by Desiree Holt
“What’s the other difference with this case?” Mark Guitron asked.
Ric looked at Craig before putting a map of the park up on the screen.
“Usually the beast attacks in isolated areas. Even when the location isn’t so remote, if it touches a populated area, the kill always takes place at the very edge. And there are trees or something to shield it.” He hit a key and a picture of hikers on the trail appeared. “This is a popular spot. There are always people around. Especially during the day.”
“I talked to a couple of my guys back at the lab,” Craig added. “They’ve been thinking whoever breeds these abominations is programming them with advanced artificial intelligence. And that they may be testing out their ability to operate in a populated area. Get in, kill, get away, all without being detected.”
“And it scares the shit out of me what that might mean for the future,” Ric added.
Dante was shocked at Craig’s words. Glancing around, he saw stunned expressions on every other face too.
“That definitely ups the risk factor,” he pointed out.
“Something else to keep in mind,” Craig told them. “Based on what happened in Maverick and Zapata counties here in Texas, and the fact that the beast just up and disappeared when it ran out of Ben Crater’s barn, there’s a good chance that these things can shift. Change into other creatures. Go through some kind of metamorphosis.”
Ben had left Montana to join the team at Craig’s invitation. A former Marine, he was also a shifter. They were more than glad to have him and his special skills. Accompanying him was Randi Turner, a graphic sketch artist formerly with the Montana police. Craig had believed she could be of some use to the team and it seemed Ben and she had become attached at the hip.
“Son of a bitch.” Dante ground his teeth. It suddenly occurred to him that when he’d found Felicia’s body, in addition to the faint odor of turpentine that lingered around every Chupacabra kill, a large feral cat had streaked through the trees behind their vacation cabin. He’d seen it running away after he’d raced to the back upon hearing Felicia’s horrific scream.
Now he wished he’d taken out his gun and shot the fucking thing.
“When I was down in Zapata County,” Mark said, “we had reports that the old man who was killed had picked up a stray dog on his way home.”
“And the old woman who was attacked had hired a stranger to help her with the farm,” Jonah added.
They all stared at each other for a long moment, silence cloaking the room as they absorbed all the latest information.
“So which one of us gets to sit on the hot seat this time?” Rebecca asked at last.
Dante watched as Craig’s gaze skimmed over the room, pausing for a moment on each person—until it settled on him.
“Dante, I believe it’s your turn up at bat.”
Adrenaline coursed through the former cop. He’d been waiting for this, preparing for this. But still—was this one right for him? He was a city guy still learning his way in the country. He said as much.
Ric chuckled. “Nothing like baptism by fire. But not to worry. We’ll give you all the direction and support you need. I’ll personally take you to the park and along the trail so you can familiarize yourself with it.”
“But the rest of it?” Craig added. “Same skills you’d need in a city. Talking to people. Asking questions. Checking the area. We now know this beast tries to kill in a series of three. That means scoping out the entire area for the next logical spots. You up for it?”
“I am.” And he definitely was, city boy or not. “So let’s get started.”
“Okay.” Ric motioned him forward. “Research first, then a field trip. I’m personally hoping this encroachment into a populated area is a one-and-done. At least for now.” He traced a line from the site of the killing to the ranch. “My best guesstimate is it will move into Gillespie County and down toward Kendall. More wide open, unpopulated area. Lots of very large ranches. It will avoid the towns but otherwise there’s plenty of space for it to hunt.”
“Ric’s right,” Craig agreed. “So. Logan and Rebecca? You earned some time off. The rest of you? I’ll have assignments shortly. Dante, you hang back here.”
Dante took a swallow of his coffee, now cold and bitter.
Just like my life.
After Craig took a moment to have a word or two with everyone, he and Ric pulled chairs around to the other side of the table so they were facing Dante.
“I know you’ve been waiting for your shot,” Craig began, “and this may be a little out of your hunting ground—”
“Stop.” Dante held up a hand. “Every one of these scenes has been out of my hunting ground. That doesn’t mean I can’t learn. Or that I don’t have firsthand experience with what this creature does. So I’m in. Give me whatever orientation I need for the area and let’s get to it.”
Craig nodded. “Okay then. Ric will still run things from here, as he’s done with the others. Let’s take a look at everything we’ve got and make some plans.”
Chapter Two
Ric and Dante arrived at the park shortly after sunrise the next morning, hoping to miss the influx of day trippers. The off-road vehicle Craig arranged for was waiting and the man standing beside it handed over the key and a thick folder.
“Maps of the park,” he explained.
Ric took the folder, though he’d already downloaded the various maps of the park to the tablets he and Dante carried.
“And a few articles that explain some of the areas in-depth,” the man added. He looked from one to the other. “I don’t suppose I’ll get an answer, but does this have anything to do with the body the rangers found here?”
Dante shrugged. “Let’s just say we’re out to check the trail for our friends. Thanks for delivering this here.”
“You can only go so far on wheels,” the man cautioned.
“We know.”
Ric reached into their SUV and took out a Browning Mark II safari rifle, the latest addition to their arsenal. They’d chosen it because its stopping power could take down an elephant.
The man frowned at them. “We don’t allow arms like that in the park.”
“Check with your boss,” Dante told him. “We’ve got permission.”
“If you say so. You don’t mind if I do double-check, though. Right?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Thanks.”
Ric and Dante shook hands with the man then climbed into the off-road vehicle.
“You weren’t kidding when you said this was a rocky jeep trail,” Dante commented after they’d bumped along for a couple of miles.
Ric laughed. “The better to toughen you up, city boy.”
“Not so much city anymore.”
They drove as far as they could, careful of the hikers on the road who stepped to the side to let them pass. Finally Ric pulled off the road and parked beneath some trees. He handed the key to Dante. “You get to drive us out of here.”
His slid the strap of the Browning over his head and adjusted the rifle so it pointed upward. Using the maps on their tablets, they continued on foot, carefully checking the area as they passed the waypoints Bee Creek and Mescal Creek. From there, they began hiking in earnest, referring to the maps constantly and checking for likely hiding places for the creature.
“See there to the left?” Ric pointed. “And straight ahead? These are rocky bluffs you can see from the trail. Good hiding places for our beast. Plus there’s all this dense forestation where the trees and undergrowth often create cave-like situations. So be sure to look sharp.”
“Know what really scares me?” Dante took another look around. “Remember yesterday when we discussed that most other attacks were on solitary figures in isolated locations? Let’s assume our latest theory has some merit—that there’s someone actually behind all this, breeding these beasts deliberately. Now he’s branching out the testing grounds, pushing the envelope, so to speak, to see if the beast can operat
e in a populated area without detection, even by the prey it chooses.”
“Yeah, and…?”
“How the hell did it get in here? Every other kill zone has been out-of-the-way and populated with wildlife, in the type of landscapes friendly to creatures of all kinds. But this is so public. How did whoever’s pulling the strings set this up? He would have had to drop the creature off. Where and how could he do that without drawing attention? And how would he select a target? Just randomly, whoever happens to be isolated and available?”
“Like Craig said last night,” Ric answered, “his scientists are more convinced than ever that someone is programming artificial intelligence into these animals. That could include a way to teach it how to select certain prey while avoiding others. As for a drop-off?” He touched his screen and brought up a topographical map. “Here.” He pointed. “And here. And here. All spots where an animal might get past the park perimeter to enter the area. And way over here it’s pretty isolated. No one to pay attention to anything going on.”
“But it still had to be transported to the general area, even if the headquarters is close by. You can’t exactly walk something like this down the street on a leash. And how did it get away?” Dante was desperate to learn how these creatures kept disappearing almost into thin air. Every time he thought of Felicia, his lust to destroy surged through him like a bitter riptide.
“That’s something we’re going to try to find out.”
“What about our theory that it can shift into different shapes?” Dante asked. “Maybe it arrives in one shape, morphs into its normal form, then shifts to something else to leave.”
“A very scary possibility,” Ric said. “That means it could possibly go anywhere, at any time. There’s no way to guard against it. I’d rather think its abilities are a little more limited. That maybe this was an experiment to see if the beast could get in and out of a populated area without detection.” He took one last glance at his tablet. “Okay. Not much farther to Jones Spring, where our victims apparently stopped for a picnic lunch. Let’s start marking possible hiding areas as we move along.”
“That’s where they found the backpacks, right?”
“Uh-huh. And remnants of food that the wild animals hadn’t devoured.”
“Then let’s get to it.”
“I have to say,” Ric commented, “all that running must keep you in damn good shape. You’re hardly breaking a sweat and we’ve been walking for two miles.”
Dante chuckled, glad to have something to laugh at and lighten the mood. “Don’t judge a book by its history,” he cautioned.
“I guess not.”
As they continued in silence, Dante focused on his own thoughts. Each time another kill popped up, he relived his personal nightmare all over again. He knew he would never forget the sight of his wife’s body.
He’d been so desperate, trying to get the cops to look beyond the norm for clues. For answers. To listen to him and look at what he’d discovered. But like nearly everyone else he’d run into since the team was formed, they couldn’t get past the disbelief. The cops had just looked at him as if he were crazy.
He was glad to finally have a particular focus and to be the lead on a Night Seekers case. He found satisfaction working with the team, even if he chose not to socialize.
With the disappearance of first Chloe’s friend and now the fiancée of the latest victim, Craig firmly believed the lunatic wanted to add human DNA into the mix. If Dante didn’t already have nightmares, that would certainly cause them.
“Those must be some heavy thoughts.” Ric’s voice dragged him back to the present.
He let out a deep breath. “Sorry. Let’s take another look at the map.”
“No need to,” Ric said. “We’re at Jones Spring.”
Dante glanced over to where Ric pointed and saw the spring, the water trickling slowly but smoothly until it flowed over the wall of a small canyon.
“Okay.” Dante pulled his cellphone from his pocket. “Let’s get some pictures first. And we’d better tread carefully so we don’t trample the vegetation.”
“I think that ship has sailed. I’m sure the Rangers were careful, but some things you can’t avoid, like other hikers. So yeah, pictures first, then into the woods to see if we can pick up any kind of a trace.”
Both men took a number of shots from a variety of angles before moving into the dense woods. Back at the ranch they would put the pics up on the big screens and analyze them, see if they could spot any clue that had been missed.
“I don’t see any kind of evidence that anything passed this way recently. Just like with the other kills, there seems to be no trace at all.” Dante stopped and pulled a bottle of water from his pack, drinking greedily. “Of course, that’s nothing new. The spawn of Satan never leaves clues.”
“Let’s go on a little farther,” Ric urged. “Just to make sure we haven’t missed something. I’m still shocked that the attack was in broad daylight in such a public place.”
“According to the news items I picked up, at that exact moment there wasn’t another living soul near them. I’m telling you, Ric, all the possibilities we’ve come up with scare the shit out of me. As if I weren’t already frightened enough.”
Going through all the trees was a slow process, but they scoured both sides of the narrow path to see if somehow, somewhere, there was a clue of any kind to support their theory. They knew that after Reed Fortune’s body was discovered, the park was closed for twenty-four hours while teams of hunters searched for a possible wild animal on a killing rampage. While they found the carcasses of a few small animals, the search didn’t turn up anything else.
“Look here.” Ric stopped about a hundred yards ahead of Dante. With the toe of his boot, he moved aside some of the foliage to show him what he’d uncovered. “I almost missed it.”
Dante stared down at what remained of a very small animal.
“Squirrel, probably,” Ric told him. “The beast has been feeding. Nothing different than what the searchers found, but they didn’t understand the significance.”
Pushing their way through the underbrush, they discovered two more small remains.
“See the way there’s no evidence of dried blood?” Ric pointed. “And the decaying entrails? Yet the meat of the body is completely gone. It’s our devil beast all right.”
A few hundred yards farther along, they found another carcass in similar shape.
Dante stopped to pull aside the fronds and leaves while Ric kept moving forward.
“Hey!” Ric was about two hundred yards ahead when he shouted back. “Come take a look at this.”
When Dante finally broke through to a clearing, he stopped, stunned.
Ric was standing in the middle of what appeared to be one gigantic, flat piece of slate.
“Look here.” Ric swept his arm to indicate the size of the rock then pointed to some of the delicate vegetation around it. Much of it appeared to have been the victim of high winds.
Dante frowned. “I guess I’m still at least part city boy, so tell me what I’m missing.”
“This sucker is big enough to land a helicopter. Nature created a perfect landing spot and I promise you whoever’s behind this scouted it out ahead of time. And see here, where the smallest vegetation is bent over? Blowback from the rotors.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve seen it before in other situations. When I was still with the Rangers.” He paced from one side of the rock to the other. “Yep. Big enough for a small helo to land.”
A thread of excitement twisted through Dante. “You think one came here to pick up the Chupacabra?”
Ric nodded. “Maybe. But I definitely think it came for Lisa McKay. How else would they get her out of here?”
“But wouldn’t hikers or campers have heard it?”
“If it was timed properly, the casual observer might think it was a Parks and Wildlife helo taking care of business. In fact, I think we’ll have to
find a way to get some answers from them. See if they sent one of their choppers in here for anything. If not, someone could have done a really good job of faking one.”
“Jesus.” Dante blew out a breath. “So not only are the beasts possibly changing shapes to get in and out of areas. Now whoever’s creating them has stepped up their game to a whole new level, using a helo to retrieve living victims, like Chloe’s friend. Possibly to retrieve the beasts, as well.”
“Frightening, isn’t it?” Ric rubbed his forehead. “It gives at least a little more substance to our theory that some madman is running a lab so secret we aren’t even sure how to find it.” He looked at Dante. “Chloe’s friend has never been found, and now the fiancée of the dead guy has disappeared. If it was a rabid animal, as the people handling these cases want everyone to think, someone probably would have found some remains.”
“Yeah. That’s a good news, bad news kind of thing.”
“Indeed. Good news because the women might still be alive. Bad news because it could end up confirming our theory about this guy meddling with human DNA.”
The thought was too goddamn awful to contemplate. Dante had to swallow hard against the suddenly rising nausea at the very concept.
“All right.” He pulled out his cell again. “Let’s get some pictures here for the file. Then you can give your magic fingers a workout and see if there are any reports at all of a helo in this airspace.”
“Yes,” Ric agreed. “Although I’m guessing if someone has enough money to do what our invisible madman is doing, he knows how to avoid radar too. But it’s definitely worth a shot.”
“Question.” Dante snapped one last pic. “I’m going to talk to the victim’s sister. Do I share our knowledge with her or not?”
Ric motioned for them to head back down the trail. “I think you kind of have to play it by ear. The concept is so far out of left field for most, she might think we’re crazy. Even report us to someone, although I don’t know who. Craig has enough money and connections to handle that.”
Dante moved a branch out of the way and ducked his head. “Would any of us have accepted this nightmare if we hadn’t had experience with it? And subsequently seen more evidence?”