Twins of Prey II: Homecoming

by W. C. Hoffman

  Twins of Prey II

  ~

  Homecoming

  W.C. Hoffman

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  Copyright © 2014 Abracadabra Productions

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  Editorial Services: Donna Rich

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN:1497319587

  ISBN-13:978-1497319585

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  DEDICATION

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  1 Truth

  2 Silenced

  3 Hawk’s Nest

  4 Escape

  5 Letter

  6 Traffic

  7 Message

  8 Home

  9 Council

  10 Company

  11 Reunion

  12 Angels

  13 Truth

  14 Darkness

  15 Sermon

  16 Well

  17 Falling

  18 Combat

  19 Rope

  20 Spoor

  21 empty

  22 poker

  23 Truth

  24 Lucky Trail

  25 Niko

  The End ~ Book 2

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  DEDICATION

  To the boys of Lucky Trail and Pine Run.

  Thanks for the memories made in the woods.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  One of my biggest fans has always been my father Greg Hathaway. Unlike many kids, I did not meet the man I would call dad until I was eight years old. Greg and my mom starting dating and from day one it was never strange to me. We instantly went from something is missing, to a family.

  I am so very grateful that as a successful twenty-something-year old single guy who owned his own business, he did not look down upon my mother for having my sister and I. Of course it was not her fault, but it says a lot about Greg that he fell in love with all of us.

  As I have grown and become a father myself, I have a greater appreciation of my dad. It is the best job in the world and he has been wonderfully supportive and it also should be mentioned that he is an incredible grandpa. The kids all love their GG.

  I remember him saying a few times in my teenage years, “I may not always be happy with you, but I will always be proud of you.”

  Thanks for always being proud, that meant a lot then and now.

  Looking back, I think of all the things he did for me, I hope I am at least half the dad that he didn’t have to be.

  I love you, Dad.

  1 Truth

  The stage was set inside the high school’s gymnasium. Being as small of a town as Pine Run was, this was the largest spot they could use for such an event. Rows and rows of chairs had been placed along the court floor and every bleacher was extended outward in an attempt to fit the maximum occupancy. This was the certainly the biggest event Pine Run had ever hosted. Although it was no cause for celebration.

  The number of news crews and camera trucks parked outside was evidence enough that Pine Run would forever be changed. It was not a show or a game that the crowd had arrived for. There was no one famous presenting something or any chance for someone to win anything. The entire population of the small town and the eyes of the rest of the world it seemed had all come to the gym of this tiny American town for the same reason. A funeral.

  Along the stage there was not a single casket. It did not make sense to have a casket if there was no body. The front row seating had been saved for the families of the sheriff and his men. For each family held out hope that their loved ones were still just lost out there in the wilderness somewhere. Being that the search parties never found a single body or any signs of their existence the families had no closure. Yet as the months went by each day their hope grew weaker.

  Eventually the state police stopped searching and declared the sheriff and his deputies dead. They classified the incident as a training mission gone bad. The news coverage subsided and for a while Pine Run slipped back into a haze of normalcy. With no police force, the residents looked to the state police post that was thirty-five miles away for coverage. Luckily there was very little crime in Pine Run before the entire sheriff’s department vanished and that remained true after.

  While most people openly talked about what may have happened and speculated wildly, the theories ranged from them simply getting lost, being attacked by a bear, wolves or a lion all the way to them being abducted by aliens. Everyone in the gym had their own idea of what happened to their missing deputies. However, only one person in the room knew the truth.

  Henderson’s return to Pine Run in the canoe was her secret. Having arrived after midnight, not a single soul was aware she had ever left. Docking the boat inside the Cook Forrest State Park, which was just outside of town, she made her way on foot back to house in the dark, alone.

  Waking up the next morning, Henderson carried on as if the entire events of the last few days never happened. Very few knew about the training mission the sheriff was taking the group on. Those that did, had no clue about the sheriff’s true intentions. Henderson kept these things in mind as she got dressed for her shift as if it were any other day.

  Still racing through her mind was the reality that as far as she knew her coworkers were all dead. Along with her drowned brothers, the world would never know the truth. She felt as if telling the truth would only cause further pain for the families and Pine Run itself. She knew that just the story of them not coming back would be enough to create a media circus. There was no reason to add the story of her brothers onto that. Fueling the fire for the press was not something she was about to do.

  Arriving for work that morning she walked into the empty three-room sheriff’s department building. The room was just as they had left it. Organized, tidy, and bland. She did the normal things like starting a pot of coffee and sitting down to check the crime logs. If she was going to go on with life as if she wasn’t invited to the training mission, then she had to do what she would have on any other day. Grabbing the keys for her patrol car, she walked out to the back lot and after radioing into the River County Central Dispatch to call on duty, she hit the roads. They were not due back into Pine Run for another twenty-four hours. There was nothing to do but to carry on with her shift.

  Within a week, the story of the missing deputies was out. Henderson kept up the charade of being the one deputy left behind to watch over the town. It was a believable enough story. She had spun a tale of how they all went camping and planned on practicing wilderness survival and being that she was the girl of the group, she wasn’t brought along. Most residents of the town were well aware of how the other others treated Henderson. It was no secret around the barber and coffee shops that she was often the butt end of an offensive joke. If being gay wasn’t enough, the color of her skin casted her out just as well. Deputy Annette Henderson was left by the sheriff to look over Pine Run, and that is just what she intended to do.

  Lying, she felt was the only recourse she could take. The truth was not an option and throughout the investigation, she remained a rock. Being that interview techniques and mental preparedness where two of her strong points this was easier for her than it would have been for most.

  Henderson even assisted with the search parties. These were the times that she questioned her decision the most. While she had no clue on where the twins had fought with the others she did know the location of the underground cabin. Having covered th
e area many times since she locked them inside its rising waters Henderson ignored it as she walked past the hidden oak door. Paying no attention to it and pretending it did not exist. To her and the others looking in the area the door was nothing more than a piece of an old oak tree.

  She rationalized the lies with the fact that she did not kill any of her fellow deputies. In fact she had no proof that any of them were actually dead. Of course in her heart she knew the truth. Yet, this was not a matter of heart. This was a matter of survival. Just as her heart wanted to save her younger twin brothers, drowning them inside the cabin was a matter of survival. Henderson knew the only way she could help Pine Run was by surviving to do so. No bodies, no caskets.

  All the lies, all the failed rescue attempts, and useless search parties had led her here to this day. Sitting in the hot gym amongst grieving family members and the intrusive media correspondents. The wives, children, mothers, and fathers of the missing all looked at her asking why she was the one to survive in place of their loved one. Joining them was just about every town resident. School was cancelled and every business had closed their doors for the day. No bodies, no caskets.

  Police honor guards from every department in Michigan and many from other nearby states as well as Canada were present, lining the streets of the town with patrol cars as far as they eyes could see. Residents, who could not secure a spot in the gym, lined the streets grasping onto miniature American flags as if they were waiting for a parade to start. No bodies, no caskets.

  The groups filed into the hot gymnasium taking their seats one by one. As time had passed over the months, the reverence for the situation had faded as well. It seemed as if the crowd inside was treating today’s event as if it was a celebration of life just as much as they were mourning a loss. Henderson sat there thinking they all should wait until Friday’s football game to celebrate something. It also dawned on her that maybe they were not grieving because they didn’t know the truth. No bodies, no caskets.

  Taking her place in the front row she sat looking at the stage. The podium that stood in the front center was adorned with the Pine Run township seal. Large poster-sized pictures of each deputy were placed on easels that flanked the podium. Amongst the pictures were stands of flowers, each holding a card with a message of condolence for the remaining loved ones. No bodies, no caskets.

  As the gym filled with the sound of soulless feel-good symphonic music, Henderson felt the temperature rise as well. It was warm yet for it being early October. Henderson sat there in her dress uniform waiting for the service to start. Unsure if the heat she felt was real or was only due to the feeling of every eye in the room focused on her. As an investigator, she was familiar with the condition called “Survivors Guilt.” It was not surviving that she feel guilty about. The lies, all the lies dug into her and made her less of a person. She wondered if this pain would last for the rest of her life and if so, had she really even survived?

  Yet she was alive, she had survived. It was now, in these moments, that she realized all of Pine Run was not looking at her with blame in their eyes. Pine Run was looking to her for hope. It was Henderson’s job now to protect the town. To heal the wounds her brothers had caused. Without her, Pine Run would be, alone. Thinking to herself, This is my home and I must protect it, I must rebuild it. And with these comforting thoughts, the heat was gone.

  The service had begun like most others. Being the size that it was, Pine Run only had one church. Father Allen Niko spoke about grace, forgiveness, understanding, and Heaven; all concepts that Henderson was not interested in. Father Niko also talked about moving on and how to do so. Henderson agreed with his sentiments. Of course he had mentioned her in his sermon but that made no difference. Had he only spoken in generalities his words would of affected her in the same light.

  The message Father Niko was trying to share with his grieving community were sharp and on point. A gifted speaker originally from the Saginaw area, Niko stood before them a proud black man of considerable size and build. Having successfully grown his congregation throughout his time in Pine Run, Niko was often referred to as the “Cool Preacher” or “The Hip Hop Priest.” Both monikers were fitting. While some of the old timers in town could not look past the color of his skin or even his new world ways of spreading the gospel it was the young people Niko was really after. Niko had a gift of speaking to and saving the troubled youth. He truly understood the pulse of today’s youth.

  Following Father Niko various members of the missing deputies’ families took turns speaking. Most of them thanking the community and the other first responders for their diligent work in the investigation and search parties.

  Closing out the ceremony was the mayor of Pine Run. A heavy set man in his mid-fifties who always appeared as if whatever he was doing in that minute was the most important task in the world. The mayor in his three piece suit lumbered up the four steps to the stage as if he had previously climbed sixty before reaching these last few. Standing at the podium he reached to pull the wired microphone down to his mouth. The action of his clumsiness with the microphone caused a deafening screech to reverberate throughout the gym. All in attendance gasped covering their ears while shuttering in pain. It was as if someone had drug an entire box full of razors across a classroom chalkboard.

  Standing there aware of how annoyed those in front of him were, the mayor looked upon them with a glare of confidence. Being a career politician who had lost his bid as a state representative a few years ago and moved to the town, speeches were no problem for him, normally. The mayor cleared his throat and placed his chubby index finger on the mid brace of this thick black-framed glasses. Due to his heavy perspiration, they had been slipping down his nose from the moment he started climbing the stage steps. Pushing them back up to the bridge of his nose where they belonged, he took a deep breath and wiped away the sweat from where his large white forehead met the black curly hairline.

  Having very little contact with the mayor herself, Henderson had no clue as to what the content of his speech would be. She only knew he was close friends with her former boss and that no matter what he had to say or whether or not she agreed with it, this was the man who controlled her fate as a member of the Pine Run Sheriff’s Department.

  2 Silenced

  “I would like to welcome you all here today. For those of you who do not live in the area or have yet to meet me I am The Mayor of Pine Run. As have the other people who spoke to you on this day from this stage, I too would like to give thanks to everyone in this community. I would also like to give thanks to God for looking over the search crews as they worked so diligently in their attempts to help bring us closure.”

  The mayor continued on reading from his prepared notes after fixing his falling glasses yet again.

  “I would like to say that the sheriff and his men were a great asset to this community. The thin blue line I have come to understand is much like a family crest. It can be dented but never broken. Evidence of that fact stands no more true than in the hundreds of police officer’s from around our great state and nation that await you as you leave this gymnasium. We should be thankful for their presence, as they are here to help us in our greatest time of need.”

  Henderson was sure she was not the only one that noticed the mayor speaking as if he knew the pictured men behind him were indeed dead. Still she gave the mayor credit, thinking at least he had the guts to finally say it. Although this may not have been the best time and place, Henderson felt every person in that vast echo-like room needed to hear it.

  “I cannot speak as to the content of the character of each deputy. Mostly so because I did not know them as well as you and it would not be my place. In times like these, as your mayor, I feel it is best to just be strong and a shoulder to cry on if need be. I do not have big shoulders physically but they very absorbent and are available.”

  Henderson got the picture the mayor was trying to paint even though she thought he was doing a terrible job of it. The perspiration
continued growing to a noticeable level upon his hairline of black curlicues that looked like they belonged on a small child rather than a grown man of almost three hundred pounds.

  “I can say though what a blessing it was to have our sheriff. I honestly feel that I had the pleasure of working with one of the greatest law enforcement minds in the nation.”

  At this point the mayor had lost the crowd and even Henderson caught herself rolling her eyes. Anyone who knew the sheriff was aware of his status in the community. This either meant the mayor was as clueless as the sheriff or he was simply lying and trying not to say anything bad about a man whom he believed to be dead. If the residents of Pine Run hadn’t already looked down upon their former top lawman before, the fact that he lead almost their entire department into the woods to die did not sway public opinion in his favor. The last thing anyone outside of the sheriff’s own family wanted to hear was how great a man he was, Henderson included.

  “I think it is important that we move forward from this tragedy and begin to look at law enforcement in Pine Run in a new light. I feel like Pine Run is no longer the small town that no one knows about. I know we have a rich and full history here. Since our founding days life has not been easy for you residents. From the railroad boom in the past all the way through the more recent lumber wars of just decades ago, Pine Run has survived.”

  Henderson then noticed the mayor had started every statement by saying “I.” For someone in his position it may have been better to talk as a “We,” she thought.

  Typical politician, it is always about him, she said to herself. Henderson sat there eyes open trying her hardest not to roll them again with each point the mayor made. He continued to ramble on and on about how he had hired each deputy and although he did not know them as people he knew them as cops. Henderson got the feeling that the mayor was now off his script as certain parts of his speech had begun to contradict each other. None-the-less she sat there, unconnected not thinking about the true gravity of the situation.