Thursday morning a call came to Doctor Sawyer regarding a pipeline incident. She traveled by helicopter into Canada to a small building built into the side of a rock face. When she arrived she viewed a makeshift morgue with a man lying on a table for autopsy. She walked over to the man who had only his head visible. It was an older man of roughly 45 years whose hair was starting to gray. Dr. Sawyer pulled back the sheet and looked at the man’s wounds. There were tears at his throat on one side that were covered by blood with deeper tears along his torso.
“Where was he found?” The doctor said to no one in particular.
Two men had accompanied her into the room. One of them, Carl Banks, said, “on the side of the pipeline at Junction R6.”
The doctor picked up the water hose and washed the dead man’s neck to get a better look at the punctures. She went to a drawer and pulled out a long metal rod that resembled a toothpick. She placed it in one of the punctures and measured the depth with a ruler. She then measured the other and compared the two, “almost an inch deep each.” She turned the man’s head from side to side, “these are not from a big cat, a wild dog, nor a wolf.” Sawyer next examined the man’s torso cuts. “These look more like a bear’s claws than anything I can think of. Put out a warning to the rest of the men and label it as a bear attack. I will have him transferred to Seattle where an in-depth autopsy can be performed. For now, let’s keep it quiet so we don’t panic everyone.”
“All right, Doctor,” said Carl who had spoken earlier to the middle-aged woman.
“Doctor, any other animal capable of ripping up a man like this?” The other man asked.
“Well, Jim, I’ve seen some of everything out in the world and I have yet to find an explanation for most. We will assume it is a stray bear for now. Perhaps he is lost or disoriented somehow and is simply hunting for food. Arm the men and have patrols going night and day.”
“We will, Doc.” Carl said with apprehension in his voice. He liked Doctor Sawyer but saw nothing simple about a bear hunting people. “While you are here, Doc, do you mind taking a look at something we found a while back?”
“What is that?” asked Sawyer.
The doctor was motioned to a freezer in the back.
“We are under orders to keep it quiet, but with this new attack . . .” he shook his head.
They walked inside the freezer and toward the back the men stopped and uncovered a body wrapped in plastic. The doctor shook her head with great sadness. “My god! What the hell happened?” The body had been torn up so bad that no one wanted to view the body for an extended amount of time.
“That is Lester Platt.”
“Les?” asked Sawyer. She put her hand to her chin, she then knelt to examine the distorted facial features. She sighed. “I know him. He is from my old school. As a matter of fact, we have a mutual friend that might be able to help.”
“Who is that, Doc?”
“George Carter. We have all been friends for going on six years. He is a doctor out of the home office in Seattle. I was planning on sending the other body to him. I will just call him and have him come out here. Together, I promise you this, we will get to the bottom of these attacks.”
“Doc? Lester was our mechanical engineer. His job was to keep an eye on the pipeline’s specifications to prevent catastrophes from occurring. Last we heard he was taking measurements late at night and called in to headquarters claiming to have seen a wolf-like creature tearing another man apart. The line went dead before anyone could get his location or any further information. We only found a big ass bloodstain where the other guy was. We have been keeping it quiet ever since.”
“Has anybody told Jenny?” Sawyer asked of the two men.
“Not yet, Doc, we were waiting on the company to tell us what to do about her.” Carl said. Neither man wanted to deliver the bad news to the man’s wife that she was now a widow.
“I’m not doing it. Hold off and keep quiet. I’ll take care of it.” The doctor had no intentions of speaking with Jenny, she instead, would get their friend to come out and tell her.
“Thanks for coming out and taking a look for us, Doc.”
“No problem, that’s what they pay me for. Can any of you men spare the time to take me to Junction R6?”
“Why do you want to go there?” Jim inquired.
“I want to take a quick look around for myself; we owe it to Lester to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.”
Carl stepped forward. “I will be happy to take you, Doc. I am ready when you are.”
“Thanks, Carl, let’s get going.”
Not finding anything, Sawyer phoned George Carter and waited for her friend to arrive. When there, with everything explained, together they took a second look at the bodies. The bodies were shipped back to Seattle and they began a search of the woods near Junction R6.
George saw nothing unusual at the sight of the attacks so he went to give Jenny Platt the bad news about her husband. He walked up to her porch and hesitated. He thought of the many nights he and Lester played Chess. It brought a smile to his face, remembering the lumbering soft-spoken giant.
Jenny was cleaning inside and saw him just standing there and got a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. George walked up and knocked once and Jenny was there to open the door with a worried look on her face. “Hello, Jenny.”
“Doc. Come in please.”
Doctor Carter came in and fumbled with his words, “Um…er…Jenny.” He took a deep breath. “Jenny, I have bad news about Lester. There was what we believe to be some sort of… animal attack at the pipeline… and Lester and others were killed. I’m sorry. We think it was a stray bear but won’t know for sure until an autopsy is done in Seattle.”
Jenny felt ill and slowly sat down on her couch. She was stunned and did not speak. She had worried day and night and now had an answer. She fumbled with her hands, taking it all in.
George watched her and tried to gauge how well she was taking the news.
“What happened?” She finally was able to say.
“As best I can tell he has claw marks on him and that would suggest a large animal like a bear. He saw a man attacked and went to help him. Unfortunately, neither survived the attack. I can tell you it was quick and he didn’t suffer, that should be some comfort to you.”
“W-W-Why does he have to go to Seattle?” she mumbled while staring at the floor, wrenching her hands.
“Our best up to date laboratory is there and we can do all tests in-house.”
Jenny let out a sarcastic smirk, “in-house?” she raised her head and looked him in the eye. Her lips quivered. Her gray eyes opened more as she tossed her black hair behind her. “Don’t you really mean, you can cover things up better there so no one here will know what happened in those woods?”
“Come on, Jenny, you know that isn’t true?”
“I know you and every other company man is keeping secrets about what goes on up in those woods and my husband is the latest victim.” Jenny’s brave front crumbled. “I have called and called and you knew, you knew all along but wouldn’t say.” She broke down and wailed.
“You can’t buy in to those crazy rumors, Jenny.”
Jenny swung her head up high. Her red cheeks glowed with anger.
“Sally Rodgers told them she saw something in those woods and nobody took her seriously. Her daughter is still missing! Before that she lost two of her prized cows and a horse, they were mutilated with blood everywhere!” She screamed at him. “And Mike Chambers saw a man, only it wasn’t a man near his back porch. He shot at it and it ran away so fast he couldn’t track it. You know he is an excellent shot and never misses. Now you tell me something is not going on and you people are not keeping us in the dark for your own benefit.” Jenny put her hands to her face and let out her tears. George tried to comfort her but it did no good. She kept repeating, “He was your friend, you should have warned him, you should have protected him!”
George saw that he cou
ld do no more there and stood. “I’m not leaving. Kay and I are moving into the Miller place, Allison will be going to school here. Lester meant the world to me and I promise to be here and do my best to get answers for you. I care and we will get to the bottom of this. That, is a promise!” He said goodbye and left.
Vampires aRe ReaL Page 4