The Chronicles of Beast and Man (6 page)

             
D
eputy Dolgen knew Owen Kelly to be friends with Brandon Miles, a young man who was also considered a trouble maker. Thomas had made several traffic stops that had involved the two of them. He had also received several noise complaints involving Owen Kelly at Brandon Miles’ home. They were part of a large group of young men who seemed to cause mischief just for the sake of doing so. At one point or another, each one of these young men always seemed to end up at Brandon Miles' house. This was probably because he had the nicest house of all of them. Brandon Miles lived in a blue two story house on Randolph Street. It was honestly a nice house, but Brandon never spent a dime to get it. Brandon’s parents had come into money not long before he graduated. They moved out to the country, and into a nice ranch house. They then simply gave their house in town to Brandon.

              As he wandered up the stairs to the porch, he couldn’t help but notice a mountain of beer cans tucked in the corner. Dolgen knew very well that none of these young men were old enough to buy alcohol. It might not be enough to hold any of them for very long, but it might be enough to apprehend Owen Kelly if needed. Thomas would have to make that decision on his own, but first he needed to talk to Kelly.

              Deputy Dolgen then loudly knocked on the door.

              A particularly angry looking Daniel Montvale answered the door. Thomas was not sure how to respond, he knew very well of Daniel’s troublesome behavior.

              “Daniel, I’m looking for Owen Kelly.”

              “So?”

              “So, have you seen him?” Thomas brusquely asked.

              “What is it to ya?”

              “Listen, I have a few questions for him. Do you know where he is?”

              “Actually yeah, I think he’s cooking breakfast, I think he’s making a big batch of bacon. You like bacon?” Daniel Montvale asked as his jaw tightened up aggressively.

              This was obviously some sort of attempt at baiting, in order to get a rise out of him. Daniel apparently wanted to get Dolgen riled up by associating him with a pig.

              “If Owen is here I need to talk to him.” Thomas said while still remaining calm.

              “Sheriff Truex send you over here?” Daniel asked.

              “No, and I don’t see what the Sheriff has to do with any of this.”

              Daniel then walked away as mad as ever. After a moment, a very pitiful looking Owen Kelly arrived at the door. Large bags had formed under his eyes, and his skin was pale. He appeared to be completely exhausted.

              “Owen I have got a few questions for you.”

              “What is this about, Officer?”

              “Gabrielle Parker.”

              “What about her?” Owen asked.

              Thomas was not sure if this was the set up for an alibi or if Owen genuinely did not know.

“She was killed last night.” Thomas said firm and direct.

              The pitiful hung-over
look on Owen’s face then turned to one of shock and disbelief.

              “She was killed?” Owen asked.

              “Yeah, she was found early this morning.”

              “Who the hell did it?”

              “We don’t know son. That is what I am trying to figure out.” Thomas said calmly, but still with plenty of authority.

              “You don’t think I did it?”

              “I am only trying to figure out what happened.” Thomas answered without giving out his own opinion. “Where were you last night?”

              “I was here all night long.”

              “Can anyone verify that?”

              “Yeah, Brandon and Daniel both can.”

              As Thomas took notes he jotted down the names, even though he knew they weren’t good witnesses.

              “So, did you see Gabrielle Parker at all last night?”

              “Yeah, she was here for about five minutes. Then she left when we got into a fight.” Owen realized what he had said too late.

              Thomas was not sure what to make of Owen’s statement.

              “I mean…we got into a yelling match. Not like a real fight. We just yelled at each other.” He then said as sweat began to form on his temples.

              “What was the fight about?”

              “It was about seeing other people. I told her we needed to see other people and she didn’t think so.” Owen lied.

              “I see, and what time do you think it was when she left?”

              “It was probably getting close to midnight. I am really not sure.”

              “Midnight? That is awful late for a school night.”

              “Yeah, it is.” Owen answered, he had been out of high school for a year already.

              Thomas then said he had no further questions. At that time he had no reason to apprehend Owen. He apologized to Owen for giving him the awful news. Then he left to go back to the police station. There would be more than enough paperwork to fill out now.

             
W
hen Rod parked his F-150 out front of The Medusa Gazette building, it was obvious that John had been waiting for him. He was standing right in front of the entrance door with a puzzled look on his face.

              “Waiting on someone, John?”

              “Indeed…” John’s voice trailed off.

              Inside it was more or less the same as the last time Rod had been there. The office area was filled with cubical after cubical, but Rod was pretty sure that the Gazette only employed seven or so people. That would be including John as well.

              In John’s office the two men sat to talk over a few doughnuts and some coffee.

              “So what can you tell me about the Parker girl?” John asked.

              “You didn’t want to waste any more time did you? Here this whole time I thought you just wanted to visit with me.” Rod said sarcastically.

              “Seriously, what do you know Rod?”

              “Alright, she was found at six o’clock this morning by a man jogging through the park. Of course he should be left out of your story for privacy reasons.” Rod said and then took a large bite out of a glazed doughnut.

              “What was the cause of death Rod?”

              “Not sure yet, of course we won’t have the autopsy report back for at least another month or two.”

              “I know that Rod. I already spoke to Wilson.” John rudely replied.

              Evan Wilson was the coroner, and had been for the last twenty years.

              “So what did he have to say?”

              “He said that it was a lot like something he had seen five years ago. What did you think?”

              “No comment.” Rod said sternly.

              John shook his head in disappointment and explained to Rod that he would not be printing anything at this time. He was only interested if Rod personally thought there could be a connection.

              “Off the record, I do not think there could be any connection. We are investigating all our leads, and we are going to get to the bottom of it.” Rod said in defense.

              “I really hope you are right Rod. If you are wrong and there is some sort of connection, there are going to be a lot of very disappointed people. I just don’t want all the blame being pointed at you bud.” John said as he tapped his fingers on his desk in a brisk fashion.

              “All I have to say is that I am not surprised that you aren’t printing anything as of yet. I know you wouldn’t want to jump the gun or anything.” Rod said obviously referring to his article about the so-called Moonlight Murderer, five years ago.

              After hearing what John had to say, Rod made an abrupt exit. He was not enjoying his conversation with John, and did not care if John knew it. Rod understood what John was saying, people wanted to believe that Rod’s becoming Sheriff had something with the peace and quiet they enjoyed. The murder of Maxwell Hester had been so terrible; everyone was terrified that it might happen again. Most people were just happy that it didn’t happen again, and they wanted someone to thank for this. This honor was bestowed upon Sheriff Rodney Truex of course. Rod accepted this even if he wasn’t responsible.

-

              When Rod arrived back at the station he was surprised to see Deputy Dolgen. He assumed that Dolgen would have just as much trouble locating Owen Kelly as he did. But Thomas explained that he had already known about the association between Brandon Miles and Owen.

              “I guess I just don’t keep up on those kids these days.” Rod said as if he were an old timer
.

              “Yeah, well I think one of the young kids keeps up on you.” Thomas said sarcastically.

              “Oh yeah, and who might that be?”

              “Daniel Montvale, Chief.”

              Rod shook his head and acted as if he was not interested in the topic.

              “He seems to have it out for you.” Thomas said with a grin.

              “I think you might have it wrong. I think he has it out for anyone with a badge.”

              “I don’t know Chief, he mentioned you personally.”

              “Oh well.” Rod said although he was actually very curious to know why Daniel Montvale had such an interest in him. He had arrested him once or twice, but could Daniel be dumb enough to try and retaliate against him?
Rod brushed it off again, Daniel couldn’t possibly be smart enough to do something that would actually hurt him.

              “So, what did Owen Kelly have to say?” Rod asked.

              “He said he and Gabrielle had gotten into a fight about breaking up or something. Saw her around midnight and hadn’t seen her since.”

              “And this all checked out with you?”

              “I had no reason to think that it wasn’t true.” Thomas answered.

              As much as Rod wished he had someone to hold responsible and calm the town’s nerves, he had to go by Thomas’ word. If Thomas said that Owen seemed innocent, he must have seemed innocent.

              Officer Knox then walked through the door and asked if either Rod or Dolgen wanted to go to the Main Street Café for lunch. Knox indicated that he would like to go, but Rod declined. He explained that he simply had too much work to do. When the two Deputies left, Rod dug up the files from the old Maxwell Hester murder and began to read.

             
T
he next few days went on without any serious incident. The people of the town of course gossiped
and spoke amongst one another. These conversations contained phrases like “I heard the Parker girl did this, and I heard the Parker girl did that.” The most interesting conversations were the ones that speculated on who committed the awful act. Most people believed that this was the return of Medusa’s own little personal murderer “The Killer Wolf.” Others thought that it might have been committed by a copy-cat killer. It seemed everyone believed that there was a connection between this murder, and the murder from five years ago.

              Rod was slowly becoming obsessed with the connection. He had read through the files on the Maxwell Hester murder several times. Something that Rod just couldn’t put his finger on forced him to search the files again and again. He was certain that he would eventually find something there that would explain to him what was going on.

              Rod was just beginning to read the autopsy report on Maxwell again for the fourth time, when all of a sudden his cell phone began to vibrate from inside his pants pocket. He glanced down to see that he had a new text message.

              Marcy: Can I See U?

              Rod deleted the message without another thought, and went back to the autopsy report. He had no time for Marcy right now, he was far too busy.

              Rod was not finding any solid connections between the two murders, but something else had started to bother him. He too was becoming less convinced that these acts were committed by a person. The murders were so vile and chaotic they felt more like feedings than murders. Rod couldn’t for the life of him understand what kind of creature it could be. He also couldn’t understand why it would suddenly return after five years, but it certainly had. Rod was not prepared to share his view with anyone else. Everyone in town was certain that they had a killer amongst them. Why start babbling about the possibility of it being an animal killing people?
He didn’t want the people to think he was nuts or unfit to serve the city. He would just have to make this all stop. That would be the only way these people would really appreciate him. Another thought seeped into Rod’s thoughts: What if this were some kind of sleeping giant, in a matter speaking? What on earth had woken it?