When the WHOMP team and Duncan walked out of the forest behind the Rogers house, both Mandalay Harris and Junior Damo waited for them. Sam Rogers and his two older children, Spook and his sister, Harley, stood nearby, shifting nervously on their feet. Bliss Overbay followed Brenda Rogers out of the house.
“We heard shots,” Sam said when they were close enough.
“We fired them,” Bronwyn said. “We got several of the herd, but we missed the big one.”
“How do you hit the little ones and miss the big one?” Junior asked, grinning his typical snide grin.
“Shut up, Junior,” Mandalay said. She looked at Duncan, whose face was bone-white. “So where did you find him?”
“He and Adam Procure decided to go hunt it down themselves without telling anyone,” Bronwyn said. “Personal revenge or honor or something. The big hog killed Adam.”
There was a moment of silence; then Brenda let out a wail and threw her arms around Sam. Her husband, surprised by the sudden dead weight around his neck, stumbled and nearly fell. Spook helped him regain his footing. Quigley the dog came from the porch and stood beside them, whining and looking up at Brenda.
“Are you sure?” Mandalay whispered.
“Duncan saw it,” Bronwyn said. “And we saw what was left.”
“It wasn’t much,” Max interjected, and set Brenda wailing again.
Jack glared at Max, then said, “Dolph Pettit is staying on-site until we can get the state police out there. I suppose that’ll be that Tufa trooper again?” He said this with a significant look at Bliss.
“Yes. Call him,” Mandalay said to Bliss.
Jack couldn’t believe just one state trooper could handle the investigation into two deaths. There would be all sorts of law enforcement involved now, and once word got out, the media would descend. After all, a genuine, real-life monster story was irresistible. And all those people meant even more chances for someone to get hurt.
To Jack, Mandalay said, “And so what happens now?”
“The alpha hog is too big for any pen trap I have access to. We’ll have to go back out and keep hunting it.”
“Will it come around here?” Sam asked, still holding his wife. His children had one hand each on his shoulders.
“I don’t think so. They tend to stay away from places once they’ve been spooked, and I’m pretty sure we’ve spooked it, if nothing else.”
“Who’s going to tell Adam’s family?” Bronwyn asked.
“I will,” Bliss said.
Bronwyn helped Duncan to the porch, where he sat numbly in a canvas chair. Not two days earlier, he’d been on the front porch of this very house, feeling almost exactly as he did right now. He stared down at his hands, which shook like they were palsied. Suddenly long, delicate feminine fingers encircled his wrist, and he looked up with a start, expecting despite everything to see Kera beside him. But it was only Bliss, checking his pulse.
“You’re in shock again,” she said. “Can someone give him a jacket, or a blanket?”
Max draped his orange vest across Duncan’s shoulders. “Sorry, guy,” he said uncomfortably, and patted Duncan’s shoulder.
After the older man walked away, Duncan asked hoarsely, “Who was that?”
“Apparently one of the four best hog hunters in Tennessee,” Bliss said. “Part of a special team the game warden put together.”
Duncan blinked a few times before saying, “Everyone should be good at something, I guess.”
Bliss knelt and looked into his eyes. “Duncan, are you hurt? Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“No. I’m not hurt.”
“If you change your mind, just holler. Not every injury bleeds, you know.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Bliss left Duncan on the porch huddled beneath the orange vest. Quigley left the Rogerses and stopped in front of him. This time, instead of coming to comfort him, the dog just stared.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Duncan muttered, and waved a hand at the dog. Quigley turned and walked away around the house.
Bliss went over to Jack, who was looking at his phone. “Are you all right?” she asked softly.
“What?” he said sharply as he looked up.
She gave him a little smile. “Well, that answers that.”
“I’m sorry, I was just checking with some sources.” He put away his phone. “I’ve never seen anything like this, Bliss. It’s like something out of Moby-Dick, except it’s a hog instead of a whale.”
“And you’re Ahab?”
“No, I think Ahab is sitting on the porch over there with the shakes,” he said dryly. “If they hadn’t been there, we might’ve—”
“You’d have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those darn kids?”
“Very funny. But yeah.” He looked at Sam and Brenda, still holding each other while their children stood near. “And at least I get to walk away when that monster is dead. Those poor people will have nightmares for years.”
“Come on and have some coffee,” Bliss said, and took his arm. “You can’t do anything else about it now.”
He started to protest, then realized she was right. He followed her into the Rogerses’ kitchen and took the cup she offered. As he sipped, he looked around at the signs of the life that filled the place. Photographs on the refrigerator showed a young woman with Tufa-black hair grinning and making faces at various ages. “Is that Kera?” he asked softly.
“No, that’s her older sister, Harley. That one’s Kera.”
The indicated photograph showed her standing in a field of alfalfa, slightly turned away and looking back over her shoulder at the camera. She held a sunflower that covered the lower part of her face, leaving only her eyes showing. It was a professional-quality shot, and radiated that mix of innocence and sensuality that was almost irresistible.
Jack looked out the window. The Rogerses still stood in the yard, the children now huddling close. “Must be incredibly hard for them. I can’t imagine.”
“You have kids?”
“One. A son. He lives with his mother in Bowling Green. I get him every summer and Christmas. He just went back home two weeks ago, in fact, to get ready for school. You?”
“No. At least,” she added with another little smile, “none that I know about.”
“That’s terrible,” he said, unable to hide his own grin. “You make terrible jokes at the worst possible times, don’t you?”
“I know. But sometimes all you can do is joke.”
“Do you know Adam’s family very well?”
“We all know each other well around here.”
“Please pass on my regrets to them, too.”
Bliss looked out through the kitchen window at Duncan, seated on the picnic table. “You know…,” she began, but then trailed off.
“Know what?”
She looked around the little kitchen and into the dining room to make sure they were alone. “Jack, I’ve known these kids all their lives. I can’t imagine them doing this. It’s just way out of character for them.”
“How so?”
“They’re not outdoorsy types. Duncan works at a convenience store, and Adam installs cable TV. Why would they be out hunting?”
“He said it was a personal vendetta.”
“Maybe. It just sounds wrong to me, like we don’t have the whole story. I’ll have to talk to Duncan when he’s in better shape.”
“So will the police. Well, that is, if you people allow them in. Two deaths in three days—”
She put her hand on his shoulder and stepped close. “Listen, Jack, I know you think more police have to be involved, but that just won’t happen here. Alvin Darwin will take care of it, just like he did for Kera. And we’re not hiding anything; you know that, right?”
“You wouldn’t tell me if you were, would you?”
“Jack, please—”
“And who’s going to prepare a coroner’s report, and a cause of death, and—?”
“That’s all on me. I’m the coroner for Cloud County.”
He looked at her dubiously. “Really?”
“Really. Unofficially, of course. But it’s never been an issue before. And it won’t be now.”
“Then why didn’t you people just handle the hog yourselves? Why involve me?”
“Because I knew from Bronwyn Chess that you were in a better position to do it than anyone here.”
He shook his head. “Not so you could tell it from last night and this morning. You know, eventually somebody official is liable to notice all this.”
“Somebody official like you?”
“My job’s just to catch and kill that pig before he hurts somebody else. And make sure all the wildlife laws are followed. I don’t mean me. But I have superiors, and so does your Trooper Darwin. All the dotted i’s and crossed t’s in the world won’t help if the story they’re telling draws the wrong sort of attention.”
“So you won’t be making any phone calls, maybe leaving any anonymous tips?…”
There was an edge to her questions that Jack finally noticed. He put down the coffee cup and looked at her steadily. “A paranoid man could hear a threat in that line of questioning.”
“A paranoid man hears a threat in everything.”
“But like they say, just ’cause you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
“You think I’m out to get you?” she said, and leaned close. “If I am, I promise you, it has nothing to do with work.”
He laughed. It was the first time he remembered doing that without irony in what felt like days. “Look, Bliss, like I said, I have my job to do, and that’s all. I don’t want to alienate people around here, because if I do, they won’t help me. There’s an animal out there that’s killed two people, and it’s my job to both stop it before it does any more damage, and make sure nobody else gets hurt going after it. I have no interest in causing trouble for your folks.”
“I believe you. And I’ll try to help. It’ll be hard to keep more people from going after it, though. We’re a pretty do-it-yourself bunch.”
“That’s just how that boy Adam died: trying to do it himself.” He thought this over. “Is there a town hall in Needsville?”
“It’s in the back of the post office building. Why?”
“That’s not big enough. I want to have a community meeting to talk about the situation, answer questions, and explain what I’m doing. The sooner, the better.”
“There’s the Pair-A-Dice. It’s an old roadhouse. It’s as close to a community center as we’ve got.”
“That’ll do, as long as we can shut off the beer taps for an hour.”
“You ask so much,” she deadpanned.
“Who’s the mayor now? I’ll talk to him—”
“I’ll get it set up,” she interjected. “When do you want to do it?”
“This evening. Tonight. Late enough so the people at work can come.”
“I’ll get the word out.”
“Where is the Pair-A-Dice?”
“Out on the old highway toward Randy’s Gap.”
He frowned. “Really? I’ve driven that a bunch of times, and never seen it.”
“Well, it’s there. I’ll give you directions. And I’ll get the word out.”
He heard a fresh wail from Kera’s mother outside, and suddenly all the weariness of the morning caught up with him. He pulled out a chair and sat down. “All right. We’ll have to go back up and try to find the hog again this afternoon, although it’s probably pointless. Is there anyplace in town I can clean up before tonight, so I don’t have to go all the way back home? I need to check for ticks, too.”
“The fire station’s got a shower,” Bliss said.
“Thanks.” He drank some coffee. “Some days are just harder than others, you know that?”
“I do,” she said.