Dinosaur Lake (8 page)

Henry’s back stiffened. Ann could feel the change in his mood; see it, even from where she sat.

Justin’s fingers stopped moving along a ledge of white bone.

Henry turned and looked at her. “Has a missing person’s report been filed?”

“No. Not that I know of. Not yet.” She recounted everything Willie Sander had told her.

“Hmm.” Henry had risen to a standing position as she talked, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Maybe I had better do some sleuthing myself. I don’t like the sound of it.” Always the Chief Park Ranger.

Justin had been observing and listening to them, silently. An uneasiness in his stance. His eyes were on the bones in the earth wall and she didn’t need to guess what he was thinking.
Perhaps the creature in the lake got him.

“You know,” the scientist said, “maybe there is something in the lake. Why not now? The caldera below us is realigning, heaving, shoving up things that haven’t seen the light of day for eons. Could be it’s uncovered something…alive?” He let out a low whistle.

Henry exchanged a look with him that spoke more than words. “Justin, I’m leaving now. Got something I have to do. See you later for supper?”

Justin nodded. “Sure thing.” He waved, as she and Henry, hand in hand, headed towards the jeep parked at the bottom of the trail.

“Did you invite him to supper?” She asked once they were out of earshot.

Henry seemed preoccupied. “Oh,” he replied after a few seconds, “I didn’t think you’d mind. Since you’re the one who’s playing matchmaker and I figured Laura might show up again. Besides he’s a nice young man. I like him. We have a lot in common.

“What are we having for supper?”

“Meatloaf. Mashed potatoes and gravy. Buttered corn. Chocolate pudding with Cool Whip for dessert.” Ann knew better than to ask him outright what was really on his mind. He’d tell her when he was ready.

“Sounds great.”

“Glad you approve.”

He squeezed her hand as they walked toward the jeep.

***

Henry stopped at the ranger station after he’d dropped Ann off at the cabin. George Redcrow was on duty so he took him along with him. They searched the lake in one of the park’s boats. Eventually they found the wreckage of the Seabird strewn along the more isolated eastern shore of Wizard’s Island like beached trash.

No sign of Sam Cutler.

Henry hauled in pieces of the destroyed boat bobbing around on the water and stuffed them into clear bags with George’s help. Evidence.

“What happened to Sam Cutler and his boat?” George mumbled at one point, a haunted glint in his eyes as he handled a splinter of boat wood, turning it around in his hands in the receding sunlight. “It was a big boat. What could have done this to it?” A breeze skimmed the water and his hair ruffled around his ranger’s hat. The gray of his uniform appeared black in the dimming light.

“I don’t know, George.”

“An explosion?”

Henry’s eyes raked the shifting waters around their boat. He remembered the mauled animals George had been finding near the lake. “I don’t think so. The boat’s been thoroughly smashed by something very powerful, by the looks of it.”

“What could do that?”

“I don’t know.” Henry stared out over the water. “No sense in dragging for the body. The lake’s too deep. If it hasn’t floated to the surface, I have a feeling we won’t find it.”

“But,” George supplied, “we can assume that Sam Cutler’s probably dead?”

“Most likely.”

Both men fell quiet for a moment. The water lapped against their boat’s hull.

“We’d better get back to shore, George, and start filling out the report, or we’ll be all night. I’m officially opening up an investigation into what might have happened to Sam Cutler and his boat.”

“You going to call in the local police for help?” George questioned. He often needled Henry about having been a big city cop. George thought of big city cops like other people thought of aliens.

“Not yet. We’ll handle this ourselves for now until we see what we’re up against. Keep it on the down low. If we need more assistance later on, I’ll ask the Park Service for back-up and establish an Incident Command System.” As Chief Ranger, he had the option of putting more men on to cover any emergency situation, setting up an ICS, if there was a dangerous problem in the park. “As of now, George,” he added dryly, “I’m making you Assistant Chief Ranger. Congratulations.”

“Thanks a lot.” George didn’t seem happy about the promotion. He knew what it meant. Henry was worried. Trouble was coming.

“But for now, let’s get off this lake before it gets dark.” Henry recalled what Cutler had been reported as saying:
It only comes out at night. Big as two houses, a long neck, huge teeth and as strong as hell.

Henry’s hand automatically fell onto the butt of his holstered weapon, a .40 caliber semi-automatic SigSauer, for comfort. Most of his men, including George, carried the 9 mm Sig, but Henry preferred the .40 caliber because of the larger, heavier bullets it shot. If he had to bring something down he wanted to be sure it didn’t get up again.

“Anything you say, boss,” George agreed. He worked his way to the boat’s controls, plopped down into the captain’s chair, and steered them towards land. He wanted to get off the lake as badly as Henry did. The low-flying gulls and the fish jumping alongside the boat apparently weren’t the only things out on the water.

Wizard Island dwindled to a tiny lump on the horizon as they left it behind. Henry’s mind was tumbling in circles looking for answers. Someone, or something, had demolished a tour boat and perhaps murdered Sam Cutler. There hadn’t been a murder in the park since he’d arrived.

The Park Service wasn’t going to like this at all.

His sense of duty and excitement triumphant over the fear, and because Cutler said it only came out at night, he decided he’d return after dark to see if something uninvited really lurked in the lake. Unless he knew what the problem was, how would he know how to handle it?

***

After supper, Justin persuaded Henry into sharing the night’s adventure with him; and Henry was grateful for the company. In fact, he’d intended all along to take Justin with him. If some belligerent creature was in the water it’d be safer not to be alone, especially after seeing what had become of Sam Cutler’s boat.

Still, beneath it all, the notion some beast lurked in Crater Lake waiting to waylay and destroy the unwary was too ridiculous to take seriously. Going out on the water that night was Henry’s way of whistling in the dark. He couldn’t allow himself to be afraid of the unknown. A pragmatic man, he was merely tracking down whatever leads he could uncover because Sam Cutler was missing and had last been seen on the lake. No big deal. It was his job.

To keep Ann from worrying, he said they were going to do a little night fishing, which he often did in the warmer weather. He didn’t mention the Seabird’s fate. She’d find out sooner or later, and later would be better because he didn’t want it all over the newspaper yet.

He knew she suspected he was up to something, but being the good wife that she was, she didn’t question him further. Just gave him a hug and a kiss goodbye and told him to be careful.

***

Although Henry and Justin patrolled the lake most of the night, and the next two nights as well, they saw nothing unusual. Henry talked himself into believing there wasn’t anything strange in the water, and that Sam Cutler’s disappearance and boat wreck had another cause. He just had to discover what it was.

Time went by and nothing else happened. The lake, as the park, was eerily quiet.

***

Eventually, Henry confided to Ann the fate of Sam Cutler’s boat, calling it an accident. Cause unknown. Sam Cutler was missing and had not, as yet, resurfaced. She was shocked and, for once, speechless. She wrote up the story and Zeke ran it on the second page, per Henry’s request. He didn’t want a panic.

And Justin reluctantly divulged the fossil discovery to John Day’s.

Henry was afraid it’d only take a few days until the park was swarming with more paleontologists and the curious. He wasn’t looking forward to it, but on the other hand, he was curious about what the experts and the world would say. Just like a kid on his birthday waited to see under the wrapping of his presents, he wondered what the dig would ultimately unearth.

It wasn’t until a week or so later, long after the Seabird’s loss had been reported and investigated with no results that Willie Sander’s boat also went missing. As with the Seabird, Willie Sander had been alone on the water after dark when he and his boat disappeared.

Henry and his rangers scoured the lake, filed more reports and expressed growing concern over the situation. But, as before, they found nothing except bits of floating debris. Henry still resisted initiating an ICS Team, which would have meant calling in specialists to help him investigate the situation, because he wasn’t sure what the problem was. But he knew one more incident would moot that line of thinking altogether. Something was wrong in his park and he couldn’t allow things to go on as they were if it meant people would keep vanishing.

The Klamath Falls Journal ran a front-page story on the two boats, their destruction, and their missing captains.

Henry notified the proper park authorities of the situation. He made public what Sam Cutler had been saying about a covert creature in the lake; what had been reported to Ann and Zeke; about the dead animals the rangers had found. Henry didn’t think the National Park Service believed most of it, which didn’t surprise him.

In the worst way, he wanted to admit his own suspicions about the bizarre animal tracks and the other sightings; but liked his job too much to take the chance. He wasn’t a fool. They’d think he was certifiable if he started yakking about monsters in the lake. So he said nothing.

Justin hung around, pestering Ann and him and spending more time with Laura. He told everyone he was staying in the park so he could monitor the dig. He wanted to be there when history was uncovered. He wanted to protect the find.

Ann thought he also wanted to be with Laura.

Henry knew another reason Justin was staying–their night patrols on Crater Lake had resumed.

Henry, as the other park rangers, was licensed to carry a firearm. After all, they were commissioned law officers; not just friendly tour guides. But since his police days, he hadn’t felt comfortable carrying a gun. He’d never meant to kill the child who’d shot him in the projects. It’d been a horrible accident and he’d lived with the guilt ever since. Only human monsters, his guilt haunted him, would kill a child.

Each day it was difficult for him to strap the gun on his hip. But knowing he’d probably only use it on some maddened animal, not a person, had kept his head on straight. In all his years at the park he’d never had to draw the thing out of its holster once.

“Much good that gun will do you if we come across a prehistoric monster with teeth and an attitude,” Justin remarked sarcastically, his eyes skimming the dark water around them. “Since I found those prints in the mud I’ve been doing some more reading. I just finished the most recent treatise on what my fellow experts now believe to be true about certain dinosaurs, known and unknown. Your Sig there wouldn’t even have nicked their tough hides, much less stopped them from attacking you.”

They were out on another of their evening patrols, but as with the other nights, nothing except the voices of the night insects and park animals had marred the tranquil summer darkness.

“So what you’re saying is if we did come across a live dinosaur, or any other prehistoric beast, then, we couldn’t just shoot it?” Henry pressed.

“No. It’d take a lot more firepower than you have.

“And, aside from that, if such a creature exists we’d have to
protect
it, not try to
kill
it. Man has never laid eyes on a living dinosaur…except in those Jurassic Park movies.” Justin tried to lighten the mood. “It’d be the greatest wonder of the world. I’d rather have you close the lake area, heck, the whole park forever if you had to, rather than harm such a magnificent animal. And I’m sure the National Park Service would agree. If it exists, I want to find it. Get a look at it. Get
pictures
.”

“Magnificent animal? You’re a little naive about the
terrible lizards
, aren’t you?” Henry commented carefully. “I hadn’t planned on harming it in any way, either. But if there is a dinosaur swimming around in this lake that’s developed, perhaps, a taste for human flesh, as opposed to say, fish or plants, then we’d best be prepared to defend ourselves if we have to. The magnificent animal won’t want to be friends, I can tell you that. Remember the damage done to both those boats? And what really happened to those two missing men? Were they snacks?”

Justin appeared distressed; obviously he’d been brooding on the problem, too. And, as the authority on the subject, his opinion on what should be done if they were dealing with something unnatural unsettled Henry.
They should just let it run free in the park? Fence it in and charge admission?
He’d never heard of anything so naïve.

Suddenly the night and the water seemed filled with danger.

“But, all that aside, you want my honest assessment of what we should do right now?” Justin whispered, as if he were afraid something was listening to them.

“Of course.”

“After what I’ve gleaned from my research, I think we should get off this lake and not get back on again until we have either a faster boat or a bigger weapon, just in case.”

Henry couldn’t help but laugh. Softly. “In case what?”

“In case the creature finds us.”

Exasperated, Henry exclaimed, “Being a little premature, aren’t we? Thinking that there is actually something in the lake is still wild speculation on our part, isn’t it? I mean, let’s face it, we don’t really
believe
there’s some prehistoric monster in the lake, now do we?”

“Don’t we?” a weak reply. “Then what are we doing out here in the middle of the night, puttering around in circles, freezing to death?”

“You got a point there. And if we do discover it exists. What, exactly, are we going to do about it? Worse yet, what if we discover it attacked those boats on purpose, maybe ate those men? And what if it keeps on attacking humans? Goes in search of them as a viable food source? If it leaves the lake and we can’t stop it?” Henry said what he’d been thinking.

“Then, unfortunately,” the scientist replied, “something will have to be done about it.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.”

“Maybe we should,” Henry remarked.

Justin inhaled. “I wish now that I hadn’t made the bones public knowledge and that your wife’s newspaper wasn’t doing that article on it Monday, along with a second story on the destroyed boats and the missing men…illustrated with her drawings of a mythical lake monster.”

“Yep, and those stories are going to bring out a flock of the curious. Then there are your colleagues from John Day coming out next week to begin excavating the
paleontological
site. Long dead dinosaur bones in a place where people and boats have been mysteriously disappearing? Fertile ground for strange rumors and speculation.” Henry shook his head in the dark.

“Your park’s going to become a zoo.” Justin’s cynical laugh echoed across the cool night.

Henry didn’t laugh.

“We released that information before the second boat disappeared. We thought the park was safe,” Justin reminded Henry. “Sorry.”

“Nah, you’re not to blame.” Henry’s voice broke the hush that had covered the lake all night. “You were doing your job. But–” His voice stopped abruptly because he thought he’d heard something. They weren’t alone. His gut told him so. He shushed Justin but no further sounds came.

Beneath it all, he felt bad he was still fibbing to his wife about the true reason he and Justin were out on the lake so much, even though he was sure she’d already guessed. Ann was a smart woman and she’d interviewed Willie Sander before he’d disappeared. She knew two boats, two men, were missing. She knew something weird was going on.

And Henry didn’t usually do quite so much night fishing.

Ann had kissed him every night at the door with concern in her eyes and made him promise to be careful, not take any chances he didn’t need to take, and to get the hell off the lake if trouble reared its head. But she hadn’t once asked what was going on. She would, though, eventually.

“Don’t be a hero, Henry,” was all she’d said, and she’d meant it.

After a little longer silence, Henry yawned. “Maybe we should call it a night?”

“Sounds good to me,” Justin croaked.

It was close to midnight and they were sitting in the front of the boat, shivering in their coats and life-jackets. The temperature rise in the lower depths of the lake hadn’t made a measureable difference yet, except to create the growing mist that was rising over everything more densely each night. Mist as thick and eerie as any seen on Loch Ness.

By now Henry knew the young scientist better. Talking and hours spent chugging back and forth across the lake, the boat’s bright headlights cutting through the fog that hung about them like a shroud, their handheld flashlights crisscrossing the murkiness consuming the boat, had given them time to get to know each other.

Henry’s first impression of the scientist had never wavered. Justin was dedicated and single-minded in everything he did, perhaps too much. The young man was over-compensating for something, carrying a chip of some kind on his shoulder. He did a fine job of hiding it most of the time, but he couldn’t fool Henry. Henry had been a cop for too long.

Henry was waiting for Justin to fess up on his own. Sooner or later, he would, and Henry could wait. He wasn’t one to pry into other peoples’ lives, even if that person was dating his only daughter.

Justin stifled a yawn, and Henry repeated, “About ready to call it a night, Mr. Wizard?”

Justin’s head came up, the lights reflected off his glasses into the inky gloom nudging in around them.

“More than ready.”

They were exhausted from the cruises, staying up half the night, and weary of searching for something that might not exist. Henry had his regular job and Justin had been spending his days at the dig or with Laura and Phoebe.

It was time to pack it in. Justin could be right. They needed to do some more planning, to be more prepared, in case.

“We’re heading home.” Henry directed the boat towards Cleetwood Cove at medium speed. The night had turned chilly and he’d be glad to plop down before a blazing fire next to his wife.

***

Justin heard the commotion first. In the stillness of the night a loud swishing of powerfully churning water came from far away, moving closer. On the air trembled a soft cry, the sound filling the caldera as an echo filled a canyon.

Something rose up underneath the boat. Henry would remember later that in the horror of the moment, as they were lifted high into the air, that Sam Cutler had been right, it was bigger than two houses.

The boat plopped back down onto the lake, the whirling engines grinding, water splashing everywhere, soaking both of them. Another bounce like that, Henry thought frantically, and the boat would capsize.

“My god,” Justin yelped. “It really is a monster!” He sounded like someone who’d just watched the sun explode up in the sky.

“I’ll be damned,” Henry mumbled, attempting to swallow. His body was frozen. Only his eyes could move, but they were glued to the creature’s steep side. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, though in the dark and the chaos of the attack, all he could actually make out was a mass of dark scaly skin as the boat slid down along side of the creature.

He captured a flash of a thick neck, a huge blob of a head, two glaring crimson eyes and a wicked slash of sharp whiteness that had to be teeth as big as a man’s hand. All in all, their attacker was a nightmare that froze him and Justin to the boat’s rail, holding on for dear life as the boat beneath them bucked and rocked.

The thing was moving fast.

Justin’s head lifted upwards on his neck, his eyes gawking up at the thing. He screamed.

The beast replied with a deep-throated gurgling rattle of a roar.

Justin stammered under his breath, “Forgot to mention, I hate the water. And I can’t swim!”

“Now you tell me,” Henry tossed back. “Don’t worry, your life preserver will keep you afloat. If you go over, paddle like hell!”

The boat repeated its jump. The fiberglass creaked torturously beneath them.

“If we go in the water will it try to eat us?” Henry voice was a hoarse whisper.

“I’m not sure. No way of knowing. If it’s a descendent or a mutant of a species like Pliosaur, its ancestors were flesh-eaters. They ate anything they bumped into.”

The boat was lifted a second time, bouncing it high into the air, then it came down violently, nearly capsizing.

“It’s trying to sink us,” Henry cried above the din. The bullets he’d taken in the line of duty hadn’t scared him half as much as what he was feeling now. But he’d never seen the bullets coming. This was different. He couldn’t miss the monstrosity slamming against the boat, playing with them as if they were a child’s toy.

Then as swiftly as the water beast had appeared, it was gone.

The lake beneath and around them became calm. The boat lunged forward, the engines loud on the night air.

Long seconds went by.

Shuddering, on his knees, Justin whispered, “It’s gone.”

Henry crouched by the rail, listening. It was hard to hear anything over the loud thumping of his heart. “That was close.”

“I’ve daydreamed about when dinosaurs walked the earth,” Justin’s voice was ragged. “I always thought it’d be neat to see one. I don’t think so now. The shock alone could give a person a heart attack.”

The paleontologist came off his knees to lean against the rail beside Henry. He wiped the water from his face, in the faint light, his eyes wide and glazed. “Ha, imagine, and I didn’t want us to hurt it–as if we could have.” An acid laugh escaped his lips. “That thing must be gigantic, by what we glimpsed of it. That tail and head went on forever. And did you hear that awful sound it was making, a rumbling snoring roar? It sounded as if we were under a waterfall.”

“Yes,” was Henry’s only reply. He was still listening.

“What are we going to do, Mr. Ranger? Should we make a run for the shore or what?”

Henry stood up slowly, moved over to the controls and shoved the throttle full open. He put out the other hand to grip Justin’s shoulder. “We get out of here as fast as we can.”

They heard the water and the roaring noises resume around them.

“It’s coming back!”

“I know,” moaned Justin.

The boat began to rock harder. The beast was near.

Later Henry believed Justin’s inspiration and quick thinking were the only things that saved them. “Noise! It’s attacking the noise from the engines…and it sees the lights.”

“Then we turn off the engines and the lights! If we play dead, it might leave us alone.

“And I’ve got a gun,” Henry added, a hand on the Sig in his holster. “I can shoot it.”

“Forget that,” Justin hollered. “That pin prick would probably just make it madder and it’d come after us for sure.”

Henry shut down the engines and switched off the power.