by Raylan Kane
Charlie wore tight jeans and a tank top that she had to grab one strap of to place it back over her shoulder. She stepped backward out of the room onto the concrete walkway and a bolt of anguish hit Jen as she saw Cain, shirtless in a pair of jeans, his tanned lean yet muscular body came into the light. He leaned into the young blonde at the doorway and they shared a passionate kiss. Jen wanted to melt into the driver’s seat. She couldn’t stifle a fit of jealously that brewed inside, and her sympathy for Charlie and the rough life she’d led evaporated rather quickly. She would’ve fired up the engine and sped off then and there if it wouldn’t have given her away. All she could do was watch.
Charlie gave a small wave goodbye to Cain, he smiled his perfect toothy grin and the young blonde walked to the motel’s front office where she disappeared inside. Jen knew Charlie worked at the motel as a housekeeper, no doubt that’s how she and Cain would’ve met. Of course he slept with her. Of course.
Jen waited a few moments before getting out of the truck. She ran her words through her head of what she was going to say, why she was there. Why she came to his motel room. Somehow, in spite of what she’d just witnessed, she still wanted him. Somehow it didn’t matter that he’d likely just slept with Charlie Hill, in Jen’s mind it made him inexplicably more desirable. Jen had always prided herself on being “good”, the thought of being bad with Cain seemed ridiculously appealing.
She walked across the street to the motel and up to the door at #8. She knocked once and Cain answered, still shirtless, of course.
“Hey,” he said with wide eyes and a smile. “What are you doing here?”
“Hi,” Jen tried to squelch the butterflies rising up inside. “Sheriff sent me. I’m here to look into those giant grizzly tracks. The ones you’d posted about in that video.”
“Oh yeah, those. Sure, well, what do you wanna know?” He rested his forearm on the door frame and struck a very casual pose that Jen couldn’t help but notice. He as almost coming across as flirty. He had a different energy about him than that morning after back at the campsite.
Maybe I was wrong about him.
Jen shoved the thought out of her mind. She was annoyed at herself for being attracted to this player.
“Sheriff Lake thought it might be good if I take a look, get some pictures, that kind of thing. You mind?” Jen said.
“No, not at all. I can show you.”
“Great.” Jen smiled at him expectantly.
“You mean right now? This minute?”
“Sure, yeah, we can go in my truck whenever you’re ready.”
“Oh, uh, thing is I’ve gotta meet some potential clients in Fairbanks, so, you think we could do it tomorrow?”
Jen tried not to be disappointed. She hoped he couldn’t read that on her face.
“Tomorrow’s fine. Yeah, tomorrow works.”
“Awesome,” Cain said.
“Okay,” Jen said awkwardly. “I’m gonna go.” She turned to leave.
“What about tonight?”
“Hmm?”
“Later. You wanna maybe grab a drink or something?”
Yes!
Jen kept a straight face. “A drink. That might not be the best idea.” She let out a bit of a chuckle.
Cain laughed. “Nothing’s the best idea until it is.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, is that a yes?”
“Sure. Yes.”
God, what am I doing?
A creeky sound caused Jen to glance to her left and she saw Charlie push her housekeeping cart in front of Room #1. Charlie glared at Jen and Cain standing in Cain’s doorway. Cain looked to his feet sheepishly. Charlie knocked on the door for Room #1.
“Housekeeping,” Charlie said in flat monotone.
Jen looked at Cain. “What time you want to meet? Tonight, I mean.”
“Gimme your address, I’ll come pick you up.”
Just then the door to Room #1 opened and David emerged.
“Sorry,” he said to Charlie, “it’s all yours, I was just headed out.”
David looked to his left and saw Jen in uniform standing talking to the shirtless man at Room #8. He gave a half-hearted wave and walked straight for his car.
“Don’t worry about picking me up,” Jen said hurriedly. “I’ll meet you at Peg’s, say, 8 o’clock.”
“8 o’clock it is.”
“Okay, bye.”
“See you.”
Cain closed his door and Jen walked briskly to David’s car just as he was backing out of his space. She approached his window and he rolled it down.
“What’d that guy do?” David said pointing at Room #8.
“Just something I’m looking into,” Jen said. “You leaving?”
“Only for the day,” David said. “Thought I could get some writing done at the cafe, maybe do some exploring. Why?”
“I don’t know, got the impression that maybe you’d be upset with me. Maybe leave town after our last conversation.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“David, I don’t want things to be awkward. You telling me you didn’t just up and come here, all this way to Branson, to see me?”
“That’s part of the reason. I’m also here to do research for my next book.” It was lie David concocted on the spot, but his pride got the better of him and he couldn’t help himself.
“I see. Look, I think we should talk sometime.”
“I agree.”
“Don’t leave town without telling, okay?”
“I won’t.”
“Anyway, I’ve gotta get back to work.” She pulled a Sheriff’s Department business card from her pocket and handed it to him. “This has my home number on it as well. Give me a call whenever you’re free.”
“Will do.”
She stepped back from David’s car and he put it in DRIVE and pulled out of the motel lot. Jen walked back across the road to her truck and got inside. She sat contemplating for a moment the strange situation she’d suddenly found herself in. She smiled a little to herself, turned the radio up and pulled away from the curb.
ELEVEN
David eased his sedan into parking space in the alley adjacent to The Whiskeyjack, he knew better than to pull into the empty space across the street in front of the Post Office. He edged up next to a dumpster on wheels and grabbed his laptop from the passenger seat.
The cafe was at half-capacity. A dozen pairs of eyes stared at him. The customary look any stranger to town received. A balding man stood behind the long dining counter refilling coffee cups for customers. He wore a blue shirt and red apron looked over at David as he entered.
“Have a seat anywhere,” he said. “I’ll be right with you.”
Zack noticed every table near the front was occupied. He spied an empty booth along the interior wall near the back. He walked straight over and sat down. An elderly woman in a green nylon jacket sat next to a window across from his booth. She glanced over and smiled. He smiled back. The balding man approached with a full pot of coffee. David turned the mug in front of him over and the man poured. He looked at the man’s embroidered name tag, it read ‘IRV’ in blue cursive.
“Nice computer,” Irv said.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Looks like a spaceship.”
“I suppose so.”
“What can I get you?”
“Pancakes. Two. Oh, with syrup, and two eggs, over easy.”
“Hard or soft?”
“Soft,” David said.
“Whatever you like.”
Irv walked away and threw the chit with David’s order up on the board for the short order cook to see. He went back to talking with the older men seated at the dining counter. The lady across from David stood up from her table and approached him.
“You must be new,” she said. “Haven’t seen you before.”
“Just visiting some friends,” David said. “Nice little town.”
“It can be,” the lady said. “Lots of sinners around though.
”
“Sinners?”
“You ever been to Hillers?”
“I’m sorry,” David said, “I don’t know what that is.”
“Don’t ever go there,” the lady said. “Never ever. They didn’t find Fred Sherman. Never will. Talk is there’s a new bunch missing out there too.”
David turned back to his coffee. He had a feeling the lady was nuts, but he didn’t press her for details.
“Well, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind,” David said in a friendly tone.
The lady seemed put off by the statement. She hissed and walked off and left the diner. A minute later Irv arrived with David’s order.
“You guys are fast,” David said.
Irv topped up David’s coffee with nary a word and went back to the front in time to receive a woman and two men that caught David’s attention and everyone else in the cafe as well. The woman had a big hairsprayed hairdo and wore a blue dress. The two men wore windbreakers with “KRXO FAIRBANKS ACTION 5” emblazoned on them. They sat at the dining counter and greeted the folks around them.
After polishing off some of the best pancakes and eggs he’d ever had, David pushed his dishes away and pulled his laptop in front of him. Irv came by to collect the dishes and handed David his bill.
“Stay long as you like,” Irv said.
David handed him a twenty.
“Need any change?” Irv said as he took the bill.
“Keep it.”
“Thanks.”
David started typing on his keyboard, not trying to think, just letting the words flow, but he couldn’t help but be distracted by two old men having a conversation in the booth behind him. One of them wore a brown jacket, he was the louder of the two. David loved to eavesdrop on people’s conversations, he called it a writer’s curse.
“You know they’re here because that wing nut made that video,” the man with the brown jacket said. “Friggin’ reporters, they’re like cockroaches.”
“You mean, the video about those bear tracks?” the other said.
“Yeah. Those tracks are about as real as my pink Lambroghini.” David got a kick out of the men’s crusty old manner of speaking as if they were straight out of Central Casting.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” the other man said, “might be good to point ‘em in the direction of the old station on 1st.”
“Henry, that station thing’s faker than Hilda’s hair. Fools believe that story.”
“Those bones are down there. Been buried in that dirt a long time.”
“There’s no such thing as a giant grizzly, friend. No way, no how.”
“Tell that to those reporters then, when they find ‘em. Somebody’s gonna tell ‘em they’re down there.”
“I ain’t telling ‘em spit,” the brown jacket man said.
“God you’re an old grouch today.”
“You know me. I’m an old grouch everyday.”
“Well, you’re right about that.”
The old men shared a throaty chuckle and shimmied their way along their bench seats to leave. David went back to his laptop to try and appear as though he wasn’t listening in as the two old men stood up from the booth. They both tossed a few bills on the table, gave Irv a wave and hobbled their way out the front door. The old station on 1st, David thought to himself. Might be worth looking into.
TWELVE
For the first time since he’d arrived in Branson, David felt the adrenaline rush of infatuation truly kick in. He’d managed to convince Jen to indulge him in his request to see the basement of the old abandoned service station on 1st Street. He was genuinely curious to see if the old man at the diner actually knew what he was talking about but more than that he knew the search in and of itself would allow him to spend time with Jen, and he figured that could only be a good thing. The building was a small rectangle of rotting gray wood. Whole planks on the wall were falling off. The gas pumps had long been removed and a hump of dirt lay where the pumps once stood. The entire block around the defunct station was an area where other buildings once stood but now it was just a large square of scrub grass with the faint outlines of where the other buildings used to be. It was as though the entire town had been flattened and moved two blocks to the west.
Jen pulled up in front of the old station in the police truck with David in the front seat.
“This building’s seen better days,” David said.
“It’s been closed since before I was born,” Jen said.
“Why don’t they tear it down?”
“It’s not like anything else is being built in this town, what’d be the point?”
Jen got out of the police truck and approached the building with David close behind. They walked to the entrance, an opening without a door to speak of. Inside they could see parts of the ceiling collapsed to the floor.
“Be careful in here,” Jen warned. “I’m not so sure we should even be walking in here.”
“Aren’t you curious to know?” David said.
“I’m mostly doing this for you, I don’t think anything’s in here.”
Jen stepped on the creaky floorboards, past the old front counter, behind which was an archway that led to blackness. Jen removed her flashlight from her belt and shone it through the archway where she could see a steep set of wooden stairs descending below. David turned up his nose at the musty smell of the place. Jen flashed her light around the top of the stairs checking for a railing or something to hold onto on the steep stairway.
“You’ll have to hold onto the wall,” Jen said. She took out a pair of gloves from her rear pocket and put them on. The wooden walls alongside the stairs was covered in dirt and black mold.
“You have a pair for me?” David said.
“Not on me, no. You’re welcome to try the truck though.”
“Nah, forget it. I’m fine.”
Jen focused the beam of light on the stairs beneath her feet as she descended. About half-way down one of the rungs had busted through.
“Careful here,” Jen indicated the broken stair. She carefully stepped over it and planted her foot on the stair beneath.
As they neared the bottom step, Jen shined her light around a medium-sized rectangular basement with a low ceiling and dirt floor. With each breath they drew they could feel the dankness of the room that almost seem to steal the air from their lungs.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Jen said.
“Me too.”
The airtightness of the basement made their voices sound insular, as if in a soundproof recording studio. The smell of mud and mold was thick.
“Well, this is it,” Jen said. “What is it exactly we should be looking for?”
“The man said something about bones being down here.”
“Really specific,” Jen said with sarcasm in her voice.
She pointed the flashlight at her feet and noted her boots had sunk a half-inch into the floor.
“This dirt is more like the potting soil I use for my plants,” she said.
“A lot of organic material in here maybe.”
“I’d hate to think of what might be buried down here.”
David pointed at the flashlight. “Hey can I borrow that for a second?”
“You see something?”
“Just when you flashed the light over there, thought I saw something.”
Jen handed David the flashlight, it slipped out of his hand and fell.
“Sorry.”
David crouched down and noticed the flashlight had stuck into the dirt upright.
“That’s funny, look how it landed.”
“Like I said, this soil is really soft.”
David pulled the flashlight out of the dirt and he pointed the light at the divot the object had left behind. He ran his fingers in the small hole and his index finger ran up against something solid. A chill shot through him and he stood up. He wriggled his shoulders and made a funny face.
“I just touched something.”
“What was
it?” Jen said.
“I don’t know. Something hard.”
“Gimme that.”
Jen grabbed the flashlight and squatted near the hole. She reached in with her gloved hand and felt the solid object beneath the soil. She passed the light to David.
“Can you just hold that in place, just like that?”
David held the light over the hole. Jen got down on her knees and with both hands pushed the soft dirt outward revealing a yellowy-white solid surface, a few inches down and more than a foot across.
“That’s a bone,” David said excitedly.
“Looks that way.”
“Keep going.”
Jen had given up trying to keep her work pants clean. She crawled back and forth on both sides of the hole digging and pushing away more of the soil. As she did this the size of the solid object grew larger.
“My god,” Jen said. “How big could this one bone be?”
“I told you,” David said. “That old guy knew what he was talking about.”
“I wonder who it was.”
“I couldn’t even really tell you what he looked like.”
“Jesus, you’d think this was a dinosaur bone or something.”
“Unbelievable.”
Jen kept digging. She’d pushed enough dirt away that she approached the basement walls on either side. She stood up and started using her boot to uncover the huge buried object. Soon the hole had taken up the entire width and more than half the length of the room.
“This is crazy,” Jen said. She stepped back to the bottom of the stairs and she and David stared in awe at the enormity of this one bone that filled almost the entire room beneath the thin veneer of dirt.
“How many people do you think know about this?” David said.
“No idea, but however many people that is, that number’s about to get a lot higher.”
THIRTEEN
A small beam of white light hit Jen’s eye and she opened it slowly. Her head pounded and her vision was a bit blurry. She squinted at the light and could make out the line of a dark curtain that didn’t quite cover the entire window to her right. She realized the window in her own bedroom usually was on her left and she immediately became disoriented, dizzy even. She opened her other eye and planted a hand behind her and rose slightly from the mattress. She was completely naked and the room around her looked foreign. Another second and her vision came into focus. She was on a queen size bed in the Grasshopper. Jesus.
