While the Sheriff straightened out his hat, Molly reached back onto the stage and picked up the huge block of iron by the handle. It must have been about a cubic foot in size and said 500 lbs on the front. She swung it around with one arm as Moondance delicately picked up the last potato appetizer and put it in his mouth. Then he cleared off the table with one brush of his powerful arm.
“”You can’t fool me with your props, folks,” the Sheriff said with a smile.
Molly smashed the iron block down on the table, flattening it to the ground. The crowd gasped, and the deputies raised and cocked their pistols.
“Holster your weapons, gentlemen!”
The two park rangers walked to either side of the large furry beasts with their badges held high.
“We’re federal agents, Rangers for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. A couple of our Swamp Apes got swept away in a flood and must have floated down the Elvira till they got here.” The men put pull-tie handcuffs on the cooperative beasts.
“Sorry, Rangers,” Muldoon said in his slow but authoritative style, “but this is my case and my jurisdiction. These critters, or whatever they are, will be coming with me.”
The men began leading Moondance and Molly back to their panel truck. “Take it up with Interior, Homeland, and the DOJ. This is a federal matter, and that trumps your authority, Sheriff.” He smiled and began to lead the animals toward the back of the open truck.
“Besides, Sheriff, these can be dangerous creatures, and you don’t know how to handle them. They’re used to seeing people, and they can be playful around them – but if something spooks them they can become vicious and tear a man to pieces – as you know. Oh – and your report will say that the incident the other night was caused by black bears. Any statement about Swamp Apes would be considered unlawful divulgence of Top Secret federal information. I trust we’re clear on that.”
The Rangers escorted the large animals to their truck. Ginny and Wally and I followed, while the Sheriff and his group stood there looking at each other for a while and then started slowly towards the truck too.
Ralphie was there to help them step up into the truck. The open door blocked everyone’s view of the inside of the truck, but I caught a glimpse of two black cats slinking out of the truck and then underneath it. Ralphie gave me a wink a closed the doors.
“Looks like we missed all the fun,” Anika said as she walked up behind us with Molly. “What happened?”
Then the slow-walking Sheriff got there with Audrey and his deputies.
“Well, Sheriff…” I looked at him with a serious nod. “…it looks like you were right all along – there was a rational explanation for this whole thing.”
“Yeah…” He stared straight ahead at the truck and shook his head. “…black bears.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ginny finished cooking breakfast and joined Ralphie and me in the big booth.
“Them were some mighty fine flapjacks you cooked up there today, Ginny.” Ralphie slid over, and the slender redhead sat down beside him and snorted twice.
“It’s just flour and water. Ralphie, with a little baking powder, an egg, a little oil, and some milk or water or whatever liquid I have handy. Today it was apple juice.”
“Well, it sure done the trick. Say, maybe now after those Swamp Apes came for a little visit, maybe Jessie here will start believin’ our stories about them big ol’ moskeeters. A lot of strange things come out of that swamp, you know.”
“Sure, Ralphie.” I took the last sip of my coffee, and Ashley was right there to fill my cup. “But what I have a hard time believing is that your nephew is a real ONWR Ranger and federal agent. I never heard you talk about any family members who didn’t spend their whole lives in the swamp.”
Ralphie chuckled a little. “Well, the government heard about his skills wrestling alligators and recruited him to work in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.”
I guess that almost made sense. “So how did you get him to go along with Anika’s little scheme? He didn’t think it was a little strange, you know, with the…?”
“With the shifters?” He put on a broad toothless grin and had a knowing look in his eye. “Swamp folk…well, we know things, Jessie. We’ve seen it all.”
I wondered what he did know. Did he know about Gus? And me? He obviously knew something. Had he known about Wally and Molly all these years? It must have been awful for them living in the shadows with such big secrets for so long. I was glad I was able to lift their curses when everything was over last night. They were mortal now and seemed to be thrilled about it – and Molly was no longer a werewolf, afraid of the moon. Poor Molly. Since Wally made her immortal after they met Moondance in New York, she’s been afraid of both the sun and the moon – for 99 years now. But she’s still a shifter. I didn’t take that away.
“You still with us there, Jessie?” Ralphie chuckled and snapped me out of my little daydream.
“Hmm? Oh…just so many things on my mind, Ralphie. Sorry. But it really was sweet of you guys to help us pull one over on Sheriff Muldoon.”
“Did I hear someone mention my name?” The Sheriff strode in with his long strides and a rare smile. Audrey was with him.
I hoped he hadn’t heard my entire remark. “Yes, Sheriff. We were just saying how remarkable it was the way you stood face to face with that…that…creature last night.”
“Ah, you mean the cat and that wolf?”
I gave him a puzzled look.
“You see, Audrey here…”
“I did a forensic analysis of the hairs Matthew took from the black one,” the beautiful redhead said as they joined us in the booth, “and I pulled some hairs from the arm of the brown one when it was in handcuffs.”
“Turns out the black one was wearing a suit made of cat fur, from a bunch of black cats, I s’pose…and the other one’s suit was made of wolf hair. Pretty convincing, though, weren’t they?”
“But…” I wasn’t sure what to think. “…but one of them lifted you up with one hand, and the other lifted that huge weight. And…and the federal agents…”
“Well, Miss Delacroix, it was a pretty good show, but you won’t convince me that you’ve got Bigfoot and werewolves running around your little town here until Audrey autopsies one right in front of me.” He put his arm around her and leaned back in the booth with a smug grin. “Ya think you can set that up for me?”
Ashley came to the table to take his order.
“Audrey here will have a cup of your famous French onion soup, and I’m feeling like a nice breakfast. Bring me a corned beef and cabbage omelet made with six eggs, some potatoes fried up with onions, four slices of sourdough toast, and twelve strips of bacon, crispy.”
“Looks like I’m back on duty, Jess,” Ginny said with a smile. “Carlo will never get that fixed up right, the way the Sheriff likes it.”
Audrey looked at Muldoon. “Matthew, I thought you were going to start that new diet today.”
“Oh, that’s right!” He scratched his chin and looked at the waitress. “Throw in a big bowl of fruit with that – and one of those shakes with the low-fat ice cream. And bring me some Sweet & Low for my coffee.”
Audrey just rolled her eyes and turned red. I thought maybe smoke was going to start coming out of her ears.
Ashley brought the order in to Ginny, and I could already hear Granny and Carlo starting their daily argument in the kitchen.
“So, Sheriff, why is it that you’re so sure those beasts weren’t real?”
He leaned forward and spoke softly and deliberately. “Well, Miss Delacroix, the black one roared right in my face, and its breath was as fresh and minty as the day is long. And the brown one’s hair smelled like the same Herbs and Peaches shampoo that Audrey uses. Besides, I called down to the Wildlife Reserve, and those agents were real, all right. But the office down there didn’t know anything about any Swamp Apes on the loose or a sending a truck up to Whispering Pines. Those men were loose cannons
working on their own.”
Then he leaned in real close and looked directly into my eyes. “You wouldn’t happen to have any idea about who might have put them up to it, would you…Miss Delacroix?”
My jaw dropped, and my face went blank. It was Anika, not me, who hatched that plan. I put my hand on my neck and felt my arrowhead pendant vibrate just a little. Hmm…Maybe…
“It was really something, Sheriff, about those black bears that tore poor Colonel Tramador to pieces. Good thing the Wildlife Reserve found them before anything else happened. Don’t you think, Audrey?”
He looked at me blankly for a moment then looked at Audrey.
“That reminds me, Audrey. We have to get that report written up about Tramador and those black bears.”
She looked a little puzzled, so I rubbed my talisman again.
“Yes, right, Matthew. But what are we going to do about that 150-year-old fingerprint from the victim?”
“Not our problem.”
Kyle and Zach walked in with Rodney and Edgar, so I rubbed my talisman again.
“Slide over, Jess,” Kyle said. “Quite something about those black bears, wasn’t it?”
“It sure was, Kyle.” I smiled at him and felt pretty contented with the result of our circus show deception – and my little mind trick just now. “It sure was. But I knew there had to be a rational explanation.”
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Jessie Delacroix_Fright Night at the Haunted Inn Page 13