by K. B. Draper
I waved a hand, cutting off the rest of her sentence. “We’ll stay here, out of your crime scene, but we’re not leaving you out here with … whatever did that.”
“I’ll be-”
“Ain’t going to happen,” I said over her.
She sighed, nodding her defeat. “It won’t take them long to get here. There’s an old service road a little ways past here.” She moved toward the far side of the clearing, sweeping her light as she went. “That’s probably how they got in and out of here.”
“They?” I asked.
“He or she,” Ashlyn clarified.
So my ranger had already moved past animal, leaving human as the only likely suspect, at least as far as she knew.
Danny and I watched her light scan the ground for evidence to support her theory.
I nodded at Danny, asking him to go assist her. I didn’t need any more evidence as I already knew the victim had come in that way. But she was wrong on the “or” thing. There had been a he and a she as I could smell two distinct human scents. One was Irish Spring and nervous sweat, while the other had been wearing a vat of strawberry and kiwi body lotion. Or maybe it was vat of strawberry and kiwi body spray; it was hard to tell. Either way, it told me that the guts on the ground once belonged to a female or the guts once had a fake-fruit-wearing female associate.
I glanced at the trees, knowing whatever had been there was already gone, but I found what I was looking for: evidence. Four deep gashes splayed open the bark of a tree. I got Danny’s attention, made a motion in the direction I wanted him to look, and moved away to continue my search.
A few minutes later, Danny snapped his fingers. Although I was on the far side of the clearing, he knew I could still hear him. I worked my way over. “Whatcha got?”
Danny gave the bush in front of him a swipe with the toe of his boot.
“What the fu-?” I cut my words off as I leaned closer. At first I thought it was simply more intestines, but when Danny swiped his boot the other way, allowing for a better opening in the leaves, I could see the curved fingertips and palm of the severed hand. “You have got to be shitting me.” I muttered.
“You see what I see?” Danny asked.
“Manicured nails,” I answered.
“Complete with demon blood,” Danny added.
“Shit.” I shot a glance over my shoulder toward Ashlyn. As if this didn’t already suck enough, we didn’t need to try to explain glowing green blood all over a severed hand. “Hopefully the crime scene guys will take their sweet time getting here, and that will give us time to-”
“You guys find something?” Ashlyn asked from behind us.
Or not. Damn it. I glanced at Danny before I turned to her.
“Delay,” Danny mouthed.
“Not sure,” I started, walking in her direction.
“Not sure?” she asked.
“Kind of dark, but it might be something your team will want to take a look at.” There was no sense in trying to hide our little discovery. It might even help us hunt down the demon if Ashlyn’s team identified the victim.
Ashlyn leaned to look around me. “Need my flashlight?” she asked Danny.
He waved her off. “Nah.”
I needed to distract her long enough so the blood that screamed “Something strange in the neighborhood” had time to turn into its resting state, a black, oily tar-like substance. Something it did after about ten to fifteen minutes exposed to the elements.
I thought of many distracting tactics, ranging from an impromptu make-out session to picking her up, throwing her over my shoulder, and taking her out of here completely. But we were too far along the “shit went down here” road and with the raw intensity being transmitted from Ashlyn’s eyes right now I didn’t think she’d take too fondly to either idea. So simple delay it was.
“You sure this wasn’t a bear?” I asked.
Ashlyn narrowed her eyes. “You know that wasn’t a damn bear attack,” she said, anger licking at the edge of her words.
“Rabid bear?” I tried, knowing it too wasn’t going to fly as a valid explanation.
“Bears don’t leave soft tissue remains. It wasn’t a bear.”
Ashlyn apparently had a fondness for bears. Each time I said the word her body reacted and her tone went full-on defensive. I tried a different forest creature. “Wolf?”
“A wolf would have also eaten the soft tissue.” She swiped her flashlight toward the guy’s … here I thought of the fingernails, so make that woman’s guts. “There would have been a body, a carcass.” Ashlyn stated.
“Mountain lion?” I continued with the “name a forest animal” game.
“There are no paw prints, no claw marks, no bite marks.”
I opened my mouth to push the issue.
“No animal did this,” she stated, the heat in her voice telling me this particular part of our convo was closed. She shined her light over the sprays and pools of blood. “We have another murder. I would think you of all people would know this.” Before I could go down another path of distraction, Ashlyn put her light in my face. “Why did you come to my forest to hunt Bigfoot?”
I put a hand up to shield my eyes and saw her studying me. “Really, the old interrogation under a bright light routine?” I put a hand on hers and forced her to lower her arm.
“How did you get to the scene so far ahead of us? Have you seen something like this before? You didn’t even flinch at the scream we heard … whatever we heard. How come?”
“I don’t know,” I tried.
“Don’t know what? How you ran so damn fast or whether you have seen something like this before or … what? I want answers, AJ.”
“I don’t know if I have them,” I answered honestly.
“But you know something,” she argued. “Tell me what’s going on.”
There was only one other person that knew what I was, outside of the Choctaw tribe, and that was only because it was let her die or let her know. I chose know, which saved her life, but I lost her forever. I wasn’t inclined to go there again, even though Ashlyn and I could be nothing more than a one- or maybe three-night stand. “I don’t know what caused that back there,” I offered.
She searched my eyes for the lie. “Why did you choose this particular area to hunt for Bigfoot? I’m not saying I believe in them, but I also know there’ve been no recent sightings or reports of activity in this area.”
I glanced at Danny who was stepping up behind us. “Anonymous tip,” he offered.
“Anonymous tip,” I repeated. Again, not a total lie. My little visions, or more often just phone calls from Grand or one of the elders of the tribe, simply guided me to where I, or actually Norm, was needed.
“Anonymous tip?” Ashlyn narrowed her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. Well, on one hip and on one gun. “How exactly did you receive this anonymous tip?”
“Email,” Danny answered without hesitation.
Though I knew there was no such email, I wasn’t worried because Danny could easily generate one. It would be posted and dated from a non-traceable IP address in some juice café in Pakistan.
“What did this email say?” Ashlyn continued.
Danny shrugged. “Not a whole lot. It just mentioned some weird sounds, thought they saw something moving upright on two feet. Same old stuff.”
“And you guys made a trip down here based on an anonymous, same old stuff,” she air-quoted Danny’s words, “email.”
“You never know when one will pan out,” Danny answered again.
Ashlyn hit Danny across the eyes with her flashlight beam. “I want a copy of that email.”
“Not a problem, I’m happy to forward it to you.”
Ashlyn pulled out a business card from her chest pocket and handed it to Danny. “As soon as you get back,” she ordered.
“Not a problem,” Danny stated as he moved away, shoving her card in his jeans.
Ashlyn turned her attention back to me. “I’m having a hard time beli
eving that you left Seattle PD to travel around the country chasing down frivolous Bigfoot sightings.”
I shrugged. “I’d had enough reality and simply needed to chase the unbelievable for a while.” The answer came easy as it was the line I always pulled out anytime a woman I’d tangoed with questioned why I couldn’t stay. But, unlike those women, this answer seemed to somewhat satisfy the ranger. Probably because she wasn’t asking me to stay in her bed, damn it, and if I had to guess, my ex-partner had elaborated on, at least superficially, what occurred before I left the PD.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“I ran track in college,” I answered. Again, I went with the truth; however, I had quit after my first year much to the dismay of my coaches. The tedious circle after circle routine had gotten old quickly, especially since I could only run at half-speed most of the time. I redirected my focus and my extra energy to women, cheap two-for-one beer specials, weapons, and martial arts training. I’d continued to run as well; Norm and my body craved it. But instead of beating pavement or the asphalt track, I took to the local woods. Seattle had many parks and trails, mountains and hills that were more suited to my growing need to be outside.
“That was a little faster than collegiate track skills,” Ashlyn countered.
“Adrenaline?” I tried.
“What did you think you were going to do once you got here? What if you’d come across who did this?” Ashlyn asked.
I shrugged. “Umm, handle it.” Again, I went with the honest route. I wasn’t a “formulate a game plan” kind of girl. I was more a “run in blindly and hope for the best” kind of chick. It has worked out well for me so far.
I saw Danny, who had taken advantage of Ashlyn’s and my question-and-answer session, make a deeper examination of the crime scene. He gave me a thumbs up as he slid his phone back in his pocket. The thumbs up told me he had seen all he thought he needed to. The smile on his face told me he was enjoying Ashlyn standing toe to toe with me, calling me out on my shit.
Ashlyn let out a frustrated sigh. “There’s more to you and all this.” She waved a hand around the scene. “I will find out the truth, AJ. I will find out why you,” she found Danny and pointed at both of us, “and Danny are really here.”
I was saved by the sound of vehicle shocks being punished by a pothole-filled road. “Your backup is here.”
Ashlyn looked around me to the direction her team would be arriving. “I don’t see them. How do you know?”
One of the arriving officers hit a quick siren burst, signaling their arrival. Ashlyn glared at me. I gave her a wink as I stepped around her, joining Danny at the edge of the crime scene like good little innocent spectators.
I let my thoughts of the ranger take a backseat; soon the area was going to be swarming with park rangers and cops. “Find anything else?” I asked Danny.
“Only the one hand, and blood should be black by now,” he offered.
“What did you make of the marks?” I gestured to the tree I had seen earlier.
“Claws. Talons …” Danny suggested with a shrug.
“My take too. Anything in the legends about a demon with wings?” I asked.
Danny sighed. “One or two, but I don’t think they’re that common on this plane. Oh, and I’m pretty sure they are super bad.”
“Super bad?” I mocked. “Is that in their formal bio?”
Danny grinned. “Super bad. Super sucky. I get my descriptors messed up sometimes.”
“So like …”
“Low-level demon stuff,” he supplied.
“Super sucky it is then.” I knew the basics of the demon hierarchy; it went from the high level of pretty bad to the lowest level of super-fucking-suck-ass bad. So if Danny was right, we were just one ass fuck away from really, really bad. “Send the pictures you took to Grand. Let's see what he can tell us about what we might be up against. Also, make sure you get that email generated and sent off to her. I have a feeling Ashlyn will follow up on that. By the way, nice job jumping in on that little convo, especially as I haven’t really told you what happened this morning.”
“I figured you didn’t ask me to spend this month’s stipend on Bigfoot gear without a reason,” Danny offered.
“Short version, I found a truck full of blood and cocaine this a.m. Like this, the body was Gonesville. And the sheriff rolled up on me.”
“Why’d you stick around?” Danny asked.
“Small dead-end dirt road. I was in Woody.” I shrugged. “She would’ve had my info one way or another.”
“So he took ya in and-”
“She,” I corrected. “And she is super-duper friendly, by the way. Sheriff Loretta Linn.”
“The country star?”
“Different spelling and apparently not a fan of the other Loretta.”
Danny nodded. “I’m guessing you tested this theory.”
“Repeatedly, actually. And yeah, it was a no go.”
Danny snort-laughed. “Nice. You’re not in town a full day and you’ve already pissed off the sheriff.” He jerked his head toward the ranger who had moved off to meet her team. “And you're already hitting on the cute park ranger. I’m thinking that’s a new record for you.”
“Can’t get anywhere in this world if you aren’t constantly pressing your limits,” I stated.
Danny rolled his eyes as he pulled out his phone. “I’m going to go ahead and start sending the pictures to Grandfather.”
I waited until he started to step away. “Oh, sorry but there is one more small fact I should probably mention.”
Danny, already tapping away on his phone, absently asked, “Yeah?”
“The sheriff’s current theory is that you killed the guy and ran away with the dude’s body.”
It took Danny a second to turn back to me. “What? How? You didn’t?”
“Sorry, partner, but I squealed like a weak-spined little piglet. Gave ya up cold.”
Danny sighed. “This is still over the Oreos, isn’t it?”
“I told you Aunt Flo was coming for a visit and she wanted Oreos, but you ate them anyway. I can’t be responsible for her actions.”
“Aunt Flo is a bitch,” Danny replied.
“Tell me about it,” I agreed.
I watched as Ashlyn greeted the mixed team of responding deputies and park rangers. I listened as she gave them a quick rundown of events. At the mention of my name, she looked over her shoulder in my general direction. Though I could see her eyes clearly, I didn’t think she could do the same with the distance there was between us. She turned back, continuing the story but conveniently skipping over the little fact that I had made it to the scene long before her and Danny.
Danny came to stand at my side as the crime team spread out and started on the task in front of them. Ashlyn made her way back over to us.
“I have a deputy waiting to take you back to the campsite so you can pack up your things and stay in town at the motel. Dispatch is calling to get rooms prepared for you bo-”
I cut her off. “Umm, we’re not leaving.”
“You can’t stay out here with whoever did this,” Ashlyn argued.
“I don’t do motels,” I protested.
“Yeah, her,” Danny hitched a thumb at me, “and motels, bad, bad mix.”
Ashlyn directed a questioning look at both of us. “What’s the big deal about staying in a motel? You what ... don’t think they wash the sheets?”
“That’s a good possibility too, but no, I just don’t like them.”
“Well, you’re going to have to suck it up because I can’t leave the area and you aren’t staying out here with-” Ashlyn threw an angry finger in the direction of the clearing.
“We’ll walk back, and we will be fine.”
“Not if I close the park,” Ashlyn stated.
“I’m still staying,” I argued.
“Then I’ll be forced to arrest you for trespassing and you can stay in a jail cell for the night,” Ashlyn threatened.
Ashlyn rested her hands on her duty belt. “I found you tonight.”
I leaned in and whispered, “Only because I wanted you to find me, Ranger.”
Ashlyn pushed me back with a finger to the chest. “You’re extremely frustrating,” Ashlyn growled.
“You have no idea just how frustrating I can be … yet.” I answered with a wink. “Danny and I will be at the camp if you need us,” I offered. I turned and started back the way we’d come, Danny following on my heels.
“And here we go again,” Danny muttered a few steps later.
“Here we go again, what?” I questioned.
“I’m going to be left picking up the pieces to another girl’s broken heart,” Danny answered.
I’d protest of course just for the fun of it, but Danny had played counselor to some of the women I had met and left behind. To my credit, I was always very honest with each and every one of them before we ever got intimately involved. I made my intentions, or lack thereof, extremely clear from the beginning. We would enjoy each other’s company while we were together, but then I would leave and that would be the end of it.
A good majority of the women accepted it. They might try to prolong my stay, but when I left, they let me go. A small percent had a different, less rational response. Some of them chose to show their displeasure through fit throwing; which required little interpretation. A few had met me at Woody with their bag in hand and the desire to go with me in their eyes.
And then there was the mother of all loony birds, a saucy little redhead in Texas who had actually Saran-wrapped herself naked to Woody’s hood. Yeah, I have no idea how she managed to do that by herself, but she had been rather bendy the night before sooo … It had taken Danny nearly half an hour to talk her down. Another thirty minutes for him to find the end of the plastic wrap so he could peel her off the hood, five seconds for me to point out that he could have simply used a knife, and fifty-seven miles for Danny to lose the grin.
I glanced over my shoulder at the woman now in question. She was watching me walk away with a mix of frustration and amusement, and the thumpety-thump-thump of her heart suggested … temptation. I gave her a knowing wink. She returned a rather impressive eye roll.
