by Brian
“It’s intriguing,” says June. “But do you think it will help?”
“Legend is often just exaggerated fact,” replies Linus. “We might learn something useful about the creature because some of these legends might actually be based upon the creature.”
“You’re right. We may be able to help each other. Keep me posted on what you find out, and again, I’m sorry I was so quick to doubt you before.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just get those DNA tests done so you can go public. I’m sure Sahar would want that.”
“Yes, she would. Keep up the research, okay? You know as much or more about this animal than anyone, and that ain’t sayin’ much.”
“Right. Well, take care, June.”
“Okay. Bye, Linus.”
Chapter 6
Linus Hather is in his dining room, at his computer searching the Internet for mysterious or unexplained deaths. He finds three recent deaths in China, Canada, and Argentina that fit the creature’s MO. He reads the brief Canadian article.
The police of Haliburton County, Ontario are investigating the mysterious death of Miss Bobbie Rohan, aged 42. Initially, it was believed that Miss Rohan had died of natural causes. However, a small spot of blood found later on her chest forced police to consider an autopsy. The autopsy showed that Miss Rohan’s lung had been punctured by “something like a needle”. The police have no leads in the case which they have today classified as a murder.
Linus opens another window on his screen and reads a little of that article.
Police in Villa Huidobro are questioning a gaucho in connection with the death of another gaucho in this small ranching community. The death had been viewed as from natural causes until an autopsy was ordered and a small puncture wound found in the dead man’s lung. Police won’t say if they’ve charged the man or not.
Linus also reads the article from China that is similar to the other two. He stares off beyond his computer and notices Sava who is sleeping on the back of the sofa. He thinks about what he should do. As June has said, he probably knows more about this creature than anyone on Earth. It would be irresponsible for him to sit on that knowledge and wait for the government to do its work. More people may die as a result, an outcome which he would have a hard time living with.
“How would you like to go stay with a friend for a few days, Sava?”
The lemur hears Linus’s voice or perhaps his name and wakes up to look at Linus. Nothing interesting happens though, so he goes back to sleep.
›
June is standing behind her desk, looking out the small window there. She is lost in thought. The morning sun pours into the office, warming her. There’s a clutter, but it’s an organized clutter. The door is open and she turns to face Linus when he knocks. She brightens when she sees him.
“Hello, Linus.” He is carrying a cat carrier. “And hello to you, too, Sava. You’ll have a fine time here with me.”
Linus smiles. “Thanks for agreeing to take him on such short notice.”
“It’ll be a treat for me. But remember, I said it was on condition that you tell me how you came to have him.”
Linus sets the carrier down and sits in the chair in front of June’s desk. June remains standing by the window not aware of the aura of beauty that the sunlight streaming in gives her. Linus, however, does notice and looks at her with amazement for a moment. She blushes slightly and sits down in her chair behind her desk.
A little flustered himself, Linus begins his story. “Right. Well, as you know, I’m a prison guard in south Jersey, and there was this prisoner who was locked up for life for murder. We were talking one day and he begged me to save his lemur. I asked him how I was supposed to do that. He said Sava had nowhere to go and he was lucky he had at least found a place for the animal at the apartment of a heroin addict friend of his. This was supposed to be temporary, the prisoner said, because an addict’s home was no place for a wild animal that is very sensitive health-wise.”
June smiles slightly at the truth of this.
“But the prisoner hadn’t heard anything from this friend about the condition of his lemur in weeks and he was afraid the man had let Sava get sick or die. Could I please go get him out of there—if he was still worth getting’? So I did. The animal was a little underfed, but still healthy. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the addict really did ignore the animal’s needs, by the looks of the man. Frankly, I’m surprised he didn’t sell the animal for his fix. That may well have been coming. Who knows? When I got home with the lemur, I clued the social services office on to him.”
He pauses and looks at the lemur in the cat carrier. “Of course, I had to get a permit to keep him. Now Sava and I are good friends and my prisoner gets regular updates on his former pet. Taking care of Sava has been a learning experience for me and I hadn’t thought of keeping him permanently. But he’s happy, and I like having him around.”
June smiles at Linus as if this story is confirmation of some feeling she had about him. “I’m very happy for Sava. She’s very lucky to have you to look out for her. . . . Tell you what. I’ll charge you half the usual fee to look after her.”
Linus smiles at her joke. “What’s that amount to?”
“Dinner when you get back.”
Linus is surprised. “I’d like that very much…. Sava’s a ‘he’ by the way.”
She crouches down to the animal’s carrier. “Sorry, Sava!” To Linus she asks, “So where are you headed?”
“Ontario, Canada,” he says. They have a recent death which fits the creature’s MO. I want to see if there’s any information we can add to our own. I’ve come to the end of what I can get from the Internet and the library. . . . How’s the DNA test coming?”
“Not done yet, of course. It’s only been overnight since I talked to you.”
“How about the search?”
“I understand they have about ten people in the field right now looking.”
“Ten?” exclaims Linus. “Well, it’s something I guess. I have a plane to catch. Thanks again for taking Sava. Here are his care instructions, he says to the primatologist.”
She laughs as he hands her a letter-sized envelope. “Watch what you say to their police, Linus. Officially, there is no creature. Capisce?”
He nods reluctantly and turns to go.
“Linus?”
He turns back. She almost says something and then hesitates and says something else. “Be careful.”
He smiles but doesn’t linger there or try to dissect what she had meant to say. “Thanks, and get some sleep! You look terrible.”
June smiles as Linus leaves.
Chapter 7
Linus walks into the reception area of a police station. The sergeant behind the desk seems young.
“Can I see the detective in charge of the Bobbie Rohan investigation?”
The sergeant looks with distrust at Linus. “You a reporter?”
“I have information I’d like to share with the detective. It may be critical to solving the case.”
The sergeant’s distrust doesn’t seem allayed. “What’s your name?”
“Linus Hather.”
The sergeant picks up the phone. “Detective, there’s a fella out here says he’s got info on the Rohan case . . . No . . . I didn’t ask . . . Okay.”
The policeman hangs up the phone. “It looks like Detective Hanson wants to see you. Behind that door there.”
Linus nods his thanks and goes to the door indicated, a wooden door with a glass top half. He knocks on the partially open door.
“Come.”
Linus walks into the small office. “Good afternoon, Detective. I’m Linus Hather.”
Hanson is broad, perhaps a few pounds heavier than Linus. His hair is short and brown. He stands up to offer his hand and it becomes apparent to Linus that this man is tall as well as broad. They shake hands.
“Have a seat, Mr. Hather. I’m always eager to get help from the community in solving a case.
What have you got?”
Linus sits in the chair in front of the Detective’s desk. “Actually, I’m not from your community. I’m from New Jersey. I read about the killing from a small article in the Haliburton Tribune. Miss Rohan’s death is similar to a few others. I’ve brought printouts of the relevant articles. One is from China, one from Argentina, and the last one there is the Haliburton Tribune article.”
Linus hands off the printouts to the detective who reads them.
“Okay. I see similarities. Are you suggesting that my suspect is flying all over God’s creation killing people indiscriminately?”
“No. But you’ll probably prefer that explanation to the one I’m about to give you.”
Linus gives the man a moment to respond. Hanson raises his eyebrows impatiently, and Linus continues. “Your suspect in these cases is not a man. It’s an animal. Different individuals, of course, but the same species.”
The detective is surprised but he smiles. “Animal?! Where’d you ever get an idea like that?”
“I know it’s hard to believe, Detective, but that’s what it is. I’ve seen it. It was trapped in my house for ten hours. What you are looking for is a short, hairy hominid with a retractable lance, a needle really.”
When Hanson hears Linus mention the needle his attention becomes keen, though he has been ready to throw the man out on his ears. “A needle?”
He puts up his hand forestalling Linus’ answer. Hanson doesn’t want to give in to the ridiculous story too easily. “Why would you fly all the way up here from New Jersey with some cockamamie story about homicidal ape men? . . . When did you get into town?”
Linus is unruffled. “Today.”
“Got any proof of that?”
Linus reaches into his jacket pocket and throws his plane tickets on the desk. Hanson looks at them carefully and hands them back unapologetically. “And your ID?”
“If you call Dr. Jay Miele at Rutgers University, he will vouch for my story.” Linus hands him a slip of paper with Jay’s number on it and his driver’s license. Hanson looks at the paper with suspicion.
“Frankly, I shouldn’t even bother, and I wouldn’t normally, but it’s a slow day.”
He picks up the phone and dials. “Dr. Miele, hello. This is Detective Hanson in Haliburton County, Ontario. I have somebody here who says you can vouch for a story of his . . . Yes, that’s him. May I ask what are you a doctor of and where? . . . Biology, I see and Rutgers. What’s this about a short, hairy hominid with a retractable needle? . . . Previously undiscovered species. Um hmm . . . mm hmm . . . Okay for now, Dr. Miele. I may need to talk to you again. . . . Yep, bye now.”
The detective grabs his chin in a gesture of consternation as he hangs up the phone.
“Okay. Let’s assume for a moment that this is on the up and up. What’s your interest in it?”
“I wanna give you all the information I have. I observed this creature up close and personal for almost eleven hours, trapped in my basement. I’ve researched it for the past two days. I’m offering you all the information I have for anything you have got in the way of evidence. Anything to add to the creature’s MO. There’s one loose in New Jersey. It’s killed and I’d like to see it caught . . . again.”
Detective Hanson’s sigh signals that he is resigned to at least following up on this lead. Up to this point in the Rohan investigation he’s had nothing. “Okay. We exchange information.”
›
A short time later a police cruiser drives up a wooded driveway and parks near the small cabin that used to be Bobbie Rohan’s full-time home. Linus and Detective Hanson get out of the car.
“I can see why someone would want to live out here,” Linus says. “Peaceful and beautiful.”
“It usually is,” responds the detective. “Like I said, there’s not much to see. There’s no forensic evidence that we can find at all. The window in the living room was unlocked,” he points at the window, “but closed when we got here. The killer probably came in and went through it. We dusted it for prints, but nothing.”
Linus heads over to inspect it. He makes as if to open it and then looks at Hanson to see if it’s all right.
“I have to go inside and unlock it,” says the detective.
He pulls down the yellow police tape on the front door and uses a key to open the door. The detective goes inside and undoes the window lock for Linus. Linus pushes up on the window. It is difficult to push up but he does so somewhat noisily.
“It’s pretty difficult,” says Linus. “And the racket would surely wake up all but the deepest sleepers.”
“Hmm,” agrees Hanson. “Try it a little slower this time, like you had all the time in the world, which you do in these parts.”
Hanson shoves the window back down. Linus again attempts to lift the window, slower and more quietly this time. To do so, he must do it very slowly. Finally, he gets it up and speaks through it to the detective.
“This creature is patient if nothing else.”
“Whoever it was had all night.”
Linus nods and then walks around to the open door. The detective closes and locks the window again.
“Can I see where she was killed?”
Detective Hanson nods and leads the way to the bedroom. It is small, and simply furnished with just a bed and four drawer dresser. Linus looks at the door knob as he goes into the room.
“Nothing unusual in here,” says Hanson. “She was killed in the bed. The windows were locked. She was lying in bed in her nightgown, bedspread over her. She didn’t seem to have suffered.”
“And you say she had a spot of dried blood on her chest?”
“Yeah. The medical examiner found it. Thought it was a pin prick or something minor like that.”
Linus leaves the bedroom for the kitchen. He looks at the table, the windows, the sink and finally the refrigerator. He looks at it and motions to it with his head.
“Mind if I peek inside?”
Hanson raises an eyebrow, but says, “Go ahead. You’d make an interesting detective, Mr. Hather. What do you do?”
As he looks inside the fridge, Linus responds. “Prison guard. Maximum security facility in south New Jersey.”
“No kidding? Why didn’t you tell me? You might have had me on your side sooner.”
Linus smiles. “I’ll remember that next time.”
“We cleared that refrigerator out yesterday,” the detective mentions. “Didn’t seem to be much sense leaving the food in there, don’t you think?”
Linus gets up from his inspection of the refrigerator and looks at Hanson. “I wanna thank you for having an open mind about this, Detective. As I said before, this creature made the same attempt on me, right down to the climb through the window. My window, however, was locked…. Anyway, thanks for taking me out here.”
The detective makes a move toward the door. “I don’t know if it’s done any good, but you’re welcome. With your pictures of the creature and Professor Miele’s faxed statement, at least I have somewhere to start.”
“How far can you get on foot in three days?” asks Linus.
“Maybe a hundred miles in any direction.”
“That’s a lot of area to cover,” says Linus. “Listen, I’m sorry to abandon you, but I have to catch a plane to China. There’s been a similar killing there. I’ll let you know if I get any useful information.”
The two men take a last look at the cabin and climb into the police cruiser. “At this point anything will be helpful. I’d like very much to prevent this from happening again.”
“It is a dangerous creature, Detective. Unfortunately we don’t know how often it kills. It may travel five hundred miles before killing again for all we know.”
The car drives away, down a forested and peaceful rural road. It is a little less peaceful to these two men who know there is a killer hiding among the trees.
Chapter 8
A small rental car pulls up to the iron-gated entrance of the Neijiang Teachers
College in Sichuan Province, China. Linus speaks with a security guard at the gate who lets Linus drive onto the campus when he tells him who he is going to see. Linus parks in a visitor parking area in front of the main entrance and gets out of the car. He looks at his watch and sees that it is 4:00. He is on time for his meeting with Mei Yuan, an English teacher at the school.
After a few minutes of waiting in the reception area, Mei Yuan arrives smiling. She is taller and more apparently Western in her attire than the receptionist as a result of having studied at Columbia University in New York City. Linus stands up as she walks in and shakes her hand.
“Mr. Hather?” she asks.
“Ni hao,” says Linus, the Chinese greeting being very nearly the only words he knows in the language. “They gave me your name down at the police station in Xiongjiawan as someone who would be able to translate for me in speaking with them.”
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Hather. I am Mei Yuan. Yes, I can help translate for you. That would be 40 RMB per hour for the service. Can I ask what your business is with the police?”
“I’m looking into the death of an old woman near Xiongjiawan. I want to share some information I have with the investigating detective, and hopefully get some information as well.”
Mei Yuan smiles. “Well, okay. As long as it’s not you who’s in trouble. I’m an English teacher, not a lawyer. Let me grab my bag and we can go.”
Linus smiles and watches with interest as the attractive woman leaves the reception area walking down the hall to her office, her heels loudly click clicking.