Rock Harbor Series - 04 - Abomination

by Colleen Coble

  “How many do you think will show this weekend? Bree is registering the entrants, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. I’m going to look over her list tonight and tomorrow night, and we’ll see how many show. You can bet Gideon will be among them. How do you plan to use Eve to draw him out?” His gut still clenched at the thought of the danger she would be in, but it seemed to be the only way to catch the monster.

  “Kade hid the big cache for us out near Reed Lake. There’s a small ice fishing lean-to at the site that Bree is going to set up as the final check-in. Eve will man it. There will seem to be no one around, but there’s a tree stand close by. I thought you’d want that station to guard her, eh?”

  “I like it. Will anyone else be around?”

  “Some state boys are going to be across the way with high-powered binoculars. She’ll be safe, and we’ll get him.”

  “I’ll make sure of it. Fraser is watching out for her too. With that many eyes peeled, we’ll protect her.” Nick opened the door. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Kade and I are going to take a walk through the planned caches, see if there’s anything new.” He went out the door and down the hall.

  The sunshine began to warm up the morning as he drove out to the forest. He rolled his window down and inhaled the scent of vegetation and mossy woods. The appeal of the area hadn’t escaped him like Eve thought. But what did a man like him do up here? He wasn’t a hunter. He hated fishing. The thought of camping felt juvenile. He’d been created to be in law enforcement. Denying it would be turning away from the best he had, to throw the gifts he’d been given back into God’s face.

  By the time he reached the ranger station, he didn’t want to think about it anymore. The receptionist directed him through the doors to a wildlife rehabilitation center, where he found Kade feeding a baby bird.

  “I didn’t know you could raise birds that small,” he said. “It doesn’t even have feathers. What are you feeding it?”

  “Dry cat food softened with water.” Kade poked a bit of mash down the bird’s gaping gullet. “I can’t always save them, but I manage to pull quite a few through. This little one is a robin.”

  “Do they all like cat food?”

  “At the beginning. They eventually graduate to suet mixed with peanut butter and seeds.”

  “Peanut butter?”

  “Yeah, it’s full of protein, and most birds love it. Some of my swans are addicted to peanut butter sandwiches.”

  The men looked at one another. “Peanut butter sandwiches,” Nick said slowly. “Could Gideon be connected to the swans? Eve found a white feather on the floor after he attacked her. I don’t have the report back yet on what kind of feather it was, but you said you thought it might be a swan. Eve’s greatest performance was Swan Lake.” He stopped and inhaled. “I wonder . . .”

  “What?” Kade asked.

  “Eve last danced professionally when she was twenty-five—about six years ago. I found a picture of that night. It was in the possession of the man I thought was Gideon. Anyway, something else happened that night. Another dancer fell when Eve—well, she didn’t use the best judgment. The girl fell off the stage into camera lights, and her costume caught fire. The fire scarred her. She became catatonic. I don’t know what ever happened to her. But I wonder if the attacks on Eve could be related to the accident.”

  “What did Eve do?”

  “She doesn’t like to talk about it. It changed her. I’d rather she told you.” Eve hadn’t even told him everything. Every time the subject came up, she cried and said she was so ashamed.

  “What was the girl’s name? I could get Montgomery on it,” Kade said.

  “Ah, Miranda. I can’t remember the last name.”

  “We’ll check it out,” Kade said. The bird quit opening its beak, and he put it back into the aviary. “I’m finished here.”

  “What kinds of animals do you have here?”

  “Just about any orphaned babies, from deer to bear to birds. I’ve got a prey aviary on the other side of the center. Bald eagles, osprey, cranes. You name it, I’ve got it.”

  Nick saw no white birds. “Must be rewarding,” he said, following Kade to his truck.

  “I like to feel I’m making a difference.” Kade opened his truck door and glanced at Nick. “Kind of the way you feel, I’m sure. You save people. I save the environment and our wildlife.”

  Nick got in the truck and slammed the door behind him with more force than necessary. “Yeah, well, tell that to my wife.”

  Kade switched on the engine. “Eve is just afraid, Nick. Afraid that one of these days you’re not going to come home. She protects herself the only way she knows how.”

  “Fear? You think so? I thought she was jealous of my job.”

  “It’s more likely fear. You still love her?”

  “Sometimes I wish I didn’t. I wonder if we’ll ever be strong again.” In a quiet moment, Nick thought he might examine what Kade said. That Eve might be afraid had never occurred to him. She’d never said that was the problem.

  He watched out the window as Kade drove through the narrow, tree lined lane. The truck bottomed out several times in potholes. The forest was so thick through here that the sunlight barely dappled the ground, and the gloom felt like twilight. Thick patches of black flies hovered in the air as they passed.

  What did Eve like so much about this place anyway? Give him city lights, people jostling shoulder to shoulder, and fast-food places on every corner.

  Kade braked hard. “What the heck?”

  Nick peered through the window in the direction in which Kade’s gaze had locked. A flutter of white moved through the trees. “What is it?”

  “The swans are back.”

  “What swans?”

  “I moved a flock of mute swans from this lake. It’s a nesting spot for trumpeter swans, and the mutes were taking the place over.” Kade groaned and smacked his hand on the steering wheel.

  “So move them again.”

  “My boss was sure they’d just come back. He said if they did, I’d have to shoot them.” Kade’s voice was thick. “Dang, I don’t want to kill them. They’re beautiful creatures.”

  “Can you move them farther away? I’ll help you. What do we have to do?”

  “I don’t have the equipment I need with me.” A muddy SUV approached on the lane. Kade groaned. “He’s seen them.”

  The SUV, a forest-service vehicle, stopped next to them, and the window ran down. Another park ranger, about sixty with heavy jowls and white hair, looked out toward them. “You saw, Kade?”

  “Yeah. I’d like to try moving them farther away, maybe down to Porcupine.”

  The head ranger nodded, then ran his window up and drove on.

  “I’d better check out how many there are.”

  “I’ll go with you.” When Nick stepped outside, the black flies swarmed him. “You got any bug spray? I may not survive the trip otherwise.”

  “Yeah.” Kade came around the front of the truck and reached into the glove box. He tossed Nick a can of spray.

  Nick coated his skin with the stuff and tossed it back inside. The flies still hovered, but at least they weren’t landing. “Let’s go.”

  The men stepped off the lane and into the thick brush. Nick could hear the swans squawking and fighting as they neared the lake. Kade broke through the trees just ahead of him, and Nick followed. He stopped and stared at the sight. At least thirty swans glided on the lake’s placid surface. Near the shore, two orange-billed swans pecked at a large black-beaked one.

  Kade grabbed up a branch and leaped forward, driving the aggressive swans away.

  “Are the orange-billed ones the mutes?”

  “Yes. The one they were picking on is a trumpeter.”

  Small flecks of blood showed against the bedraggled trumpeter’s white feathers. It listed, then righted itself and swam away. Kade moved closer to the water, and four mutes swam toward him. Before he could react, two of them came ashore, beating their wings and
hissing. He moved away, but they followed, stabbing at him with their beaks and beating their wings.

  “Run!” he told Nick.

  The two men ran, and the swans came after them only as far as the trees before they stopped and moved in triumph back to the water.

  “How do you capture them and move them?” Nick asked, panting.

  “We tranquilize them. Swans are territorial and can be dangerous. They can break an arm with their wings or poke out an eye. There have been a few instances where they’ve killed a human. You don’t mess around with them when they’re mad, though most of the time they’re fine.”

  The men stopped in a small clearing. The truck was only another thirty feet away, just through the trees on the other side of the clearing.

  Nick saw a red marker. “What’s this?” He squatted to take a look. “The ground’s dug up here. Looks like someone buried something.”

  “Maybe one of the caches for tomorrow?” Kade glanced around. “The caches aren’t usually buried.”

  “It’s big. Almost the size of—” Nick stopped, not sure he wanted to voice it.

  “A grave,” Kade finished. “Let me get my new shovel.”

  26

  BREE NEEDED TO GET OUT AND SMELL THE FRESH AIR. SHE’D head into town to start taking registrations in about an hour.

  Her cell phone rang, and she nearly groaned when she saw from the caller ID that it was the nursing home. “Bree Matthews,” she said.

  “Mrs. Matthews, your father hit the aide again.” The nursing home director’s voice announced the news with all the seriousness of a doctor delivering a death sentence.

  Bree’s anticipation of the day shattered. Samson came to lean against her leg when she sank onto the bench and said, “Oh no!”

  “I’m going to ask the doctor to sedate him.”

  “Look, we’ve talked about this before. I don’t want my father spending his remaining days in some kind of half twilight.”

  The director sighed. Bree always had a hard time thinking of him other than in large letters. THE DIRECTOR. Not Nathan Johnson, a mild-mannered milquetoast of a man, but the one person who had the power to help or hurt her father. The fact that he’d called Bree himself instead of letting one of his minions do it told her he was dead serious about fixing this “problem.”

  “I’m afraid I must insist, Mrs. Matthews. He not only hit Ruby; he tried to choke her too.”

  “Choke?” Bree faltered. “I don’t believe it. He’s a gentle man.”

  “Bernard is not the man he once was. I’m afraid you haven’t accepted that fact, Mrs. Matthews. When can I expect you to come take care of this? The doctor will require your agreement.”

  How could she let them drug her father so that he was merely a breathing shell lying on the bed? He was once a great man, extremely smart and talented. A scientist who commanded respect. What were her options? They’d narrowed week by week, month by month.

  “I’ll come now.”

  “If you fight me on this, Mrs. Matthews, I’m afraid I’ll have to expel your father from our facility. I have a responsibility to keep my staff safe too.” He rang off without saying good-bye.

  Bree closed her phone. Samson pressed his nose against her hand and whined. She rubbed his ears. “I’m okay, boy.” But she wasn’t. Agreeing to this would be the hardest thing she’d ever done.

  “Trouble?” Eve asked.

  “My dad. He tried to choke a nurse.” The worst part about all this was that Bree had only come to know him in the past few years. Their time had been all too short, and it was about to be over. “The director wants to dope him.”

  “Have they tried some anticonvulsant meds?” Eve asked. “Valproic acid is especially helpful. It won’t knock him out either.”

  “I don’t think so.” Bree allowed herself to feel hope. “How do you know this?”

  “Nick’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s, and I’ve read up on everything I can find.” A shadow darkened Eve’s eyes. “I’d forgotten her until now. I should ask Nick how she is.”

  “Would you come with me to the nursing home? I don’t know much about the medication side of this.”

  “Sure.”

  The bright promise of the day tarnished, Bree took Davy and Keri to Anu’s shop, then pointed the Jeep to town and drove to the nursing home. The only facility of its kind, Rock Harbor Nursing Home had a good reputation as a caring place. Bree had worked hard to maintain a good relationship with the staff. Most of the time she thought her gifts of candy and cookies as merely a goodwill gesture. Today that favor she’d earned might be all that prevented her father from being shipped out to somewhere farther away like Houghton or Marquette.

  Ruby waved to her from the nurses’ center. Bree walked over to see how badly Bernard had hurt her. As Bree neared the counter, she could see the ugly red marks on the woman’s neck. A cocker spaniel sort of woman, even down to the medium brown color of her hair, Ruby had been nothing but kind to Bree and her father. Seeing Ruby injured made Bree squirm inside.

  Ruby touched her throat when Bree’s gaze lingered there. “Don’t fret so. It’s not as bad as it looks. He just caught me off guard.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’d just helped him get his shower. He’d been a little agitated all morning, kept saying he had to go see the swans.”

  “The swans? I’ve never heard him talk about swans.”

  “There are some in the pond in the backyard. They arrived about a month ago. He loves to watch them. Anyway, when I told him we’d go later, he tried to push me out of the way and go to the door. I grabbed his arm and tried to lead him back to the bed, but he turned and grabbed me by the throat. I had no idea he was that strong. One of the orderlies saw the struggle and rushed to help.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Bree said. “Did you see the doctor?”

  “No, I’m fine. It will bruise, but I’m okay. Let me tell Mr. Johnson you’re here.” Ruby picked up the phone and dialed. She told the director that Bree had arrived, then hung up and motioned to her. “He said to come on back.” She opened the door, and the women stepped inside the office. “The doctor’s here already too,” she whispered.

  At least she’d been warned. The battle was just past the smooth wooden door. She knocked and waited until she heard the director’s voice tell her to come in. Pushing open the door, she stepped aside to let Eve enter, then followed and shut the door behind them.

  “You brought reinforcements?” Mr. Johnson smiled, but the lift of his lips looked pained. His eyes stayed sharp and determined.

  “This is my friend Eve Andreakos.”

  “Let me get another chair. You know Dr. Ferguson, I’m sure.”

  “Yes, hello, Doctor,” Bree said. She tried to hide her distaste. The doctor always reminded her of Snidely Whiplash come to life. Davy was addicted to the old Dudley Do-Right cartoons, and she’d seen more than her fair share. With his handlebar mustache and penchant for black suits, the doctor could have walked right out of the TV.

  The fact that she was always in defense mode with him didn’t help.

  She seated herself in the armchair that Mr. Johnson pulled up. Eve sat beside her in the chair that was already in front of the massive cherry desk. The director’s office furniture left no doubt that he was important.

  Her defense hovered on her tongue, but she choked it back. Let them state their case first. It would turn the tables on them. They would be expecting her to react to Mr. Johnson’s call. She sat quietly and stared at him until he cleared his throat and shot a quick glance toward Dr. Ferguson.

  “Ah, as we discussed on the phone, something must be done about your father. He’s becoming a danger to others.” He sat back and folded his hands, waiting for her response.

  Bree considered her words. She didn’t want to appear as a hysterical daughter. Facts were the only thing these men would respect. “How many times has this occurred?” she asked.

  “This is the third time. Each incident has escala
ted.”

  “I think he needs to be on Haldol,” Dr. Ferguson said.

  “Oh, I disagree,” Eve said before Bree could ask what side effects the drug might have. “Major studies indicate that such strong sedation is not only unnecessary but dangerous. What has he been on up to now?”

  Dr. Ferguson scowled, and Bree could almost see him mentally twirling his mustache. She tensed, certain he was going to give them a major argument over the proper course of treatment.

  He flipped open his folder. “Aricept and Razadyne.”

  “No antidepressants or anticonvulsants?” Eve asked.

  “No. I’m not convinced they’re helpful in this case.”

  “How about trying Cipramil daily with a possible dose of Xanax if he becomes agitated? I think you’ll see a major improvement.”

  “I disagree,” Dr. Ferguson said. “And what is your background in making these suggestions?”

  “I have a family member with the disease. We’ve consulted with the best doctors in the country.”

  “These types of people are much easier to handle if they’re sedated,” the doctor said.

  “The purpose isn’t to make them easy to handle,” Bree said, clenching her hands. “And he’s not just a nameless person. He’s Bernard Hecko, my father. He has dignity and value. I want to visit with him while he’s himself as many times as I possibly can. He’s not here just putting in his time until he dies. This is his home, where he should be able to interact with friends and family. It’s supposed to be a safe haven where he can’t hurt himself and no one else can hurt him either. You’re not going to drug him. I want him prescribed what Eve suggests. If you won’t do it, we’ll change doctors.” Bree knew she could find a doctor who would listen.

  Dr. Ferguson’s black eyes went even darker. “Very well,” he said. “But one more incident, and you’ll have to move him to another facility.”

  Bree rose and motioned to Eve. “Thank you for your time,” she said in a voice that left no doubt the interview was over and she expected her instructions to be followed. “I’m going to go see my father now. I’ll check in over the next few days and see how he’s getting along on the new meds.”