“What are these people thinking?” he said to Deputy Sanders as he put on his hat and made for the door. Harry Sanders looked out and shook his head in imitation of Anderson.
“What are you all doing here?” Anderson addressed the crowd from the steps of the building. “If you are not part of the search team, you should be at home keeping yourself safe!” At this, many people looked nervously to the sky.
“We wanted to see you off and say thank you,” someone called out, and there was a chorus of ‘Yeah’s and ‘That’s right’ from all over.
“That’s commendable, and on behalf of the search team, we thank you, but I think it’s best we leave it at that and you all head home now.
“Are you going to let us know tonight what you find?” the voice of David Hollows came.
“Dave, I’ll call to your door personally on my way home this evening if we find anything,” Anderson said smiling. A few people laughed at this. Hollows just wasn’t going to let up, Anderson thought.
The door to the Sheriff’s Office opened behind Anderson, and Harry stuck his head in.
“Can you come in a minute,” he said to Anderson. Harry seemed like he had something important he wanted to say, so Anderson nodded and turned back to the group.
“Everyone in the search party stand here on the steps and wait for me a minute. Everyone else, go home,” he said before stepping back inside.
Anderson was surprised to be greeted by the elderly but eternal Doc Hanrahan who he’d not seen enter the building. They shook hands, and on seeing the Sheriff’s face, Doc said,
“I came in the back door. I saw that crowd out there and I knew they’d be throwing questions at me if I tried to come in past them.”
“I understand,” Anderson said, “What can we do for you, Doc?” Anderson pulled a seat out, but Hanrahan waved it away.
“The mayor wants me to report to him anything I find out in relation to this candyfloss stuff that blew into town, but I don’t feel right bypassing the police along the way.”
“I appreciate that,” Anderson said. “Have you made a discovery?”
“Not as such, but I did see a dog lick one of the hardened formations and nothing happened to it. I have it over at the surgery with someone keeping an eye on it, but it looks fine so far.”
“You think the stuff might be harmless once it hardens?”
“It’s possible, but I won’t be spreading anything like that around for now.”
“Of course,” Anderson said, and he looked to Sanders pointedly to make sure he’d heard this part.
“If the dog survives the night, I’ll use him for some more tests, and I’m going to see if there are any animals at the pound due for extermination and use those too. It’s not what I’d like to be doing but I can't do anything for the moment with the equipment I have unless I am at least reasonably confident it’s safe to go near the stuff.” Anderson nodded at this summary.
“Harry, can you go outside and tell the search group to break up into teams of three for the drive up to the mountains. Anyone left over can ride with me.”
“Yes, boss,” Harry said, and he went outside.
Now that they were alone, Anderson wanted to ask Hanrahan something Harry wouldn’t be able to repeat.
“Doc, what’s your initial thinking on this? How likely am I to stumble across the source of this up there?”
“My immediate thoughts are that this is manmade, and I won’t be surprised to see the army rolling in at any minute and quarantining the town and hushing everything up.” This thought had also crossed Anderson’s mind, but he felt the army would have been here by now - assuming they knew about it.
“You’ve never heard of anything like this substance before?”
“There are plenty of cases in nature where insects or plants will let things drift on the wind for reproduction, but nothing I’ve ever heard of comes close to this. The size of the clouds also makes this idea very unlikely.”
“Too big, yes?” Hanrahan nodded to this question. “Well, thanks for coming to me with your news, Doc, and I’d be glad to know anything else you come with. Likewise, I'll let you know what we find up in the mountains. If it’s not too late this evening, I might swing by the surgery and see how that dog is doing.”
“That’ll be fine,” Hanrahan said, and the two men shook hands again. “I better go now and tell the mayor what I know.”
With the group outside divided up, there were five cars for the trip. Tammy Dern had shown up, but there was no sign of Allgood. Lawrence Karrier cane up to Anderson and said,
“The way it came out left me and Tammy as a pair. You’re welcome to ride along with us, or do you want us to ride with you?” he asked. Anderson looked at Tammy standing off by Lawrence’ truck and said,
“Why don’t you two go alone and I’ll take the cruiser. I don’t want to cramp your style.” He winked, and Lawrence blushed a little but smiled like a teenager who got a yes from his best gal about going to the Prom. Nodding in agreement he went back to his truck to tell Tammy what was happening.
Anderson got in the cruiser and looked at the other cars waiting for him to lead the way. It didn’t feel right that these people should be doing this work, but the decision had been made. At least it was going to be little more than a glorified drive in the mountains today. Putting the cruiser in gear, he rolled to and led the convoy off into the unknown.
Chapter 10
Charles Landy had not been able to get to the town meeting, much as he wanted to that morning. Duty called, however, as surprisingly, given what had gone on last night, there were still some guests at the hotel who hadn’t packed up and left right away. Still wanting to know what was going on, though, he’d sent Emily Sounding, a bright young girl who worked at the hotel. She was the only member of staff Landy kept on year-round. There was never any issue with her, she would do as she was asked, and if she didn’t know how, she’d figure it out instead of coming to him with questions every ten minutes.
On her first day working there, Emily had dealt with a lecherous guest who’d claimed his toilet was not working. Emily had gone in to have a look and saw that the issue was simply too much paper had been put in there and it would have to be scooped out. She went and got a bucket and some rubber gloves and set to work. The man made advances on her while she was inside his room with the door closed. He wasn’t letting her leave, so she grabbed a handful of the toilet waste and dropped it in his lap.
The guest was furious and complained to Landy, but once he heard Emily’s side to the story, he knew at once she was telling the truth, and he tossed the irate guest to the curb.
“Try not to do that again,” Landy said to Emily with a wink as the man drove off, never to be seen again. Emily had blushed and then got straight back to work, and he’d never had a problem since.
Today, Emily’s job was to be Landy’s eyes and ears at the meeting, while Landy stayed to look after any guest needs that might arise after breakfast. She rode her bike along the winding shore road to town and returned the same way, getting back about an hour after the meeting ended.
When she came into the reception area, one of the guests was checking out.
“Did you hear any more about the guy who got hurt last night?” the man asked, writing out a check for his stay.
“I called the hospital this morning. He’s in a bad way, but he’s out of trouble,” Landy said.
“He’s going to live?” the man asked, sounding surprised.
“That’s what they say,” Landy shrugged. He saw Emily come in and nodded to the couch. Emily went over and sat down to wait. Landy wrote up a receipt for the man and handed it to him.
“We were very pleased to have you, and hope to see you again some time,” Landy said.
“I don’t know that I’ll be back through this way again, but if I am you’ve got my business,” the man said smiling, though Landy felt it was a lie. Who could blame him if he didn’t want to come back here after what he'd witnes
sed last night? Karl Fisher wasn’t going to be a guest here again either; he’d died even before the ambulance arrived here last night. It wouldn't be good for business to go spreading that around though.
The man nodded and then as he slipped the receipt into his wallet, he drew out a five-dollar bill.
“I was hoping to give this to that young girl you have working here, she sure made life easy,” he said. Landy smiled,
“That’s her specialty,” he said and nodded to Emily. The man turned, and a broad smile came over his face.
“Sorry, miss,” he said, “I didn’t see you there.” He stepped over and held out the bill. “This is to say thank you for all your help this week.” Emily looked embarrassed and then looked to Landy as though asking his permission. He nodded for her to take it and she did. Every dollar might count now if the summer was a bust due to this freak cloudy phenomenon.
“Thank you very much,” she said and smiled.
Landy walked the man out, and as soon as his car took off, the hotel owner rushed back inside to hear Emily’s report.
“So, spill it!” he said to her, smiling. Emily took a half breath to start talking and Landy held up a hand, “Hang on, let’s have some coffee while we talk.”
Landy got what they needed, leaving Emily on the desk. When he came back, they got comfortable at the reception couch and armchair and she told him all that happened - all she had seen happen at least - and included the fact that the mayor and sheriff went into an office to talk when it was over.
“How did they look?” Landy asked.
“The sheriff looked a little angry,” Emily said. Landy nodded in agreement.
“I bet he was. I don’t like the idea of sending civilians up into the mountains to see what caused this thing. It’s much too dangerous for that.” Landy recalled his own fears this morning as he watched the road for any sign of Emily on her way. He’d been terrified something had happened to her, and when with relief she finally rounded the bend about a quarter mile down the road, he looked about the sky nervously until she got to the hotel.
“Not something I’d volunteer for,” Emily agreed.
“That’s because you have sense!” Landy said, lifting his cup to his lips once more. After taking a mouthful of coffee, he said softly, “I wonder if this has anything to do with Mercy?”
“What’s that?” Emily asked. She was only living in Gossamer Falls about a year and a half now, coming here with her mother after her father died in a mining accident.
“You don’t know about Mercy?” Landy asked, surprised. Emily shook her head,
“I’ve heard the name and that it destroyed in a fire, but that’s all,” she said.
“Well, I suppose that’s about all most people know about it,” Landy sighed.
“But you know something else?” Emily pressed him when it seemed he was not going to go on.
“No, I don’t know anything else,” Landy said, “But I do know it was the strangest thing I ever heard of.” There was a faraway look in his eyes a moment before he added, “Until last night, I suppose.”
“What was so strange about it?” This was something Emily wanted to hear about.
“The whole mountainside, including the town, went up in flames one night a few years ago. You could see it from down here. Fires spreading all over the mountain and linking up until there was nothing left but charred stumps and the remains of exploded cars and buildings.”
“What caused the fires?”
“There were a lot of gasoline burns found all over the place, but no one was able to explain it. With all the gas from the start, a fire still shouldn't have been able to start up there. It had been snowing for weeks and the trees were sodden through. It makes no sense at all.”
“So no one knows what happened?” Emily asked, looking a little deflated but still eager to hear more. Landy could see this in her eyes, and he decided to tell her the last piece of strange information he had on the Mercy fire.
“When the fire finally burnt itself out, police and firemen from Emerson went on up there. They found dead people in a few different places, but it didn’t look like any of them had been killed by the fire. They’d all been dead before hand, ripped apart or stabbed through. They found the charred body of the sheriff up there with his back broken, and in his hand was wrapped a piece of wood. It looked as though in death he’d clasped hands with a man made out of wood and that was pretty much all that was left intact of them.”
“A wooden man?” Emily said, eyeing him suspiciously.
“That’s what it looked like, but remember, it was only a piece of wood in his hand.”
“What do you think killed them all?” she asked, taking the last sip of her coffee.
“The same thing that kills most people,” Landy said, “Another person.” Emily was silent. “But still, the fire is the big mystery behind it all,” Landy finished.
“You think it’s possible this cloudy stuff was up there too?” Emily asked.
“Could be,” he answered, “Could be we’re in line for a few fires here in Gossamer Falls before long too.”
Chapter 11
Clinton Scarrow didn’t give a shit about all that was going on in Gossamer Falls right now. He didn’t care that people had died and he cared even less that most everyone else was scared. When all the chaos had been going on up at Pa Shaker’s last night, Clinton had crept back inside and helped himself to the unattended drinks at the bar.
After that, he drove around town a bit, seeing the crowds of people gathered all over the streets crying and wailing about loved ones or shouting about ‘Soviet Attacks!’ They were all idiots as far as he was concerned. This town could do with a few less assholes in his opinion. He just hoped Karrier got one of those clouds right down on his head during the night. Scarrow smiled at this thought as he pulled into his driveway.
“Hey Clint, you hear about the town meeting in the morning?” Declan, his neighbour called out to him as he got out of the car.
“What meeting?” he asked, thinking of making an issue about being called ‘Clint’ by this joker but deciding to leave it until he had the information he wanted.
“Meeting in the high school at eleven in the morning. They're going to tell us what the hell went on earlier tonight.”
“They ain’t going to tell anyone shit,” Scarrow snarled, waving a dismissive hand and turning to go inside his house. Declan knew better than to ask him what he meant.
When he got inside, Scarrow set an alarm for ten o’clock. The town would be ripe for the plucking not long after that. He lay down in bed and was out cold in moments flat.
In the morning, he took a breakfast beer with some toast out to his car not long after his alarm clock shrilled him to life. He felt like shit, but the beer should ease that soon enough. If it didn’t, he had five more in the car and one of them was going to do the trick.
As he expected, all the traffic in town was heading for the high school, and before long his was the only car on the road. Driving up and down the deserted streets, he thought this was what the world would look like if the commies ever did drop one of those bombs on the US.
The rural roads out of town were the easiest to start with. No one had stayed at home, and these rubes always left doors and windows unlocked at all times of the day, even when they weren’t at home. Scarrow walked around these farmhouses and helped himself to some food as he went. If he came across cash or anything he might make use of himself, he took it and put it in the car. He thought about taking larger items, things he might be able to sell in Emerson at some later time, but it seemed like a whole lot of trouble. He would have to be content with just the little things.
The suburban roads were quiet too, but it seemed each time Scarrow drove down one, someone came out of their house or was looking out their window. One woman had even waved him down and asked him about the meeting. Scarrow didn’t know why he’d even stopped, but then, she had a fine body on her for an older woman. She’d been afra
id of him. As he left her street turning the corner at speed, he’d nearly hit another car coming onto the street.
“Asshole!” he roared out the window as he swerved and then laughed as he kept on driving, the adrenaline of the near miss spurring him on as he pressed down harder on the accelerator.
Reaching down, he fumbled through the beer bottles for one still full, but his search came up empty. He didn’t think he’d gone through them all, but he guessed he did. The thought crossed his mind that that busty old broad might have something to drink in her house, but she wasn’t going to let him in. Scarrow smiled again at the face she’d made when she knew she’d made a mistake in waving him down.
With his vim up, Scarrow decided to do some speed driving out on the rural roads just out of town. He sped up and down empty lanes and on a couple of occasions almost lost control of the car. He was so drunk, though, that all he did was laugh once he knew he was out of danger and just kept on going on like a maniac.
Soon enough, however, the somnolent effects of the bad night’s sleep and today’s beers caused his eyes to droop, and, thankfully, (for him at least, if no one else) Clinton Scarrow, former high school football star, had the sense to pull over and tilt back in his seat for a nap.
He was awoken with a start as a few cars streamed by. Scarrow sat up straight like he’d been slapped and saw the three cars going out of town and into the mountains. He wasn’t sure, but he thought the lead car was the sheriff’s cruiser.
“Where the hell are they all off to in such a rush?” he said.
Another car was passing just then, following the others, and Scarrow’s curious glance turned into a fierce scowl when he saw who the occupants of the car were.
“Karrier!” he said sourly and at once put the car in gear and set off after them. He didn’t have any idea what he was going to do, but he knew he’d figure it out when the time came. Tammy should be Scarrow’s girl. Everyone knew that, even if she didn’t! To see her cosying up to that loser was a slap in the face Clinton Scarrow wasn’t going to stand for. He recalled going outside last night to give Karrier a beating, and now it was time to finish that business.
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