Evil Stalks the Night

by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

  As soon as he was able, without arousing her suspicion, he made some excuse about checking up on her brother’s bus schedule and got away. He hadn’t lied, not really, he hadn’t told her everything.

  He arrived at the police station, called and checked on the bus time arrivals and put out an alert for Jonathan’s blue Toyota. He had a bad feeling.

  It didn’t take long for them to find it. “Detective Raucher?” One of the men handed him a computer sheet and a copy of a routine report filed a short time ago in a neighboring area.

  “Is this what you were looking for?” The officer was a pleasant enough guy. He’d worked there for over two years and had hopes of being a detective, too, someday. He respected Ben for his professionalism.

  Ben took the file and nearly dropped it as if it’d been a hot potato.

  “Something wrong, sir?” The young man asked.

  “Are these reports correct?” Ben controlled his voice but it was hard.

  “Yes, sir, as far as it’s gone.” He seemed baffled over Ben’s abrupt change of manner. “But if you want, I can run another check. Pull in the men who were on duty and question them on the report.”

  Ben half-expected what he found in the statement but he was still taken aback. “No. There’s nothing else.” He hesitated and slapped the papers down violently on the desk. “On second thought, yes, you can get those men on the phone for me and I’ll take it from there.”

  Ben’s mind was working frantically. He drummed his fingers on the desk the whole time he was on the phone with officer Hartford and then officer Snell. When he’d collected the pertinent facts, as well as those often overlooked, he went in search of the Captain.

  Captain Sinclair’s lips frowned when he saw Ben coming towards his office. “What’s wrong, Ben? I’d know that look anywhere.” He offered him a seat.

  Ben was too nervous to accept.

  “I want a search party rounded up immediately for the area around where we found the last girl’s body,” Ben intoned grimly. “I read the report on an abandoned car found this evening near the woods. I know who it belongs to. They might be on foot, might be in danger and I want men out there combing those damn woods. Now.”

  “Hold on there, Detective.” The Captain held up his hand and stood up. “What’s this all about?”

  Ben allowed himself to calm down. “What I know? We’re faced with a series of particularly brutal murders and along comes Sarah’s ex-husband, who has decided to take Jeremy for a visit. He hadn’t seen or contacted the boy for months and all of a sudden he wants to play parent.” Ben’s eyes clouded up and his fists clenched. “But he picked up the child hours ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Sarah was worried so I ran a check, it’s his blue Toyota we found empty, still running with the lights on, the horn stuck and not a sign of him or the boy.

  “Something’s wrong and I have this awful hunch, if we don’t find them pretty damn soon, there might be no one left to find…alive. Here’s the kicker, the car was discovered only about a half mile away from the latest murder scene.” The last words fell like a bomb. They stared across the desk at each other.

  “The experts think this thing may be an animal of some kind. The coroner swears it’s a wild bear because of the teeth and claw marks on both victims.” Captain Sinclair said, shaking his head.

  Ben knew the man didn’t want to face another small mutilated body, not so soon, not ever again. The Captain had a soft heart for kids, something few of the other officers were aware of. But Ben knew this and felt sorry for the man, but there was a job to do and they had to do it. They had to prevent the next murder.

  Ben stated, “Sarah says it isn’t an animal.”

  The Captain picked up his cap and put out his cigar in the ashtray. “What do you think it is?”

  “I don’t know what it is, only that it has to be stopped. Other murders prevented. We have to hurry. They’ve been out there in the woods for hours and it’s dark now.”

  Worry was etched in the lines of his face and the Captain nodded. He picked up the phone, barked out his commands as they went out the door. The station came alive.

  “Does he have a gun?”

  “The boy’s father?” Ben couldn’t stand to say the guy’s name. Because of Sarah and the way he felt about her he couldn’t help but dislike the man for what he’d done to her and her son. “I suppose so, he’s a police officer.”

  “Then he can protect himself if he has to.”

  Ben exchanged looks with him and shook his head. Both of them had seen the victims in the woods and knew how ineffective a gun might turn out to be against it, whatever it was. “I don’t think a gun will help much.”

  “A gun always helps. What does Miss Towers say about this development?” the older man asked as they paused in front of Ben’s desk so he could put his gun in his holster. He’d rarely had to use it since he’d joined the force. Now, he had more than enough reason.

  “Nothing. She doesn’t know Jeremy and his father are missing yet.” He glanced up as someone moved past the desk. The other officers were aware of the emergency and were milling around waiting for orders. Determination spread over the Captain’s face as he told them what he wanted done. There was silence and none of the joking that normally went on.

  “We’ll have to call her,” Captain Sinclair informed Ben after he was through with his men, who were scattering to do what they’d been told to do.

  He meant Sarah.

  “Under the circumstances, I guess we have to. She needs to know her son is missing.” It’d destroy her to learn about Jeremy. He didn’t look forward to telling her.

  “I’ll call her now.” Ben sighed and picked up the phone as someone handed him a piece of paper. The phone still in his hand, he read it, laid it down on the desk and continued to stare at the paper until the Captain snatched it up himself. Neither man spoke. Ben cursed beneath his breath, and put his call through.

  “Sarah?”

  “Oh, thank God! Ben, what’s wrong?”

  By the tone of her voice Ben suspected she already knew.

  “No, don’t say it! Something’s happened to my son.”

  “You know?” he asked it before he could stop himself. A skeptic, he’d never fully accepted her psychic gifts.

  “I know.” Her voice sounded lifeless, like someone on the verge of a breakdown. “Let’s say something or someone already tipped me off. Never mind. What else do you have to tell me?”

  “Your ex-husband’s car was found abandoned and empty five hours ago.”

  “Near the woods.” She said it for him and she couldn’t keep the despair out of her voice. How could she tell him her dead grandmother had told her not long before he called. Also, Jeremy was alone and lost in the woods? He was going to die unless she could get to him. Sarah had been devastated by the news and had to fight off hysterics. It was only the sure knowledge her son would die, if she didn’t find him which kept her from giving in to the weakness. Then Ben had called and she’d known what he’d say.

  “I have something to tell you,” Sarah said. “Jonathan is dead.”

  “Sarah, I’m coming over.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  * * * *

  Ben reported to the Captain what Sarah had said.

  “We don’t have much time. We’ll pick her up on the way in the car, Detective. Come on.” Sinclair led the way outside. Some of the other officers had been dispatched to the area where the car had been found. Others called in and followed their car as they drove away into the dark.

  Ben was uncomfortably aware they might not find the boy alive. What would it do to Sarah? He couldn’t bear to think about it. On the ride to Sarah’s he and the Captain talked strategy. They were sending out search parties immediately.

  Sarah was waiting for them in front of her
house, shivering though the night was warm. Ben took her into his arms, but she tore away from him. “We have to hurry!” And when he looked closer at her face he saw it was red from crying, but her eyes were also cold and full of rage.

  Sinclair and Ben got into the front seat of the squad car, she slid into the rear seat and they drove where she directed them.

  Ben was trying to tell her what he had to tell her. Over the seat he reached back, took her hand and listened as she talked. Apparently she knew where they were going and what she was doing.

  Captain Sinclair asked a few questions and drove the rest of the time listening to him and Sarah.

  How long would it take until the newspapers got a hold of this story? Ben fretted, holding Sarah’s cold hand. Those newspaper people were vultures. It wouldn’t take them long to find out what had happened.

  “Here!” Sarah cried, when they got to the fringe of the woods. “Stop here!” Sinclair stopped the car, Sarah jumped out and began running.

  “Wait, Sarah!” Ben yelled after her as she headed towards the dark trees, then followed. What was she doing? Help was on its way. It was too dangerous for them to go out there alone before their backup arrived. But nothing would stop Sarah. She was a mother searching for her lost child.

  He caught up to her, grabbed her by the arm, yanked her to a stop and held her as she cried in the car’s headlights. The Captain left them alone.

  Ben brought her back to the car. They could hear sirens coming their way and Sarah’s eyes were wild.

  “What’s taking them so long! I have to look for my son now,” she cried, turning panicky eyes toward the silent woods. “We don’t have much time.”

  “What was the boy wearing when they left?” Captain Sinclair asked, as they walked to where Jonathan’s blue Toyota had been left abandoned.

  “What difference does it make? How many little boys are out here lost in the night woods, do you think?” Sarah glared at him.

  “What was he wearing?” Sinclair repeated.

  She moaned. “Blue jeans. Brown striped shirt.” She moved closer and was studying the inside of the empty car. “No blood anywhere; no Jeremy, no Jonathan,” she muttered. “I want to start looking now! Why are we waiting?”

  “For backup to arrive. Listen, Sarah, we can’t go into those woods alone if there’s something predatory out there. We need help. What good are we to Jeremy if we’re hurt or dead?”

  “I can’t stand around here waiting. I have to do something!” Her eyes roamed the gloomy woods and he wondered if she were remembering the night the little girl Jenny had been found. She was so distraught.

  “I have to look for my son! Let me go!”

  “Where?” Ben threw up his hands. “The woods cover fifty miles. What chance have we got of finding one little boy in such a large area.”

  Sarah put her hands to her face. “We must look someplace…deep. Someplace where there is lots of dirt. Water. Oh, my God!” She cried, pacing in front of her ex-husband’s car. He could see she was fighting to remain calm so she could help her son.

  “Anything else?” Ben prodded. He could see she was keeping her mind occupied until help arrived. The sirens were clear and loud now.

  And close.

  * * * *

  The night noises were eerie around them. The trees were shaking in the wind and there was no moon. It was pitch black. Dead souls moaned as dry leaves crunched underneath their feet. She stood there silhouetted in the night. Jenny’s murder was fresh in her mind as they waited. She was so scared.

  Ben had said the police were trying to pin the murder on the girl’s parents. So far, there was no proof to absolutely link them. No clues to connect the murder to anyone or anything else, either. Again, they were stumped and didn’t like it.

  Captain Sinclair’s expression in the headlights was worried. “Do you see anything? Like a vision, I mean?” His voice was barely audible over the noisy katydids and the rustling of the summer leaves above them.

  “No, nothing.” It was the same as always, she thought helplessly. When she had to save someone she loved, there was nothing she could do. Impulsively she grabbed the ring and tearing it from her hand, threw it into the darkness. No more. No more!

  She tried to remember word by word the conversation she’d had with the ghost of her grandmother, before Ben and the Captain had picked her up. She’d been so terrified for Jeremy and Jonathan she’d thought her heart would lunge out of her chest.

  She’d cried out to the house for help and her grandmother had spoken to her in her thoughts, her voice weak but clear.

  “Jeremy is still alive, take heart, but he lies in his grave, waiting.

  “In the woods. Alone. Jonathan is dead. I am so sorry. Find your son, Sarah. This is all I can do. I must go for my job is done. I have protected you as best I could, but you must protect yourself from now on. Go to the woods…he will be there to help you.”

  She cried out in grief when she heard Jonathan was dead. She wept. She’d loved him once so much, for so long, no matter what he’d done to her or what they were to each other now. But her mind was only on Jeremy. He could die, too. That mustn’t happen.

  “Why can’t you help me?” She begged the spirit. “I need you, don’t leave me alone. Help me save my son, please!” But the house and its ghost, remained silent.

  It was up to her now.

  The creature in the woods would not have her son! She’d die first.

  She recalled the last words spoken by her grandmother. “He will be there to help you.”

  “Who is he?”

  There’d been no answer and she’d given up. Her grandmother had been the one protecting them, but she was gone, so who would protect them now?

  Then Ben had called and here she was.

  Was it Ben her grandmother had meant?

  Sarah waited, shivering as she watched the woods, knowing her son was out there waiting for her to come and save him, protect him as she’d done all his life.

  The knowledge that she’d put him in harm’s way herself, by letting him go with Jonathan tortured her. Jonathan’s death was her fault. If Jeremy died it’d also be her fault.

  Ben saw her anguish and put his arms firmly around her. “They’ll be here soon. Have patience,” he whispered. But she wasn’t sure anyone could help them now.

  “I must go look for him. We can’t wait. Please!”

  “I’ll go. You stay here.” He pushed her into Captain Sinclair’s arms so she wouldn’t follow. The brush had been trampled in a large spot behind Jonathan’s car and Ben used his flashlight to track the flattened path into the woods. He didn’t get far.

  Sarah heard him cry out and wrenched herself free from Sinclair and ran after him. The flashlight a beacon.

  She covered her mouth with her hands when she saw it. A man’s body, maimed and bloody, or what was left of it. Jonathan. It wasn’t the grisly sight that had brought bile into her throat. No, it was the look of such complete disbelieving horror on the dead man’s face that would be branded forever in her memory. Coming up behind Ben, and glancing at his expression in the flashlight’s glow, she knew he felt the same way.

  She knelt down by the body of the man she’d once loved, the father of her child, and sobbed.

  As much as she’d hated him at times, she’d never wanted this fate for him. Never.

  Deep in the woods, she heard the malevolent laughter and her hands clenched at her side, her nails driving into the flesh and drawing blood.

  She knew it was waiting for her.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Sure it was late, Jim thought, as he knocked on Sarah’s door for the third time, but shouldn’t someone be home? “Is anyone here?” he shouted at the locked door. He fumbled in his pockets, searching for the key Sarah had given him. When he found it, he
poked around until it fit in the hole and shoved the door open. Walking in, he set his suitcase and guitar down by the couch.

  It felt good to come home again. A great feeling of peace and belonging. He’d never have believed it could have affected him this way.

  “Sarah? Jeremy?” he called out, hoping they were busy upstairs or sleeping. No answer. Nothing but heavy silence greeted him. He sat down in the chair. He was so weary. The walk there had been exhausting, but he hadn’t wanted to make his sister come out in the middle of the night to pick him up. So, he walked. Why did he feel so rotten?

  After he rested for a few minutes and no one showed up he went upstairs to find them. All he found was an empty house. No Sarah and no Jeremy. He checked Sarah’s bulletin board for a message or something. She knew he was coming. Why would she go off like this without leaving some kind of note? It wasn’t like her.

  He began to think about everything that had happened and he grew increasingly worried, as he stood there in the kitchen with the darkness outside. The coffee pot was still plugged in and he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down to drink it. It was tasteless, and he couldn’t finish it. He hadn’t eaten in three days but he wasn’t hungry, yet didn’t dwell on it because he was so worried about Sarah and Jeremy.

  Where were they?

  In the front room there was a newspaper lying on the floor, he picked it up and read the headlines and a few lines of the story with a growing frown on his face. He found the brick and the broken window. He felt something was really wrong, and as he examined the brick in his hand he knew where they were. Something inside of him knew, as clearly as if they’d left a written note addressed to him explaining it.