Harlequin's Deception (The Naked Truth Series Book 1)

by Candi Fox

  “Harley, this is Meyers. No murders this time, thank God. I got a call from the Vinita police department. I know it’s out of your normal jurisdiction, but they are asking for you.”

  “I can go. What’s up?”

  “A car dealership was attacked last night. Rather the cars on the lot were attacked. Some of them were severely damaged.

  “They have already had animal experts out there. Their guessing everything from an enraged Pitbull, to a Chupacabra, to Bigfoot. I know you will be able to narrow down or even figure out what wrecked the cars.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem. I will get my gear and head out. Is there anyone I need to report too?”

  “The cops won’t be there. They cordoned off the cars, gathered hairs, took pics and left. Just ask for the manager or the owner when you get there. They asked for you by name, so they are expecting you.”

  “Thanks, Meyers. If I have time, I plan on working on some evidence gathering later today.”

  “Good. Let me know if you need anything. I have several new cases to handle right now.”

  “Will do.”

  Harley took a quick shower, dressed and headed downstairs to gather her gear. Mrs. Reyes was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, with what looked like food packed for the day. She swore the woman had some sort of psychic ability.

  She hugged and kissed her second mother, thanking her, before gathering up her gear and heading out.

  The drive was mostly highway and just over an hour long. It was a good day to listen to the satellite radio. She tuned the station to 80’s music. It was one of her favorite genres.

  Halfway through the ride, her stomach rumbled. She dug through the bag finding a succulent looking breakfast sandwich.

  The thick sliced country bread had been fresh baked, toasted and slathered with butter before duck eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, and thick sliced bacon were added to finish the perfect meal in a sandwich.

  Duck eggs were her favorite. She’d purchased a flock a few years ago just for that purpose. She had a mixed flock of Welsh Harlequins, Jumbo Pekins, and Grimaud Hybrid Pekins.

  They were all prolific layers and their egg size was extra-large to jumbo. You could easily substitute one duck egg for two chicken eggs in a recipe.

  Harley was also in love with the chickens that laid all the colorful eggs. She had enough to supply the ranch and her office in eggs. She brought them into the office by the dozens.

  She had a strict deal with the Reyes, not to let her know when one of her chickens or ducks had to be “retired.” She wasn’t squeamish about farm life, she just tended to name and love everything that had a face.

  She had pet cows, chickens, goats, etc. They each had a name and a special tag and were designated to never be food.

  Green County Ford was located on Dwain Willis Avenue in Vinita, Oklahoma. Having a navigator in her SUV was priceless. She spotted the police tape long before she turned into the lot.

  The incident had drawn its share of onlookers. Harley was thankful the police had been here first to quarantine the area so the evidence was not getting trampled on.

  She pulled the car up to the sales building and requested the general sales manager. He was a pleasant man who was eager to help her solve the mystery.

  He escorted her to each of the nine vehicles that had been damaged. It seems the culprit had a real taste for FORD.

  The bumpers had been pulled entirely off the front of four cars. Others had claw marks, and even chew marks on them. Harley didn’t know of any supernatural creatures that craved metal, much less vehicle metal.

  Harley cast her energy outwards using her senses to see what she could pick up. Trouble was there were just too many people around the area. Some of them were normal people, others she could tell were paranormal.

  There was no way to get a true sense until they were closed and she could explore more when the lot was empty. Until then she would talk to the staff members and use a few minor spells and potions.

  She started interviewing the sales staff. The manager had to go out for meetings. He would be back by late afternoon. There was talk of closing the lot a few hours early to give Harley time to properly research the “crime” scene.

  The most important piece of information Harley uncovered was the fact that at least one automobile a night for the past two weeks had been damaged.

  The damages had been minor, police reports were filed. The damages until last night had been negligible. Last night’s damage had been more severe and more dramatic.

  The prints they’d found looked canine. The difference was small but discernable. One of the biggest differences was the size of the print. No canine on record was big enough to leave a print the size of the ones found at the scene. The prints were large enough that they could have belonged to a grizzly bear.

  The hair that was found onsite was reddish brown in color. They had been sent off to the lab to see if they belonged to canine or ursine.

  Hell, for that matter any number of things had similar hair. Lab results would be in tomorrow or the next day.

  She couldn’t tell much more until the lot was empty or at least closer to being empty. Harley would have to postpone her investigation on Luc’s property. She texted him to let him know she was on another investigation and would not be making it there.

  Harley lucked out; the local Holiday Inn Express had one King Jacuzzi suite left. The suite also contained a mini fridge, a microwave, and a mini-coffee pot.

  She would need to do some shopping, as she hadn’t packed an overnight bag. The manager had decided to close early to give her time to investigate. She had just over three hours to shop.

  Two and a half hours later the SUV had several bags in the back. She may have enjoyed shopping just a little too much.

  She pulled into the car dealership as the last of the onlookers were being asked to leave. Truly, there was nothing more to see. Not right now. She wondered how many of them would try and come back to “catch” the beast tonight.

  Harley pulled out her bag of equipment and went to work. She measured the prints again. She’d had time to look up print sizes earlier. The prints were indeed the size of a large grizzly bear.

  An adult grizzly bear’s front paw print was about seven inches long and five inches wide. The back print was about eleven inches long. Rear paw prints of up to fifteen inches had been documented.

  This print was right around the seven-inch mark. It looked like a front paw. It was not in the shape of a grizzly but it was close. She would guess the weight of the creature was around 750lbs.

  Opening her bag of tricks, she pulled out the paranormal identifying potion. If the potion turned green it was a werecreature; she still had to figure out which animal it was.

  Many people just thought of werewolves. There were dozens of other wereanimals. Lions, tigers, swans, crows, bears, alligators and more species had been identified since the shift.

  The potions color turned a rather vague grayish white. This indicated that the entity was “other”. In other words, she was back to square one. The only thing she was certain of, was that the creature was paranormal in origin.

  Looking over the damaged cars again, she came to the realization that even if it was a bear, it would have to be extraordinarily strong one.

  She highly doubted it was a Bigfoot. They preferred to stay in the woods. Bigfoot rarely strayed from those areas. Occasionally if they were starving you might find one in a rural area. There were no documented cases of Bigfoot in the city.

  She could do a seeing spell. It took time and a lot of ingredients. Harley thought it would be easier to just hide somewhere and wait for the creature to come back.

  One of the salesmen stayed behind with her. She asked to view the video tapes they had been taking. There was no video showing the creature.

  At least Mike was interesting to talk to. He was about Harley’s age, married with four children. His wife was a nurse. She had one of those 24-hour shifts. She
worked two days straight, then had four days off.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  It was after midnight before they heard anything. The sound of crunching metal was unmistakable.

  “Mike, maybe you should stay here. Call 911 if I don’t come back or you hear screams.”

  Harley was trying to act nonchalant. She had no idea what she was facing, she really didn’t want to get a civilian killed.

  “Okay. I’ll stay here if you think its best.”

  “I do.”

  As soon as Harley cleared the door she drew one of her daggers. The morning after they enchanted the blades, the daggers had shown up as life-sized tattoos down the inside of each of her arms.

  The sound of crunching metal was coming from the outer edge of the lot. Harley walked slowly in that direction. The boots she had chosen were soft soled, so she was able to walk without making any noise.

  I need more training, she thought. Maybe Meyers didn’t have such a bad idea. She didn’t want to be a cop; however, she could use more training. It never hurt to have more training.

  Arriving at the edge of the lot, she soon realized the sound was coming from farther back. It was coming from behind the main building. Much farther back.

  A line of fear ran down her back causing goose bumps to appear down her arms. Harley drew the other dagger. Whatever was back there was big and possibly bad. Very bad.

  Approaching the back with caution, Harley swallowed a scream as she saw what was ripping up the cars.

  It was utterly unbelievable. The creature looked like it was a cross between a hyena and a bear. The fur was thicker along its back and red-brown. It was easily five or six-foot-tall on all four paws.

  The beast probably weighed more than she originally guessed. The fur on the rest of its body was slick like a coon dog’s and she could see the rippling muscles as it tore the bumper off another car.

  Its jaws were massive. The lower jaw protruding slightly longer than the upper jaw. Massive canines showing on either side. It almost looked prehistoric.

  The muzzle was a deep brown, and its eyes were nearly glowing orange. It hadn’t spotted Harley yet. The creature was too busy chewing the bumper it had just torn off.

  She crept around behind an oversized truck. Peering around the edge of the truck to watch it. She had to come up with a plan and fast. Harley made a mental note to make a bandolier style potion holder.

  The minutes crept by as the creature chewed on the bumper of the car it had ripped off. It seemed oddly content right now. She still had no viable plan. Not knowing what the creature was, she didn’t know what kind of spell to cast against it.

  One possible downfall to magic. Knowing what you were dealing with made it far easier to cast the right spell. She always tried defensive spells first; however, she was not opposed to casting offensive spells.

  Harley liked living, and she planned to do it for a very long time. If that meant casting a spell that would hurt whatever was attacking her, then so be it.

  Hearing a noise behind her, she whipped around and saw Mike coming from the side of the building, a flashlight in his hands.

  “Hey, are you alright?” He called.

  Harley screamed, “NO!”

  It was too late. The creature heard Mike and launched itself at him. It covered the ground between them with supernatural speed.

  Harley barely had time to get half way there before it pounced on top of Mike. Mike screamed putting his hands up to try and defend himself.

  She heard bones crunch. By the time, she reached the back of the beast Mike stopped screaming. A wet gurgling sound filled the night air, just as Harley drove the magical daggers into the beast’s hind flank.

  It growled at her and turned its muzzle to see what was attacking it. Blood dripped down from the protruding teeth. Harley didn’t know what else to do. She used a spell to send an electrical current down her arms and into the dagger as she struck the beast again.

  This time the beast howled and took off. Harley quickly kneeled beside Mike. She tried to cover the gaping hole in his throat. The blood gurgling out and spilling over her hands and onto the parking lot.

  She applied pressure to the wound, hoping she could slow it down long enough to get an ambulance there. Harley took one hand away long enough to get her cell phone out, dial 911 and put it on speaker phone.

  “911 operator, what’s your emergency.”

  “I have a man severely wounded by an animal attack at the Green County auto sales. We are in the back, behind the building.

  “The animal got his throat. Can you please hurry?”

  Harley was surprised at the calmness in her voice. She was anything but calm, as Mike’s life essence spilled over her hands. The blood was soaking into the knees of her jeans as she knelt trying to stem the flow.

  “We are sending help. Please stay on the line. Is the animal still in the vicinity?”

  “I... I don’t know. We need a supernatural response team. It wasn’t a normal animal.”

  “Ma’am, can you describe the creature?”

  “Not right now. I’m Harlowe Kelly, a witch. I was hired to investigate the attacks on the cars. Trust me on this one.”

  “I’ll call a team.”

  Harley’s eyes slid down to her hands. She could hear the sirens in the distance. They weren’t going to make it. She could see his spirit getting ready to leave his body.

  “Hang in there, Mike. Think of your wife. Think of your kids. Help is almost here. Just hang on.”

  Hot tears ran down her cheeks. He needed to hang on.

  “Damnit Mike, don’t you dare die on me.”

  She could see the lights. The ambulance was pulling in the parking lot. Harley knew his heart had stopped beating. There was no more blood to pump out of his body. She prayed to the Goddess and sent a small electrical pulse through his body. Using a modified version of the one she’d sent through the creature earlier.

  “Ma’am are you still there?”

  “I’m here. So is the ambulance.”

  Harley didn’t take her hands off his throat until one of the paramedics was there to take over. They went to work on Mike, trying to save him. She had managed to restart his heart.

  She stood there, blood dripping from her hands onto the parking lot. Staring, hoping, and praying. She’d forgotten all about the 911 operator.

  Police cars pulled into the parking lot. A fire truck and another ambulance. She was beyond numb, covered in blood, and suddenly freezing.

  She trembled from cold, from sadness, and from fear as the officers surrounded the area guns drawn. Once they checked the area and called the all clear, one of them approached her.

  By that time, Mike had been taken away in the ambulance. Harley had no idea if he was still alive when they loaded him. He had lost so much blood. There was a pool of it on the parking lot where his body had been. She was covered in his blood.

  “Miss, can you tell me what happened?”

  Harley looked at the officer in front of her. He was a few inches shorter, a few years younger. His name plate said, Officer Rodriguez.

  Harley wasn’t sure where to begin. “Where do I begin? Why I was here, or the attack?”

  “Go ahead and tell us everything from the time you got here.”

  The blood was drying on her hands. Another officer had come up and put bags over her hands. He told her that they were evidence, and would be removed after the crime lab came and got samples. She nodded her head numbly at him.

  “I arrived late morning. I was called in to investigate the creature that was causing damage to the vehicles on this lot.

  “After taking evidence, we decided it would be best to complete my work after they closed the lot. They closed early and I came back.

  “After investigating, I concluded that we were dealing with an unknown paranormal. One that could not be immediately identified with a spell or potion work.

  “I asked to be able to stay overnight to try and get a look at the
creature.”

  Harley paused and took a deep breath. She realized that she was trembling. The EMT’s were surrounding her by the time she paused.

  “Why don’t you follow us? You can sit over here. The crime lab is here. They can process the evidence while you are telling the police the rest of the story.”

  She followed them to the ambulance. Sitting down on the edge of the back door while the crime lab team processed the blood on her hands and other parts of her body.

  Officer Rodriguez decided she could finish telling them what happened when the crime lab was done. The paramedics were concerned that she had been hurt.

  All the blood was Mike’s. There was so very much blood. She looked in horror as they swabbed her hands. She looked like she should be in a slasher film. Unfortunately, all the blood was real. No one had put blood packs on her to explode at just the right moment in the scene.

  No, all this blood belonged to the man she had spent hours talking to. The one who had shown her pictures of his wife and kids. The one that was more than likely dead.

  The blood was embedded under her fingernails. One of the techs took the time to scrape it out from under each of her nails. It hurt a little. She endured it without comment.

  In part, she felt numb. She had never had anybody die like that. Not in front of her, not with their blood all over her hands. When the tech was done one of the paramedics started cleaning her hands.

  Each hand was examined for wounds before they moved on to the blood on other parts of her body. Blood samples were taken, cataloged and then she was cleaned up to make sure none of the blood was her own.

  Eventually, she was cleared to talk again. Officer Reyes suggested they finish up inside of the building. The sales manager had arrived by then. He corroborated what he knew of the story and made sure everyone had hot coffee to drink.

  CSI and other teams had arrived to comb the area. The police had brought in K-9 units to see if they could track the creature. Most of the dogs were hound dogs. They were perfect for tracking.

  After drinking a cup of coffee, she picked up the story. “Mike, one of the salesmen, stayed after with me. We viewed several of the videotapes. Finding no evidence, we spent the rest of the evening chatting.