Chapter 7
Henry was awakened minutes before dawn by the telephone’s ringing on the headboard’s shelf. Half-asleep, he fumbled the phone, dropped it, and finally got it to his ear.
The conversation was brief.
“Chief, can you get into headquarters right away?” George’s voice sounded strained.
As groggy as he was, Henry knew something was up. “What is it?”
“Superintendent Sorrelson’s here. He wants to talk to you about our dilemma.”
“Our what?”
“You know, closing the lake area. And there’s another problem. Don’t want to discuss it on the telephone, though. Big brother could be listening.”
“I won’t be long,” Henry said and hung up.
Waking Ann, who could sleep through an earthquake, Henry made her aware of George’s call. He climbed out of bed and put on a clean uniform and drove to headquarters with the rising sun in his eyes. It was around six o’clock. Usually he went in at eight, so it was only two hours early.
The ranger’s station was abuzz with a lot of activity for such an early hour. Sorrelson, the Park’s Superintendent, was waiting for him in his office, sitting in Henry’s chair, along with a grim George Redcrow sulking in the corner. Henry rarely saw the superintendent unless there was a problem. The man was usually busy with meetings and glad-handing state politicians.
“Heard about your close call the other night, Henry,” Sorrelson grumbled, his plump lips barely smiling.
“It was close, that’s for sure.” Henry met the other man’s flat gaze.
“Went fishing and caught something you weren’t expecting, huh? Got any idea what you saw? Wasn’t some giant fish, was it, now? Like they spotted a few years back at Culler’s Lake? Or could it have been one of those inflatable dragon toys? You know how the city kids like to play tricks on us during tourist season.”
“No, Sir, it wasn’t a fish or a toy.”
“What was it?”
Here goes nothing, Henry thought, here goes my job. “Now, don’t laugh, but the paleontologist they sent us from John Day’s–he was with me the other night–thinks it’s some sort of dinosaur throwback. Maybe even an off-shoot of an ancient Pleiosaur. Or a mutant hybrid never seen before, but a live one and bigger than a whale. And it’s here in the lake. Has been, most likely, for the last year or more. Only now, perhaps because it’s become large enough, it’s making its presence known.”
Sorrelson didn’t laugh, but stared at him as if he were waiting for the punch line, his eyes hard. He didn’t wait long.
“In the lake you say?”
“Yes, in the lake.” Henry walked over to the chair beside George and sat down. He yearned for a cup of coffee and his eyes glanced through the window towards the coffee pot in the adjoining room. The other men in the office had coffee, and he was jealous. Sorrelson caught him looking at George’s cup. “Get yourself some coffee, Henry.”
When Henry returned to his office, Sorrelson coaxed, “You sure, the thing in the lake couldn’t have been anything else? A large log or something?”
Hell, Henry thought, I knew it would be like this. He thinks I’m nuts.
“Well,” Henry fought a caustic smile, “it was dark and the fog was thick. But I’m sure it was alive, damn big, and viciously aggressive; it tried to capsize us, whatever it was. If it was a fish, it was the biggest fish I’ve ever seen. If it was a log, it was a mighty active log. It attacked our boat. Plain and simple.”
“Bigger than a whale, you say?” Sorrelson’s eyebrows were questioning curves. A beefy hand glided along the side of a fleshy jaw. A short, heavy set man he was also going bald. He wore glasses, but being vain, left them off most of the time, which made him squint a lot. He didn’t reside in the park, preferring the town. Henry often wondered how he’d ever gotten to be superintendent of a national park. Connections, no doubt. But he was a wheeler-dealer and knew whose hand to shake, whose donation box to fill, to get what he wanted.
“Bigger.”
Sorrelson glared at him. “Redcrow here says you want to close down the lake area; stop the boat tours for a while until we can decide if this creature is dangerous?”
“That’s my plan.”
The Superintendent didn’t say anything for a minute or two, as Henry and George waited. The room was hushed. From earlier experiences Henry knew Sorrelson was mulling things over in that steel trap of a mind of his, trying to find a way for the park to keep operating. It couldn’t bring in money if its prime attraction was gated off. Most people came to see the lake.
The silence broke. “I’d say that was too hasty. Let’s give it a bit more time, Henry. After all, tourist season is just coming into full swing. I hate to tell you this, but they’ve ordered me to cut back further on your funds this year. You might have to lay off a couple more rangers. If you close down the lake they might see that as justification for even more layoffs. Humph. A monster in the lake might be good for us. Bring more tourists. Budget needs the income.”
Layoff more rangers? They were short-handed already, and with some sort of giant predator prowling the lake on top of it all, what was the man thinking? Henry’s disbelief flushed his cheeks, anger showed in his eyes; but, with a warning look from George, he kept his irritation to himself. Sorrelson wouldn’t listen anyway. Once he decided something he rarely changed his mind.
The Superintendent grilled Henry, “Where do you think this thing in the lake–if there is something in the lake–might have come from?”
“Dr. Maltin, the paleontologist I mentioned before, believes it may live in the caves beneath the caldera.” Henry cradled the Styrofoam cup in his hands and stared at the wet indentation the bottom had made on his pants leg. The cup was leaking, so he drank the rest of the coffee. It felt strange with someone else sitting at his desk, drinking coffee out of his cup. He didn’t like it much.
“The caldera is honeycombed with underground caves. All of them uncharted and probably unstable.” Henry met Sorrelson’s eyes. “You called me in two hours before my shift, Sir, to ask about what I saw two nights ago in the water and to tell me not to close the lake area for now–is there anything else?”
Sorrelson’s gaze shifted to George. “Well, there was something else. George can explain. He was on duty last night.”
George Redcrow’s head had been slumped on his chest, but when spoken to, he raised it. Henry recognized distress in his friend’s face. “Yesterday there was an incident in that homeless camp near the old rock quarry.”
“An incident?” echoed Henry.
“Late in the day, around eight or eight-thirty, close to sundown. You know, Henry, how gloomy it can be in the woods by that time of day?”
Henry nodded, waiting for George to continue.
“Seems they had a visitor. Some enormous, noisy animal, by their account. It scared the bejesus out of them as it crashed through the woods behind their camp.” George produced a hand-sized notebook and flipped it open to the middle. “Two men, Gregory Black and a Leonard Morrison, were sent out to investigate the racket. Black was a vet and an experienced woodsman, who knew his way around the forest. He’d been out of a job, too, for a while, suffered from battle-related flashbacks, a chronic medical condition, but could take care of himself in the wild, according to the others. Morrison got laid off six months before from the mill in Medford and when the money ran out he and his family were evicted from their home. He’s got three kids and a wife, Jane.”
“What happened to him and his friend?” Henry cut to the point.
“Seems they never returned. They were officially reported missing as soon as the sun came up. Camp people were too scared to risk coming into headquarters before then, afraid the thing was still lurking in the woods waiting. They’ve asked for help to find the missing men.”
Henry experienced a cold creeping dread.
“One of Morrison’s children, a girl name Nikki, claims she saw a monster–her exact words–said it was about a t
housand feet tall. Says it ate her daddy. She’d snuck off after him and Black when they went out looking.”
George put the notebook away. “But I don’t think we can count on her as a reliable witness.”
“Why not?”
“She’s seven years old and in shock. I tried to get her mother to take her to the hospital in town so a doctor could check her out, but none of them have medical coverage of any kind. And no money. Just a lot of misplaced pride. So I couldn’t persuade her. The girl’s mother isn’t taking it well, either. She insists her husband’s not coming back. That he’s dead. That both men are dead. She believes her daughter. The situation is unsettling.”
George seemed to be done talking.
“We need to get some rangers out to the camp and search for those missing men. Now.” Henry looked over to Sorrelson, who had closed up his briefcase and was preparing to leave.
“I’m sure you’ll find them, Henry. Unless a monster has truly devoured them,” Sorrelson muttered sarcastically. He wasn’t as worried about the missing homeless as Henry thought he should have been. He bet it would have been different if they’d been politicians. “I leave the matter in your capable hands. Keep me informed. And those other matters? Keep the lake open and let me know which two rangers you’ve decided to cut. Your choice. I’ll try to get them the best severance package I can, under the circumstances.
“You can leave messages with my secretary. Tomorrow I’m flying out to Los Angeles for a golf tournament. Won’t be back for a week or two, at least.”
Henry was relieved when the Superintendent went out the door. The man couldn’t get away fast enough.
“Okay, George,” Henry exhaled, sentried at the window, watching the Superintendent’s car leave behind a trail of dust. “Let’s gather some rangers and go out to the camp. Find out what’s happened to those two men. This whole thing’s starting to spook me,” he swore under his breath, slapping on his hat.
Dinosaur Lake Page 20
