“They’re special forces,” Devon said, sitting back on her heels. “They work for McCallum. No wonder they arrived here so quickly the other day.”
“They were already in the area?” Arthur said.
“Exactly,” Devon said. “And they’re the ones who mutilated and dumped the bodies. I knew Nessie had nothing to do with that.”
“So what was the point?” Arthur asked. “Why go to all of that trouble and then shoot Nessie and her babies? Doesn’t that defeat the point of all of this?”
“No,” Devon said with a shake of her head. “It’s genius. But sick. He’s even more of a bastard than I thought he was.”
“Lass?” Arthur asked.
Devon gave a disbelieving laugh and sat back down in her chair.
“Of course,” she said. “It’s so obvious.”
“Not to me Devon,” Arthur said.
“It’s all been a marketing scam,” Devon said. “Bringing me up here. Setting those bodies up to be found, making them look like they were killed by an animal. Leaking it to the press. I mean, he said it himself, the new resort’s the talk of the town, hell the entire world. It’s booked solid for weeks and it’s not even finished yet.” She sat bolt upright. “That sick twisted bastard! He used me!”
“If you’re right he’s used us all,” Arthur said. “But what about the other night? That wasn’t a plan, was it?”
“No…” Devon said. “No. It couldn’t have been. McCallum sounded just as surprised and scared as the rest of us. He didn’t actually think the Loch Ness Monster was real. Hell, he still doesn’t. Nothing was actually supposed to happen but he’s smart enough to work with a change of plan like that.”
“So he tries to fake a Loch Ness Monster,” Arthur said slowly, “but ends up bringing out the real one?”
“Of course he did,” Devon said. “He had to make everything look convincing. That meant he needed to actually act as though he were luring the monster in. Nothing was supposed to appear. Then when it did he leapt at the chance and ordered the special forces to fire.” She stopped. “Oh that bastard! That sick, sick bastard.”
“What?” Arthur asked. “What about that press conference earlier though? If he’s saying Nessie’s dead no one’s going to come and look for her are they? His hotel’s pretty much ruined now.”
“No, I don’t think so,” Devon said. “He’s probably got a plan or something that means in a few weeks Nessie will be sighted again and everyone will come rushing back to see the creature that survived death. It’s so wrong.”
“And he brought you in to make it all seem more real,” Arthur stated. “What are you going to do? Go home?”
“No,” Devon said, firm and steady. “I already knew he was just using me. I have a different plan in mind.”
Devon spent the next few hours, after talking to Arthur and watching the video, in the hotel bar, sipping at drinks and stewing over what she had discovered. She had known she was being used, she had known that McCallum wasn’t being totally honest. But she had still been surprised to discover the depths of his deception. She found herself wondering about the bodies, where they had come from, who the men had been before they were killed, why no one had come forward to claim them. It was just another part of the mystery around what was going on at the loch. Another mystery began to emerge as she sat there in the bar though, listening to the conversations going on around her.
“Did you hear?” one of the regulars said to Helen after a few drinks. “Those special forces blokes set up camps all around the loch.”
“Aye,” another spoke up. “They’re paying good money to camp on my land. They’re saying they want to make sure they find all the remains of the creature.”
“Bullshit,” the first cried out. “I was there the other night, I saw what happened. They didn’t kill Nessie, she killed them. She’s still out there, they’re just making sure no one can get close enough to say otherwise.”
“McCallum said they killed her,” the second argued. “He put it all over the world.”
“He’s full of crap,” the first man said. “We all know he lies his arse off when he needs to. And right now he needs to. Doesn’t want to admit he got a load of men killed without any results.”
“I don’t know Angus,” the second man said. “I saw the blood on the lake the next day. They definitely killed something.”
“Probably a bird,” Angus said. “They get everywhere. Half my crops get eaten by those pests every year.”
After that they started to discuss the problems of birds on the loch and the havoc they caused. Devon blocked them out and turned to her notes. Arthur had sketched her a map of the loch and marked down spots where he’d seen McCallum’s men dumping the bodies. It was on the opposite side of the loch, far from where the bodies had been found. They must have somehow drifted all the way around. He really had been crafty about it all. Helen brought her a drink over.
“Helen?” Devon said quietly. “Where on the loch are the men that Angus was talking about? McCallum’s special force blokes?”
“The special forces camp?” Helen asked. She saw the map and pointed at a spot on it. “About here I think. Jeff saw another here as well.” She pointed at another spot on the map. “There may be more. Want me to ask around love?”
“Please,” Devon said with a smile. She marked down the points that Helen had pointed out. “Don’t be too obvious though, I don’t want McCallum to know I know.”
Helen cocked her head to one side and tried to work her head around what Devon had just said. Eventually she nodded and smiled.
“Mum’s the word love,” Helen said.
She turned and walked away. Devon watched her go. Then her phone beeped. It was a voice mail message. Devon frowned at the screen, she didn’t recognise the number that it had come from. She called her answerphone anyway and listened to the message.
“Doctor Childs,” a familiar voice said. Devon groaned. “Jim McCallum here. I want you to stay around a little longer and see if you can find out more about what we found in the lake. I know you’re not happy with what I’ve done but it had to be done. We’ve got results and everything is going great. Once I release your report about what it was that we shot then we’ll be world famous and so will you. Keep things up and there’ll be an even bigger pay check in your future.”
Devon growled and almost deleted the message. She stopped though, her thumb mere millimetres from the relevant button. While he hadn’t said anything overly incriminating combined with the information that she already had, she actually had a chance of exposing McCallum for what he was. A lying cheating bastard who used people for his own end. She saved the message. Then she returned to her research. It looked like she was going to be here for even longer.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Rumours kept coming about more camps for the special forces guys over the next few days. Helen helped gather as much information as she could and Arthur kept bringing more detailed descriptions of each one to Devon. Some of the other villagers, the ones who had doubted McCallum and still did, came to Devon and told her what they knew about the camps. Two days after she had seen the footage of the special forces men dumping the bodies into the loch, Devon had a map of the loch that was ringed in red crosses, each one marking the site of a camp. They really had surrounded the entire lake. Word had it as well that they were chasing away anyone who got too close.
There were more rumours as well, rumours of some of the camps being abandoned or completely destroyed. Several villagers shared stories in the bar about seeing several of the man piling in to a car and driving very quickly out of the area. Arthur hadn’t been able to confirm those rumours though. He had claimed to have hatched a plan to find out for sure however and he’d borrowed some of her equipment to do it.
“Dr. Childs,” Jeff called through her door that afternoon. “Arthur’s here to see you again. Says he’s got more news.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “Show him up.”
&
nbsp; Arthur rushed into the room before she’d even finished speaking. His face was alight with excitement and a broad smile. He clutched two of her cameras in his hands.
“We’ve got it,” he said, his voice low but still excited. “We’ve got more proof.”
He shoved the cameras into Devon’s hands and sat down on the seat by the window. He looked at her expectantly before she turned and plugged the first camera into the tv she’d had brought to her room.
The screen was dark at first, just a few lights flashing back and forth. Then the camera adjusted and turned on its own night vision filter. There was a camp, tents and jeeps surrounding a circular space in the middle. In the background she could see the splashing of the loch against the shore. Amongst the tents there were people moving around and the occasional flash of a torch from within the nearby trees showed up even more men keeping watch. Everything seemed quiet and she sat for a few minutes just watching the same scene play out, with only slight movement from the men in the camp.
“You’re gonna want to fast forward lass,” Arthur said, “until the two am mark.”
Devon did as Arthur said and fast forwarded the video, pressing play again moments before the clock in the corner of the screen clicked over to two in the morning.
“Ok,” Arthur said. “Watch the shoreline.”
Devon leaned forwards, her eyes locked on the points of the video where she could see the water lapping against the shore. Everything seemed normal, the same as it had been all night for a few minutes. And then there was a shadow. Something emerged from the water and disappeared into the trees. Devon stopped, paused the video and looked at Arthur.
“Keep watching,” he urged her. “Keep watching!”
She pressed play again and kept watching. The shadow re-emerged. There was the crashing of metal, tearing of material, shouts and screaming from the men. The shadow kept moving, dashing between tents. It moved awkwardly, almost as though it were limping or dragging itself along. On one end of the shape a long thin tube dashed from side to side, slamming into anything that got in its way. Men went flying. On the other end was another tube, thicker and shorter. It too whipped from side to side but it was more flexible, with better control. The night vision filter couldn’t show it clearly, there were too many lights flashing around, the spotlights that were turned on making the picture blur and the image go out of focus. Everything was white washed.
The crashing and screaming continued though. The shadow moved around. Devon saw the flashing of eyes at one end. She heard car doors slam, screeching brakes and roaring engines. The sounds died down eventually. The screen was still not clear. Devon leaned forward, as though trying to clear the image with just the force of her mind. The creature, for she was sure that it was a creature now, leaned forwards and sniffed at the tattered tents and upturned tables that she had caused. It roared, ferocious, and then let out a bellow that was filled with sadness. It turned and shuffled back to the loch, disappearing into the waters with barely a ripple. The video kept playing, showing only out of focus destruction and the crackling of branches.
“Arthur,” Devon said. “Was that…?”
“Aye girl,” Arthur interrupted her. “That was Nessie.”
“So that’s the reason the camps have been clearing out then,” she said. “Those men might be special forces but an angry momma monster can still scare the crap out of them.”
“They’ve realised what they’ve done,” Arthur said quietly. “Likely McCallum told them the creature wasn’t real so they thought they’d have an easy time of it, pretending to hunt something that wasn’t there and sitting on their arses most of the time. Now they realise she’s real and she’s angry, they’re thinking twice.”
“Sucks to be them,” Devon said. “Do you think any of them will talk to me?”
“Doubt it,” Arthur said. “These men have been trained to stay quiet. They might not agree with what they’re doing but I bet McCallum’s paid them enough that they won’t talk.”
“Crap,” Devon hissed. She sat back with a sigh. “Oh well, at least I’ve got something to go on. I’ll send the video down to Danny, see if she can fix it up at all. She’s got a few people who owe her favours.”
“Is that a good idea?” Arthur asked. “They could talk, leak it to the press. It’ll be that circus all over again and McCallum could bring in some really, really big guns.”
Devon sat and looked at Arthur. For the first time she saw how affected he really was by all of this. His face was pale and ashen. His eyes were dull and red-rimmed. He seemed not to have slept for days and there were creases on his skin that hadn’t been there when she had first met him.
“You might be right,” Devon said. “We’ll sit on this for now. The last thing we need is McCallum ordering another attempt to capture the creature. Who knows what he’d do next.”
“Man’s madder than a bag of pigs,” Arthur said.
A knock came at the door. Devon scrambled to turn off the tv and hurried over to the door.
“Who is it?” she called.
“Chief McIntyre,” the man on the other side replied. “I’m sorry to disturb you Doctor Childs but there’s something we need you to take a look at. I’m afraid there’s been some more deaths….”
“I’ll be right there,” Devon said. She turned to Arthur. “Take that tape and hide it somewhere safe. Try and make a copy if you can and leave it here in my room. Helen will let you in if you ask.” She paused and thought. “And see if she’ll take a copy as well, keep it in the hotel safe. I can’t see any nosy reporters or McCallum’s men getting past her.”
“Aye,” Arthur said with a firm nod. “Helen’s a terrifying banshee of a lady but she’s a good woman, she’ll help us if we need it.”
“Good,” Devon said. “Now, I better go and see what sort of death and destruction I’ve got to deal with this time.”
She grabbed her bag and made to leave the room. As she passed through the doorway Arthur called after her.
“Tenner says it’s something to do with Nessie?”
“I’m not taking that bet,” she called back. “Not on your life.”
By the time she arrived at the crime scene, having gotten a ride in the front of a police car for the first time in her life she was glad that she hadn’t. It was another of the special forces camps, a little smaller than the one on the video and much closer to the loch. The destruction was massive though, parts of the camp were strewn across the field it had been made in. She could see forensics officers with tape measures measuring how far some of the pieces had travelled.
“This isn’t pretty Dr. Childs,” McIntyre said as he led her through the destruction. “I’ll understand if you want to walk away. But I think you really do need to see this.”
“I think I’ll manage,” Devon said confidently.
She wasn’t so sure though once she entered one of the white tents dotted around the area. Even the coroner looked a little green and as Devon looked over the masked and suited man’s shoulder she soon realised why. The bodies barely resembled bodies any more. As far as she could tell there were at least three men there, possibly more. They had essentially been flattened. Bits of bones poked through skin and the entire mass was covered in a thin red film. Intestines had burst through stomachs, smearing their contents over everything and the entire tent reeked with the stench of half-digested food.
“I think you can see why we needed you,” the Chief said, a handkerchief muffling his voice. “Short of a bulldozer or steam roller I can’t think of anything man-made that could have done this.”
“That’s because it wasn’t a person or machine who did this,” Devon said.
She knelt down beside the mass of bodies. She gently poked around with a gloved hand and a pair of forceps. She hummed in satisfaction as she pulled out a scale, holding it up to the light for the investigators to photograph.
“I’ve seen something similar to this before,” she said, getting back to her feet. “In Africa. I
was hunting for a Massai creature they believed was kidnapping tourists and children. Just down from where we were camped one night was a bunch of American teenagers, sightseeing and bush camping. Their guide tried to tell them to keep it down in the evening but they decided they wanted to go swimming at the river. Unfortunately for them it was home to about thirty hippos, one a massive three ton bull. He didn’t take kindly to naked humans invading his territory and he ran three of them down before they could escape. He rolled on top of them, mashing them together. They looked very similar to this after he was done.”
“A hippo?” Chief McIntyre said. “You think a hippo did this?”
“No,” Devon said. “But something big, and heavy did. I’m not sure what though.”
McIntyre nodded and beckoned for her to leave the tent. She followed him out and back across the crime scene, to his car. Once inside he sighed but didn’t turn the engine on.
“Tell me honestly Devon,” he said. “Was this Nessie?”
“It depends,” she said.
“On what?” he said.
“On who I’m talking to,” Devon said. “Chief McIntyre who tries to do the right thing by everyone, or Chief McIntyre who wants to keep the Mayor happy.”
“Does it matter?” he asked.
She turned and looked at him, right in the eye. He sighed and rested his head on his arms, dangling over the steering wheel.
“You’re talking to Doug,” he said quietly after the silence had stretched out for long minutes. “You’re talking to the man who lives in this town and wants to keep people safe but also thinks that McCallum’s up to something and isn’t telling us.”
Devon looked at him again, staring at him. Finally, she nodded.
“Ok. It is Nessie,” she said. “I told you that McCallum had her babies killed. Well now she’s getting revenge.”
“I thought so,” McIntyre said. “We’ve got camps like this all around the loch. Some of the bodies are worse, completely torn apart and then mushed up. Some it looks like the special forces guys got out before she could do more than hurt them a little. And some of the camps we’ve been getting reports of being completely abandoned, like they just got up and left in the middle of the night. They didn’t even take their weapons with them, just got in the cars and scarpered.”
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