Lost

  Chapter 62

  July 19, 1993

  “Okay. Listen up!” The lieutenant was a big man, but he spoke quietly, with a sense of reverence. “We have another one.”

  The room got quiet, and some of the men looked pale. A string of gory murders had hit Norfolk, Virginia. The city wasn’t without its problems. What city with over 10 people didn’t? But these murders, no one knew what to make of them.

  “Laura Petrol, 26.” The photo showed a pretty, blonde girl, but the next one did not.

  “Her body was found in an alley, just like the last one. This one was behind a local pizza joint… a Tony’s. Disemboweled, just like the last one. Organs missing… just like the last one.”

  Some of the men shuddered. This was the third victim found, and whoever was doing this wasn’t leaving any clues. Enhanced forensics testing was still in the works, and all the techs could tell the officers working the case was some sort of animal hair was at every scene.

  “We need to get a lid on this... now. People are getting scared. We need to give them a reason to trust us again. Be safe, guys, but get this guy.” The lieutenant headed back to his office.

  Ethan Jeffries and Walter Petterson each had about 6 years on the job at that point. Neither of them was looking forward to the night shift. People got stupid when crazy shit happened.

  “God, I hope tonight’s quiet,” Walt said getting into the passenger seat. He and Ethan took turns driving. E was up this time.

  “You know it won’t be. City’s full of idgits, and they all come out at night,” Ethan said putting on his seat belt.

  They pulled out of the parking lot behind the station and started their patrol.

  * * *

  Three hours later, Walter’s wish appeared to be coming true. Things were quiet. Even though it was a Saturday, the streets were empty. Though the clubs were still doing a brisk business, people weren’t hanging around outside smoking or talking.

  “It’s hot as hell out here. Wanna stop for a drink?” Walt asked his friend.

  Ethan just nodded and pulled into a 7-Eleven. Both of the men got out of the patrol car.

  As they made their way into the store, Walter began one of his corny jokes.

  “Hey. What does a nosy pepper do?—”

  Suddenly, they both heard a strange popping sound coming from the back of the building. This 7-Eleven stood on its own, trees behind it, and the noise was coming from the right, closer to the woods.

  They looked at each other, and both men unsnapped their guns. Ethan pointed to the left, motioning for Walter to go around the other side. Ethan waited for the high-pitched whistle that signaled his friend was in position.

  There!

  Ethan crept forward and saw someone, back facing him, kneeling on the ground—kneeling over something. Ethan took another step forward, straining to see what was happening.

  “What the hell?” He wondered in a strained whisper.

  And that’s when Ethan saw it. Whoever it was wasn’t kneeling over something—it was someone! Ethan saw a puddle of dark liquid spreading slowly around the body on the ground, and he took a deep breath.

  “FREEZE! Police!” He yelled. His voice held a confidence he didn’t feel.

  And then the person kneeling on the ground stood up and slowly turned. It was a woman, a very beautiful woman... with blood all over her face.

  Ethan stared, his mouth open.

  “You are talking to me?” She growled at him, and a sick smile spread over her face.

  She moved toward Ethan, and he saw his partner run quietly to the body on the ground. He checked for a pulse Ethan knew wouldn’t be there. Walter circled around so that he was further from the building. Both men had their guns pointed at her.

  “Stop… right there. Hands up!” Ethan tried again.

  She laughed. It was a thick, guttural sound, like she had something stuck in her throat.

  “Look, I don’t think you want to do this... officer.” She took another step forward.

  “Oh, we’re gonna do this,” Walter said roughly. “And we will shoot.”

  “Go ahead. I fucking dare you! Shoot,” she threw out at them. It was a game, and she seemed to think she had the advantage.

  It was a standoff. Behind a run-down 7-Eleven, in the dead of night.

  She took another step toward Ethan and started to hunch over. Her head flew down, and her shoulders twitched uncontrollably. Walter moved around closer to his friend, and both men backed up.

  “No, you do not want to do that.” Her voice was less intelligible than before, and blood was dripping off her chin, which seemed to elongate, right in front of the men’s eyes.

  “Holy shit,” Ethan whispered. He was frozen in place—his eyes wide in horror.

  The woman dropped to the ground, and it looked like she was having a seizure, but both men could see her body changing, morphing into something. She cried out, but not in pain. It sounded almost as if she was enjoying the horror her body was becoming.

  And then, suddenly, all movement stopped. She just lay on the ground motionless. The two men glanced at each other, unsure of what they had just seen.

  Unexpectedly, she jerked up and slowly stood. Her eyes were a luminous silver and seemed to glow. Her face, though still very beautiful, seemed… different—neither officer could explain how. But her hands!

  She took two slow, lurching steps toward Ethan. “I will kill you where you stand.”

  Blood dripped slowly down her arms, but… her hands!

  Chapter 63

  “I know it’s been over 20 damn years, and my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but if she wasn’t a werewolf, what the hell was she?” Ethan asked his friend. “We saw her change, Walt. We saw what she was becoming. I’ll tell ya, I remember it like it was yesterday. Fuck, I shot her three times, and she ran away—like it was nothing.”

  Walt just looked at him for a moment, “I know. I think a part of me figures she was just on coke or something. You hear all those stories now of some junkie eating off another guy’s face.”

  “Am I being ridiculous here? I mean what has really fucking happened? A woman’s house gets broken into. They said a wolf’s nail was found at the scene. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’ve finally lost it.”

  “What about the animal report?” Walt reminded him. “We could talk to animal control, see if they found something unusual.”

  “Jesus H. Christ!” Ethan wanted to smack himself. “I didn’t even think of that. Lord, I got to get my damn head outta my ass.”

  Walter just laughed and added “Call animal control” to his to-do list.

  Chapter 64

  “SHIT!” I had opened the back door of the van, and a 2 liter of soda rolled out right onto my foot. “OUCH!”

  I hopped around a bit as the pain settled into a dull ache. Nothing broken, but dammit. I almost chuckled. I don’t know how many times Brian had yelled at me to be careful opening the van doors for just that reason. And just as many times I forgot, and something fell on my foot.

  “Way to go, Mom.” Carey walked around to see what had happened. “Dad always told you—”

  “Zip it!” I cut him off. “I know. No harm done though. Just be careful when you open the Coke later.”

  The rest of the kids had piled out already. Jimmy and Ant had run ahead to check out the dock, and the girls tagged along behind them. Karie and Sam were waiting to get into the van so they could help carry things into the house.

  “Wow, we have a lot of stuff!” Sam remarked looking at the large pile.

  “Well, hamburgers and hot dogs for close to 100 people, food for us, all our bags… not sure what you expected,” I teased him.

  He nodded and started lifting bags out when I moved out of the way. Carey had opened the house door, put down the stuff he carried, and was on his way back out. Sam was walking into the house, arms laden with bags, and Karie was pulling things out of the van.

  I yelled to the younger kids. “Jimmy! Ant!
Girls! Now. Get over here and help!”

  They looked up at me when I called to them and came trotting over.

  “Come on, guys. Got a lot of stuff to bring in. Let’s go.”

  When Anthony and Sam were finishing the counters the previous weekend, they’d plugged in the fridge and the deep freeze, so I was hoping they were ready to go. I had a lot of stuff, and coolers weren’t going to cut it for five days.

  “Hot in there!” Sam came back out, fanning himself. “I turned on the A/C.”

  “Good. Hopefully it won’t take too long to cool off. We can always go for a swim, once we get settled.”

  “Yeah! Can we?” The girls jumped up and down. “Let’s get our suits.”

  The girls raced off to dig out their bathing suits.

  The cabin wasn’t really a cabin. It was an old six bedroom house. I think Brian’s father had bought it more for the lake access, but he had really done a lot to the old place. He and Brian had completely gutted the kitchen. Brian had actually made the cabinets himself, and Sam and I painted them—bottom was a bright, fun blue, and the top was a neutral off-white. The flooring was old hardwood that Brian had found. I think it was from an old barn. But it had a natural, weathered look to it that I loved. None of the appliances in the kitchen were as nice as what I had at home, but they were all less than 5 years old and in great shape.

  We had a master bedroom, and a guest bedroom, but the original layout just didn’t work. So instead of leaving it as 6 bedrooms, we had done some work on it, and now it only had 4 really good-sized rooms. We had knocked out walls and made two large bunk rooms. Each room had four built-in sets of bunk beds so eight could sleep in each room comfortably. Each bunk had little niches carved out for books or personal belongings.

  Brian’s father hadn’t done much in those rooms. Rather, he left most of it up to me. He told me to decorate it however I wanted. They built the beds. I did the rest.

  In the boys’ room, the bunks had been sanded down, primed, and then painted a rich navy blue. I had hung pictures that Carey had taken of the lake and house on the wall. We had also put a beautiful, red rug Brian’s Mom had in the center of the room. With the four sets of bunk beds in the room, there wasn’t much space for anything else, but we had fit a desk and a large armoire in there.

  The girls’ room was pretty much the same, except the carpet was navy blue, and the beds were red—nothing too girly. In the spring, the roses bloomed, so Carey had taken pictures of them, and I had hung the pictures in the girls’ room.

  I dragged my bag up to my room and just stuck my head in each of the bunk rooms and smiled. We needed to come up to the lake house more. It was a wonderful place. There was so much of Brian there. Most of the projects had his hands on them in some way. The kitchen cabinets were real masterpieces, beautifully done, detailed. He had been so proud of them. The flooring, the bathrooms—they all screamed his name and had his touch. This was supposed to have been our home.

  Chapter 65

  “I said weird!” Ethan wanted to smack the young animal control officer right in the face. “Weird. Was there anything weird? The body, the tracks you noted… anything.”

  “And I asked what you meant by weird?” Penny Barnes gave him a scathing look. “I have a degree in Animal Science. I know what weird means. I want to know specifically what you’re looking for.”

  Ethan started to say something rude, but Walt put a hand on his arm and spoke up. “Just weird. Let’s start with the body? What was it?”

  Penny shot Ethan another nasty look and turned to Walt with a huge smile on her face. “It was a large cat. I’m guessing it was a stray, as no one has come forward. And a cat this big, someone would know it was missing. I’m guessing it was close to 20 pounds.”

  Walt made some notes. “Okay. What killed it?”

  “Not positive. There were marks on it.” She made a swiping motion with her hands. “Like a big cat clawed it. I have no exotic pet reports—and we have had a tiger before. So if I had to venture a guess, I would say it was a large feral dog, and it happened to get the cat at just the right angle to open it up like that.”

  Walter and Ethan exchanged looks, and Ethan spoke up. “Is it weird that the body was dumped on a patio? I mean, wouldn’t a feral dog take it back to its den, or whatever it’s called?”

  Penny decided to be nice. “That would’ve been my guess, but… say one of the kids left some food out for the dog at some point, or even if someone had just left some food out, say after a cookout, and the dog found it… It wouldn’t be unheard of for the dog to bring a gift, if you want to call it that.”

  Ethan scoffed. “Some gift.”

  Walter ignored him and continued. “What about the tracks? Your notes said they were larger and looked more like wolf tracks.”

  She nodded. “Not many dogs can make tracks that big. A St. Bernard, Great Dane, that’s the size we’re talking about here. But to keep it simple, a dog of that size will have a wider chest than a wolf. Because of that, a dog’s stride is usually larger. But these tracks… The stride was way off for the size.”

  “Do we have wolves around here?” Walter was scribbling furiously. Ethan was just soaking it all in.

  “We have had some coyotes with wolf DNA, which is due to possible crossbreeding further north. But coming into someone’s yard… No, I’ve never heard of that.”

  “See!” Ethan smacked his hand down on the counter. “That’s what I meant by weird!”

  Chapter 66

  He was exhausted, but he’d made it up to the house. He had actually gotten there before she did.

  He couldn’t explain it, didn’t know how he knew where they were going, but as soon as he heard they were going to the lake house, he knew where to go. He knew which route to take, how to get there. He could picture it in his head.

  When he got there and didn’t see her van, he was confused, but 10 minutes later she pulled up. The kids barreled out of the van and ran to the lake, and he smiled.

  He stepped forward, and then stopped. Images flashed in his mind. The youngest boy—he saw him jumping off the dock into the waiting arms of an older man. The boys laughter rang in his head.

  “Jimmy.”

  Chapter 67

  “JIMMY!” I yelled up the stairs. The kids had all gone upstairs to unpack their things and get settled. I threw together sandwiches, which the girls were scarfing down, already dressed in their swimsuits.

  I had put my bathing suit on when I took my bag up earlier, and I had on one of Brian’s old work shirts over top of it.

  “We’re coming, Mom!” Jimmy yelled back down. And a second later, I heard feet running down the stairs.

  Jimmy and Ant came charging into the kitchen with Carey, Sam, and Karie following at a safe distance.

  “Okay, Mom. I gotta ask…” Carey began. “You didn’t name me after a girl, did you?”

  I was confused. “What?”

  “Carey? Karie?” He pointed to himself, and then across the kitchen to Karie.

  Sam was trying in vain to hold in loud laughter. “You are so gullible!”

  “Wait, what am I missing here?” I asked.

  “Sam had Carey convinced that you liked my name so much, you borrowed it, but just changed the spelling,” Karie told me.

  “You suck. Dickhead.” Carey threw a wooden spoon at his older brother, who ducked.

  “Excuse me? Watch it!” I smacked Carey on the back of the head.

  Sam chuckled, and Carey rolled his eyes.

  “So what’s with my name?” Carey asked, waiting.

  “It was my grandfather’s middle name,” I told him, a ghost of a smile on my face. “After your grandma died, my mom… Well, my dad wasn’t the most affectionate man to begin with. When my mom died, he sort of checked out.”

  I didn’t talk about my parents much. There were a lot of painful memories. But my grandfather was the one bright light in my life when I was younger.

  “Didn’t you have a grandma?”
Jessie asked, chewing.

  “I did, but she died before I was born. But my Grandpa Roberts, your great grandpa! He was so much fun! And after my mom died… Well, he was the one that always hugged me when I cried. He came to all my school plays. He even taught me to drive. His first name was Bryant, and since that was too much like your dad’s, we decided to use his middle name—Carey. You’re named after a good man. One of the best I’ve ever known,” I told him, leaving no room for argument.

  Sam stopped laughing and gave Carey a look that said, “Gotcha!”

  Carey just flicked him off.

  I sighed, shaking my head. “Alright, guys. Enough!”

  “Yeah. Hurry up!” Maggie interjected, wanting us all to get moving.

  I held my hands out to the girls. “Come on. Let’s go. You guys finish up and bring the plates to the sink. And behave!”

  And with that, I took the little girls outside.

  * * *

  I had brought towels out while the girls were eating, and they were stacked on the picnic table. The girls ran ahead and kicked off their flip-flops, while I unbuttoned my shirt and threw it on the table. Since the kids all loved to swim and run around, I had opted for a one piece—my Nike racing suit. I didn’t want anything popping out.

  “Race you!” Maggie told Jessie, who gamely took off.

  I laughed at the girls and ran after them, easily passing them, and I ran right off the dock into the cool water. I surfaced just in time to see the girls jumping into the air and splashing down next to me. All the kids had learned to swim there. Brian and I taught them as soon as they showed an interest. Jimmy had jumped off this very same dock for the first time right into the arms of Brian’s father. That was right before Mark passed away.

  I heard a door slam and saw the rest of the kids running out. Clothes and shoes went flying, with only Karie stopping to get her shorts off. The boys didn’t even pause, and soon they were flying through the air. Sam and Carey executed perfect dives. Jimmy and Ant tried to follow, but theirs simply weren’t as clean. Karie walked up and looked at the water. Her younger brother splashed her, getting her soaking wet. She gave him a sly look and jumped right near him, doing a cannonball and sending up a wave of water.