Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror (Cades Cove Series #1)

by Aiden James

  But she didn’t let go of his hard-on that had yet to shrink. He fought desperately to pry her fingers off but couldn’t budge them, clamped onto him like the jaws of a pit bull. Fear escalated into sheer panic, and he began to whimper.

  “No, I’ll not let go, Norman!”

  “Please! I’ll do whatever you want!” He hated the way she drawled his name now and angry at himself for finding it alluring earlier. Something was so wrong…so dangerous about her. He couldn’t believe he let himself fall prey like this, grimly certain some psychopath had slipped into the building when Troy left, and it had nothing at all to do with David Hobbs.

  “Oh, but yer wrong about that!” she said, surprising him more by letting him know his thoughts lay open to her. She turned to face him entirely. “I’ve got a pendin’ appointment with Billy Ray, and he’s goin’ to learn firsthand all about what yer set to go through, darlin’.”

  She began to push him backward, tightening her grip on his phallus.

  “You’ve enjoyed my sweet young pussy, and now it’s time for somethin’ else that’s wet and cold!”

  At first, the form of a lovely girl stood before him, her beautiful hair shimmering like a halo in the colorful rays created by the streetlamp’s glow through the ornate window. Her face hidden in shadow, that changed as she pushed him further toward the banister, his boxers and slacks falling to his ankles while his shoes slid across the floor. For a mere instant he saw her face clearly.

  “What the hell are you??” he cried out, and with both hands tearing at her fingers that grew much colder. “Let me go—PLEASE!!”

  She pushed him until his naked backside touched the coolness of the handcrafted banister behind him, and then she stopped. For the moment, her face disappeared in shadow. He glanced over the edge, listening to the water splash in the fountain some twenty feet below. A gurgling noise erupted from where her neck should be, and as he turned back to look at her, a stream of blood poured down the left side of her dress.

  “Would ya like to truly become one with me, Norman?” she asked, her voice a mixture of sarcasm and amusement punctuated by the gurgling noise coming from her open throat. “Or, how ‘bout we settle instead for a lil’ ole kiss to send ya off right proper-r-r-r??”

  He pushed himself as hard as he could against the banister. When he looked up he saw her face again, eerily aglow from the security lamps’ soft illumination. He shrieked while she moved to embrace him with her free hand. Her other hand held his favorite organ fast, now dark purple from blood not allowed to flow back through his body.

  She raised him off the floor, his pants and belt dangling below his ankles as his knees cleared the banister. He scarcely believed her strength, though by now he knew she wasn’t human.

  “No, no…No, don’t do it!! I beg you…PLEASE DON’T HURT ME ANYMORE!!!”

  Consumed by terrible fear, Norm began to lose control of his bladder and bowels. His eyes blurred as tears flowed down his face. The girl who only moments ago fulfilled his fantasy like no other woman could, giggled. His tears obscured much of her hideousness, but not enough to hide her dreadful smile.

  “Good bye, Nor-r-r-m-a-a-a-n-n!” she told him sweetly, and then launched him off the landing.

  He screamed, flailing his arms to try and turn over as he headed for the ground floor, but his bound ankles kept him from being able to right himself. An incredible sharp pain ripped through his torso when he stopped falling. He landed on top of the fountain and it pierced him, slicing through his liver while crushing other vital organs in his midsection. Impaled upon the fountain’s decorative spire now covered with his blood, he looked down and saw the water around him turn dark. He tried to reach for his pants so that whoever found his body wouldn’t see him like this. But he couldn’t move without incurring far greater pain. Waiting for the end to come, he turned his gaze up toward the landing.

  Her form had changed. The gorgeous hair that captured his fancy when he first saw her billowed around the silhouette of her face. An immense shadow drifting over the edge of the banister absorbed the rest of her body. Her gurgled voice echoed around him as the shadow descended toward the fountain.

  Norm gulped once and closed his eyes. Death couldn’t get here soon enough.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “Honey…Ned’s on the phone,” said Miriam.

  David had just finished taking a shower in the guest bathroom of Janice’s townhouse. He quickly toweled himself dry and stepped into his bathrobe, tying it at his waist while he opened the door. She held the phone out to him, covering the receiver until he could take it from her.

  “How did he get this number?” he asked. He glanced at his watch on the bathroom counter, which read 6:40 a.m. “I wonder what the hell couldn’t wait until eight o’clock.”

  He smiled at her until he saw the tears welling in her eyes. Her bottom lip quivered as she handed him the phone. He started to pursue her out of the bathroom, but she motioned for him to first take the call. Janice stood nearby, and also looked upset.

  “Hey, Ned,” he said into the receiver, stepping back inside the bathroom and closing the door most of the way.

  “Hello, David,” said Ned. Often serious, he sounded unusually somber. “Sorry to bother you so early and calling you at this number. It’s the one that was left on the voicemail at your home.”

  “Is something wrong?” He wondered immediately if he miscalculated the final figures on the Applewood report he gave him last night.

  “Yeah, there is.”

  The line quiet for almost a full minute, David wondered if Ned had set the phone down. He could tell his boss had arrived at the office already, and other voices made it sound like the normal Friday morning bustle started a few hours earlier than normal. He thought he heard him gasp and struggle to breathe.

  “Ned, are you okay?”

  “I’m here…I wish to God I wasn’t the one to have to tell you this.”

  “Tell me what?” David’s worry turned to alarm as Ned wept. “Did I really screw something up on the reports?”

  “Oh, no,” he assured him. “If only that were it.”

  “Are Martha and your boys okay?”

  Maybe this was it, given Miriam and Janice’s upset behavior.

  “They’re fine. Thanks for asking.”

  “Well, whatever you’ve got to tell me can’t be that bad, can it?”

  “David…Norm is dead.”

  “What??” He almost dropped the phone. His knees buckled beneath him before he could close the toilet lid for a place to sit down. “What did you just say?” His voice choking up, he knew full well what he heard but wanted desperately that it not be true.

  “Norm was killed here sometime last night after Troy left. I’m so sorry.”

  “How can this be??” sobbed David. Miriam pushed open the door and rushed into the bathroom to join him at his side, throwing her arms around him as she wept with him. “I just spoke to him last night! Oh my God, he can’t be gone!!”

  “I wish it wasn’t true. Nancy gave a positive ID to the police once Johnny discovered his body. They’re both having such a hard time dealing with this too….” Ned’s voice trailed off, and he began to cry again. “We all loved Norm, David. He and I’ve known each other for more than ten years. It’s gotta be so much worse for you. I’m so, so very sorry.”

  He cried harder, and as David and Miriam shared his pain, Janice and the kids soon crowded their way into the bathroom, trying to console their father and finding it impossible not to cry themselves. It wasn’t until almost 7:30 a.m. that David calmed down enough to talk again. Ned remained on the line and Miriam at his side. Janice finished getting the kids ready for school.

  “How did it happen?” David hated asking, but needed to know.

  “The police aren’t sure, yet,” said Ned.

  “What, are you saying he was murdered?”

  David couldn’t picture anyone bearing a grudge against Norm, other than a miffed boyfriend of one of th
e many females he’d bedded over the years.

  “All they’re saying right now is it looks like a homicide,” Ned advised. “Two detectives from the Denver Police will be here this morning to interview everyone who works here. Knowing how especially close you were to Norm, I’ve asked the Captain I spoke with earlier to have them make a special trip this afternoon to speak with you at your house, unless you’d rather meet with them at Ms. Andrew’s home.”

  “I’d rather not trouble Jan with this,” said David, thinking it would also be best without the kids present. “Why don’t I come in to the office and speak with them there along with everyone else?”

  “No, David,” said Ned. “I’m placing you on mandatory bereavement leave from today until next week, after Norm’s funeral arrangements have been finalized. The days will be comp’d for you, since Stephen and everyone else around here knows you two were like brothers.”

  “But, what about the amortization details and the other unfinished reports for Applewood you mentioned before I left last night?” asked David, annoyed. How in the hell would he survive? Not by spending idle time at home, where the loss of Norm would bring a constant assault upon his psyche and soul. “What if I come in for awhile today and take everything with me to work on over the weekend?”

  “Not happening,” said Ned. “After the police interviews are finished this morning, we’re closing the office until Monday. Stephen has already decided to call the Applewood folks and make them aware of what’s happened, and that it will take a few days for us all to recover. He’s confident John Meier, their chairman, will understand. We’re slightly ahead of our original completion schedule anyway.”

  “What time will the detectives come by this afternoon?” David resigned himself to the fact he had no choice but go along numbly with his boss’s decision.

  “I told them two o’clock, but if you’d rather change it to another time either earlier or later, I can do that.”

  “Two will be fine.”

  “All right. Again, I’m so, so sorry, David.”

  “Me, too….”

  He started to weep again, and Miriam pulled him closer. For the next half-hour he cried in her arms. Reluctant to leave him, she needed to take care of her patients who couldn’t be rescheduled for next week. She left just before eight-thirty, mentioning on her way out the door that the glass company would come by their house sometime in the afternoon to repair Tyler’s window. David offered to let the repair crew inside the house since he’d be there anyway to talk with the detectives.

  He finished getting dressed and shared a few cups of coffee with Janice while they talked about Norm, whom she once dated back in college and remained on good terms with since. When ten o’clock arrived, David left the townhouse and headed for the Park Meadows Mall. He hoped to kill some time and distract his thoughts by visiting the various stores. It didn’t take long to recognize this wouldn’t help. Instead, he stopped by the closest liquor store and purchased a twelve-pack of beer.

  Just before eleven he arrived at the house. He sifted through the mail while opening his first Heineken, confident whatever supernatural presence had besieged his residence had left. Good to be home again, he hoped it lessened the terrible grief that would come for him in the coming days and weeks. In the meantime, he flipped through the latest National Geographic until noon, when he made himself a sandwich. He then straightened up the main floor and grabbed another beer while he awaited the detectives’ arrival.

  ***

  “David Hobbs?”

  The two DPD detectives stood at the front door, and the one who spoke held his badge up near his face.

  “Yes,” said David, opening the front door wide enough for them to step inside. They arrived ten minutes early, right before he moved on to his fifth beer. The lightheaded affect from the first four made him glad he hadn’t opened another bottle.

  “I’m Detective Daniel Colby and this is my partner, Detective Mike Kenyon,” said the first detective, motioning to the other as they stepped into the foyer.

  A slender man in his early forties, Detective Colby’s sandy hair hung in short bangs on his forehead. His face flushed slightly, and the prescription eyeglasses he wore magnified his light blue eyes. Daniel sported a curved moustache, almost Fu-Manchu, and his voice seemed unusually raspy, like he’d spent many a long night on the short end of a whiskey bottle.

  Mike Kenyon, much younger and more handsome, stood almost a foot taller than his partner. Mike’s hazel eyes shined bright within his dark face. His generous smile, chiseled features, and sharp hairline made him look more like a TV star than an actual policeman.

  David closed the front door and they followed him into the living room, where he invited them to sit on the sofa.

  “Can I get you guys anything to drink?”

  “At the moment we’re okay, I think,” said Daniel, nodding to Mike, who indicated he didn’t need anything either. “We appreciate your willingness to discuss Norman Sowell. We understand you were quite close. You might want to take a seat and get comfortable, Mr. Hobbs. We have several questions.”

  He motioned for David to sit across from them in the loveseat. Both detectives pulled out small steno pads and Daniel also produced a small recorder. For the next half hour, both detectives asked him questions...many more than the ‘several’ they intimated at the outset of the interrogation. All had to do with Norm, his various ‘vices’, and David’s close relationship with him. Near the end of the conversation, David became antsy, wondering why neither detective had shared anything about Norm’s murder with him.

  “You think he was murdered, right?” he finally asked them. “Can you tell me what happened?” Not knowing any details left terrible images running through his mind.

  “We’re still gathering evidence, but at this point, yes,” said Daniel.

  “What have you been told so far?” asked Mike.

  “Nothing, other than the fact Johnny Townsend and Nancy Geddings found him this morning when they came in,” said David. “That’s all Ned told me when we spoke earlier.”

  “Did he tell you where Norman’s body was discovered?” asked Daniel, glancing at his partner.

  David nodded he didn’t.

  “Certain aspects of the investigation must remain secret for now, but Norman fell from the second floor landing onto the fountain in the lobby,” said Daniel.

  “At this point, we’re trying to get a lead on finger prints and blood samples we found at the scene, as well as other evidence from Mr. Sowell’s office,” added Mike. “It could take a few weeks to get the final analysis from our labs downtown. Did Norman ever prefer sex partners other than female?”

  “Huh??” Surprised, David couldn’t picture what the question implied. “Norm was a strict heterosexual...as far as I know, anyway.”

  Both detectives nodded in silence and then closed their steno pads. When they asked David if he had any more for them, he told them no.... Although their last question engendered a plethora of unpleasant musings about Norm While Daniel collected his recorder from the coffee table, Mike asked to use the bathroom before they left. As he moved past the living room, one of the bedroom doors upstairs suddenly slammed shut.

  “Is anyone here with you?” asked Daniel, stepping into the foyer and glancing up the stairway.

  “No,” said David, following close behind him. “One of my kids must’ve left a window open.” Certain that Tyler’s door had shut, since it sounded like a door rattled against a splintered doorframe, he thought the plastic trash bags came loose from the window.

  “Do you mind if we take a look?” Mike rejoined them and turned his attention up the stairway as well.

  “Is that really necessary?” It irritated David that either one cared about the noise upstairs. Especially after the barrage of compassionless questions and evasiveness regarding Norm. But he also worried what the detectives might think if they discovered the damage inside Tyler’s bedroom.

  “Just a quick look,” sai
d Mike, as he moved past him.

  Before David could react, he’d already moved up the stairway. Daniel and David followed. The detectives walked down the hall toward Tyler’s bedroom. After examining the fractured doorframe together, Mike opened the door and they stepped inside. David noticed the curious looks on their faces as they looked around the room, their gazes settling on the damaged window. David’s patch job remained intact.

  “My son had an accident the other day when he came home from school, and he fell through the window,” offered David, beginning to grow nervous in the detectives’ presence. They merely nodded while moving about the room. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention this downstairs, but with what happened to Norm and all, I didn’t think it was important. Does your need to look around up here have anything to do with him?”

  “Like I said earlier, we’re in the early stage of our investigation,” said Daniel, his tone even. He turned to look directly at him. “Are you sure there’s no one else in the house with us now? I doubt the wind slammed this door shut, don’t you?”

  “No, I suppose not,” David conceded, looking at the sealed window patch again. “As far as I know, there’s no one else here. My wife’s at work and the kids are at school.”

  “I’d like to have a look at the other rooms up here, if you don’t mind, Mr. Hobbs.”

  Daniel didn’t wait for David’s response, brushing past him as he moved into the hallway with his partner right behind him. What could he say or do to stop them? They could probably get a warrant if necessary, and it wasn’t like he had something to hide…or did he?

  Oh shit!

  Until now he forgot about the strange circle made from leaves and his personal items, which still lay on the floor in front of his dresser in the master bedroom. The circle would probably mean nothing to them, but he didn’t want to get caught up in a discussion on how it got there. He cursed the fact he didn’t clean it up earlier when he returned to the house.