The Horse Soldier: Beginnings Series Book 10

by Jacqueline Druga

  Dean cleared his throat. “We’ll uh . . . get on it right away. El?” He took her arm and led her away.

  Joe watched them. He saw their enthusiasm. They were terrible at hiding it. “Morons.” He shook his head. “Henry, you have to see what you can do about setting up another fence somewhere to cover the open perimeter. My God, we can’t take a chance of whatever got him getting in here.”

  “Joe, we would have done that years ago, but you know how hard that is,” Henry explained,. “The perimeter is attached to the top of the cliff on both sides. The only area not covered is that cliff. They’d have to rope down or roll. Whatever animal it is would die if it rolled down.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Joe said.

  “And we have to be careful putting fences in the U.D. The kids play out there. The only time we could safely run a perimeter beam in that area would be at night.”

  Joe let out a slow breath. “I guess we should just wait and see what Dean and Ellen say then we can inform everyone the details of Marv’s death. We also will know what kind of animal we’re dealing with and what we have to hunt down.” Joe looked down at his watch. “And . . .” He clapped his hands together. “I have one more thing to say. Henry . . .” Joe laid his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “It is officially your problem now. I’m retired. Later gentlemen.”

  “Joe!” Henry called as Joe walked away. “Joe, you can’t just . . .” Henry looked at Robbie. “He left. There has to be a rule or something stating you have to deal with problems arising while you’re leader. I don’t want to deal with this.”

  “Tough Henry.” Robbie raised his eyebrows. “It’s your, Mister . . . . Community Leader.” Repeating his father’s actions, Robbie laid his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Good to have you aboard, Chief.” Like his father again, Robbie turned and left.

  ^^^^

  “So official like.” Ellen fixed the headset that was attached to a recorder onto Dean’s head. “Look at you.”

  “You too.” Dean nodded to Ellen, both of them in hospital scrubs.

  Ellen stepped closer to the table and peered at the blue sheet. “Want the honors?”

  “You can have them.” Dean motioned his hands out.

  “Thanks.” Ellen moved closer. “Something looks odd about this.” She reached for the blue sheet, hesitating when she noticed at the bottom of the table there was a small bin covered as well. “This doesn’t look right. Does it?”

  “Let’s just take a look.”

  “O.K.” Ellen pulled away the sheet. “Oh wow!”

  “Oh shit!”

  Their shocked and excited ‘ohs’ went back in forth in an overly dramatic call in repeat manner as they both stepped away from the long table. What Ellen exposed was not the body of Marv as they remembered. What looked more like a side of beef butchered one too many times lay on that table. It was wide and stretched. The only recognizable remains that linked the body to a human, were the left side of Marv’s face, his right forearm and hand, and both feet. Bones were exposed and flesh was shredded and hanging out. The torso cavity looked as if something had exploded from within it.

  Ellen let out a weak sounding whistle. “Well.”

  “Well.” Dean walked to the table with her.

  “This doesn’t look like your usual animal attack now does it?”,

  “Could be a lion.”

  “Or tiger.”

  Dean snickered. “Or bear.”

  “Oh my.” Ellen held in her laugh. “We should do this.”

  “We should. Let’s get serious.”

  “O.K.” Ellen looked at Marv. “Dean, should we be feeling really bad at this moment?”

  “Um . . .” Dean cleared his throat. “As citizens of Beginnings, we should be in mourning. But as scientists, there isn’t any room for emotions.”

  “You are so right. And I have to tell you, as a citizen of Beginnings, I’m gonna have a hard time mourning. I never liked him much.”

  “Me either. Weird guy.”

  “Bad hair.” Ellen touched with the tip of her fingers the section of hair right above the exposed brain. “He reminded me of that guy. You know . . . bad singer slash mayor.”

  “Sonny Bono.” Dean peered closer to Marv. “Yeah, he did.”

  “Look at his face, Dean.” Ellen folded her hands behind her back. “Kind of smashed. I wonder if Sonny had that look after his tragic accident.” She snapped her finger. “Oh! How coincidental. Sonny died in the woods and so did Marv.”

  With a thinking ‘hmm’, Dean stopped looking at Marv’s face. He shook his head and snapped back to medical thoughts. “We should be getting to work.”

  “Yes we should. Let’s be professionals now.” She handed Dean a pair of gloves then placed a pair on herself. “Your recorder set?”

  “Hold on.” Dean pressed in the button. “Ready. What’s in the bin, El?”

  “Let’s see, shall we?” She walked to it, reaching for the cloth and lifting it. “Oh. Body parts.”

  Dean peeked. “Yep.”

  “Who am I, Dean?”

  “Ellen.” Dean looked at the body.

  “No Dean, look at me . . . Dean who . . . Dean look at me, Dean. Look . . . . Dean. Dean.”

  “El. All right. Go on.”

  Ellen cleared her throat and lifted the cloth from the bin again. Drastically she gasped and swallowed, twitching her head to the right and closing her eyes. “The uh . . . “ She cleared her throat again. “The victim appears . . . who am I, Dean?”

  “I give up.”

  “Geez, Dean.” She dropped the cloth. “I’m Richard Dreyfus in the movie JAWS.” She giggled. “I feel just like him. Watch. Or how about this scene?” She grabbed Marv’s right arm and bent it up. “Remember that scene? The beach?”

  “Ellen, cut it out.”

  Ellen made her voice high -pitched. “Hi, Dean.” She waved the hand.

  “Ellen, we have to be serious. O.K.?”

  “O.K.. Let’s do this . . . Dean?”

  Dean slowed in his exam. He looked at Ellen. “What?”

  “This is the exact spot where you laid when you died. I can still see how pale and blue you . . .”

  “El.”

  “Yes?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I really don’t want to discuss my death right now.”

  “O.K., just flashing back in this creepy place. Go on.”

  “Thank you.” Slowly Dean let out a breath as he began to examine Marv, speaking into his recorder. “September 23rd autopsy on Marv Davidson. We have a thirty-two year old male, height five foot nine, weight, approximately 150 . . .”

  “Probably close to ninety now.”

  “El,” Dean silenced her. “Victim appears to be . . .”

  “Richard.”

  “El.” Dean reached for a pair of tweezers as his eyes zoomed in.

  “What do you see?”

  “Get me some specimen trays. Saliva is found predominantly across the thoracic region . . . .” Dean reached down his other hand and shut off his tape recorder. “El, look at this.”

  “It’s not something I need to be the bionic woman for does it?”

  “No, come here. Hit that light.”

  Ellen set down the specimen trays and turned the spotlight on. “What am I looking for.”

  “Look at these bite marks.” Dean pointed to the sternum.

  “Straight through the bone.”

  “Yeah. Jagged too.”

  “Definitely an animal.”

  “Looks that way. From what I’m seeing, and I’m not really giving it my all, it looks like several bite marks, several different bite marks. We should really get some shots of this,” Dean commented. “That way we can actually work for a while on it.”

  “Want me to run and get the camera?” Ellen asked.

  “Yeah, but first, tell me what is in that bin.”

  Ellen lifted the sheet. “Looks like a large portion of the stomach, definitely the spleen, uh . . . . a portion of the small
intestines, an eye, an ear and. . .” Her hand reached in, feeling. “I think this is a really, really tiny piece of the heart.” She pulled it out.

  “Yeah it is,” Dean told her. “What do you notice about Marv?”

  “Aside that he looks thinner and . . .” Ellen saw Dean’s scolding face. “All the fleshy areas are gone.”

  “Exactly.” Dean said. “He wasn’t just torn to shreds and killed . . .”

  “He was eaten.”

  “Go get that camera so we can get some shots before we start removing the parts that are left.”

  “Right away.” Ellen backed up and removed her gloves.

  “And more specimen trays as well.” He heard Ellen say something as she left, but Dean was too engrossed in the breastbone, or what remained of it. Dean moved the shattered bone some, lifting it to peer into the empty cavity behind it. He could see the spine as well. Looking around at the gutted and cleaned out torso, Dean’s eyes saw the slight difference in shading and he stopped. He adjusted the light above his head. “What do we have here?” Without looking, he reached up for his tweezers and brought them, and his hand, into Marv’s body cavity. He pulled the item from its lodging in the third thoracic vertebrae. It was small, very small, but if Dean’s knowledge served him right, he knew exactly what he found, a piece of . . . a tooth. It wasn’t a very strong tooth or sturdy and it didn’t look as if it were a piece to a large tooth. But what baffled Dean at that moment wasn’t the tooth, but how something that possessed it could have done as much damage as it did, unless what did the damage wasn’t the teeth, but the being itself. Perhaps it torn apart with paws or hands. But seeing how Frank wasn’t in Beginnings, the theory of someone torn to shreds by hands was eliminated

  Dean paused in his postmortem exam to laugh at his Frank thought. He set the piece of tooth in the specimen tray and decided, before going any further, he’d wait for Ellen to return. He wanted that camera present and he wanted to tell her about his amusing thought. So, alone in the room with a torn apart Marv, Dean waited.

  ^^^^

  “Hey, Uncle Robbie.” Johnny was pouring a drink at the social hall when Robbie, seeming so down, walked in. “You O.K.?”

  “Um . . . yeah..” Robbie blinked several times as if his eyes were hurting. He looked at how quickly Johnny downed his drink. “Easy.”

  Johnny thought it odd for Robbie to tell him that. “O.K. easy. Any news on Marv?”

  “Nothing yet.” Robbie spoke the line he had told everyone. How horrible it was that Marv had died. How much worse it was the way Marv had lost his life. Figuring he’d wait until Dean and Ellen told him more, confirming or denying what killed him.

  “I stopped by the morgue,” Johnny told him, “before I came here.”

  “Really? And?”

  “They wouldn’t let me in.”

  “Not at all?” Robbie asked.

  “Nope. I hung outside the door . . . Uncle Robbie, they seemed like they were having a good time in there.”

  “They love their work.”

  “Hanging tonight? Wanna shoot some pool?”

  “Um . . . .” Robbie’s hand slid down his face. “No, just grabbing a drink and heading home.”

  “O.K.”

  Robbie motioned his head behind Johnny. “Looks like you have company anyhow.”

  Johnny looked over his shoulder. “God, she won’t leave me alone.”

  “You’re supposed to be getting close to her anyhow. John. You told us you would.”

  “Yeah I know. It just makes me feel really creepy thinking about being with her.”

  “Why?” Robbie questioned.

  “Um . . . um. Don’t know.” Johnny finished his drink. “Just thinking about it being her I guess.” He poured another. “Maybe I’ll go torture her.”

  “Yeah, you do that. I’m just gonna sit here.” Robbie watched his nephew draw up an egotistical look and waltz over to his table with a semi -ignore Bev attitude. Pouring himself a drink, Robbie slid on the stool. He looked once over his shoulder to Johnny and Bev. How trivial Johnny must think he and Joe for having him find out what’s going on with Bev over the Dean and Ellen situation. How trivial it sounded to Robbie, but he had to keep reminding himself that the ‘Dean and Ellen’ reason was only the front story. The real reason being to hopefully eliminate or point a finger at her when it came to George.

  “That’s it.” Johnny slammed down his drink. “Bev, if you are going to continue to stare at me, I’m leaving. You’re undressing me with your eyes. I feel so violated.”

  “You owe me.”

  “Owe you what?”

  Bev raised her eyebrows a few times. “For the other day.”

  “Oh really.” Johnny stood up and readied to leave. “Well see, that’s the problem with you.”

  “Wait. What’s the problem with me . . .” Bev scooted from her chair, hurrying her way to a leaving Johnny. “Johnny.” She caught up to him. “Johnny.”

  “I’m leaving.” He walked by Robbie, laying his hand on Robbie’s back. “See ya, Uncle Robbie.”

  “John.” Robbie swam in his drink.

  Johnny smiling and not letting Bev see, left the social hall.

  “Johnny.” She ran to catch him. “Wait.”

  “What?” Johnny stopped walking.

  “What did you mean, that’s the problem with me?”

  “You know exactly what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “You don’t. Did you just tell me in there that I owe you?”

  “Yes.” Bev stood before him.

  “Well, that’s not the way things are run with me. I say what goes on. Who owes who. Get it?”

  “But I . . .”

  “No buts.” Johnny stayed firm. “I call the shots. I say what gets done. I tell you what you do, not you tell me. If you’re up to anything, I’d better damn well know ahead of time what it is and why you’re doing it.”

  “But Johnny.”

  “And as far as sex goes, if I want to sleep with you, I will. No deals, and trust me babe, when I want it, I’ll find you and you’ll deliver, no problem.”

  Bev folded her arms. “Really? Well I don’t think I like your attitude.”

  “Oh well.” Johnny tossed his hands up.

  “And you are so wrong,” she spoke snidely.

  “I’m wrong? Who are you to tell me I’m wrong?”

  “I will tell you you’re wrong. The only way this will work is if you own me? Let me tell you something Johnny, no one owns me.”

  Johnny just watched her, nodding arrogantly.

  “I say who I sleep with and when, not you or anyone!” She poked him in the chest. “I don’t even know why I chased after you in the first place. You’re cold, mean, and a complete waste of my time. I wouldn’t sleep with you now if you got on your hands and knees and begged me.”

  “Baby.” Johnny placed his face close to hers. “You want me so bad, it wouldn’t take anything to get you to sleep with me anytime and anywhere.”

  “You think?”

  “I know.”

  “Right.” Bev huffed.

  “Watch.” Johnny grabbed her face and pulled Bev with a slight force up and into him. Wide and sexual, he placed his mouth over hers, pressing it hard and deeply to hers. E moved his mouth and kissed in a sweeping motions over and over, holding on to her face as he stepped her backwards.

  Against everything she told him. Bev responded.

  Further and further into the dark alley between the social hall and the next building, Johnny led her. Moving her and moving her until he backed her up against the social hall wall. His mouth released from her as he grabbed onto the collar of her shirt and he leaned his body in a bent manner directly against hers. “What were you saying?”

  Bev’s mouth reached for Johnny’s lips, but he kept pulling back from her.

  “How bad do you want it, Bev?” Johnny’s waist moved into her and his hand glided with a firmness up her leg. “How bad?”

  “Ba
d.” She breathed heavily, trying to kiss him.

  Almost biting, Johnny laid his lips to under her ear, running them down hard to the nape of her neck. “How bad do you want me?”

  “I want you, Johnny.”

  “And what will you do for me?” he asked deeply, moistening her neck with his mouth, breathing hard into her ear.

  “Anything.”

  On her words, Johnny’s hands slid down both of her legs then back up, lifting the skirt she wore. He began to kiss her again, one hand secured under her skirt and the other undoing his own jeans. Bev’s hands went to his hair and to his neck. The moment she held his head and locked him in that kiss, was the moment Johnny braced his hands behind her thighs, lifted Bev up, drew her legs around his waist and slammed her with a sexual drive into the aluminum side of the social hall,.

  It was Tuesday so the social hall was nearly empty and quiet. Not even the juke box played for the men who just were there to relax. Perhaps that was why Robbie heard it, lifting his views from his drink and up to the noise. Actually Robbie heard it at the same time as the other seven men in the hall. All of them looked around at the steady dull metal banging that they heard.

  Like a metronome, only picking up speed with each few seconds that passed. Bang-bang-bang-bang.

  “What the hell?” Robbie stood up from his stool. Everyone had stopped what they were doing. “What is that?”

  Cole set down his pool stick. “Sounds like it’s coming from outside. Maybe it’s Denny and Josh playing around.”

  Robbie looked at his watch. “Probably. This is their hanging out hour.” He returned to his stool, picked up his drink, and shook his head at the increasing rate of the banging. “They think they’re funny. Ignore them.”

  With Robbie’s reassurance that nothing was wrong, everyone went back to what they were doing. And to even show the annoying teenage boys, someone turned on the jukebox.

  CHAPTER

  TWENTY-FIVE

  September 24

  Beginnings, Montana

  “Sacrilegious,” Ellen stated as she set down both metal boxes on the cryo -lab counter.

  “No way.” Dean shook his head, setting down two boxes as well.