by K. B. Draper
To date, most demons simply escape over here like Lindsay Lohan sneaking out of the Betty Ford Center. They’re checking out long enough to get their fix on. Other demons are sent in an effort to tip the scales: Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong to name a few ass-munches. The good side thinks coming down and intervening in the taking or eliminating of souls is cheating, but they do feel it is perfectly legit to eliminate the rule breakers. Enter stage right, me, the demon hunter. I kind of thought they should have gone the Superman or Wolverine route, but ehhh, whatever. There’s a lot more if, ands, and assholes but in short demons suck and I’m here, at least for the time being, to send them back through the fiery shit-hole that pooped them out.
I broke out of the forest to find Danny and Woody coming down the road toward me. He pulled over. I jumped in and he U-turned, leading us away from the cabin. “They’re talking about calling out the civilian team. Hopefully, we’ll hear something soon.”
“Cool. There’s a side road down there a bit where I parked while you were on your little jaunt.” He took the road a few seconds later. “FYI, I got all the info and the scans from the ranger station. I’d just started looking through them when I got a call from the elders.”
I raised a curious eyebrow. Most of our communications were with the Chief.
“Grandfather is doing a dreamwalk,” Danny explained.
Dreamwalks are his little way of tapping into the other worlds or planes to see if he can get any clues as to what is going on. He didn’t do them casually, and I’ve only known him to dreamwalk in grave situations. Add his “don’t engage directive” and, I am going out on a limb here, I’m guessing that means we aren’t likely hunting a normal run of the hell demon.
Danny went on. “They didn’t really have anything else, but I did ask about the location of any hellgate here and if it had ever been active before.”
“And?” I asked as he pulled over and parked.
“They said they’d check the records.”
I didn’t like the way this whole thing was playing out: winged demons, orders not to hunt the bastard, and the Chief on a dreamwalk. Yeah, not a good day in the neighborhood. I didn’t like sitting on the bench while the demon was racking up points on the death scoreboard. Out of respect I might wait a minute to play some offense, but defense was another matter because damned if I was going to let Ashlyn or any other member of the search team go tramping out and get taken out of the game.
Chapter 5
We’d been sitting idle for exactly four minutes and thirty-six seconds. I had been passing the time by staring out the window and checking my watch every three seconds.
“She’s going to call,” Danny said absently as he swiped another finger across his tablet to “flip” the page on another report.
My phone rang in my hand. I shot him a glare. “How’d you do that?”
He rolled his eyes.
Ashlyn started in as soon as I answered. “We’re going to be sending out a search party in about thirty minutes. We’re not going to call for volunteers until we’ve done a preliminary search.”
I started to protest. “I can still-”
Ashlyn talked over me. “I might have exaggerated your and Danny’s resumes, so I have you both assigned with me. We’re going to send five three-man groups out for three hours and make a decision after that if we haven’t located them,” Ashlyn explained.
“We’ll be there in ten,” I offered. When Ashlyn didn’t reply, I asked, “Is that okay?”
“I’m putting a lot on the line here,” she answered, barely over a whisper.
“We’ll be able to help,” I answered simply.
“For some reason I believe that.”
“We’ll be there shortly,” I said before hanging up. “Ashlyn got us a pass behind the line; we’re going to be with her. Five three-man search teams for three hours. Then, if needed, they’ll call in secondary; civilian search teams. I don’t know how we are going to keep five teams away from …” My mind was filled with other things and I couldn’t immediately come up with a new clever name for the demon so I simply flapped a hand in the air. Danny knew what I was talking about. “I told Ashlyn we’d be there in ten, so we need to waste a few more minutes.”
Danny nodded, shut down his tablet, and slid it into his bag under the seat. “I’ll drive around. I know you don’t do waiting or sitting well.”
“I have no idea what would ever give you that impression,” I said, using my hand to hold down my knee that was bouncing to the beat of an AK-47.
Danny smirked. “Yeah, I have nooo idea.”
We drove aimlessly for a few minutes, eating up the clock.
Seven minutes later, Danny was pouting because he was losing miserably at the “I spy with my little eye” game. He had forgotten to put the one-hundred-yard radius limit on the game and I’d picked out a yellow “No Trespassing” sign hanging on a fence about a mile away. Danny scowled. “Fine! I give up. And I totally remember why I don’t play this game with you anymore.”
We pulled into the drive of the cabin where a deputy greeted us. Danny told him we were here at Ranger Parker’s request. When he verified that fact via radio we were led in and told to park next to the other vehicles off to the west side.
I started to open the door when Danny grabbed my arm to stop me. “Try not to do anything stupid.”
“Geez, want me to get you some pom-poms to go with that pep talk?”
“You know the struggle is real,” he said, releasing my arm.
I tilted my head in consideration. “Okay, I can see you have a valid concern so I will try to be on my best behavior.”
He scoffed. “That’s exactly why I’m worried.”
I slugged him.
We met at the front of the truck, both of us already scoping out the scene. “I still don’t smell anything.” I said, taking in another, deeper breath of air. Nothing. Well, at least nothing that smells like earth and lavender. There was a scent that did perk my interest. I started forward as I saw Ashlyn head in our direction, a suspicious glare readable from a good distance away.
“You two got here quick.”
“We were in the area,” I offered.
“Right.” She shook her head, likely second-guessing her decision. “Okay. I assume I don’t have to tell you about crime scene protocol?”
“Immediately pick up any and all things suspicious looking so they don’t get lost,” I answered.
Ashlyn tilted her head and crossed her arms. “Cute. But how about we try the ‘absolutely don’t touch anything at all’ method.”
“That’s so not how we did it where I came from.” I waited until she cracked the slightest smile, then added, “Fine, we’ll try it your way.” I paused, giving a head nod behind her. “Is there any way I can try this new theory out in the cabin?”
“I, well …” she trailed off as she looked over her shoulder, “the crime scene guys are still in there.”
“Maybe when they’re finished? That was kind of my thing back in Seattle,” I explained. I wasn’t lying. When you have super-sight and smell, it does tend to give you a slight advantage when looking for evidence at a crime scene.
She assessed me for a moment and then relented. “If they’re done before we head out, I’ll see what I can do. For now, just stay on the fringes and out of the way.” She took a step toward the makeshift command post set up next to her truck. “And try not to call attention to yourself,” Ashlyn suggested. As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew that was a ridiculous statement. It only took one look around to see that every male and the only other female on the scene had stopped what they were doing to stand slack-jawed and drooling in my direction. “Or not,” Ashlyn mumbled to herself. “We’ll be leaving in fifteen. If the crime scene guys finish up beforehand, I’ll come and find you; otherwise, we will be meeting on the other side of the cabin by the woods. I’ll meet you there.”
“Got it,” I replied.
“Thanks.” Then she headed ba
ck to talk with the two men at the command post.
We were closer to the cabin now and I could catch the scent of several different men. A few I could associate with the officers in the area. I could play the match the scent to its owner game, but we only had a few minutes so I focused on searching for any nonhuman scents.
Danny had wandered off to the small worn-down parking area in front of the cabin, where a solo vehicle was parked. He glanced in the side windows and then rounded the vehicle, stopping before he came full circle. He motioned me over with a head jerk.
“What?” I asked, coming to stand next to him.
“I’m guessing this vehicle,” he pointed at the SUV he’d been examining, “belongs to the hunters. But what about those?”
There was a clear set of tire tracks parked next to the SUV. I wasn’t the expert, Danny was, but they too looked like another SUV or truck.
“Not the same,” I stated as I compared the two.
“Yeah, not the same tread pattern,” Danny answered confidently. “Michelins,” he pointed at the SUV, “Yokohamas.”
Danny’s assessment was good enough for me. “Could be the owner that came and checked on them?” I pondered.
“Could be,” Danny agreed. “I was just thinking about where the guys live. They live on opposite sides of the state. It would make more sense that two of them rode together and the other met them here.”
“So where is their other vehicle?” I questioned. “They could have taken the second vehicle to a different hunting location.” I offered, not liking that option.
“That would suck,” Danny said, stating the obvious.
I glanced into the windows of the vehicle. Clean-ish. Nothing of obvious significance until I took a deep breath. I stepped back, clearing my nose of stale cigarette smoke and cheap perfume. The smoke was ripe and potent without the staleness of a smoker’s car. There was something else going on here and I was starting to think it might not be demon related. I needed to be in the cabin. As if part of my abilities were to bend things to my will, which it isn’t unfortunately, because that could be fun, two crime techs came out of the cabin and headed for Ashlyn and the men standing with her. Ashlyn was on the phone but when she saw them exit she wrapped up the conversation.
I gave Danny an elbow and a nod in their direction. I wanted to get a sneak peek of any evidence they had collected. According to their verbal report, there were no signs of a struggle or any acts of violence. There was a little blood found in the bathroom sink and some on the back porch, but they attributed that to a simple shaving accident, and the porch was set up for hunters to clean and dress their kills so they assumed the samples they collected would be animal. Otherwise, nothing of significance.
I made some assumptions. One, a demon didn't simply knock on the door and yell “pizza guy.” So either they weren’t here when the demon snatched them, we were dealing with an odorless, OCD demon, or …“This isn’t adding up to supernatural,” I whispered to Danny. We started to walk back toward our vehicle. “Could these guys have gone somewhere in the area? An all-night strip club? Casino?”
“I’ll see what I can stir up. But don’t you think they would have checked out all those leads before calling out a hunting party?”
I glanced over my shoulder to Ashlyn who was on the phone again. “They might be. Could be limited resources. Plus, I’d say they get a lot more ‘lost in the woods’ calls than anything else, and they’re likely pushing to get a team out before night falls again or it’ll set them back another day.” I heard a vehicle coming toward us and groaned. “Crap.”
“Who is it?” Danny asked, looking up for the source of my sudden attitude change.
I didn’t have to look. I knew exactly who had put the ‘Damn it’ in my mood. “It’s the sheriff.”
“Same sheriff that thinks you and I are murder suspects?” Danny asked.
“Yep,” I confirmed as I turned my back on her car as if I could hide from the woman that was parking next to us.
“And I’ll go work on that research now,” Danny advised, hot-footing it to Woody before I could protest.
I thought it best if I too stayed out of Sheriff Linn’s way so I moved to the edge of the woods, deciding I might as well walk around the yard to see or smell anything suspicious along the inside of the perimeter.
Ashlyn found me a few minutes later. “We’re delayed a couple of minutes; the Sheriff is still trying to run down a couple more leads.”
“You thinking they may not be out there?” I asked, hoping that was exactly the case.
“The sheriff’s department is running the investigation part of this. We’re trying to assist where we can, but our main priority is the rescue.” She checked her watch, and it was just after noon. “We’re going to need to get going in the next few minutes in order to conduct a reasonable search before nightfall.”
We were standing near the entrance of the path that I had found earlier, and I didn’t see any signs of entry from this angle either. “I don’t think they entered the forest,” I said before really thinking about it.
Ashlyn stepped up next to me. “Why?”
I took a second to enjoy her nearness before kneeling and pointing to the unbroken twig and clump of grass that hadn’t been trampled by a boot. “Ground is undisturbed. There are no boot prints …” I stood. “No traceable evidence.”
Ashlyn knelt, studied the area for a long moment, and stood to look up and down the tree line. “They could have entered somewhere else.”
“Could have, but I already walked this line and didn’t see any entry points.” I started down along the edge of the trees again and Ashlyn followed, both of us looking for any signs of someone entering the forest.
“So where did you learn these tracking skills? Do a lot of that in Seattle, did you? Or did you acquire these skills after you started traveling the country in search of Bigfoot?” There was a smile in Ashlyn’s voice when she asked.
“Hunting man or beast, the same principles apply,” I answered. “But to answer your question, Danny and his grandfather taught me.” I usually stayed far from the truth when talking to people, but Ashlyn wasn’t people and my normally unbreachable conversational walls were becoming more picket fencey. They still established a boundary, but if you came in wrong you’d be singing soprano.
“You and Danny, you’ve been friends for a long time?”
“For a while. We met my senior year in high school and we’ve stayed …” I searched for the right word, “connected … inseparable really, ever since.”
“He must be quite a guy,” Ashlyn offered.
Ashlyn’s voice became subdued. We were at the end of the trees so I stopped and met her gaze. “He’s the best friend I’ve ever had; he watches out for me. We watch out for each other.” Though I could tell my answer created more questions in Ashlyn’s mind, she only nodded.
I looked out over the open field, changing the subject. “They could have gone in that direction, but …”
“Not unless they really don’t know where they’re going. That way would be a rough trek. If they were hikers, rock climbers maybe, but hunters would have been deterred quickly.”
We both stared out over the field. “I don’t think they were hunting,” I finally said, figuring there was no time like the present to start derailing the “let’s go look for them in the woods” plan. I started back toward the cabin.
“I can’t say I disagree with you, but why do you think so?”
I hitched a thumb over my shoulder. “I don’t think they went hunting there. They could’ve taken the second vehicle and gone somewhere else to hunt.”
Ashlyn stopped. “How did you know there was a second vehicle?”
Foot in it, I shall step. “I’m a good guesser?” I tried.
“AJ, I never told you about the second vehicle. I never told you anything but the address and that three guys are missing.”
And we are back to murder suspect, fun times. “It’s not what you’re
thinking.”
“You have no idea what I’m thinking,” Ashlyn advised.
“Your hand just moved to your gun, so I think I have an idea.”
Ashlyn crossed her arms over her chest. “You have two seconds to explain.”
“There are two sets of tire tracks.” I decided to go with the CliffsNotes, more obvious option, versus the “Danny hacked into the FRBO rental database, looking for the parties who rented the cabin, saw they were from other sides of the state, we made an assumption and, oh, there are two sets of tire tracks” version. I walked over to the drive where Danny and I had stood before and pointed.
Ashlyn reluctantly followed. “That could be another vehicle, maybe the cabin owner’s.”
I opened my mouth to respond but closed it along with my eyes as a familiar voice came booming from the steps of the cabin.
“What the hell is she doing here?” Sheriff Linn yelled, stomping with each word she spat to accentuate the level of “not okay with this” she had with me being on her crime scene.
“We are not done with this conversation,” Ashlyn whisper yelled.
“Peachy. Can’t wait,” I replied, spinning to find the sheriff in my grille, and she didn’t look at all happy to see me. I better confirm it. “Hey, Loretta,” I sang out in the same tone as Loretta’s famous song. You know, on family road trips I thought I would rather stab pencils in my ears than listen to my grandfather’s Greatest Loretta Lynn Hits cassette over and over, but now seeing the pure rage that my song knowledge inflicted on the sheriff, it had been so, sooo, so incredibly worth it.
“Why is she here?” the sheriff asked again, pointing at me.
Pet peeve number sixty-three: talk about me like I’m not here. “So my Daddy loved my Mommy and one night they-” Ashlyn slapped down my hand gestures before I could really get the visual demonstrations up and going.
