Logan sniffed the air as they approached the woodline where the path of bent grass suggested that a body had been pulled across the ground away from the car. Near the woodline, only a couple of steps away, he caught the distinct scent of the Skinwalker he fought with last night. He paused, searching the area with his ears and eyes, but found no sign of the creature.
Linda and Burg were on the other side of the path, taped off by crime scene yellow. He watched them, hoping the track Burg found would not be too clear. If Andy was taken by the Skinwalker his chances of being alive were slim. The algol had been wounded, just as he was. The only purpose for taking Andy off the side of the road, that Logan could reason out, would be for food — which as a spirit creature would equate to healing its wounds. He couldn't think of a reason to postpone feeding. Still, if there was any chance of reaching Andy alive, he needed to get away from Linda and Burg.
"Andy's a senior in high school," Linda told him, her voice flat, informative, and a bit distracted as she searched the taped off area she walked beside. "Big kid. Plays football. A lineman I believe."
Burg nodded his head, "Hard to picture a kid his size giving up without a fight."
"Guns are persuasive," Logan offered.
"The perp drug his body back into these woods," Burg said as if that meant there had to have been some kind of struggle. "I didn't notice any blood from a gunshot back there."
"Someone pulled something into these woods. We don't know who, what or when right now Deputy. All we know is that the grass is bent in this direction," Logan said.
Burg made a face, but Linda cut in with, "He's right Brent. We don't know that this grass path has anything to do with Andy, or what happened to him. There might not have been a struggle because there wasn't a threat."
"Then why isn't he here?" Burg asked.
"Did you check to see if the car was operational?" Logan asked. They were several yards into the woodline now, and the canopy above was dense enough to block out most of the sun, dropping the temperature ten degrees in the deep shadows. The scent of the Skinwalker grew stronger, and Logan could taste the scent of a human now. He wished he had gone to the car and sampled Andy's scent. Even after several hours had passed, Logan could taste its excitement, the tension and anticipation it expended as it prepared itself to attack. It was inside this tree line for several minutes, hyping itself up, getting ready to rush a large human. It would know from experience that it might not win like any predator would.
Deputy Burg didn't answer Logan's question, which drew Linda's attention, "Well? Did you? Check the car, I mean, to see if it was working?"
Burg's shoulders slumped a little, "It's out of gas and the battery is dead. Sheriff said it must have been left running while Andy took a piss."
Linda stopped and turned on the Deputy, "Where did he take a piss? I've heard that twice now. Did you find where he pissed?"
Burg looked more frustrated now, "I don't know. It's just what the Sheriff told me. How the hell am I suppose to find a piss stain in the high grass?"
Linda glanced over at Logan who pretended not to notice and kept any expression of judgment or chastisement off his face. Yes, there were several layers of assumption going on with this crime scene, but unfortunately, while all of the parts were gathered in all the wrong ways — they were all still correct.
He caught the scent of Andy's urine in front of his car as he passed with Linda when she retrieved her shotgun. The engine was still warm enough to have a burnt smell from the radiator, which happens when a car is left to idle for a couple of hours. The battery going dead while Andy was driving? Slim chance of that happening, since the engine's alternator would keep the charge up even with a faulty battery. So, the reasonable conclusion was Andy pulled to the side of the road, left his car running, and took a piss in front, where the headlines were lighting up the night for him. And now, having come deeper into the wood line, the scent of a human was strong enough to know the kid was alive when the creature got him this far. He also picked up another scent — Bengay, an ointment athletes frequently used to relieve the pain of pulled muscles.
Logan glanced over to Linda, "Any idea where Andy was coming back into town from? Playing football with members of his church maybe? Visiting grandparents?"
Before she could answer, Logan stopped, his attention caught by a flutter on the bark of the pine next to him. He leaned forward, and caught the scent of blood, and a good sample of Andy's scent too. The flutter was from a clot of hair, red hair from the looks of it. "Is Andy a redhead?"
Linda and Burg stopped, looking over to him. Linda said, "Yeah, deep red hair."
"Well, looks like his head hit here, so those other questions are fairly mute. He might have taken a piss out there on the road, and maybe his car broke down, but tracking into this woodline at night, when town is only a few hundred yard in the other direction, doesn't make any sense unless he was carried this way."
Logan looked back to Linda, "At least we know he was alive at this point."
"How's that?" Burg asked.
"Blood," Logan told him. "Dead people don't bleed."
"How much?" Linda asked.
Logan shook his head, "Not much. A light scrape across his scalp against this bark. Pulled out six or so strands of hair and some surface bleeding. The height of the mark. though, makes me think he was being carried, not walking. Maybe he stumbled, but I don't see any disturbance in the floor mulch here to back that up."
"The print is just up there, a couple more yards," Deputy Burg told them, pointing at a spot inside the taped off area.
Logan recognized the track as soon as his eyes fell on the impression. He didn't go inside the taped area, just observed Linda look it over, watching the puzzlement on her face until her mind put it together. Then her expression changed to shock, and close to horror.
"What the hell is that?" she hissed, looking back at Deputy Burg, and reflexively bringing her shotgun back into a two handed grip.
It was an impressive print. The size was close to a twelve in human shoe size. The rear of the print looked close to being a heel, except for might be a claw mark at the rear. The front. however was all wrong. It didn't fit bear or wolf or anything really, and certainly nothing close to human. He sympathized with Linda, because what it was, was wrong. Wrong in the way zombies and rotted corpses were wrong. Wrong for this earth, wrong for our nature.
Burg pointed back into the woods, "I tracked it's approach back almost twenty-five yards. I'm fairly sure we could track it back to it's den. I haven't been able to find any tracks of it leaving, though. Nothing."
Logan looked into the woods. Time was likely running out for Andy. The faster he could get to him the better the chance of finding him alive. Waiting for Burg to backtrack it wasn't going to be helpful. "What's in that direction?"
Burg pushed his hat up off his forehead with his index finger, "Well, north-east of here is the campground. Directly east is the Gap."
"The Gap?" Logan asked.
"Kind of a landmark. Looks like a huge granite rock was split with the ax of God. A river runs down the center. Beginning rock climbers like it, because it's a challenge but not deadly. River runs north to south inside the Gap, but at the north end it turns east and up the falls."
Logan turned to face them, "Falls? How many?"
"Seven, stepping up the mountain to the source of the river," Burg told him.
Shit, Logan thought to himself. That's where he is. That's where he went last night. This is his hunting grounds.
Logan scratched his beard, his body flushing with warm blood, and his spirit starting to swirl around him. "Can you get a car down there inside the Gap?" he asked.
"Yeah, there's a fire access road just down south of here, about a mile, that cuts in and gives access to the river area. People camp down there all the time," Burg told him.
Linda's eyes narrowed, "What are you thinking?"
"That you and the Deputy should drive down there as fast as you can, and get up to the falls area."
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"Run that way," he said, pointing east.
"The wall of the Gap is sheer, and about a hundred yards to the bottom. It's also close to a mile away."
"I'll be there in less than ten minutes then. You should go, and by the way, don't shoot anything. Even if you're sure it needs to be shot."
Linda's eyebrows came together, "You know what this track is from, don't you? You knew before we arrived."
Logan started walking east, "Yes, and no. Well, maybe and no. I've seen similar tracks before."
"Get your ass back here," Linda ordered.
"Um, no," Logan told her.
"You're obstructing a murder investigation, so if you don't stop I'm going to shoot your ass."
"Then shoot me, because you're killing that kid, and I'm not stopping."
Logan turned to start running, and a shotgun blast hit the tree next to him.
He turned around, barely containing his rage, "You arrogant bitch. You know why people don't take you seriously? Because you don't take anyone else seriously. You trust no one, you don't believe anyone is qualified except yourself, and I'm not allowing your insecurities to kill that kid, who may have minutes to live."
With that, Logan turned and ran into the forest with a speed that left Linda and Burg both stunned.
