The Chronicles of Beast and Man (14 page)

"Hey there stranger." Rod said with a friendly gesture.

Dusty gave a small quick smile, and then it was gone.

"Do you have time to go on a ride with me?" Dusty asked.

"You know Clara and I were just talking about how I could use a break. So, yes I will take a ride with you."

Rod turned to Clara who had a silly smile on her face because she was not sure if Rod was being serious or sarcastic. The truth was that Rod wasn’t sure as well.

As Rod and Dusty exited the police station a reporter and camera man surrounded them. The reporter was speaking so quickly and loudly that Rod could hardly understand him.

"I have no comment at this time." Rod said the same way he had seen several others answer reports on television.

Once in Dusty’s truck, they drove away leaving the reporters behind.

"This place is sure turning into a three ring circus isn’t it?"

"Yeah, I have a feeling it is going to get worse before it gets better." Rod said with irritation in his voice.

"It isn’t my business, but what have you learned about the Parker girl murder?"

"The autopsy report should be back in anytime now, I expected it a couple weeks ago actually. Why do you ask?"

Dusty looked oddly nervous and uncomfortable.

"I just…"

"Say what you want to say Dusty." Rod said in response to Dusty’s silence.

"I didn’t see her body, and I don’t have any interest, but seeing Ryan Lovett’s body was terrible. It was as awful as my dog Zero, except it was a hundred times worse because it was a person."

"I doubt there is any connection." Rod began to lie, but was abruptly cut off by Dusty.

"Don’t fool yourself Rod, you know there is a connection. You also know that this isn’t some deranged serial killer. This is some kind of living creature, trying to kill everything in its path."

Rod was surprise by his friend’s words; he had no idea what to say.

"You know I am right, Rod."

"I don’t know. It is just hard for me to wrap my head around."

"I saw Ryan’s body. What was left of it, no human did that. That was caused by an animal, a creature, something deadly…something evil."

"I know what you are saying."

"Do you?" Dusty looked at him closely. "I think you need to investigate this from a different angle. I know I am not a cop, and I have never investigated a single crime in my entire life. I am just saying I think you should treat this different."

Rod respected Dusty’s judgment and had already decided to handle everything differently, and with great compassion.

After Dusty was finished explaining his concerns he dropped Rod off
at the station and left. Inside Rod studied the pictures of the paw prints he had taken on the Lovett property. This was the print of the thing that killed Ryan, Duane Ensig, and Gabrielle Parker. It was growing more clearly to Rod now, and made more sense each day. Rod had to find out more about this print, he got on the phone and began making phone calls. It took him an hour, but he was able to find a professor in the agriculture department who also taught animal science at the university.
His name was Clive Falcone, and after explaining to Falcone the rare prints he had found, Falcone was willing to meet with him to see the photos.

-

Rod drove out of town and met the professor at a small coffee shop in the middle of Webster. Clive Falcone seemed like an understanding individual and was more than willing to listen to everything Rod told him. Rod removed the photos from a file folder and laid them on the table. Clive studied them for a moment and then suddenly stopped.

"Is this connected to the girl that was killed in Medusa?"

Rod answered him simply and plainly stating that he was not at liberty to say. Falcone went on to tell him that this animal was extremely rare. Falcone could not tell him exactly what the animal was though. To this, Rod could not understand. Falcone did his best to explain that the print seemed to belong to a canine, but certainly not a dog. He continued to explain that he had never seen a dog or wolf that size. He also doubted that it was a regular wolf print because no wolf had ever been implicated in a human killing. In most cases humans probably scared them more than they do us.

"I don’t really want to sound like an asshole professor, but you aren’t really telling me anything here."

A look of complete and utter shock came over professor Falcone’s face.

"Are you telling me that I am the first person you have spoken to about these prints?"

"That is about the size of it." Rod replied.

"I don’t really know what to tell you Officer. You have a horrifying creature that could be the size of a bear. You need to speak to someone with more ability then me. If this thing is as powerful and deadly as I think it might be, you need to move fast."

"Should I call animal control, or a dog catcher?" Rod asked cynically.

"Of course not, but someone other than myself
needs to know about this. You need to contact someone who can actually do something about this."

"Okay, well do you have the phone number for Werewolf Hunters Inc??

"I am only trying to tell you what I think you should do Mr. Truex. If you do not like what I have to say, I guess you do not have to listen."

“If you want something done right,
you have to do it yourself." Rod said as he got up from the table and walked out the door.

Professor Falcone did not understand Rod Truex’s words. He felt that if he did not do something more that Mr. Truex’s life would be one of the next to be taken. But, after Mr. Truex’s rude manner he would not soon be doing anything to benefit him.
　
 

T
hat night was an average quiet night in the Russell household. The kids went to sleep at nine, and Matthew went to bed at ten like he usually did, but on this night he did not go straight to sleep. He laid in bed and waited for Marcy. She took her time cleaning up around the house and enjoyed a little bit of light reading in the living room. She finally went upstairs to join Matthew in the bed a little bit after eleven o’clock.

Matthew waited patiently until he was sure that Marcy was asleep. Once he was positive that she was sound sleeping, he crept out of bed and made his way down stairs. The house was dark and unpleasantly quiet, Matthew had always considered himself a fairly honest man and was not used to sneaking around.

He finally came to the kitchen where Marcy’s cell phone was sitting on the counter charging. Matthew picked up the Motorola flip phone and began going through her recent
calls. He saw calls from himself and calls to her mother, nothing out of the ordinary at all. He then went on to the text messages. First he checked her inbox, but saw nothing but messages to her mother and a few friends. Matthew then went over to the sent messages, but assumed that she probably cleaned her phone out ahead of time. He was correct; there was nothing worth looking at. Matthew was relieved, but also a little frustrated. He had almost wanted to find something. He usually did not get suspicious of things for no reason.

Matthew put the phone back down on the kitchen counter and walked away. He turned the corner to go back upstairs, but suddenly
stopped. A
thought then cross his mind. There was something he had not looked into. He immediately turned back to the kitchen and picked Marcy’s cell phone back up.

Quickly he went to the photos in her phone. The first few he saw were pictures of he and her, then some of the kids playing in the back yard, then another one of the kids playing in the kitchen. Matthew was starting to believe that he wasn’t going to find anything here as well. Then he stumbled upon some pictures of Marcy herself dressed in skimpy clothing. One of them was a green bikini she rarely wore anymore. The next photo was one of her topless; things were starting to get interesting.

It was then that Matthew scrolled over to the next picture. It was of a large erect penis.

The photo made Matthew’s blood boil. He could feel his face turning red. He had not been this angry in his entire life. He was ready to kill Rod Truex; his first impulse was to drop the phone and go straight to his house and kill him with his bare hands. Matthew than thought about his kids, if he were to kill Rod Truex he would lose them. Matthew might not have been winning a father of the year award anytime soon, but he truly did love his children. He was going to have to be careful with how he handled this. He could easily go get his 22-250 rifle and take care of Rod right then. Matthew tried to use some sound judgment. Going completely nuts was not the way he needed to handle this. He knew it, and knew he had to handle it in a completely
different manner.

Revenge is a dish best served cold,

Matthew remembered the expression. He smiled, he had no interest in waiting too long. This is a plate of revenge that might have to be served up at mild or room temperature at best, certainly not cold.

Matthew placed the cell phone back on the counter slowly
and walked back upstairs and to the bedroom where he would try and go back to sleep. Already he was starting to unearth a plan to deal with the situation. After it was all said and done, Sheriff Rodney Truex was going to understand that Matthew Russell was not someone he wanted to cross.

I
t was around ten o’clock and Rod could hear the sound of another helicopter flying overhead. Earlier that morning Rod told Mayor Bobby Preston that he would be holding a press conference to assure everyone that things were well in hand; in other words to tell them to back off. Bobby asked Rod to try and set up a well-planned way to stop the madness. As Rod began to write the first line of his speech, John Austin walked in the door, and quickly plopped down in the chair beside Rod’s desk.

"I heard about Ryan Lovett. Are you prepared to admit that this has something to do with the Killer Wolf?"

"I am not ready to say anything, John." Rod said, feeling that this wasn’t the last time he would be saying those words to him.

"Listen to me Rod. The people here are getting real worried."

"You think I don’t know that?" Rod interrupted.

"Yes, but…"

”I am going to be holding a conference tomorrow." Rod interrupted again.

"There is a killer on the loose and people are starting to wonder if you are doing enough to stop him."

"What in the hell do you want me to do? Am I supposed to be running down the street looking in windows? This killer only strikes once a month, and leaves next to nothing for clues."

"I get it Rod."

"No, I don’t think you do get it, John. This is not getting any easier. I don’t know what you want from me!"

"Rod…"

"No, John. I have had just about enough of your shit. You know where the front door is, leave when you want, I have work to do." Rod said and then quickly stormed out of the building.

As he walked across the parking lot he felt eyes upon him. The streets were watching, the town was watching. Rod started his truck and took off, he was not sure where he was going. He also did not really care where he was going as long as he was by himself. As Rod drove he thought about what his next step would be in the investigation. The autopsy report on Gabrielle Parker still hadn’t come back yet. It usually didn’t take any longer than a month for autopsy reports to come back from Peoria, but this one was taking a lot longer.

The next step in this investigation will be to ask for more assistance. This would mean he’d have to temporarily deputize a few more men. A search party would have to be conducted to try and catch this thing. There would have to be several officers on patrol within the city limits, and men searching around the woods carefully. Rod would also have to invest a large sum of money in silver bullets. Rod laughed out loud at the very idea.

He drove out of town at a high rate of speed. He felt as if he were about to escape the chaos that surrounded Medusa. Perhaps leaving town he could escape the madness, even if only for a moment.

All of a sudden, Rod slammed on his brakes to avoid colliding with a shadowy figure. If he hadn’t seen the person when he did, he would have completely run him over. After Rod shook off the near death experience, he gained his composure, and looked up to see the same tall dark man that had spoken to Freddy Alexander the day before.

He watched as the strange dark man walked around to his window. Rod rolled the window down without even another thought. Rod immediately felt threatened. It might have been the cold look in his eyes, or it might have just been the strong way he carried himself.

"You need to watch where you are going. I could have killed you!"

"I had no reason to fear. I knew you were not going to hit me."

Rod did not understand what he meant by this, he had almost ran him over, but he was acting as if there had been no threat at all.