Claws of Doom

by Peebles, Chrissy

  Well, thought Duane, he wasn’t up to anything mischievous at all. He was merely doing something special for some friends of his.

  Collette started to place the boxes into one big box for him to take. “Pete’s away, so don’t be a stranger.”

  Duane thought for a moment as to when he could drop in on Collette for some booty which induced a good scratch of his ear with his thinking finger. When could he fit her in — the Boom-Boom Sisters were selfishly taking up all of his time — okay he was spoiling them a tad too much, but he hated the thought of having to say no to them. But they were getting greedy. So when could he fit Collette in?

  “I’ll see when I can fit you in,” he lamely offered.

  Collette suggestively moistened her lips with her tongue and kissed him full on. “There’s plenty more of that, so make it soon, my Bigfoot boy.”

  Will do, Duane thought, with a naughty glint in his eye. He wondered if all this free booty-call was due to his impending wealth or his good looks or because he had been chosen — or just dumb luck. He gave up thinking about it.

  Once outside Collette’s hair salon, Duane walked back up Main Street to the old hog parked outside Annie’s Diner with his box full of hair colorant. He glanced next door at the sheriff’s department and saw the sheriff’s patrol car was still absent from its parking spot. Shame about that, he would have liked to have called in on Lou on the pretext of saying hello, when in fact his real motive would have been to find out what exactly the DNA results from the lab in Sacramento had to say about the Phantom Bigfoot Bather Case crime number two.

  For, if there was one thing Duane really liked to do, it was to gloat upon his mischievous deeds and the effect they had on others. It was just harmless fun in his eyes. To others, namely the sheriff’s department, it was a downright nuisance.

  Duane was well aware most people in town didn’t mind the thought of someone or Bigfoot entering their homes and making use of their bathroom facilities. And though the sheriff’s department was taking the case of the Phantom Bigfoot Bather serious enough, not even they were too eager to catch the perp red-handed, so to speak.

  Duane grinned to himself and gave a chuckle. It was for the best that she wasn’t in. Best get home. He opened the rear carrier and shook his head with dismay. It was full of Bigfoot duds so he closed the lid and placed the box of goodies on top. Once he had strapped the box down, he got on the hog and kicked his bike into action with a roar.

  Duane slipped his Bigfoot helmet on and nudged into first gear, but received a sharp image of Lou at Big X with Chad. He turned to see Dwight, Rick and Dick leave Annie’s and rush past him to the station. Dwight gave Duane a nasty glare as if it was Duane’s fault for ruining their day. It usually was, but not this time.

  He figured they planned on getting the dog wagon. This could be serious, Duane thought.

  As if on cue, the music emanating from his speaker system was “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf. Something bad might happen to his woods, and as The Guardian he couldn’t let that happen. He screeched off and raced out of town towards Little Beaver Picnic Area.

  Chapter 10

  Big Trouble at Little Beaver

  DUANE TUNED INTO Sheriff Lou while she listened to nature’s masterpiece filling the air with a mix of blue jays, mountain chickadees, yellow-headed and red-winged blackbirds.

  The pleasing symphony soothed her hangover. She smiled, hearing a red fox yelping, a bobcat yowling and the distinct snort of a rutting elk. The calls reminded her of why she never moved away from Big Beaver. Not like him!

  Chad pointed to the Big X tree where Beau had taken a piss.

  Lou carefully walked around the angled tree and noticed several different kinds of sneaker prints in the dry earth at the base of the trunk and what looked like deer print or some other large mammal.

  “Let’s see your sneakers, Chad.”

  Chad looked down at his sneakers and lifted a foot for Sheriff Lou to take a closer look.

  “Stop being a dufus, Chad. Take one of them off so I can get a close look.”

  Chad shrugged as he removed his right sneaker and handed it to the sheriff, hopping on his left foot.

  “We kinda thought Beau might still be here … you know, hiding from us, like he often does.”

  Lou placed the sneaker carefully over a print. It matched, but the other prints had to be Beau’s and the other teenagers’ as the tread marks were different. She sniffed the sneaker in her hand and wished she hadn’t. Her nostrils detected the strong smell of animal musk that pervaded the surrounding area. She coughed. Her eyes stung.

  “Smells like some animal’s been marking its territory,” Lou said with watery eyes.

  Chad held his nose as he took the sneaker from Lou’s hand. “Geez … that smells so gross, like skunk and cooked grizzly turds.” He slipped on his sneaker.

  Lou nodded in agreement and wondered what kind of animal had been spraying around the base of the Douglas fir. She frowned as the smell seemed not too dissimilar to the serial bather case.

  Chad glanced warily at the surrounding trees and thickets. He heard a rustling and shivered. “Maybe it was a grizzly?”

  “Maybe,” Lou said with a troubled look on her face.

  Chad pointed out, “But if a grizzly got him, where’s Beau’s body parts … and I don’t see blood all over the place.” He glanced around with a mix of horror and glee on his face. “Maybe the grizzly’s buried him and plans to eat him later?” He looked wide-eyed at Sheriff Lou. “They do that, you know.” Chad searched the area with a keen eye. “But there should be some blood, don’t you think, Sheriff?” He grimaced, delighting in the gruesome scenario. “Yeah, lots of blood all over the place.”

  Yeah, there surely would have been some sign of Beau being taken by a grizzly, Lou thought. She gave Chad a disparaging look for reveling in what might have happened to his friend. It wasn’t a joking matter, anymore. She surely had to take Beau’s disappearance serious now.

  But something didn’t quite sit right with her. She felt it in her gut. Something was off-center about the whole thing.

  Lou gave Chad a questioning look. A part of her was hoping Beau and his friends had concocted this little charade to catch her and her deputies for the third time. The alternative that Beau had actually been taken by a grizzly or even by some nut job was a very disturbing thought indeed. Her stomach started to churn over.

  “If this is some kind of prank, it’s time to call it quits, right now,” Lou demanded in a stern voice. She softened her tone. “You and the others won’t get into trouble … I’ll let you off with a warning, is all.”

  Chad shook his head vehemently. “It’s not a prank, Sheriff … honest to God. Someone or something really has taken Beau this time … and they were dressed as a Bigfoot.” He saw the shock on her face. “But it wasn’t Duane … uh-huh … she was female whatever she was.”

  Well, thought Lou, if Chad was messing with her, he was putting on a good act. He seemed genuine by the look on his face. Her head began to throb again. She felt a little queasy at the prospect of finding a mauled, possibly half-eaten Beau in a bear dig. Her hand instinctively clutched her sensitive stomach in an attempt to quell the urge to puke. She sniffed. The musky animal spray didn’t help matters.

  Lou sighed and shook her head. She knew when she became a deputy there would be a distinct possibility of gruesome scenes where hunters had shot each other by mistake or got mauled by a bear, but thankfully, up until now she’d had it easy. Her father took care of all that stuff, stuff now dumped on her. But nothing much ever happened in Big Beaver, and that was just fine.

  Sure, her town had its fair share of trouble, especially Saturday nights when the locals would get rowdy with tourists. But a few knocks and bruises was all that amounted to. And there was the occasional family squabble that ended in makeup tears, juvenile trouble and last, but not least, the practical jokers — but no major crimes. Lou was kinda proud of that.

  Her town wa
s a nice amiable place to live or just take a vacation. Some Beaverites still kept their doors unlocked at night. Her town was great for raising kids. It was a place where tourists came by the bus load to do some sightseeing, get a glimpse of Bigfoot, or do some hunting and fishing.

  Lou snapped out of her daydream to the sound of approaching vehicles. She recognized Duane’s hog, the dog wagon and the sound of a four-wheel jeep. It sounded like MB’s Cherokee. Could be wrong though, Lou thought. If so, the last thing she needed was someone coming to Little Beaver for a nice picnic only to find Beau’s dismembered body. What would that say about her town?

  Lou knew she’d better go and see who else had arrived. If it was just someone out for a pleasant time she didn’t want them trampling about the place, messing up the crime scene, if there was a crime scene. The vehicles’ engines stopped and doors slammed shut.

  “You think maybe some axe-wielding nut’s got him?” Chad asked excitedly. “Maybe we’ll find Beau’s head stuck on a branch … that would be awesome.”

  Lou didn’t reply. She gave Chad a quick, angry flash of eyes then turned to leave and headed for the picnic area.

  Chad looked around at the vast forest with a hint of fear. He quickly followed after the sheriff.

  Duane slammed on the brakes as Lou’s images filled his mind to the point he couldn’t see anything. A screech of brakes caused him to turn to see MB’s jeep almost nudge him. Damn this sixth sense.

  Chapter 11

  X Marks the Spot

  DUANE KICKED OUT the stand and grinned sheepishly at MB for almost causing an accident. He watched MB remove his gear from the back of the Cherokee Jeep. They turned as the dog wagon arrived.

  MB checked his gear and chuckled to Duane. “Cavalry has arrived.”

  “Yeah, F Troop.” Duane laughed along with his friend. He nodded to three of Lou’s deputies in the front section of the wagon.

  Dwight stepped from the wagon and opened the trunk to let the caged up sniffer dogs breathe. He nodded to MB and Duane in a gruff manner then glanced over his shoulder at Sheriff Lou and Chad as they approached.

  “Hey, Sheriff,” MB called out.

  “Don’t you hey-Sheriff me, MB. How long were you listening back at the sign?” Lou looked irritated. She faltered, glaring at him and then smiled at Duane.

  MB grinned disarmingly. “Yeah, well, you know how it is.” He winked and tapped his directional microphone. “I saw and heard the whole thing.”

  Lou gave him an annoyed look. “You were hiding there all that time?”

  MB apologetically shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah I was … so what?” He gave her one of his “mister congeniality” smiles. By the looks of things he was running on empty. Depended on what sort of mood she was in. He smirked at Duane, who shrugged so what.

  Duane had a hunch the sheriff was in no mood to be messed around. She seemed cranky and looked hungover. He could tell MB was thinking the same thing.

  MB rolled his eyes. “Sorry, I know I should have made my presence known. But ….”

  Lou shook her head in despair. “I could confiscate that device.”

  MB laughed and said, “Old Indian Legend tells us that man who doesn’t listen in on other people’s conversations, will never find out what bad things are being said about him.”

  Duane and Chad chuckled and did a high-five. Although Chad was two years younger, Duane actually liked the guy, even though he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Being a chosen one made all the difference, but Duane couldn’t get anything from inside Chad’s head, just a psychedelic free-for-all of a flashing kaleidoscope of colors.

  Lou didn’t reply, placed hands on hips and looked un-amused at MB’s smiling face. She turned to her deputies, “Be ready on my command … this could take all day.” Lou smirked at the loud groans from the wagon. Annoyed, she stepped up to the window and tapped it. She stared into Deputy Dick’s red face. “Shouldn’t you be cleaning the welcome sign, Dick?”

  Dick wound the window down a tad. “Been there, done that, Sheriff.” He rewound the window and chuckled to Rick.

  Lou tapped the window again and waited as Dick wound it down, again, looking troubled now. “That was quick work?” She raised her eyebrows, “Do tell.”

  “Ooh, you’re in real trouble now, Dick,” Rick teased. “Book him, Danno!” He laughed along with Dwight who was trying hard to restrain the two tracker dogs on their leashes.

  Lou turned her attentions to Dwight and scowled. “Okay … listen up … you three are gonna take those dogs and I don’t want to see any of you until sunset … got that.” Lou was red-faced with genuine anger. She looked pleased as all her deputies nodded subserviently. “Good! Wait here for my signal,” she snapped.

  Yeah, Lou sure as hell wasn’t in a good mood, Duane thought. He nodded to MB.

  MB put on a serious face. “You’d better show me the spot where Beau went to take a piss then.”

  Lou and Chad trudged back to the infamous leaky tree with MB and Duane in tow.

  Duane glanced at Lou and could tell she was gonna lose it real soon. Her thoughts were directed firmly in his direction and for once he had nothing to do with any of this. He leaned nonchalantly against the other half of the Big X and let MB take center stage.

  MB knelt down and sniffed the ground around the offending tree, one half of the Big X. He was itching to say “X marks the spot” but thought that might flip Lou over the edge. Anyway, back to the smell. Offending was the right word — real stinky, he thought — not unlike that found at each crime scene left by the Phantom Bigfoot Bather. He ran his fingertips over the dry earth and then put his fingers up to his nostrils and took a good sniff. It was a familiar smell.

  “That’s so gross, dude,” Chad said, smirking at MB’s fingers.

  “Even worse if he licks them clean,” Duane chipped in. He sniggered with Chad.

  Lou shut them up with a look.

  “Smells like grizzly piss mixed with human piss, and ….” MB sniffed and grimaced with a cough. “…. Definitely some skunk in there, too.”

  MB smirked as Lou and Chad stood back and watched expectantly as he picked up a broken branch, inspected it, sniffed it then tossed it away. It was just a broken branch.

  MB noted the dry ground around the base of the tree was strewn with loose undergrowth that had been trampled down by several different feet, including Lou’s. He closely scrutinized the shoe prints.

  MB pointed out animal tracks, “Mostly white-tailed deer, badger, fox and bobcat, nothing that would be harmful to a human. There’s no sign of a grizzly print, but that doesn’t mean to say a grizzly hadn’t taken Beau … but ….”

  MB inspected the trunk of the leaky tree. There were no telltale signs of clawing that always accompanied a bear attack.

  He pointed to the bark, “…. See … no claw marks. Bears always scratch up a tree when they piss on it.” MB pointed to the ground, “I suppose these prints around the tree belong to you and the other kids as well as Beau’s?”

  Chad opened his mouth to reply but Lou cut him off at the pass.

  “I’ve already ascertained those prints belong to Chad and his friends.”

  Chad beamed proudly, “It’s true, dude … those really are our prints.” Chad sniggered. “You gonna make casts of them, Sheriff?”

  Lou heaved a weary sigh and pointed to a set of particular prints. “Those must belong to Beau, see where they are deeper. That’s where he stood to take a pee.” She pointed to the damp bark of the tree and looked at Chad. “No-brainer here doesn’t have a clue what took Beau this time.” She stared right at Duane, who shifted nervously.

  Chad looked indignant, “Who’s calling who a no-brainer?”

  Sheriff Lou glared at Chad, “I am … dufus.”

  Chad agreed with a resigned nod, “Well, that’s okay, I guess.”

  MB sniffed the bark of the tree. He nodded his head and wrinkled his nose. “That’s one really bad mother of a smell!”

  “
Could that be grizzly sign?” Lou asked, gagging on the stink.

  “No way, dude … I’m betting that Bigfoot got him,” Chad butted in over-excitedly, “The one that danced around the fire last night. She sure as hell was a real cutie.”

  Duane speculated upon the possibility that Zola had taken Beau? He reasoned she would know not to do such a dumbass thing. But where the hell was Beau? He kept his mouth zipped on the subject and contented himself to listen and watch.

  MB shrugged to Chad, “You actually saw a real Bigfoot and she danced?”

  “Yeah, MB … and she wanted to make out with Beau.” Chad grinned like the dumbass he was.

  MB looked speculatively at Duane for a moment. Well, that was the million dollar question. No, make that a two million dollar question. Had a Bigfoot taken Beau? The signs said otherwise. But what if a Bigfoot had taken him? The notion was too fanciful to think of seriously. But the nagging thought that Bigfoot had indeed taken Beau struck a chord in MB’s delirious mind, for it amused him to once more think upon such a notion as the existence of the elusive creature.

  Thump! Back on planet earth, MB could find no sign of Bigfoot prints, real or fake, no Bigfoot hair, or any other sign to indicate that the non-existent creature had been here. MB sighed inwardly with the thought that, yet again, he had failed to find conclusive evidence that Bigfoot existed.

  Without anything to support what had happened to Beau, who or what had taken him was anybody’s guess. If indeed anything untoward had happened to Beau. He was more than likely just fooling around, MB thought. The lack of evidence certainly confirmed that hypothesis.

  “Doubtful it was a Bigfoot or grizzly,” MB mused. “I don’t see anything to support that scenario here. There’s no sign of a struggle. See? No blood. No torn clothing. Sure, there are several different sets of human footprints and some animal prints, but nothing to indicate anything bad happened here.” Once again, he scanned Duane for telltale signs of mischief. Nothing!