Loup-Garou: The Beast of Harmony Falls (The Ian McDermott, Ph.D., Paranormal Investigator Series Book 1)

by David Reuben Aslin

  “All right, that’s it. Now I am worried. We’re going to the falls, the caves, to hell and back if necessary!”

  Ian nodded in total agreement. He too was getting very nervous about the whole thing.

  Charlie turned his cop lights and even his siren on. He raced out of town like he was in hot pursuit. They were making lickety-split time until, as forecasted, the dark sky flashed lightning off in the distance. Thunder rumbled, and the heavens opened up. The rain started slow, but the further up in the hills they got, the harder the rain pounded down in huge drops. Charlie was forced to slow down a bit once the rain began challenging his wind-shield wipers to keep up. Though it was difficult to see any great distance due to the water-blurred windshield that was further obstructed by the high-speed, flipping wipers that sloshed rainwater to and fro, further complicating their vision was the fog that hung thick like a light grey cotton blanket across the road.

  Finally, they simultaneously spotted what they were looking for but still dreaded to find. There, less than a quarter mile from the falls’ turn-off was motorcycle debris that had been neatly dragged off the road into a ditch. As they slowed down and continued up the road, they found Bud’s Blazer forty yards ahead pulled over on the left side of the road. His taillights were still on, and even his cop lights were still spinning and flashing, but they were noticeably dim.

  Charlie instantly knew that Bud’s rig had been there for hours. Bud’s Blazer was equipped with an extra heavy-duty deep cycle battery that would way outlast the normal car battery, and it had just about given up. He slowed way down, pulled his car over, and parked it directly behind Bud’s Blazer.

  “Ian, this ain’t no good. This ain’t no good at all!” Charlie exclaimed with a noticeable heightened tone in his voice. His elevated anxiety reflected heavily on his face.

  It was then that Charlie said something to Ian that caught him completely off guard. “Up here in the sticks, it isn’t like the city. There ain’t no calling for no backup. Ian, you’re my backup. Raise your right hand.” Without thinking, Ian did just that. “Consider yourself temporarily deputized. Now grab that little pop-gun you got strapped to your leg and follow me. Mind now, you don’t do nothing stupid like shoot me in the back!”

  How the hell did he know I’m strapped with heat? Ian couldn’t believe the powers of observation that Charlie had. He knew his ankle-strapped weapon was nearly unnoticeable.

  “Okay, I got your back. I want you to know I’ve got a license to carry my gun,” Ian replied, becoming nervous about the whole thing.

  “Yeah, well we’ll discuss that later. Now come on, follow me.” Charlie started to open his door. “Say, I’ve got a rain parka in the trunk if you like. Otherwise, you’re gonna get soaked!”

  Ian shook his head. “No, thanks, I’m okay.”

  “All right then. Ian, you hang about six feet back behind me. You keep your eyes peeled and stay alert. Like Bud always says, ‘Expect the unexpected.’ Be ready for the worst, and pray it’s nothing!”

  Both men exited the vehicle and immediately drew their weapons. Ian held his gun as he saw Charlie doing it: double-handed, across his left shoulder, barrel pointed up and away from his face.

  They approached Bud’s Blazer. Both men headed towards the driver’s side of the rig. Ian stayed three paces back, just as Charlie had instructed him.

  Charlie looked into the back window of the Blazer and saw nothing. He proceeded slowly up to the driver’s window. There was nobody home. Charlie could see on the ground what had to have been Bud’s footprints rapidly melting away on the muddy roadside. They headed from his rig straight ahead for about ten feet and then off to the right, disappearing into the marshy grass embankment below. Charlie knew what lay below: a creek that could swell up pretty good on days like this.

  Charlie’s heart was pounding. He tried his best not to over-alarm Ian, but what he saw were prints that went towards the embankment but none that returned.

  “Ian, you stay right here at the Blazer. Keep your gun in hand, and keep your ears open ‘cause if I need your help, I may need it quick, you understand? If I fire a series of shots, you come help, you got it? Normally, I wouldn’t even think about potentially endangering a civilian like yourself. But this ain’t no typical situation. Oh yeah, and I did deputize you all legal like.” The two men smiled uneasily at each other. Charlie then nodded at Ian while looking into his eyes to see if he could count on him. Ian took a deep breath then nodded back to Charlie.

  “All right then,” were Charlie’s last words as he left to follow the footprints that led ahead and into the tall grass and short thicket of barbed blackberry vines.

  Charlie moved onward off of the roadside and into the edge of the sloped embankment. He then made his way down the small slope. He looked all around until he spotted a massive amount of rain-washed blood maybe twenty feet ahead. As he approached, he noticed that there was a vast amount of blood in an area of mashed-down grass. He walked up to the tiny, trampled clearing. Then a large pit opened up in his stomach as he spotted Bud’s twelve-gauge pump shotgun lying amidst rain-washed blood, which covered most of its cold, steel barrel. Charlie then spotted three spent shells that lay scattered near the weapon. There were clothing fragments amidst all the blood. They were easily identifiable. Too easy. They were from Bud’s uniform.

  Charlie felt a cold, grisly rush run up his spine. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. He gasped for air as he wondered whether his heart was going to explode from his chest. He started hyperventilating as he frantically began looking around in every direction for a body or the attacker, be it animal or otherwise. After catching his breath and recovering what was left of his nearly shattered nerves, Charlie proceeded further down to the creek below.

  Upon reaching the creek, what he saw next caused Charlie to experience something that no amount of police training could have prepared him for. He stood terror-stricken for a very long moment. Then, with tears flowing from his eyes at a volume that nearly matched the intensity of the rain that fell on his face, Charlie, hands trembling, managed to raise his pistol towards the heavens. Held steadfast in a vice-grip of total shock, grief-stricken beyond measure, Charlie bellowed a wordless proclamation of his intense anguish and rage as he squeezed off six rounds from his Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

  Chapter 24

  Vendetta

  Ian rushed down the small hillside to join Charlie. What he saw next, he couldn’t believe. A second later, he bent over and began throwing up the coffee and doughnuts that he’d finished consuming a few hours before.

  Charlie had just reached down into the shallow creak and retrieved by the hair the completely severed head of Sheriff Bud O’Brien. Bud’s bug-eyed, pale face had a horrific grimace, one that words couldn’t even begin to describe.

  Trembling uncontrollably from both fear and anger, Charlie stood there for a long moment just holding and staring glassy-eyed at the head, the only recovered remains of his best friend. He had no words. He cried until there were no more tears he could shed. After what seemed an eternity but was less than a minute, Charlie finally spoke in a lifeless monotone.

  “I … I looked. No sign of his body. This is all that’s left. His shotgun’s laying up yonder. Pick it up for me and put it in the back of the Blazer.”

  Ian looked over into Charlie’s blank face. “Charlie, I’m so sorry!”

  Charlie stood up straight and an expression of frightening intensity overcame his face. He took a deep breath.

  “Yeah, sorry. I know you are, Ian. He was a good man; the best! He wasn’t just my boss but my best friend. I tell you this: Whoever or whatever did this is as good as dead! If you … If after all this, you don’t want to get the fuck as far away from this area as you can, I could use your help. But just so we’re clear, I ain’t looking to do nothing short of hunting this thing down and killing it. And if it turns out to be human, I ain’t looking to make no arrest, if you get my meaning. Now if you can live with
that, so be it. Otherwise, I’ll see you get paid fair. You’ve more than earned your keep. Mind you, I’m gonna tag and bag Bud’s head. I’m gonna keep it for a short time on ice in an old chest-style freezer I use for game that’s in my garage. It locks, and I’ve got the only key. I need to keep this quiet for a short time. Don’t say nothing to your lady friend the television reporter.”

  Ian looked at Charlie, totally stunned. What the hell? How could he know?

  “That’s right, Ian. I know all about your rendezvous last night with her. Never forget you’re in a small town. My town! I trust you didn’t tell her much. Anyway, when you put the shotgun in the back of the Blazer, grab the jumper cables. The battery’s gonna be dead as hell. We’ll jump-start the Blazer. You drive it back to my place. People are used to seeing Bud’s rig at my place … hell, sometimes for a few days in a row. Biggest problem will be Jenny. She’s gonna be wondering why he don’t show up or at least call in. But I’ll deal with her when it’s time to. Ian, all I want from you is … All I’m asking is this: If you decide to help me, keep this strictly just between us for the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours tops. That’s our best chance to get this thing that done this and killed them hikers too, that I’m sure of. I know them forensic fellows are good about placing time-of-death and such. You let me worry about that. If things go south, I’ll take all the blame. But don’t worry too much. The coroner’s a friend, and he owes me. Owes me big time for keeping my mouth shut about what I know regarding a certain indiscretion he had about a year back with a lady of ill repute. Why, if word was to get to his wife about it, well, you can guess the rest. Anyway, I need time to hunt this thing down that did this to Bud and that young couple. Whatever the hell it is, I can’t afford to spend the next couple days answering questions and filling out paperwork about Bud’s death. Ian, even though the rain’s got them pretty washed away, I saw more of them weird huge tracks up by the side of the road in the mud. They were heading across the road. My guess is no doubt what you’re thinking too. We follow the direction of them tracks, which head in the general direction of the falls, and we find at least traces of the rest of Bud. That cave behind the falls is no doubt this thing’s den. But we’re not going up there till later today. And when we go, we’re going prepared!”

  Ian knew Charlie was right. If they were gonna get this thing, they needed to move unobstructed by the media, and they needed to do so quickly before the thing moved on. What had Ian amazed was how Charlie could think so clearly, so methodically, all the while holding the head of his dead best friend. Ian figured he was ethnic stereotyping, but he thought that Charlie’s unwavering resolve to do what he figured must be done regardless of consequences had to spring from the Indian in him.

  Charlie and Ian began walking up the embankment back to the cars. Ian paused to grab the shotgun. He couldn‘t bring himself to look at Bud’s dangling head. Charlie did an exceptional job of keeping it together as he held the grisly head away from his body, blood dripping from its neck.

  Ian finally broke. He had to ask, “Charlie, how can you stay so calm? My God, man …”

  Charlie replied, “I will mourn his loss for the rest of my life! But the time for tears is over. What I can’t figure is this: Bud pumped three rounds of extra-heavy load from his scatter-gun either at or into whatever it was. Now Bud, he’s a … He was an avid hunter, a dead shot. Never known him to shoot at anything and not bring it down.”

  Ian stared at Charlie. If this had happened even a week before, Ian would have taken the money and gotten the hell out of Dodge. But something in him had changed. Ian had really liked Bud, and he was beginning to feel about the same towards Charlie. There was that and the compelling intrigue, which held Ian spellbound. He was certain about one thing: No mere human was responsible. They would be looking for something much more terrifying. And since it liked the taste of human flesh, it would need to be taken down.

  Ian cleared his throat and spoke. “I’m in, Charlie. I’m in all the way!”

  Charlie nodded.

  “Charlie?” Ian started. “Charlie, you do realize you’re now … I mean, this makes you acting sheriff.”

  Charlie didn’t respond. He stared intently in every direction with a blank, hollow expression on his face.

  The two men got moving again, heading up the embankment. They soon arrived back at the vehicles. Charlie walked over to his car, opened its trunk, and pulled out an extra heavy-duty garbage bag. He always kept a box of the bags for various uses such as picking up road kill. He never dreamed in his worst nightmare he’d ever be using one for this. He placed Bud’s head in the bag and tied it off tight. He then placed the bagged head in his trunk, closed it, and walked back to Ian, who was leaning over the hood of Bud’s Blazer.

  “Ian, move out of the way. I’m gonna bring my car around to the front of the Blazer and jump-start it.”

  Ian stood up and moved out of the way. He went to the rear of the Blazer and opened up the back. Right away he spotted the jumper cables, which were exactly where Charlie said they’d be. He laid the shotgun down in the back of the rig then grabbed the cables and closed the Blazer’s hatchback. Suddenly, Ian felt flush and faint. His knees began to buckle. He began wiping away both rain and sweat from his forehead. For a brief moment, Ian thought he was going down. Until then, the situation had seemed surreal to him, like he was watching more than actually participating in all that had happened. Ian now felt trapped in some horrifying dream, a nightmare from which he couldn’t awaken. But he was sincere when he told Charlie that he was in all the way.

  Chapter 25

  The Plan

  Ian and Charlie pulled their vehicles into Charlie’s driveway. His home was located in the middle of a block of older but nicely maintained houses. Charlie instructed Ian to drive around the block and halfway up the alley, then park the Blazer behind his garage which was behind his house.

  As soon as Ian pulled out of his driveway, Charlie grabbed the garbage bag from his trunk and proceeded directly to his garage and unlocked it. He entered and walked briskly over to his chest-style freezer, opening it and depositing the garbage bag containing the head of his deceased best friend. He then turned without looking back and exited the garage, locking the garage door and proceeding to the porch of his house. He shed no tears but was having great difficulty suppressing the anger that was welling up in him like a tea kettle which was rapidly reaching its boiling point.

  After doing as instructed, Ian rejoined Charlie at the front door. They entered his small but nicely kept and neatly furnished two-bedroom house. Nobody was home. Charlie’s wife was at work, and his son was at school.

  “Take a load off.” Charlie pointed to the love seat located adjacent to his couch. Ian sat down.

  Charlie sat himself on the couch and took a deep breath. “Ian, I’ve had a chance to re-think things and realize that what I’ve asked of you is more than I should ask of anyone. What I’m saying is, if this goes south, even though I will try and take any rap all myself … they, I mean a sharp district attorney, theoretically could still go after you for aiding and abetting, suppressing evidence, interfering with disclosure of an investigation, or something like that. I’m no lawyer. Mind you, I don’t think it will ever come to anything like that. But still.”

  Ian shook his head. He knew the legal risks were real. “Charlie, I know why you’re doing what you’re doing. And I agree that keeping the press out of the loop is a good idea. Plus, if we get totally bogged down with paperwork and answering questions regarding Bud’s death, that’ll take away valuable time that needs to be spent solving this. Besides, I have no family, no other place to be. Charlie, it’s you who has a lot to lose, not me. Anyway, if the worst case scenario were to happen, hell, they got to feed us three squares a day, right?” Ian smiled at Charlie.

  Charlie chuckled briefly. “Yeah, three squares.” He then got dead serious. “As far as what I have to lose, well, Bud was same as family. To my people nothing, and I mean nothing,
is more important than family. I am a law officer that has served his community for ten years. Never had any run-ins with the law when I was young. Bud was my best friend. No judge or jury in the country would come down on me too hard. You neither, I don’t figure, unless you used to be John Dillinger or something.” Charlie flashed a slight grin, attempting to lighten the mood just a bit.

  Ian returned the grin and replied, “No, I have no priors. No rap-sheet either. Charlie, I understand everything very well. I meant it when I said that I’m in. And just so you know, I respect that you’re in charge. This is your investigation. You’re the boss.”

  Charlie was impressed by Ian’s commitment. He let out a sigh of relief and slapped his knees with the palms of both his hands. “All right, Ian. We’re gonna see this through. I’ve got a plan.”

  Ian leaned forward in the love seat. “Tell me, Charlie, how do you think we should approach this? We’re gonna go back up to the cave at the falls. Maybe the other parts of the Ape Caves as well?”

  Charlie nodded. “Yeah, of course. We’ll stake out the falls tonight. This thing seems to be nocturnal. But before that, we’re gonna go up onto the reservation. I want to speak to the wisest of the tribal elders. Find out what he may know. Ian, one thing I haven’t asked you is … You’re an expert in weird animals and such. What do you think we’re gonna be hunting? Me personally, I think it’s a large, rogue wolf.”

  Ian smiled and nodded. “Charlie, based on what we’ve seen, tracks and bite marks, I agree with you. Canis lupus, the grey wolf. It’s the only animal, the only territorial apex predator that I can think of, that has the bite capability to do the damage we’ve seen. I think I read that a wolf has a bite strength of up to a hundred fifty pounds per square inch. Enough to snap a two-by-four in half. Nothing else, no other animal, could have bit through Bud’s neck like that or inflicted the damage to the heavy bones of those two hikers. Only thing is the bite radius is so big. Too big. And those tracks, though they look mostly canine, they are just too large and too different.”