It was dark when we started back towards the city. I let Caleb drive. My mind was preoccupied with the beetles and flies and the knowledge that another victim, this one older. One of his first, a mistake and for whatever reason, another mistake. He wouldn’t need to be a haemophobe to dislike blood. Was that the quest for the bones? He didn’t want to see the blood of his victims because it bothered him? Questions questions questions and no answers or at least, not any complete answers.
Mistakes and dumb luck were how serial killers got caught. However, in this case, I wasn’t sure what the mistakes meant. We would have all the lab results back in the morning and hopefully, identities for our two victims. Identities might help the most. Especially the newest one, if we could identify him, we might be able to figure out who saw him alive last and where.
Something caught my eye. I tried to slam on the brakes and remembered I wasn’t driving. I hit Caleb in the arm and shouted at him. He slammed on the brakes, disturbing the passengers in the back. They protested as I jumped from the SUV, guns drawn, eyes scanning the darkness for any shadow that moved.
It felt like the earth had quit turning. A few birds sang in the distance and a few insects buzzed, but it was still too early for most insects. Those were the only noises besides the people in the car. Even I was holding my breath.
I let it out slowly as everyone else joined me on the shadowy road. They had their guns drawn and like me, they were pointing them at the trees. I’m not sure any of them knew what I was looking for, but I had seen it. It wasn’t visible from this side, but I didn’t want to go to the other side and point it out. So I stood and watched, waiting, praying for anything to move. If it did, I was liable to shoot first and ask questions later.
He was close. I could feel him, somewhere in the darkness, he was there, watching us, watching me. Had he stumbled upon the body? Probably not considering the mess he had left of Hunter’s corpse in the parking lot against my car. Most likely he had followed us. Yet, how had he known we would go this way when we left? We came in a different way. How had he gotten ahead of us?
This guy was really starting to piss me off. Eventually, I had to exhale. As I did, Caleb lowered his gun.
“He’s gone,” Caleb’s voice was little more than a breathe, as if he had been holding his as well. He was right, I couldn’t feel him anymore either. I didn’t lower my guns, but I took a few steps away from the vehicle and sighed heavily.
“Why’d we stop?” Xavier asked. I nodded towards the small bridge we’d skidded under as Caleb had been trying to stop.
“A bridge? We stopped because of a bridge?” Rachael’s eyebrows were drawn together and her face puckered as she looked at me.
“No, we stopped because of what was written on the bridge.”
We walked as a group. I eventually lowered my guns because I felt stupid keeping them up. Once on the other side, I pointed up.
The paint was still running from the letters that were well written, but obviously written by someone who was doing it upside down. They were large red letters.
“That’s not possible,” Xavier said as he stared at them.
“I know,” I answered.
“What’s a wendigo?” Rachael asked.
“A demonic Native American spirit that possesses people and turns them into cannibals.” I answered as I stared at them. “It’s fairly uncommon, used more by the First Nations in Canada than by tribes in the US. Most famous case ever, a little boy claimed his best friend had been eaten by a wendigo back in the 1980s. Kid just appeared in a remote region of Canada with that story. He led them back to a cabin and found the body of his friend, obviously gnawed on by an adult.”
“Gabriel Henders was never able to put a face on the guy who ate his friend, he could only describe him as a wendigo,” Xavier added. “While the case got news coverage, they never released names and there’s probably only twenty people that know it was Gabriel in that cabin. The majority of them are SCTU members and the board that monitors us.”
“So how the fuck did my stalker find out?” I asked. The anger was spreading through me. It was the first time in a while and I welcomed it. “And where the hell did he go, again?”
“Well,” Xavier stopped speaking.
“There is not a centuries old cannibalistic demon stalking me. He isn’t disappearing into the never never. He’s going somewhere. He can’t be that familiar with the areas we’ve been in, so what, he gets here and wings it?” I shouted. He was a survivalist and he knew about Gabriel’s wendigo. Pieces fell into place. It couldn’t be the guy who had eaten Gabriel’s friend, but psychopathology ran in families. It could be his son. What if Gabriel was supposed to be eaten that day too and escaped, like I did, but because his killer was inexperienced and being taught by someone else? That made a lot of sense to me. It didn’t explain why the guy was now stalking me. Maybe he had come here expecting to find Gabriel, but Gabriel wasn’t here. I dug out my phone and called him.
“Do not, I repeat, do not return to Missouri until my stalker is caught. Keep your head down and I mean way down,” I said very calmly to Gabriel. “Your wendigo isn’t a myth and he’s here. I think he’s stalking me to get to you.” I hung up. If he thought he was a centuries old demonic cannibal, I could deal with that. It was crazy, even by my standards, but who was I to judge.
“This is a problem,” Xavier told me. I nodded at him, but kept my eyes locked on Caleb. “Your father knew more about Gabriel’s case than anyone else. You have to know something.”
“You realize Gabriel is older than me by seven years right?” Caleb asked.
“I have no idea how old either of you are.” I reminded me.
“Gabriel will be forty this year,” Xavier said. “He’s was in the academy when most of us were still in high school. Hell, you should have been in junior high. He was nine when it happened and he doesn’t even remember it that well. He’s not you.”
“Thirty-one years ago, someone tried to kill him and he has blocked the memory for whatever reason and replaced it with a wendigo. We need to figure out why or I have a feeling, he will be taken by the wendigo again.” I told them.
“It can’t be the same guy, Ace. He’d be old. They were adult teeth marks on the body of his friend.” Caleb reminded me.
“Right, but what if Gabriel got away because the person that was supposed to be killing and eating him was in training? What if it was a kid? Maybe that’s why Gabriel blocked it. What if it was a kid he knew?” Gabriel’s grandparents lived in Canada. His father had been a RMCP until he met his wife to be, who was an American tourist. They fell in love, he gave up his life in Canada and came to the US where he got a job as a Texas Ranger. Gabriel and his siblings grew up in Texas. However, they spent a month or so every year with their grandparents in Canada, which is where Gabriel went missing for six whole days. It was a bit of an international incident because the kid with Gabriel was the son of another Texas Ranger.
“Do you know where it happened?” Caleb asked me.
“Not really,” I answered.
“Snell Grove Lake,” Caleb answered. “It’s mostly hunting and fishing cabins. You can’t hike in and get to a cabin, you have to arrive by sea plane. Gabriel’s grandparents had a cabin up there. Gabriel and his friend were fishing when they went missing. My dad thought someone in a boat had taken them. His siblings were out fishing in a different area with their grandfather when the two boys disappeared. The nearest cabin was forty miles by foot, maybe a little less over the water. Somehow, Gabriel got away, found a boat and managed to drive it back to his grandparents’ place. When they finally got police up there, the cabin was empty except for the body and someone had trapped a bear in it. It was owned by a guy, but he hadn’t been there in a few years and the RMCP were able to confirm it.”
“I know the name Snell Grove Lake,” I frowned at him. “Seems like it has something to do with Bigfoot.”
“Probably. There’s a MonsterQuest episode about Snell Grove Lake and Bigfoot. It sounds like a show right up your alley.” Caleb told me.
“Malachi made me watch the alien episodes, I probably watched the others on my own,” I nodded, remembering the marathon. “The good news is the killers didn’t hike out of there.”
“Nope, he had to take a plane.” Caleb answered.
“No, they had to take a plane, most likely a father and son team. Dig through your dad’s files and see if you find anything about a man and son being interviewed or seen but left before Gabriel was found.”
“Are you going to solve the bone cleaner case while I do that?” Caleb asked.
“Yes.” I told him. “Also, you could just call your father and ask him about it.” Nathan Green was alive, but retired. He lived in a neighborhood not unlike our own in California. I had met him once. He was different.