Chapter 9
Our hero returns with doubts and questions, sees a werewolf and is almost swallowed by a spider
Elgin stared down at the sleeping man, the worst of Festus’ wounds were healed and his clothes repaired by the useful little nano bugs the Iffrit could conjure up apparently almost at will. The sun was on heading for the canyon wall. He pulled the radio from his belt, “Chalmers here, can you hear me Winters?”
The yellow and black device hissed at him, out of range in the gulch, he decided, but was going to try again when there was a hiss, “That you Chalmers? You done?”
“Yeah, look do you have line of sight to the cell tower on Dwights Dome? Over.”
“Uh, yeah, I got signal on my iPhone.”
“Good, I need you to call the sheriff, get a rescue chopper up here. I’ve got a man down and I need some deputies as well as an EMT. Over.”
“What the hell you up to? Uh over.”
“Call the sheriff and we can discuss the details later. I’ll be on the emergency frequency. Chalmers out.”
The sun was below the rim of the gulch before the chopper arrived. There was plenty of space for it to land on the glade once he’d guided them in. Deputy Michaels and the gum chewer hopped out and walked after the two EMT’s who ran to the limp and bloody form of Festus Pauls.
The Deputy Michaels looked at the pistol on the ground not far from Festus then back at Elgin, “You know him?”
“Neighbor during the winter, Festus Pauls, got the big house where GreatFox used to have his farm.”
“You kill him?”
One of the EMT’s answered speaking into her microphone, “We have a white male, fifties, unconscious and none responsive, head and body trauma, looks like a concussion.”
“Did you knock him out?” the deputy continued without missing a beat.
“Yep, after he tried to kill me and make it look like an accident then unloaded half a clip at my cat and another at me.”
Her slim eyebrow went up, “Your cat? Care to explain what the hell went on?”
“Get out your trusty iPhone and follow me.”
As he turned Humph exited the greenery, tail high, tip lashing, one foot in front of the other, looking very dangerous. Deputy Gum went for his pistol, Michaels reached out and stopped him, “Its Chalmers’ cat, don’t shoot it, it just pisses them both off.”
Elgin grinned, and continued for the treeline. He gave her an edited, abbreviated version without magic, the Iffrit, Elgin going over the cliff, Festus getting savaged by a mutant lizard bird, which the Iffrit had found a rather tasty snack actually. He showed her were he’d been hit, and the baton round that had knocked him down and the launcher Festus had used. The empty magazine and the empty shell casings and rather tattered tree and bullet pocked rocks that Humph had used as cover then the horse, hidden in the narrow gulch that opened onto the glade.
“So you say that Mr. Pauls accused you, innocent young lad that you are, of messing around with his wife. But that was after he tried to send you over the cliff, your cat had nearly taken his eye out and he’d all but emptied his pistol on the tree line?”
Elgin thought about it, “Yep, pretty much, don’t believe him though.”
“Why not? I saw you with his wife the other day, not in bed but obviously quite comfortable together,” Deputy Michaels said frostily.
“He doesn’t really care about things like that, he cares about my cat getting his pure bred pregnant because of the value of the kittens. I uh, found him drunk in the woods one night, with a semi auto and a night scope, drunk as the devil. Took him home, Ki...his wife just about threw herself at me with Festus still there. He takes her to town for the Opera, sends her home alone for ‘business.’ I think they have what is called, an open marriage.”
“That sort of thing’s led to murder in the past.”
“No denyin’ that,” Elgin waved, “who helped him set up the ambush? And why would cuckolded husband Festus ask for help in setting it up and there’s no way he could have set the trap up himself. Someone who knows my habits and this range knew that eventually I’d come up here looking for those cattle, and present a perfect target to be knocked over the cliff.”
Gum chewer, had wandered over to the drop off, “Whooee, you gone down there, you’d be all busted to hell.”
Zephyr Micheals flicked a disgusted look at the other deputy’s back, “Thanks for the technical analysis Dewey. Go cuff Mr. Pauls to the gurney would you, and read him his rights, even if he can’t hear you.”
The pilot of the chopper trotted over as the lanky deputy sauntered off, “Deputy Michaels we need to get out of here before it gets much darker.”
She nodded, glanced around, “You need a ride Mr. Chalmers?”
“No, I can still walk out, what should I do about Pauls’s horse?”
She humphed, looked around, “Damned if I know, can you lead it out?”
“Not the way I came, but it knows the way it came in, and once out on the plateau I can get back to the camp site for the night.”
She sighed, “I guess, don’t open the saddle bags.”
“Understood.”
It was slow going, the horse didn’t like moving in the dim evening light, but at last it found its way to the side gully and up onto the plateau. Elgin’s Iffrit enhanced eyesight allowed him to locate himself and then he steered them both back to the campsite.
It was ten by the time he had made his way back to the camp site. Then Winters pestered him about what had happened. And after Elgin begged fatigue and went to bed he saw the glow in the other sleeping bag that indicated the young man was frantically tapping the whole thing onto his blog, FaceBook page or Twitter account.
Elgin closed his eyes and went to sleep.
-o-
The following day they were relieved early and went back to the ranch. Where the sheriff’s department horse trailer was waiting for Festus’ horse and the sheriff was waiting for Elgin. The Smith-Samson’s were horrified by what had occurred, and were very solicitous, while Mitch glowered from the background, Elgin took it as long as he could then smilingly begged off to talk to the sheriff.
“Festus wake up yet?” he asked as he approached.
She shook her head, “Not yet, they say he’s past any danger point, should be awake later today. We had enough evidence to search his house. His wife was very upset about the whole thing, not sure if she was more worried about you or her husband.” Caitlin snorted, “went to the hospital in the end but she had a very strange expression on her face.” A shake of the head, “Anyway we found a bunch of stuff in his gun cabinets and office that to me indicate that our Mr. Pauls career extended well beyond real estate, and that he’s not been retired these last five years, despite what he’s been telling everyone.”
She jerked her chin at the mare being loaded onto the transporter, “Maybe she’ll tell us some more. Michaels told me about your theory, sounds right to me, and there aren’t that many around here who fit the profile.” Her eyes slid off to the side, towards the manager’s quarters. “He still have his RV pulled up behind the bunk house?”
“Yes?”
“Always wondered what he does in that old death trap.”
Elgin decided he was feeling extremely dumb, he’d known that Mitch had set him up for a beating at the Depot, he was fairly sure it had been Mitch who helped set the ambush up. But he’d never thought to wonder what other things the manager might be doing out here, in the middle of the pure as driven snow Smith Samson Ranch, all but untouchable.
“There’s something else Elgin. TwoShoes asked me to tell you, he says there’s something very bad in the old Catholic cemetery next to the church.” She looked away, her face troubled..
“Uh, he say why?”
“Asked that, said you’d either know or not know,” She sighed, shrugged, “he’s gone all shaman on us since the incident up at the council lodge.”
“Ah.”
“Sorry
they almost got you El, thought they’d go after easier targets.”
“They probably thought I was easy after they saw your watchdogs.”
“Yeah, I don’t like how cocky they seem to be.”
“Hopefully you’ll shut that down soon enough ma’am.”
“I hope the same thing, have a good one Elgin.” She patted him on the arm and jumped into the dually pulling the horse trailer.
-o-
The Norton burped and stopped when Elgin turned the ignition key off and Huff sprang to the top of the van next to them and sat down to have a look around from the vantage point. Swinging off Elgin stuffed his gloves and goggles in his helmet and pulled his Stetson off his back and put it on. He’d called TwoShoes but Griff’s wife said he was out meditating or something. So he’d come down town to see what he could see. But before he went to the church he turned the other way and walked around to Katherine’s. The store was open and a young woman with a nose ring and eyebrow ring smiled at him as he looked in. He tipped his hat and went on.
The season wasn’t started yet but most of the stores were open now and there were more people about, early birds, or transients. He walked to the lake front and looked down onto the rocky bottom through the still cold crystal clear water. He saw some motion farther out, deeper, but nothing near the land.
He looked out, around, nobody, “What am I not asking, what are you not telling me? Magic or something like Magic is returning to the world, what does that really mean?” He spoke out loud to the lake, but with his focus inward.
*Strange place and time to ask that my young friend,* Cutter replied, apparently from right next to Elgin.
“Always wanted to go sailing on one of the big yachts,” he glanced at the white fiberglass shells sitting at the pier under the Beauty Best West Lodge, Casino and Marina. The biggest and oldest of the tribe run hotels though not the swankiest. “Never been out on the lake even on a fishing boat.”
*Water can be very calming, but it can hide a lot of danger.* Cutter replied, as distinct from the Iffrit as he had been when Elgin had first met the five thousand year dead ghost.
“What am I, what were you Cutter, just a way for the Iffrit to move around and spy?”