worried, she’d have realized that her son had the good sense to stay with a friend when they were late unloading the hay. He knew better than to walk home in the dark. Fear was what drove the woman to make a foolish mistake that cost her her life. You were lucky no one was killed when Logan had that posse wandering around in the woods.”
“I said the same. So where will he strike next?”
“I don’t think we have enough pieces of the puzzle to make an educated guess.”
They rounded a corner and Bobby pointed. “There’s the garage.”
“Park here,” Blasko instructed. For a moment he thought Bobby was going to argue with him, but instead he pulled the car to the curb. The two men got out and walked to the water pump.
“So he washed up here. East is that direction,” Bobby said, pointing. He retrieved his flashlight from the car and turned it on as he walked, looking at the ground for clues.
“Since he was naked, I doubt anything fell out of his pockets,” Blasko said, irritated with the flashlight, which interfered with his night vision.
“You search your way, I’ll search mine.”
Blasko strode down the road to get ahead of the glow of the flashlight. He couldn’t decide whether he wanted to look along the ground for footprints or scan the neighborhood to see if there was something to indicate why the man came this way. He settled on the latter since Bobby was tending to the former.
The homes were modest and middle-class. Most of them looked like they’d been built in the post-war boom.
“Here!” Bobby said.
His light shone on a spot a foot in front of him, where sand had blown up and collected against the curb. Blasko looked at it closely and saw the print of an adult foot.
“I wouldn’t think there are too many people walking around barefoot in this neighborhood,” Bobby said.
“Can you make a cast or something?” Blasko was a little vague on the forensic capabilities of local law enforcement. He didn’t think this would be as easy as taking a cast from the mud along the creek.
“Not in this sand. It’s so soft and fine that a cast won’t work. I’ve got a tape measure back in the
car. At least we’ll know what size foot our suspect has.” Bobby looked at Blasko expectantly.
Blasko stared back at him then asked, “Would you like me to hold the flashlight?”
“I was actually thinking you could go to my car and get the tape measure,” Bobby said, looking back at the print.
For the second time that evening, Blasko found himself performing what he considered a menial task. He found the tape measure after going through several canvas bags in the back seat of the car. Grumbling internally over the waste of his talents, he started back to where Bobby stood over the print. Then he smelled something on the wind—a faint animal scent, but not that of dogs, cats, squirrels or raccoons that usually permeated the town.
He kept walking, but raised his head to get a better whiff of the breeze. A slight wind was coming from in front of him. He homed in on the odor and was sure now that it was the beast. Where is it? he asked himself with a sense of urgency. With every step he took, the scent became stronger.
Blasko stared into the night ahead of him and past where Bobby, unaware of the creature’s presence, kneeled beside the footprint. Two desires warred within Blasko. One wanted to catch the beast at all costs, but the other counseled caution. If this monster was anything like the one he’d confronted in the past, it was capable of killing both him and Bobby if it got the jump on them.
He was still fifty yards from Bobby. If he shouted a warning, the creature might get spooked or might decide to attack. Blasko knew that even if he had the ability to defeat the monster, at this distance he could never reach Bobby in time to save him. There was nothing to do but keep walking and scanning the area.
Blasko caught movement out of the corner of his eye. A moment later, an orange tom cat started across the street. Then the cat hesitated in midstride and suddenly bounded back the way it had come. The cat caught wind of our lurker in the bushes, Blasko thought.
When he was twenty paces from Bobby, he saw eyes peering out of the bushes across the street. They had caught the light from the flashlight and, for just a moment, reflected red in the darkness.
“Come on. I’m getting a cramp in my leg,” Bobby said, turning to look at Blasko. Something in the baron’s posture or expression must have clued him in to the danger, because Blasko saw him stiffen and look around, rising slowly to his feet.
Blasko was now close enough to speak softly. “Our friend is across the street in the bushes on the right side of that brick house.” His voice was calm and measured.
Bobby reached back and slowly lifted his Colt 1911 automatic from its holster before letting it ease down along the side of his leg. “I can’t see it.”
Blasko thought this was a good idea and was glad he’d thought to don his own shoulder holster and pistol before he left the house. “It’s there watching us. I can smell it and I saw its eyes.”
Both men were pretending to look down at the print while actually scanning the opposite side of the street for any movement. Blasko caught sight of something just beyond where he had seen the eyes of the beast. At the house on the left, the door opened, a light came on and a figure walked out onto the porch. A man shouted over to them.
“Hey, what y’all doin’ over there? I’ll call the police on—” Before he could finish, there was a great roar from the side of the house and the dark figure of the beast rushed toward the man, who turned and froze.
Blasko and Bobby broke into a run, reaching the other side of the street just as the monster grabbed the man and hurled him in their direction. The man screamed as he flew thirty feet through the air to land just in front of them. He hit the ground with a sickening thud and crack. Bobby stopped at the fallen man while Blasko ran past him and toward the dark shadows where the creature had disappeared.
Blasko quickly found himself outdistanced, but he was close enough to confirm his suspicions. It was definitely a werewolf. Fleet of foot, the creature cleared fences and other obstacles easily while Blasko struggled to get over or through them. Soon, he only had his ears and nose to guide him as he followed the beast. Lights were coming on in houses throughout the neighborhood as they passed and Blasko hoped none of the residents would take a shot at him.
For ten minutes Blasko followed the scent, but luck wasn’t with him. The werewolf reached a lake just north of town a good three minutes ahead of him. By the time Blasko reached the shore of the lake, he could see the water rippling but no sign of the monster, and the scent was fading.
He spent half an hour trying to pick up the trail, but he knew what had happened. The werewolf had plunged into the water, transformed back into its human form and emerged without the smell of the beast to give him away.
At last, Blasko had no choice but to give up and start the long walk back to where he’d left Bobby and the creature’s victim. Along the way, he encountered a dozen people who’d heard the commotion and come out of their homes with their guns loaded.
“I’m with Deputy Tucker,” Blasko told them all. “The creature was sighted in this area. Go back in your house.”
Most just muttered and complied, but a couple tried to argue with Blasko.
“Bah! Then go stumble around in the dark and get torn apart. Dr. McGuire will come by and pick up the pieces in the morning,” he told them.
Chapter Fifteen
Blasko found Bobby on the ground, using strips of cloth torn from his shirt in an attempt to staunch the blood from the man’s many wounds.
“He’s got broken bones and he’s bleeding badly. One of the neighbors is trying to get ahold of the doctor, but I’m not sure if it will do any good.” Bobby sounded frustrated and angry.
“I followed him as far as a lake. The werewolf must have gone into the water and changed back into his human form, because I couldn’t get any hint of his trail beyond the lake.”
“Must be Cypress Lake. Werewolf, you call it? Even after everything we saw out at Mrs. Rosehill’s, that’s hard to swallow. But now that I’ve seen it, or at least seen what it can do, I’d be a fool to doubt you.”
“How much did you see?”
“The thing was in the shadows most of the time, but I could tell it wasn’t human. Or any kind of normal animal.” Bobby looked around. There were people standing on their porches, but none of them were close enough to hear what they were saying. “Can you check his house? I’d assume that if anyone else lived there, they would have come out by now, but you should probably check.”
As Blasko stood up, a man came from across the street.
“Doc McGuire is on his way. I called the sheriff’s office too, like you told me. They’re going to hunt up some deputies and send them out here.” The man looked down at his neighbor. “That’s Calvin Nash.”
“Does he have any family nearby?”
“He’s got a wife, but she’s staying with her sister’s family down in Mobile. They’ve been having some problems. I think money, mostly. Her brother-in-law is out of work and…” The man quit talking when he realized that, in the face of the dying Calvin Nash, the story of his brother-in-law’s unemployment wasn’t really important.
The road was soon blocked with several cars, including the doctor’s.
“He’s in bad shape. His back in broken.” Dr. McGuire opened one of Nash’s eyes and shined a light in it. He moved the light to the other eye and repeated the process. “His skull is fractured, and there’s most likely bleeding under the skull. This man is not going to live. I’d suggest you find a backboard and we’ll move him into his house.”
Dr. McGuire made up a syringe of morphine and gave it to Nash while a group of men assembled a makeshift stretcher from a couple of fence boards. Colonel Etheridge showed up just as they lifted the man and carried him back into his house.
“You saw what attacked him?” Etheridge had pulled Bobby and Blasko aside out of earshot of the rest of the group.
“I saw enough. Two hundred pounds at least. Stood up on its hind feet and tossed that man more than twenty feet through the air. With force.
I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I saw it clearly. It was a werewolf,” Blasko said. “It looked very similar to a creature I had to deal with back in my country.”
“How did you kill it?” Etheridge asked.
“I never did. Every time I thought I had it trapped, the creature managed to escape. Remember, this is a monster with the abilities of an animal and the cunning of a man.”
“As I mentioned, I had an experience in Africa. A witchdoctor who could seemingly turn himself into a tiger. We hunted him for three months until the villagers found where the witchdoctor was hiding and set a fire to trap him. My small contingent arrived just as the fire reached the compound. The screams were unimaginable.”
“I don’t think burning it out is an option,” Bobby said.
“No, probably not,” Etheridge muttered.
“Removing its head is the surest way,” Blasko said.
“Hmmm, an axe then. I’m afraid the only swords I have are ceremonial,” Etheridge said.
“Getting close enough to use a sword on that thing would be risky,” Bobby said.
“I wouldn’t suggest that anyone but me attempt it,” Blasko said. “I sent for my old broadsword. It arrived today.” Etheridge and Bobby weren’t sure if Blasko was kidding or not.
“We have guns,” Bobby reminded him.
“A large enough caliber could stop it or slow it down. But if you think getting close to it with a sword is difficult, I promise you that hitting it with a well-placed shot will be nearly impossible.”
“Shotguns with slugs are our best chance,” Bobby said. “Question is, how do we prepare the other deputies for what we’re dealing with without sounding crazy?”
“Rabid bear,” Etheridge stated firmly. “Tell them that a grizzly bear escaped from a zoo train and is believed to be infected with rabies.”
“A rabid grizzly isn’t a bad description of what I saw,” Bobby admitted.
They were silent for a few minutes as each man thought about the dangers of confronting the creature.
“You know, those villagers in Africa might have had the right idea,” Etheridge said. “The best plan might be to hunt him like any other human killer. Catching him in his human form is going to be safer and easier than when he’s out and about mauling people.”