by Jana DeLeon
They edged along the hedges and then paused at the end of the row. Josie peered around him across the vast back lawn, but the dim glow of moonlight offered only a limited view. The seconds crept by, turning into what had to be a minute, and she wondered what he saw that she didn’t.
Suddenly, the little moonlight that had been present faded away.
“Now,” Tanner whispered, and hurried across the ten-yard gap between the hedges and the shed.
Josie hurried behind him and glanced up before she entered the shed, just in time to see the dark cloud that was covering the moon slip past, exposing the yellow glow again in the night sky.
He’d been waiting for the cloud cover. Smart.
The shed was only six feet by ten feet and with all the equipment it held, only a narrow strip down the center was left bare. Despite the two windows, it was pitch-black inside after Josie closed the door. Her eyes were struggling to adjust when Tanner turned on a penlight.
As he directed the tiny light to the left of her, she realized why no light had entered. During his patrol around the house earlier that day, Tanner had covered the windows with a tarp.
“I rearranged the boxes on each side,” he said, “so that they were sturdy enough to sit on. You take the side that faces the house. It will be easier to pick up any movement near the house from the backyard floodlights. I’ll take the side facing the swamp.”
“Okay,” Josie said, and crawled atop the boxes to sit next to the window.
Tanner took the position across from her. “Grab the tarp, but don’t remove it until I turn off the light.”
She placed her hand on the edge of the tarp, which was looped over a nail, and waited. A second later, he clicked off the light and she pulled the tarp from the nails. With both the windows exposed, the moonlight crept into the shed, casting a dim glow across its path. Josie realized that Tanner had set the boxes up so that they were out of the path of the moonlight as it streamed through the glass.
“Smart setup,” she said. He hadn’t missed a trick.
“I just incorporated some hunting principles.”
She frowned, then mentally chided herself, happy that Tanner couldn’t see her face in the darkness. They were hunting someone—or something—whether she liked to think of it that way or not. And if last night was any indication, he was also hunting them.
“How was your visit with your brothers?”
“Fine. Max ate so many of your cookies, he’s probably sick. They were really good.”
“There’s worse things to die from, I guess.” She was pleased that her cookies had been a hit but disappointed that Tanner wasn’t going to shed any light on their meeting.
It’s probably family business.
She sighed. With everything going on in her life at the moment, the last thing she needed was to be focusing on other people’s business. If what they’d discussed involved her at all, Tanner would have told her. They’d already agreed to no more secrets between them.
Because men have been so honest with you before.
She tried to clamp down on the thought before it took flight and continued to nag her the rest of the night, but it was too late. A mental parade of every man who’d ever lied to her ran through her mind, so-called high school friends, coworkers, agents, clients, lovers...even her own father, who’d hidden the loss of their money until just before his death and even then hadn’t admitted the extent of it.
“I see something.” Tanner’s voice yanked her out of her tally of disappointment, and she stiffened.
“Where?”
“At the north side of the estate at the edge of the swamp.”
“Can you tell what it is?” A lot of creatures dwelled in the swamp and it wasn’t unheard of for them to venture onto the cleared grounds.
“No. It’s sticking to the shadows but appears to be moving this way.”
She licked her dry lips and swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in her throat. “What do we do?”
“We wait until I can identify it or until it moves to an area where I can leave the shed and try to sneak up behind it.”
“Right.” She reached down beside her and felt the pistol that she’d laid on the crate next to her leg. She tried to think of something—anything—to occupy the time, but her mind was completely devoid of distractions. All she could think about was the thing moving toward them. Was it her attacker? Was it human? What did it want from her?
Every second that passed felt like an eternity, and she began to count her heartbeats as they pounded in her chest. She wanted so badly to ask him for an update but held back, not wanting him to know how much the situation was getting to her. If she couldn’t handle sitting still in the dark, Tanner would never let her go tracking with him, and that’s exactly what she intended to do the next day if they couldn’t settle things tonight.
Tanner left his seat and inched open the door to the shed, peering outside.
“There,” he said, his voice excited. “I see it again, at the edge of the swamp across from the barn.”
My horses!
“Is it moving toward the barn?” The fear she’d felt was pushed aside in an instant by the thought of something harming her horses.
“I can’t tell. The barn casts a long shadow on that side. If I climb out this window, I won’t be in sight. I’ll work my way down the hedges and to the backside of the barn. Then maybe I can sneak around to the far side and catch him.”
“That sounds good.”
“I suppose it’s pointless to ask you to stay here?”
“You know it is.”
“Then stick right behind me,” he said. “If anything happens, run and call the police. Do not attempt to help me.”
A rush of bad outcomes started up in her mind, but she pushed them aside, determined to remain focused and calm. As calm as she could manage, anyway. He pushed open the window and slipped outside, then reached back to help her climb out. Once she had two feet on the ground, he released her and hurried down the side of the shed and across the short gap to the bushes.
Hurrying behind him, Josie blinked several times, trying to get her eyes to acclimate to the dark shadows the bushes created. She could barely make out the outline of Tanner’s body a couple of feet ahead of her and she picked up her pace so that she didn’t fall behind. The last thing she wanted was to lose sight of him.
He slunk down the hedges and then slipped across the back lawn to the backside of the barn. At the edge of the barn, he stopped and she stood next to him, heart racing, as he peered around the corner.
He turned back to her, his expression grim, and waved one hand in the air, then pointed to his ear. She frowned, trying to figure out what he was attempting to tell her, when she realized that the night had gone silent. Standing stock-still, she strained to hear the sounds of the night creatures, but only silence met her.
A footstep on dead leaves broke through the silence of the night like a gunshot. It came from the other side of the barn—the side nearest the swamp. Inside the barn, her horses started to stir, rattling their feed buckets and stomping their feet.
A second footstep sounded and the horses began to whinny and snort. She could hear them pawing at the gates in the barn. They knew something was out there. Something that scared them.
Tanner pulled his pistol out of his waistband and motioned to her to do the same. The pistol was cold and heavy in her hands. She felt her heart beating in her throat as Tanner slipped around the corner of the barn, and she moved quietly behind him. At the other end of the barn, he stopped again to listen.
At first, she heard nothing, and then the sound of sniffing broke through the silent night air. Her pulse spiked and she felt blood rush from her head. It was hunting them—smelling the air to determine where they were. Very little breeze stirred, but what did wafted across them and then past the barn to where the creature stood.
They were upwind!
Josie wasn’t a tracker and her only hunting had been with her dad i
n her teen years, but she knew they had to move or their prey would quickly zero in on them.
Tanner tapped her on the arm and held up three fingers, then two, then one, counting down the seconds until they struck. When his last finger closed into a fist, he launched around the corner of the barn, gun leveled.
Josie immediately jumped around the corner after him, holding her pistol with both hands. At that exact moment, a dark cloud covered the moon and pitched them all into darkness. Twenty yards away, leaves crunched and they both yanked their heads around in the direction of the noise.
Two yellow eyes glowed at them in the darkness and the creature began to growl.
“What the hell?” Tanner said. “Stop right there, or I’ll shoot!”
The yellow eyes disappeared and a high-pitched howl rang through the silence, piercing her ears so badly she flinched. A second later, the sound of pounding footsteps filled the air.
“He’s running!” Tanner yelled, then took off in the direction of the footsteps.
Josie hesitated only a second before setting off behind him, afraid of what they were chasing, but more afraid to be left behind. What if it circled back around? What if it wasn’t alone? A sickening smell wafted past her as they ran and she almost gagged.
The moon began to peek out from behind the clouds as they ran. A dim haze of light inched across the pasture, growing brighter with every step. When the last bit of the cloud slipped away, Josie scanned the edge of the swamp just in time to see a creature with long gray hair slip into the swamp.
She grabbed Tanner’s arm and pointed. “There!”
“I saw it,” Tanner said, and tore across the pasture to the swamp.
Josie ran as hard as possible, trying to keep pace with him, but was unable to. Her thighs burned with the effort, but she barely registered the fact. When they reached the edge of the swamp, Tanner stopped. The swamp was silent again. No footsteps echoed in the mass of trees and brush.
Tanner pulled out his flashlight and shined it on the ground in front of them, then cursed at the mass of dead vines that covered the ground. He pointed the light at the brush around them and found a broken leaf. He leaned over to sniff the leaf and then pointed past the brush.
“He went this way,” he said.
Tanner pushed past the broken leaf deeper into the swamp. He followed the tiny signs that Josie would never have found, especially in the pitch-black night and using only a flashlight. The farther they moved into the swamp, the more the smell of the creature dissipated until it finally disappeared altogether.
The sounds of the night creatures returned and Josie knew the creature was long gone.
Suddenly, Tanner came to an abrupt stop and she ran into him.
“Sorry,” he said, and sighed. “The trail ends here, apparently.”
Josie stepped to the side to see him shining the tiny light on a three-foot-wide dirt trail that cut through the swamp.
“This is the path to Emmett’s cabin,” she said, immediately recognizing the path she’d traveled thousands of times.
“Really? Then maybe we should pay Emmett a visit, see if he’s home this time.”
“Definitely,” she said, hoping to put his suspicions of Emmett to bed one way or another. “This way.”
She stepped in front of him and followed the trail to the left, deeper in the swamp. A thin ray of moonlight streamed through the canopy of trees, seeming to light the pathway
“His cabin is about a half mile from the main house,” she said. “He moved into one of the guest rooms after Dad got sick, but as soon as I came home, he was right back out here in the weeds.”
“Do you have any idea how much farther it is to his cabin from here?”
“Not far—maybe about fifty yards.”
He walked in silence after that, but she knew the wheels were turning in his mind, putting all the pieces into a nice little box. She hoped like hell that Emmett was passed out drunk or not home. Anything that would convince Tanner her dad’s oldest friend wasn’t her attacker.
She saw the lights from the cabin before she could make out the outline of the roof. Country music carried through the thin walls and down the path to greet them. Emmett’s truck was parked right in front of the cabin.
One option gone. Josie could only hope he was drunk.
They walked up to the door and Josie rapped on it. She heard the scuffling of a chair inside and a couple of seconds later, the door flew open and Emmett glared at them.
“What the hell are you two doing roaming the swamp in the middle of the night?” Emmett’s voice boomed into the muggy night air.
Chapter Fourteen
Tanner gave the man a quick once-over before replying. He didn’t appear winded and his skin wasn’t flushed. There was no smell to speak of except for the coffee brewing in the kitchen.
“We were tracking something,” Tanner said. “We caught up to it near the barn but lost it in the cloud cover. I tracked it in the swamp until we hit the trail to your cabin.”
Emmett narrowed his eyes and waved them inside. “You said ‘something.’ You don’t know what it was?”
“It was the Tainted Keitre,” Josie said.
Emmett sighed. “You know I don’t put any stock in that.” He studied Tanner for a second. “I wouldn’t have thought you did, either.”
“I deal with the facts,” Tanner said. “It was large and close to seven feet tall. It had yellow eyes and a gray coat.”
“You sure it wasn’t a bear?”
“Unless it was a gray bear sprinting on its back legs, yeah, I’m sure.”
Emmett stared at him for a minute, then nodded. “Let me put on my boots, and I’ll help you check things out.”
Emmett walked into the bedroom and Tanner scanned the cozy living room, kitchen and breakfast area of the cabin. BBs and gun powder sat in bowls on the tiny breakfast table along with empty plastic casings and a reloading press. Finished shotgun shells were in a plastic tub on the other side of the press.
The coffeepot was half-full and still brewing.
Regardless of how innocuous things looked, it was still possible that Vernon had been the one they’d chased. Tanner hadn’t been winded by the time they reached the cabin. Vernon appeared to be in good shape for his age, and not carrying extra body fat like most of the older men Tanner had seen around Miel. Vernon might have had time to recover before they arrived.
The foreman emerged from the bedroom a minute later wearing boots and a long-sleeve shirt. He carried a spotlight and a shotgun. He dipped his hand in the plastic container of shells and stuck a handful in his jeans pocket.
“Where do you want to start?” he asked Tanner.
“I figure we should head back to the main house. I don’t like leaving the place unattended with everything going on.”
Vernon nodded and they exited his cabin. “We’ll take my truck. It’s quicker.”
They all climbed into the cab of Vernon’s truck and made the ride to the main house in silence. The tension was only slightly diminished by the apprehension and fear coming off Josie as she perched on the front seat between the two men, her body completely stiff.
Tanner scanned the house and the grounds as they pulled up the drive. Everything seemed normal, but then, everything had seemed normal right before that thing walked out of the swamp. He shook his head as he climbed out of the truck, trying to clear his mind of what he’d seen standing in the pasture. It had to have been a trick of the moonlight.
Yeah, that was it.
“Let’s check out the pasture first,” Tanner said. “See if there’s anything there.”
Vernon nodded and Tanner started across the lawn to the pasture, hoping they found something to eliminate possibilities he didn’t want to consider. Unfortunately, what they found in the soft soil near the barn removed all thoughts of trickery.
Vernon shined his spotlight directly at the area Tanner had indicated.
“What the hell...” the foreman said, his eyes wide.<
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Tanner glanced over at Josie, who was staring at the ground and biting her lower lip, then looked back at the print. The four-toed, semihuman-looking print.
“Maybe a bear got caught in a trap,” Vernon said. “Yeah, that’s it. Caught in a trap and it damaged his foot.”
“Did it make his foot several inches longer and a lot thinner?” Tanner asked.
Vernon frowned but didn’t argue. Tanner knew the foreman couldn’t identify the print any more than he could. He could also tell that he was struggling to align the facts with something rational. Tanner could appreciate that, as he’d been struggling with the same thing ever since he’d seen those yellow eyes glowing at him.
Vernon shined the light away from the print toward the swamp, but most of the pasture was thick with rye grass. The likelihood of finding more prints, especially in the dark, was slim.
Apparently, deciding the same thing, Vernon turned the light from the print toward the barn.
“Was he going for the horses, you think?” Vernon asked.
“I don’t know,” Tanner said. “But they were spooked, for sure. They knew a predator was nearby.”
Tanner studied the ground between the print and the barn as Vernon’s spotlight exposed it, inch by inch.
“There!” He grabbed the light from Vernon and pointed it at a lump of something dark on the ground. “What is that?”
They hurried over to the mass and Tanner shined the light on it. Josie took one look and groaned, turning her head away from the bloody mass of flesh.
Vernon reached down and flipped what was left of the carcass around, studying it. “This wasn’t killed here. It’s a piece of something bigger, maybe sheep or goat.”
“It tore up a sheep or goat and dragged pieces to my pasture to eat?” Josie’s voice went up about two octaves.
Tanner looked at the edge of the bone sticking out of the meat and back at Vernon, who was looking straight at him, a worried expression on his face. Tanner knew the foreman wasn’t going to tell Josie the truth, and Tanner could tell by the look on the other man’s face that he didn’t want Tanner to say a word, either.
A million good reasons for lying passed through Tanner’s mind, all of them completely valid, if not for the promise he’d made to Josie. By not telling her about his past in Miel, he was already lying by omission. He wasn’t going to add to his crime by lying about this, even though it was tempting.