Blue Moon Investigations Ten Book Bundle

by steve higgs

  ‘Shall we get inside, chaps?’ I asked. We had been outside a long time and the ride down the mountain at a terror-induced velocity had added wind chill. I was cold enough to want to get into somewhere warm so my friends were probably colder as both Jagjit and especially Hilary were slight and carried little or no body fat. I talked as we moved toward the door through to the hotel. ‘I can’t explain what we just saw. I will say that I don’t believe it lives here and I refuse to believe that it is the same creature that attacked people here a century ago. So, it is something else. If there is no food source then someone is feeding it.’

  ‘How could anyone feed that without losing a limb?’ Big Ben asked.

  We pushed open the door that led from the corridor that connected the parking garage with the hotel reception and basked in the blast of warm air that assailed our faces. The reception and lobby of the hotel was half-filled with people, most of whom were staring out the large window at the front of the hotel to see the storm outside. There wasn’t much to see as darkness has descended, but we could hear the wind whipping around outside and as we looked, a bolt of lightning, unseen in the storm, illuminated everything for a nanosecond.

  ‘I need to find Anthea,’ announced Hilary, throwing the rest of us a wave as he headed for the elevators. The ladies had taken themselves and a credit card to the hotel’s spa this afternoon but were sure to be back in their rooms now.

  Jagjit began to hurry after Hilary, saying, ‘Yeah, I had better find Alice,’ as he went.

  Then Francois began crossing the lobby but was going backwards so he could look at Big Ben and me as he spoke, ‘Whether that was a Yeti or not, I still need to close the slopes until it can be caught.’ Then the crowd swallowed him, leaving just the top of him visible as he moved toward the doors.

  I looked at Big Ben expectantly. Everyone else had already gone. ‘I need to find some women,’ he said, then looked over the top of my head at the skiers milling about. The storm had forced them off the mountain earlier than most of them would have planned and there were still people coming in now, though I could see the numbers left outside diminishing. ‘There’s some. Catch you later. Have fun with Amanda.’ He stuck his thumb in his mouth and mimed blowing up his chest to make himself look bigger, then swaggered over to where a gaggle of twenty-something-year-old ladies were chatting.

  ‘I doubt Amanda will get here,’ I called after him.

  He paused and turned, considering my statement, then worked it out. ‘They’ll close the cable car, wont they?’

  I nodded.

  ‘So, we’re trapped here.’ His eyes had a faraway look to them. ‘I can use that,’ he said as he turned back to the ladies. As I contemplated what my next move might be, I could hear him asking the ladies which of them wanted to be protected from the evil storm.

  My next move was to go back to my room and check on the dogs. I couldn’t take them outside in the storm so the parking garage would have to be their toilet. I would get some gear from the room to clean up/pick up any mess they left. I also needed a shower from all the frantic running through the snow and abject terror.

  Upstairs, as I fumbled for my key card, the door barked at me until I got it open and the ferocious beasts it contained were able to establish that it was just me. They snuffled excitedly about my feet and jumped at my legs to be fussed. Ushering them inside, I closed the world outside so I could sit on the floor and give them what they craved. Normally, when I get home, they get excited and fuss about me but then want to be let into the garden so they can chase pigeons and squirrels and water the lawn. Since that was not an option, I clipped on their leads and collars and took them down to the garage. I wasn’t too worried that their exercise level would drop. They were such lazy creatures that they rarely asked to be taken out and often hid when they heard me get their collars. A few days of hanging out indoors wouldn’t bother them at all.

  The parking garage was filled with cars though there was a gap where two Ski-Doos ought to be parked. I wondered how they would weather the storm, but believed they were heavy enough to resist the high winds. They could be dug out, restarted and ridden back down when the storm had dissipated.

  What about the Yeti though? I had been tussling with what I had seen since our escape from it. A nine-foot-tall, bear-like white furred beast with horns and tusks. The term I had for it was aberration. How could it be that a creature like that could exist anywhere on the planet without it being common knowledge?

  It couldn’t.

  Surely.

  So, what had I seen? It was troubling but I refused to believe that there was a Yeti and that it lived undetected in the mountains of Europe, venturing out to kill people when it got a bit peckish. Whatever the case, the police chief was right and it needed to be caught. I suspected that meant they would shoot it and that didn’t sit comfortably with me.

  My musings led me around the car park twice as the dogs sniffed about and lifted their legs on the wheels of several cars. As I was leaving, a woman came through the door into the carpark being led by two more Dachshunds. The boys instantly perked up, pulling on the leads to meet the new dogs. Dachshunds are so rare in England that I can go months without seeing another but then I remembered Hubert telling me his wife had a pair.

  ‘Madame Caron?’ I asked tentatively. I hadn’t met nor seen a picture of the woman so this could be her dog walker for all I knew.

  ‘Oui,’ she answered.

  ‘Bonjour. I’m Tempest Michaels, the detective your husband hired,’ I explained switching to English. I could have given most of the sentence in French but couldn’t remember what the French word for hired was and had I done so, she might well have launched into a long sentence in French that I would have failed to understand.

  As my dogs met her dogs and the four of them attempted to make a knot from their leads in their desperation to sniff one another, she leaned forward and shook my hand. ‘Bonjour, Monsieur Michaels, Francois told me you all saw the Yeti that killed my daughter.’ Mrs Caron looked terribly sad, filled with a grief she was barely containing. No tears came though, which I was thankful for as I never know what the right thing to do is in such circumstances.

  ‘We saw something,’ I conceded.

  At my comment she tilted her head in confusion. ‘You don’t think it was a Yeti?’ she asked.

  I looked down at that point because the hand holding the dog leads was being yanked continually as the dogs played. They weren’t playing though; they were having a four-way.

  ‘Oh, goodness!’ exclaimed Madame Caron because her little girls were being humped by my boys.

  My immediate reaction was to break them up but then I considered that the little chaps got even less action than me and I was certain I wouldn’t want to be disturbed at this point. Also, the girls appeared to be quite willing participants.

  ‘Do we, ah… do we leave them?’ I asked.

  ‘No! Get them off, get them off!’ Madame Caron demanded while tugging at her own pair of leads.

  I said, ‘Sorry, chaps,’ as I reached down to lift each of them off the girls. Bull growled at me in a convincing way, or at least, as convincing as a dog the size of my shoe could manage. He was not happy. I looked back up at Madame Caron’s horrified face. She was petting her dogs, one tucked under each arm and smooshed into her face as she cooed to them in French.

  I replayed our brief conversation in my head to work out what we had been talking about when we noticed the dogs. ‘Madame Caron, you asked me about the Yeti. My answer is that I don’t know what to think. It is clearly not a man in a costume but I am unwilling to assume that it is a dread beast that has so far defied discovery.’

  ‘What about the pictures from the previous attacks. I have seen them myself. This region has a history of Yeti problems and there are probably more attacks than those we know about. People go missing here sometimes.’ The last sentence was delivered in a hushed voice like it was a secret she wasn’t supposed to talk about.

  Bul
l and Dozer made a new attempt to get away from me by lunging in tandem. They wanted to get to the girls but Madame Caron was unlikely to put them back on the floor until I had gone and I felt that it was time for me to leave her alone.

  I said, ‘I cannot comment on old photographs and rumours. I will, however, investigate this case to the fullest of my ability and intend to reveal the truth.’

  Madame Caron looked a little stunned at my statement. ‘The only truth you will find is that my daughter was killed by a Yeti, Mr Michaels. I don’t want you dredging up her past in your foolish quest for another explanation.’

  A tear escaped her right eye and began to track its way down her face. ‘Very good, Madame Caron,’ I replied. ‘I feel that this is not the time, but for my investigation I have some questions only you can answer.’

  ‘You wish to interview me? Am I a suspect?’ Her tone was defensive.

  ‘Not at all, Mrs Caron. I just need to establish some facts.’

  She turned to go, dismissing me as she moved away. Over her shoulder she said, ‘Speak with the hotel manager, he will arrange a meeting.’

  I called, ‘Good evening.’ As she left, then tugged the leads and led the dogs back into the corridor that would lead into the hotel reception. There were two things that stood out from our short conversation:

  1. She used the distinct phase “Dredging up her past.”

  2. Michel Masson had not passed on my message

  As I pushed my way through the door and into the hotel lobby, I pulled my phone from my pocket and pushed the button for Jane. My office assistant was able to find information that most people couldn’t. With something like this, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

  ‘Hey, boss,’ she answered the phone in her usual deep voice. ‘It’s James.’

  I had to mentally adjust what I was going to say then as my cross-dressing computer wizard had elected to dress as a boy today. He didn’t do that very often anymore, preferring to wear girl clothes because he said they were more comfortable and his boyfriend preferred it. I thought it was all a little odd, but it was none of my business so I kept my mouth shut.

  ‘James, I need you to do some research.’

  ‘Of course. What have you got?’

  ‘Well… what I thought was going to be a simple case of a crazy murderer dressing up turns out to be something else. Can you look up everything you can find on Yeti sightings, investigations, hunts and evidence of it existing in the French Alps, please?’

  There was a moment of silence, then James said, ‘Sorry, I was waiting for you to say you were only joking.’

  ‘I wish I was. Something chased us today and it wasn’t a man. Just pull together whatever you can that looks interesting and let me have it. That’s a secondary task though. What I need you to do first is look into the two rival families here. The Carons and the Chevaliers. Focus especially on Marie Caron and anything embarrassing in her past.’

  ‘Okay, boss. Anything else?’

  ‘Yeah. How’s it going?’

  ‘At the office?’

  ‘In general. I abandoned you to run the place again and now Amanda is on her way here…’

  ‘Erm, about that. Is there something going on between you two? Not that you have to tell me, of course. I get that its none of my business, but you have both been acting differently around each other for a week now.’ James lapsed into silence.

  How did I answer him? I thought Amanda and I had acted as we always would, but clearly, we had been fooling ourselves. ‘I, ah. We,’ I started speaking but couldn’t work out how to frame an answer that was both truthful but didn’t tell him anything because we hadn’t worked out what there was to tell yet.

  James cut in, ‘It’s early days, right? Say no more. I won’t mention it again. I’ll get on with that research.’

  ‘Thank you, James.’

  ‘Boss?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Good luck. I hope you two work out.’

  Then he was gone. I thumbed the contact entry for Amanda.

  ‘Hi, Tempest,’ she said as she answered the phone. ‘I’m almost at Tignes now but the weather outside looks awful.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s why I am calling. They have shut the cable car so you won’t be able to get up the mountain.’ Amanda said a rude word in response. ‘I don’t know how long it will be shut for but you will need to get on the internet and find your self a place in Tignes to crash for the night. There’s no chance it will reopen before the morning.’

  ‘Dammit. I was looking forward to having a couple of days together.’

  ‘Me too,’ I agreed. ‘But maybe it will only be one night, and you can get here tomorrow. I doubt I will be able to wrap this case up in the next day though, so I will still be embroiled in the Yeti case when you get here.’

  ‘That’s fine, I can join in. You have Big Ben with you already, don’t you?’

  ‘Yes, and Jagjit and Hilary.’

  ‘Hilary? What’s he doing there?’

  ‘He’s become Mr Spontaneous ever since the witch nearly killed him so he’s here with Anthea having a few days off work for skiing.’ I then filled her in on the day’s events but deliberately left out the bit where I had almost messed myself running away from a giant Yeti creature.

  ‘Sounds like an interesting case,’ she said.

  ‘Well, like normal, I have no idea what is going on yet.’ Amanda and I spoke for several minutes back and forth. I think we both wanted to spend time in the other’s company and this was the best we could manage. Neither wanted to end the call and it was almost as if I was a teenager again filled with out of control hormones. In the end, Amanda said she was arriving in Tignes and needed to go.

  I wished her a good evening with a tinge of disappointment that I would not see her until tomorrow. ‘What shall we do now?’ I asked the dogs, but all I got back was grumpy faces which made me wonder how long it would be before they forgave me for breaking up their orgy with the girls. I took to a knee to get down to their level and pat their heads. ‘I’ll tell you what, chaps. If I can, I’ll set up a date for you while we are here. How does that sound?’ Bull cocked his head to one side, curious about what I was saying, while Dozer just wagged his tail. ‘How about some dinner then?’ Speaking a word, they recognised very well caused two pairs of ears to lift with interest. I took them upstairs and stroked their fur while they ate, then dealt with my own needs.

  Evening was fast approaching and since Amanda wasn’t going to get here, I figured I might as well head to a bar with Big Ben and the marrieds. I needed a shower and some food before that.

  Monster Hunter. Wednesday, November 30th 1957hrs

  Three hours later, I was tucked in a corner of the bar waiting for everyone else to arrive. I was near the bottom of my second gin and tonic and feeling thoroughly relaxed about life. The dogs were tucked under my chair snoozing and twitching their legs and lips in little doggy dreams.

  I had already eaten, having messaged Jagjit, Hilary and Big Ben in a group chat to ask them about dinner plans. I got back almost the same response from each them to the effect that they were having sex. The content of the message was sub-textual from Jagjit and Hilary but Big Ben, who wouldn’t understand the concept of subtext, announced that he had scored with a lady and her mum and her aunt, adding that if I didn’t hear from him before eight o’clock, I should send pizza.

  I didn’t bother to reply to any of them. Instead, and fighting a need to be moody because everyone but me was getting some, I ordered a large T-bone steak and asked them to send it out still mooing. The plate it arrived on was discarded on the other side of my table with nothing but a well-picked bone and a few spots of juice to show what had once been on it.

  ‘Monsieur Michaels,’ purred Michel Masson as he approached my table. ‘I find you here looking all lonely when there is no need for you to be.’

  My lip twitched with a tinge of annoyance, but I replied politely, ‘Good evening, Michel. Can I help you?’


  ‘I rather think it is I that can help you,’ he replied as he reached into his jacket to produce a key card. ‘In case you find yourself lonely in the night.’ He placed the key on my table, winked and walked away.

  His advances were beginning to bore me. I had said no and that should be sufficient. I moved to flick the card onto the floor, then thought better of it. Big Ben suspected his involvement in the case, though I wasn’t entirely sure there was a case now, but having a key to the man’s room might prove useful later. I slipped it into a pocket, only then seeing that Michel was watching from across the room. He smiled and blew me a small kiss. Involuntarily, I rolled my eyes.

  The storm was still raging outside, the wind quite audible above the music in the bar as it swirled and span, the buildings creating eddies as they blocked its path. I hadn’t seen the police chief since we arrived back here several hours ago but left alone as I was, I had found time to compile a list of thoughts.

  If the creature is not a Yeti, what is it?

  How is it that the creature is seen so rarely when it is so big and clearly carnivorous?

  Why is my client not more upset about the daughter he has yet to bury?

  What is it the client’s wife doesn’t want me to find out?

  And things to do:

  Interview the wife properly in the morning

  Get the fur sample analysed (where?)

  Quiz police chief on his intentions in hunting the beast

  Have James research Priscille Peran just for completeness and because I am curious about her story – why were they so far from the track that would have taken them to the slope they wanted?

  Come up with a plan to catch the creature and hold it.

  It wasn’t a very long list, but I was still wondering whether I even had a case to solve. The creature we had seen either was or was not a legendary undiscovered Yeti but it was certainly capable of killing a person. Had it torn poor Marie apart? If so, why had it spared Priscille? If the creature was responsible for Marie’s death, then my investigation really had nothing to unravel. There would be no clever conspiracy behind the young woman’s death and I wouldn’t feel I had any right to charge for my services beyond the expenses I had incurred for travel. Lost in thought, I didn’t see the danger approaching until it slammed both hands on the table in front of me to make my heart stop.