Alison turned the battered old rover onto the gravel road that permitted her to switch on the front roof lights. The array of lights on the front grill and roof illuminated the road for quite a distance, hindered only by the rising fog.
“So, why do you think you saw that?” Alison glanced at me.
“I’m losing my mind?” I watched the road passing in the headlights.
“Hmm, you want to tell me what’s going on?” Alison took her eyes off the road long enough to emphasize her question.
“With what?” I leaned back in the seat, resting my arm on the metal door. The cool wind flowed up my arm and under my un-tucked shirt, rekindling the memory of my drive with Jess after we left the dance.
“How about you and Miss Sunshine?” She took a turn causing the rover to slide on the rocks as it rounded the bend.
“Skip it.” I reached over and turned up the radio. She switched it off with a violent twist to continue her interrogation.
“What happened yesterday?”
“Just stopped in to chat with Leighton, and deal with Nate.” I grumbled a low curse.
“Right.” She eyed me.
“What about you and that arms dealer?” I stretched my arm further out the window, and saw Alison hide a worried expression.
“Okay, so tell me about this Ferguson case. What did you find?” Alison gave a sigh of defeat. I looked at her for a moment while she shifted gears. Something was decidedly off about her lately.
“Well,” I watched her face for another moment waiting for a sign of a snappy remark before I forced my gaze to the road. “We found a very interesting story. A peeping-tom Bigfoot.”
“Excuse me?” Alison raised her voice. “A what?” She glanced over at me.
“Apparently this Bigfoot-thing likes to watch the teenage daughter.” I stretched my arm out the window again. The cool air felt great flowing across my fresh tattoo.
“Am I sensing a cheesy teen horror flick?”
“A bit. Only it uses ladders, chews gum and wears a size eleven work boot.” A quick sting on the back of my hand and I yanked my hand back in the car, shaking it.
“Okay, you’re going to need to explain because I’m missing something.” She glanced over again.
“We went to their house.”
“Right.”
“We saw the smashed up truck.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The tires were slashed.”
“Oh, that doesn’t fit.” Alison took her eyes from the road to glance at me for a second.
“Right.”
“Ladder?”
“The window is like eight or nine feet up and there were ladder marks on the ground and fresh gum above the window.”
“Like where the base of the ladder was and where a pervert would stash their gum if they were…” Alison swallowed looking disgusted. She’s had enough of perverts and their ilk in her life.
“Right.”
“Anything else?”
“Yep, we followed a set of tracks from the window up the road. Half way up the road we found the tracks were replaced by boot prints. Then we followed the boot prints to a house.”
“Where you saw your deaths, possibly saving you.”
“Where we found this Boggs fellow, who’s more than eager to tell anyone all about the demon after he takes a few pot shots at you, of course.” I tugged at the collar of my shirt.
“Wait, did you just say?”
“He shot at us.” I nodded at her. Alison blinked at me with gaping mouth and wide eyes. I knew I should have said something before then but it wasn’t that bad.
“You didn’t think to tell me?” The surprise and concern in her voice betrayed her true emotions.
“It wasn’t the first time someone has taken a shot at us. You remember that farmer near Cedar Brook?”
“I guess.”
“Same thing. Anyway, it looks like the guy is a peeping-tom who is using the Bigfoot-demon thing to draw attention to himself.”
“Weird and eww, but okay. So you’re telling me we should be driving a van with a clueless Great Dane?”
“Where’s your purple dress?”
“Oh, no. I would not be that ditz.” She spared me a glance. “By the way Fred, you’ve been a bit obnoxious lately.”
“How so?”
“You act like you want to be doing something else, like you’re always in a hurry, and let things slide that you never used to. Especially things you shouldn’t.”
“That’s not true.” I limply offered.
“Oh, you know it is. How do you think Brandon got injured? If we had observed the simple procedures you had created, we wouldn’t have even let him on that catwalk. You’re constantly distracted. You need to get your head in the game!”
“He would have been on that catwalk no matter what, only we wouldn’t have been there with them.”
“Still.”
“We’ve got a sniper out there that’s trying to kill us, someone hiring thugs, and no clue what the point of all of it is.” I sighed and stared at the floorboards under my feet. “I’m doing the best I can.”
“It’s still no reason to be reckless. We can get better and figure it all out, but we need to be at our best. Obsessing over Miss Sunshine isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
“I’m not obsessing.” I lifted my head.
“Don’t give me that. You’ve been pining for that girl since high school.” Alison let out a heavy breath. “She’s a fantasy.”
“It’s not about her, besides she knows me better than anyone.”
“No!” Alison cut me off. “She knew you better than anyone. She doesn’t know who you are now. Does she know you’ve killed people?” I fell silent at her words. When you’re confronted with the truth, you can continue to live in the fantasy or let your feet touch the ground.
“Don’t presume to know what I’m thinking.” I breathed the words.
“I’m not sure we’ll ever catch a break with her around. She’s a harbinger of chaos. There’s always something happening around her, and you’re too focused on her to see it.” Alison glanced at me, hoping to get the appropriate reaction.
“Can we talk about something else?”
“You know I’m right about her.”
“I know you know more about the bikers than you were letting on.”
“I know of a couple places where those bikers could have been from. One is an old church turned bar on the waterfront, and the other is a bar on the Rockport docks. I’m not really in their loop, so anything more would be a guess.”
“Rockport docks? Where Tabitha was killed?” I took my eyes off the blackness ahead to blink at her.
“Yeah, the thought crossed my mind as well.” Alison slowed the rover to round a sharp bend in the gravel road. “So, can I take this as a sign that Miss Sunshine is going to take a backseat?”
“Veronica isn’t the issue.” Alison spared me a glance, her expression softening when she saw my eyes. She reluctantly brought her gaze back to the road as I took a shaky breath and wiped my eyes.
“So, are we going to tell them about the creeping-tom?”
“I guess so, but I think there’s something that we’re missing. At the same time, we need to get some hard evidence of the fraud.” I turned on the radio again.
“Well, you know it could still be Bigfoot. The Algonquian legends of Wendigo did come from this region.”
“Actually, this area was Yeahoh.”
“Well, did you know about the attack just off the interstate in the ‘80’s?”
“I know everyone wants their fifteen minutes.” I crushed an empty soda can under-foot.
“Connor!”
“I know it sounds bad, but…” The look of surprise and shock on her face staring straight ahead made me pause. Shifting my gaze, I caught sight of it. At the edge of the headlights down the road, a dark shadowy figure crossed the road in only two steps. Alison slowed the vehicle and stopped near the area where we had seen it. Out of my window, I heard distinct movement of something large snapping branches and shuffling through the dense underbrush. I opened the door and leaned out to look at the ground. Hearing the noises stop, I closed the door and Alison accelerated down the road.
“Did you see that?” Alison asked with wide eyes. Neither of us were willing to say what it appeared to be and settled for silence.
“Yeah.” I watched the mirrors for any changes in the scenery behind us. Someone out for a walk? A bear?
“What do you think it was?” She glanced over to see the question in my eyes. She returned her gaze to the road in time to see a dark object heading at the windshield in front of her. Alison let out a yelp and closed her eyes slamming on the brakes when the object impacted and bounced off loudly. Rocks clattered and rolled under the floorboards while the rover slid and we jostled to a stop with seatbelts digging into our shoulders.
Sitting up and shaking off the sudden stop, I immediately checked her, brushing her bangs aside to see her face.
“You alright? What was that?” Satisfied she was all right, I looked around glancing out all of the windows. Alison’s grip on the wheel lessened enough for her to shake her hands free. Taking a breath she adjusted her position and started us rolling forward again. I jumped when I spotted a dark object just outside my window.
“What? What is it?” Alison looked around nervously.
“I know what hit the windshield.” I slumped back into the seat with a great relieved sigh.
“What?”
“Batty.” I pointed at the bat flying just outside my window.
“Stupid thing, aren’t they supposed to have radar?”
“I think so, maybe his is broken.” I spotted the lights through the trees up ahead on our left and nodded at them. “I wonder what they’ve got this time.”