Southern House

by Mark Deloy

  Pratt’s walkie started squawking. It was Truit.

  “Hey, Sheriff. This dog is going crazy down here. He’s just sitting in one place howling his fool head off. He won’t go any farther. We’re down by a waterfall.”

  “Do you know where that is?” Pratt turned to me and asked.

  “Yes, I do. We can get down there faster this way,” I said, and pointed to a trail that led to the corner of the third field.

  We moved as fast as we dared on the dew- covered, leaf- strewn path. I led the way with Pratt right behind me. We reached the edge of the field five minutes later,( since it was all downhill. I led everyone into the part of the forest where Girl and I had taken our walks. The hair was beginning to rise on my arms and I felt slightly sick to my stomach.

  “This way,” I said, and headed toward the waterfall. We reached it ten minutes later. I could hear Cecil howling from quite a ways off. When we got to the waterfall, everyone was crowded around the dog. They looked like they didn’t know what to do next.

  “How long has he been doing this?” Pratt asked Dale, Cecil’s handler.

  “Ever since we got in this area,” Dale said. “I’ve never seen him act like this. He’s my best dog”

  Pratt sighed and looked around. I was waiting for him to spot the house. I’d been looking around for it since arriving on the scene. It wasn’t where I saw it the other day. I was sure of it. But then again, I was sure it was in the other direction the day before that. In any case, there were no structures among the trees today. I half expected someone else to see it even if I could not. I wasn’t sure what the house was, but there was one thing that was for sure; it wasn’t a normal house.

  17

  By eight thirty that night we had to accept the kids were not just hiding. We had covered several hundred acres between the three groups and we were exhausted. I know my feet had to have blisters on them and I couldn’t remember ever walking that much since I was a kid. I had insect bites and scratches all over, and my throat felt scratchy and swollen from yelling. After awhile, I just let some of the others yell out the kids’ names and I just blew the whistle we had with us every few minutes. I know I’ll be hearing those kids’ names yelled out in my dreams for years.

  I went back to the house around five to feed Girl. I grabbed one of the ham and cheese sandwiches the volunteers had made and that was pretty much all I had to eat all day. Then I thought about the kids, if they were still alive, and how they had nothing to eat, unless they found some blackberries somewhere.

  Jim and Jensen followed me up onto my porch after we’d given up for the night. It was hard to even lift my feet onto each step. We were all feeling pretty low, both physically and emotionally. I could tell by the looks on their faces they had lost hope. No one wanted to voice that sentiment yet, though.

  “I can’t believe we haven’t found anything at all,” I said, slumping down in one of the porch rockers.

  “I can’t, either,” Sheriff Pratt said. “I figured we’d find something. I was just hoping it wasn’t a body. In some ways, this is worse. Those poor families have to go another night without knowing where their babies are. If you two are up to it, I’d like to do some planning for tomorrow. Will you help?”

  “Of course,” Jim said. “Will your deputies be joining us?”

  Pratt sighed. “They’re good men, but I think they’ve already given up on finding those kids alive. They’ll do what I tell them to do, but I’m not sure either one of them could stomach finding a body.”

  “I know I couldn’t,” I said. “Especially a little kid’s”

  We sat on the porch and waved at everyone as they filed out of my driveway and left for the night. Many had promised to come out for the search the next day. The Department of Fish and Wildlife had promised to send additional resources tomorrow as well.

  “One of them state wildlife experts is supposed to come down to conduct Carly Bennett’s autopsy,” Pratt said.

  “Will they be able to identify what killed her?” I asked. “I mean like what kind of animal?”

  “Yes, they should be able to identify bite patterns if there are any. I’m not sure how it works, but I know they were pretty accurate on that bear attack last year in the Smokey Mountains. They were even able to track it down.”

  “Good,” Jim said. “Sheriff I doubt it’s important, but there was graffiti on the inside of the tent the morning those kids were taken. I wanted to tell you last night but never had a chance and we’ve been looking for an animal as the killer, so I didn’t think it was relevant.”

  “What kind of graffiti?”

  “It was in blood. Symbols and markings. Weird writing. Nothing either of us could make out. We cleaned it up before the service.”

  “You saw this too?” Pratt said, looking at me.

  “Yes. It didn’t make any sense to me either. We didn’t want to alarm anyone, so we kept it to ourselves.” I followed Jim’s lead and didn’t mention what he’d said earlier about the satanic symbols.

  “If I thought this was anything but an animal attack, I’d be worried about it. But if a person had done this, and I’ve been thinking about it, someone would have seen them running away with those kids. Think about it, it’s almost fifty yards to the nearest tree line. Even if more than one person had taken those kids, there is no way they could have grabbed the kids, killed Carly and made it to the woods without anyone seeing them.”

  I nodded. “True.”

  “Still though,” Pratt continued. “I wish one of you had taken a picture of it. For now let’s keep this between the three of us. We don’t need rumors getting out of control. This is a small town and I don’t need to tell you what happens when the rumor mill gets to turning.”

  “Okay,” we both said in unison.

  “Another thing we have to deal with starting tomorrow is the national media is going to start showing up. That means everything we say or do is now under an extremely large microscope.”

  “That was fast,” I said. “I figured we’d have at least a few more days.”

  “Nope, they’ve been ringing my phone off the hook back at the station for interviews. I imagine they’ll interview the parents and they’ll want to set up some kind of a press conference, which will waste time even further. I hope we find those kids tomorrow. We might just end up being the story of the week until something else happens on the national or world stage that distracts the media.”

  “Let’s go inside,” I said. I’ll make some coffee.”

  Sheriff Pratt and Reverend Jim sat at my kitchen table as I put on a pot of coffee. I was sure we’d already each drank at least a gallon of coffee a piece today, but no one objected to more. We discussed where we’d start the search tomorrow and how to cover the largest area in the shortest time. We decided to take one group down Highway 50 and come in from the back side of the property, the side we hadn’t covered yet. The other half of the volunteers would go in at the back part of the third field near the waterfall and hopefully we’d meet in the middle somewhere, overlap, then they would drive our trucks back. That way we were overlapping our search.

  “I just hope no one else gets lost,” I said as I handed a cup to each of them. “Those woods are tricky. It’s easy to get turned around.”

  “Everyone should have enough sense to stay within earshot of the man next to him. They shouldn’t be any farther away than a few feet anyway so as not to miss anything.”

  “Do you think we’ll have that many volunteers tomorrow?”

  “We should. This is a tight knit community,” Jim said. “It may not seem like it sometimes, but we are.”

  I wasn’t sure what Jim meant by that, but I didn’t question him. As I was pouring my own cup of coffee my phone rang.

  “Excuse me,” I said and picked up the phone. “Hello”

  “Hickory?”

  “Yes. It’s me. Lisa is that you?”

  “Yes, you have a good memory for voices,” she said.

  “How’s Con
nor?” I asked.

  “Much better. He told me what he saw. Is Sheriff Pratt there by any chance? I’ve been calling his office for the past three hours.”

  “Yes, just a second—”

  “No, I think ya’ll better just come over. I don’t think I could describe it over the phone. Besides, he drew a picture of, um it…whatever killed Carly.”

  My heart leapt into my throat.

  “Okay,” I said. “We’ll be right there. Do you mind if Reverend Jim comes as well?”

  “No, that’s fine. Hick, I don’t like this drawing. It feels… I don’t know… bad.”

  “It’ll be okay. We’ll be there soon,” I said and hung up.

  “That was Lisa, your cousin,” I told Pratt. “She was here last night and her son was out back when Carly was killed and the kids were taken. She said he told her what he saw and she sounded upset. She wants us to come over so he can tell us and show us his drawing of it.”

  “Let’s go,” Pratt said.

  I stopped Pratt as he was opening my door.

  “Thanks for letting us help, man. I feel kind of responsible since this is my land.”

  “I’m in no position to refuse help, especially from you. You know this land better than anyone alive right now. Although I have to say there was a time or two today when I wished your granddad was still alive.”

  “Me, too,” I said.

  We piled into Pratt’s cruiser. I got in the back. We arrived at Lisa’s house in just a few minutes. Pratt used his sirens and lights. The plastic perp seats were slippery. I had no idea how someone being arrested didn’t get to the station without a concussion from bouncing around back there. I said as much to Pratt.

  “You should try it with handcuffs on,” he said with a grin.

  Lisa lived in an apartment above one of the antique shops on the square. She opened the door before we knocked.

  “I saw you pull up,” she explained. “Do you want some coffee?”

  “No,” we all said at the same time and laughed.

  “We’ve drunk our fill for today,” I said.

  She nodded and ushered us into the kitchen. I could see Connor in the small living/dining room. Her apartment was small, but neat. There were pictures of Connor on a few of the walls, some of him as a baby. He was sitting on the carpet, drawing. I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be from where I was.

  We sat at the table as Lisa told us what Connor had told her that afternoon.

  “I took the day off to spend it with him,” Lisa said. “He didn’t say a word all last night, like I told you. He also wet himself on the way home. He never has accidents anymore. I was scared something was really wrong with him.”

  “So he told you what he saw?” Pratt asked.

  “Yes, he got up from his nap this afternoon and I don’t know if he dreamed about what he saw, but he finally spoke and said the big man hit Carly and she fell down, and then said how much he liked Carly, as if he knew she was dead. I asked him to draw what he saw and at first he refused. He was so scared he was shaking. I was afraid he’d go back to not saying anything, so I didn’t push it. Part of me forgot for a minute he was still a baby and I almost told him that kids were missing and he could help.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t. If I had to do that I think it would have been okay,” Pratt said. “But you didn’t need to.”

  “So I had decided to let it go for a while and maybe ask again later. He went into his room and was in there, being really quiet. He likes to draw and I normally don’t think anything of it when he gets like that, but with everything that’s happened, I got concerned and went to check on him. He was sitting on his bed, all the way in the corner. In the other corner across the room I found this lying on the floor, as if he’d tried to keep it as far away from him as he could.”

  She set a drawing on the table between us.

  “He drew it and looked like he was scared of it, scared of even the drawing of it. When I showed it to him and asked him what it was, he said it was the big man who knocked Carly down and took some kids.”

  The drawing was actually good for a six year old. I could make out the tent, striped yellow and white. Behind it was a field of green grass. He’d drawn several children with their hands up in the air. They all had sad faces on. Near a larger person, who must be Carly, was a huge black figure that was twice as large as Carly in the picture. I was surprised to see he had gotten the scale exactly right. The figure was just a black man shape, but Connor had drawn his face as a scribble of several different colors. My deepest fears were confirmed. It had to be the same creature I had seen in the house. My arms instantly broke out in goosebumps. I rubbed them.

  “Can I talk with him?” Jensen asked Lisa.

  “Sure. Just don’t push too hard, okay?”

  He gave her a look that said he would never do such a thing.

  We were close enough to hear what they said.

  “Hey, big buddy,” Pratt began. “How are you doing?”

  “M’ok” Connor shrugged and then looked over at us. “I met them last night.”

  “Yup, we came over to visit you and your mom. We’ve been out in the woods all day looking for those kids. You know which ones I’m talking about?”

  “Yeah, the ones the big man carried off.”

  Lisa put a hand over her mouth. She looked terrified. Tears were in her eyes. Out of instinct I took her hand, she squeezed back, hard.

  “Did you draw the man today?” Jensen asked? “Is this him?”

  Jensen held out the boy’s drawing to him.

  Connor wouldn’t look at it, he just nodded and scooted back a little.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t a big animal, like a bear? Bears are black, right?”

  “He looked at me. He didn’t have no face.”

  “Was he wearing a mask?” Jensen pressed.

  “I…I...” Then he just shrugged.

  “Did you see where he ran off to? Which way? With the kids?”

  “He didn’t run,” Connor said, looking Jensen right in the eyes. “Carly got in his way, got between the boy and the girl and the big man grabbed her and made her bleed from her neck, then he winked out. They all did. Like a light when you shut it off.”

  I could see Jensen’s eyes shifting back and forth trying to think of something else to ask the boy. Finally, he looked over at us. I just shook my head. I could tell the kid was getting ready to break down. His face was getting red and he was starting to withdraw. I think if it was anyone else other than her cousin doing the questioning, Lisa would have already stopped it. She was torn between the well-being of her child and his ability to help someone else.

  Jensen got up off the floor and came back to the kitchen.

  “I don’t know, I just don’t know. He seems like he’s telling the truth. He thinks he is anyway. I’m no child psychologist, but he wasn’t making it up. I think maybe he saw someone take the kids. Maybe he blacked out and thought whoever it was disappeared.”

  “Could be,” I said. “Or maybe it was a bear standing on hind legs. Remember that one they videotaped walking through the neighborhood last year? It almost looked human from far away.”

  “What about when he said the guy had no face?” Jim brought up. “What could that be?”

  “Most likely a mask,” Jensen frowned. “I don’t like this at all. Someone could have grabbed those kids, had someone else waiting by the trees, and then been out of there before we had time to start looking. Jesus, they could have had a car out by Highway 50, and they could be anywhere by now.”

  “So, now what,” I asked.

  “We’ve already put out an Amber Alert with their descriptions,” Jensen said. “I guess all we can do besides that is to keep looking at your place. Maybe we’ll find some clues as to who took them. What a mess!.”

  I debated right then to spill my secret about what I’d seen. I was actually hoping someone else would have seen the mystery house today, but no one had. The closest we’d come to i
t was when Cecil, the hound dog, started howling near its last known location. I felt sick to my stomach from guilt, but if I told what I knew right then, it would look like I was covering something up. Not to mention possibly aiding and abetting in a child abduction. I kept quiet—for now.

  18

  Jensen drove Jim home first, and then dropped me off at my place. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. I’d gotten little sleep over the last couple days, and it was starting to catch up to me.

  Girl greeted me at the door.

  “Good girl,” I said. Then fed her and went upstairs to brush my teeth, get undressed and fall into bed after setting the alarm. My back was screaming at me that it needed a Percocet, but I ignored it. I sat on my bed and twisted one way, then the other, hearing a satisfying crack from both directions. The pain eased up a little.

  I fell asleep almost as soon as I lay down and my sleep was uninterrupted that night. There were no dreams, either. I half expected the tall, dark man to come and visit me. He would look just like Connor had drawn him this time, with a multicolored scribble of a face. But he didn’t come. Perhaps he was busy. With what, I didn’t want to imagine.

  19

  The alarm next to my bed went off at five A.M. I had thought this was a good idea when I went to bed, but now it seemed like the worst idea, ever. It was 5:03 before I even woke up enough to turn it off.

  It would be another half an hour before everyone started showing up for the hunt, Day 2, as I’d begun to think of it. I wanted to get a shower, get dressed and have some coffee and breakfast before then.

  After I finished with my shower and made myself and Girl a fried egg each, and a bagel sandwich, I went out on my front porch and waited to see who would show up first.

  The day was already warming up. I looked out at the fields and the now unused tent. It was hard to believe a girl had been killed and three young children had been taken back there. It all looked so quiet now, like a circus, which had gone out of business.