by Glenn Rolfe
She was startled when her phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Mel. It’s Joe. I didn’t wake you, did I?”
Her heart fluttered. Nervous and excited, not to mention surprised, she tried hard not to let any of those emotions through with her response. “No, I was just watching—”
“Halloween on AMC?”
“Yes! How did you know?”
“I was watching it myself and I remembered you talking at the café about this Fear Friday thing on AMC a couple weeks ago. Truth be told, I’m just glad they’re not showing The Howling.”
“What, you don’t like werewolf movies? Don’t tell me you bought into any of that crazy wolfman shit that Old Mike used to spout off about?”
There was silence from the other end of the line.
“Sheriff?” Melanie said. “Are you still there?”
“Joe,” he finally said. “You can call me Joe. And, yeah, I’m still here. Truth is, or, rather, the reason I was calling was to, uh…”
She found his vulnerability appealing.
“Mel,” he continued, “I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind having company. That is, if you might want someone to watch the movie with.”
“Yeah, I think I’d love that,” she said.
“Great. Should I come over? Or, do you want to swing over here?”
“Either way is fine with me,” she said. “Is Sonya home?”
“No, she’s over at her friend’s for the night. Tell you what, how about I swing over to your place? I can grab us something from Anthony’s on the way. If you’re hungry, that is?”
“If you just want to grab some beers, I finished off the couple I had in my fridge a little earlier. I’ve got some chips and dip here.”
“I’ll stop at Anthony’s, then head right over,” he said.
“You’d better hurry. Michael just rolled into Haddonfield in that sweet station wagon. You don’t want to miss any of the good stuff.”
“I’ll throw up the cherry top and be there before Laurie gets out of school,” he said.
“See you in fifteen, then?”
“Make it ten.”
Melanie hung up the phone. She couldn’t believe what just happened. What was about to happen.
Joe Fischer had just asked to come over. They had been flirting for years, but she never expected that he’d ever make a move. She’d always been attracted to him, and since she asked him to talk to Stan Springs, they had gotten a little closer, she thought. She felt like he was protecting her.
Lights appeared on the far wall, casting down from the ceiling. Someone was in her driveway.
He couldn’t have gotten here that quick.
Melanie hopped up. She was only wearing bikini bottoms. That might be a little too much. She didn’t want to make the guy uncomfortable.
She ran to her bedroom and threw on the short red running shorts she’d been wearing earlier. She considered putting on a T-shirt, but then thought better of it. She looked great in a tank top. She smiled to herself as she went to the front door.
She drew the curtain back. The smile fell from her face.
Stan Springs sat in his old Ford pickup. He had the interior light on and was wearing the crooked smile of the Cheshire Cat on his leathered face as he watched Melanie Murdock appear, then quickly disappear behind the light-blue curtain that graced her front door. He imagined her surprise, her shock, her fear.
His smile grew. So did his hard-on. How he’d love to go teach that bitch a lesson. He was nearly salivating at the mere thought. She didn’t want him in her shitty, little café; let’s see how she’d like him between those big tits she always flaunted.
Melanie cupped her hands over her mouth. Stan Springs was sitting in her driveway in a pickup truck; she didn’t even know he had a vehicle. He was just out there, staring at her house with his dome light on so that she could see who it was. If he was trying to intimidate her, it was fucking working.
Where are you, Joe?
He’ll be here any minute, she answered herself.
What if that crazy son of a bitch gets out of his truck? What then?
She crouched down behind her door. Then she was compelled to get back up and make sure Springs was still in his truck.
On the television, Michael Myers stood behind a row of tall bushes. He waited for the girls he would later torment. The irony was not lost on Melanie.
Just as she climbed to her feet, she heard the truck start. The engine roared over and over again. All the while, the dome light remained on as she watched his wicked smile.
Come on, Joe. Please. Get here fast.
Stan Springs observed Melanie Murdock through her window. She’d get hers, but not tonight. No, tonight wasn’t quite right. He put the truck in Reverse and pulled out of the driveway. He’d be back, sooner than later. Soon enough, the full moon would return. That should set the ambiance perfectly.
“Good night, bitch,” he muttered.
Stan drove away into the blackness of the night.
Melanie sighed, relieved, but completely petrified by what she had just witnessed. What did he want? What was he going to do?
She was shaking when Joe’s Range Rover pulled into the driveway almost five minutes later. Throwing open the front door, she ran to him.
Chapter Twenty
“I’m gonna go do a loop around town, unless you want to do it?” said Deputy Shelly Glescoe to Deputy Hines. She needed a reason to vacate the too-sticky, too-quiet confines of the Gilson Creek Police Station. The humidity was horrible. She was sweating and felt like she needed a shower.
She’d been watching Randy try not to fall asleep at his desk. He looked awful. He hadn’t been the same since last weekend. He seemed tense, quiet, moody. Rita told her he’d even pulled his gun earlier this week on a guy asking about the animal attacks Her only two-way conversations tonight had come from the part-time dispatcher, Earl Penny. Earl was on with them until four in the morning.
Earl, the part-time dispatcher wasn’t much of a talker unless you got him going on about Elvis, but overall he was nice. He was short and bald, wore thick glasses and smelled a little like molasses. He reminded Shelly of her papaw.
She waited a few seconds longer for Deputy Hines to respond, as her question just seemed to float out across the room under a cloak of invisibility. “Randy?”
He looked up, rubbed his temples and said, “Sorry, Glescoe. I’ve been battling a migraine for the last couple of hours. Yeah, go on out.”
“All right, I’m heading out. Earl, you feel free to give me a shout if you need me.”
Earl looked up from his Tom Clancy novel and responded with a simple, “Ay-yuh.”
She took one last glance at Hines. He kept his face toward the work laid out before him. Shelly turned, grabbed the keys off her desk and headed to the doors. She wondered if it was a headache or if something else was bothering him. He was a private guy. Maybe his mother was ill or something. She would have to try to drag it out of him. Maybe when she got back.
“Shelly?” Deputy Hines called out.
She stopped in the doorway. “Yeah?”
“You have your shotgun, right?”
“Yes.”
“Just making sure. Sheriff’s orders. Holler if you need me.”
Deputy Randy Hines couldn’t get through his pile of paperwork. His head was killing him. Migraines ran in his family. They’d gotten worse since last weekend. No matter how much he tried he couldn’t stop seeing the bodies. Old Mike’s half-eaten chest, the poor Rowel guy’s face. Joe hadn’t broached the subject yet, but he knew. Just like in his dreams, just like in the crappy paper—the beast had returned.
“You okay?” Earl said. “You look a little pale.”
“Just need some Advil or something.”
“I got some Ale
ve up here. Why don’t you take a couple and go lie down on the cot out back? I’ll come get ya if Shelly calls.”
“I think I might take you up on that, Earl. Thanks.” Randy didn’t think he’d be able to sleep. He hadn’t been able to the last few nights, without alcohol, but the drugs might work on the migraine. The beast, not so much.
Shelly Glescoe originally planned to swing through downtown first, to check on Gil’s and the general store, but decided instead that she would go out to the quieter parts of town beforehand. She loved patrolling those quiet areas of town after dark. There was something comforting and almost serene about crawling down rural roads, past the homes of people she knew, and for the most part liked, making sure they were okay. She felt a bit like a mother keeping a watchful eye over her children.
Dwayne would make a great father someday. She was in love with him, though she had yet to say it aloud. She was sure he felt the same way, and she really wanted him to say it first. Childish? Maybe, but that’s just how she felt about it. They had been seeing each other, a lot of each other, for the better part of the last four months.
They had thought they were being sly about it too, but the sheriff put that poor theory to bed a few weeks ago. He didn’t say he knew they were an item, he didn’t have to. It was the way he addressed them when they were together that implied they should behave themselves and remain professional. She knew the sheriff didn’t exactly agree with the relationship. Hell, they both knew going into it that it could get very complicated, but so far, so good.
She was supposed to give Dwayne a call tonight after her first patrol. She had assured him she could take care of herself, but it was nice to have him worry. She decided to turn back toward town and see about meeting up with Dwayne. There wouldn’t be anything happening out here tonight—there never was. She turned around in the first driveway she came upon and headed for Brighton Circle.
Deputy Randy Hines had just returned to his desk when the sheriff’s call came in.
“Deputy Hines,” Earl bellowed from the dispatch desk. “Sheriff’s on the phone.”
“Hines.”
“Randy, I need you to come out to Mel Murdock’s place. It seems Stan Springs paid her a visit.”
Hines ran his fingers through his short blond hair. “Can’t you get Glescoe? She’s out patrolling right now.”
“If I wanted Shelly over here, I would have called her. I called you, Randy.”
Randy rubbed his temples and responded, “I’ll be right over.” He hung up the phone, grabbed his keys from the desk and nodded to Earl on his way out.
Within minutes, Deputy Hines pulled his cruiser up alongside the sheriff’s Range Rover. Hines, with his window rolled down, waited behind the wheel as the sheriff approached. “Sheriff,” he said.
“Randy, I need you to head over to Stan’s place and see if he’s there.”
“Do you want me to bring him in?”
“No, just go out and see if his truck is there. Don’t step foot on his property, you hear me? If the truck is there, hang back and watch for a little while.”
“Sheriff, I’m not scared of that old bastard. Let me go talk to him.”
“Trust me, Randy, you should be. I’m not sure what’s going on with him lately, maybe it’s all this…”
Mel was sitting on the porch steps listening.
“Like I said, you are not to set foot on his property unless instructed to do so, you hear me?”
“Yes, Sheriff.”
“Good. Call me on my cell once you confirm whether he’s there or not.” Joe lowered his voice. “Mel’s asked me to stay with her. She’s pretty shaken up and I don’t blame her. You can reach me on my cell.”
“Okay, Sheriff.”
Deputy Hines backed out of Melanie Murdock’s driveway and headed out toward Old Gilson Creek Road.
Randy Hines parked his cruiser just down the road from Stan Springs’s driveway. The truck was there, all right. If the old man left his property, he would see him.
Hines didn’t like being out on Old Gilson Creek Road or Christie Road this late at night. The body of Brian Rowel passed through his mind and sent a chill up his spine. Since the night of Deputy Brett Curry’s demise, Hines had made it his business to know what nights the full moon fell on and the next one was only a few weeks away.
Whenever he was stuck on third shift, like he was tonight, he’d sit outside of Gil’s Tavern, parked in one of the darker corners of the parking lot, listening to sports talk radio rather than driving out here. He’d never told anyone that he was afraid or uncomfortable with patrolling either of the outer roads. It was a secret he chose to keep to himself. He only drew about two night shifts a month anyway. He didn’t see the sense in going out to the edge of a usually quiet town, or the harm in pretending that he had.
And now, here he was. Joe was supposed to be the closest connection to Stan in this town. Hines had seen the man he used to call sheriff many times since his return from the loony bin a couple years back. He was a grizzled mess. How does that happen to a man? Would it happen to me?
In his mind, Randy saw Old Mike’s severed arm, all the blood and the half-devoured chest.
Despite the fact that he’d been staked out in front of Stan Springs’s house for only a few minutes, Deputy Hines started up his car and headed back toward the station.
Stan Springs crouched just out of sight behind an old decrepit tree near the rear of Deputy Hines’s cruiser. His teeth lit up with the red of the brake lights, making his off-kilter grin look as though it were filled with blood. He stood up as he watched the car pull away.
He couldn’t wait to return to the house of Melanie Murdock. That bitch was going to wish that she had kept to minding her own goddamn business. And maybe that useless little shit, Alex McKinney, would be next. They would all be wishing they’d left him alone.
Stan walked down his driveway, made his way around the far corner of his home and headed out into his backyard. He looked into the blackness of the forest before him, remembering the fear he had once felt while looking out upon this dead piece of earth.
He laughed to himself. It was a dead, joyless laugh. He stepped onto the soft soil with his bare feet and walked into the forest and its nocturnal bliss.
Deputy Glescoe pulled up in front of Gil’s Tavern to a few hoots and whistles from the drunk and the dumb. “Thanks, guys. Any of you driving tonight?”
They all mumbled and moaned.
Dwayne slipped into the passenger seat. “Hey. How’s the late shift going?”
She wanted to kiss him, but the drunken crew was still watching. “Good. Quiet. Just the way I like it.”
“I thought you liked it rough?”
“Behave yourself. How much have you had to drink tonight?”
“Me? Couple of drinks.”
“We did have one incident a little while ago.”
“What was that?”
“Joe called Randy to go check on Stan Springs.”
“What? Why?”
“I guess he stopped in Mel’s driveway. Tried to intimidate her or something.”
“Weird.”
“What?”
“He was here when I got here tonight. I even talked to him.”
“Really? What did he say? What was he like?”
“He was…kind of dark. He was asking about the animal attacks. Asked what Joe’s line was?”
“Joe’s line?”
“Yeah, something to do with the other mountain lion attacks back in ’97.”
“That is weird. Mel’s okay, Randy’s checking on Springs. Seems like we’ve got it under control for the night. Why don’t you let me give you a ride home?”
“Sure. Let me run in and pay my tab.”
She watched him go inside and thought about the ex-sheriff. She wondered if last weekend’s full moon h
ad made everybody crazy.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Fourth of July came and went without a hitch. In the two and a half weeks since the last full moon, Joe’s head was pulled in a million different directions. His mandated 9:00 p.m. curfew caused a few sparks to fly among the twenty-somethings and a few of the parents in town, but most of his community understood. No one wanted to be the next Old Mike.
Sonya split her time with either Alex or Kim. They’d barely had the opportunity to speak. He’d loosened the reins. He knew she wasn’t going to be happy about being locked down later this week, but there was no way he was going to allow her out with what was coming.
Stan Springs’s odd drive-by at Mel’s house seemed to be a one-time thing. He hadn’t been by her home or the café since, though Gil had mentioned that he’d been drinking and talking to himself at the tavern most nights. So long as he wasn’t bothering other people, Joe didn’t mind. Gil agreed.
The relationship between Mel and him was another complicating piece to the puzzle. The timing was far from ideal, but without her company on his free nights, he probably would have already cracked. Part of him still struggled with sleeping with her. He knew it was dumb, but he felt like he was cheating on Lucy.
Sonya had walked in on them kissing during one of her stops home for money. She’d smiled and winked at him. His daughter’s acceptance meant a lot to him, and to Mel.
The biggest pains in Joe’s ass over the past few weeks had been the bored shitheads at the Crypto Insider. They continued to try and get him to feed them something over the phone for their rag. Rita explained what Randy had done when they showed up that first day while he was out. Joe was certain they wouldn’t dare come back to the station, but, still, the phone calls were relentless.