Beneath a Winter Moon (33 page)

God help the Svensons and their group if they were stalked by this animal or animals. Apparently, having guns wasn’t much of a leg up against these particular beasts.

A half hour later Snow was finishing his flight check on the helicopter when Russeux called him back to the cabin. The doctor had arrived and was examining Alan. Alan lay on the couch, shirtless; with the doctor listening to him breathe. Snow grimaced when he saw Alan’s scars. The wide, thick indentations looked like they had been left by a human hand—which had clawed the young man from one side of his chest to the other. Several dark brown patches of dried blood covered Alan’s upper torso and his waist. Had he been without a shirt when he was attacked? Was that the blood of one of the victims?

Russeux stood with his arms folded across his chest. He motioned toward the door. Snow met him outside on the porch, frowning. “The doc is freaked out by those scars. He thinks they were made by a human.”

“That was my first thought, too…looks just like someone…maybe an overzealous girlfriend…might have clawed the hell out of him.”

Russeux shook his head. “That’s just it. The doc measured them. Couldn’t have been a person—well—not a normal-sized person. The marks are too far apart and too deep for human fingernails.”

“What then? And what do Alan’s old scars have to do with all of this?”

“I don’t know yet…except that the boy still claims that the wounds are from night before last. He claims that he had a flight physical last month and that the records will show he had no scars or tattoos. I have radioed in to have someone check it out.”

Snow shook his head. “I’m with the doc. Those scars cannot have come from wounds that happened anytime soon. No way.”

“My head tells me so, Snow…but my gut is crawling…my gut tells me that this kid had more happen to him than we believe.”

Snow shook his head. “Anything else?”

“He has signs of psychological trauma—big time. He is ambivalent to the deaths and defensiveness has replaced any concern related to the attacks. The doc says it is likely PTSD. Then, there is the memory loss, also due to trauma, according to the doc.”

Snow nodded. “You and I thought as much when we talked earlier.”

“Yeah.” Russeux looked through the broken doorway and forced a smile when he saw Alan glance at him. “Another thing…his temperature is sky high. We are talking 103 degrees. Yet the kid shows no signs of illness and is not sweating…no chills…nothing. Heart rate is accelerated beyond anything normal.”

“You are losing me, James. All of that is interesting…I agree it might even be extraordinary…but how does it help us?”

Russeux shook his head. “I don’t know. Fourteen years of experience is…well…it’s telling me Alan is somehow involved.”

“Involved as in
criminally’ involved
?” Snow grimaced. “Come on…we have nothing…nothing that points to anything other than animal attacks. As bad and unprecedented as these attacks are…there is nothing to show they are criminal. Hell, how could they be if animals did the killing? And, imagine trying to find a motive for all of this destruction?”

“I’m not disagreeing…but I am telling you that I think this kid is knee deep in something. Something that is close to these events.”

“Are we still going to get him out of here?”

“Yes…we need to get him to a hospital …doctor’s orders. He needs to be observed and checked out because of that fever…and we need him to remember what happened here.”

Snow nodded.

“We have blood samples from his body and from the clothing…I’m sending them back along with other samples. I am telling you…the kid swears we are going to see that the blood is his…that it is from the night of the attacks.”

Snow frowned. In all his years with the force, most of them within the enlisted ranks as a Sergeant, he had never investigated or been near an investigation of an unnatural death…much less anything like the carnage here. This beautiful landscape, indeed the whole of
Canada
would be changed by these events, he knew. There had been four deaths attributed to bears in the last eight years, and now there were eight deaths at once, and each one having been declared, although it was preliminary, to have been animal attacks, most likely one or two Grizzlies.

He sighed, thinking of how this could turn this part of the country into the
land of the rabid bear
. The public would go crazy. There would be books and documentaries of all kinds, not to mention reporters, authors, and thrill-seekers infiltrating the town, changing it from a seasonal tourist attraction to the year-round stop for crazies.

Snow snapped out of the gloom and looked at Russeux. “Did you think over what I asked? Can I question him?”

Russeux nodded. “I was hoping you would work on him on the flight back to the hospital. Make it so that it’s just you and him in the cabin section …maybe you can get something out of him before he is officially locked down tight by the doctors at the hospital. I’ve arranged for the pilots to land him right on the hospital pad, where doctors will be waiting to admit him.”

Snow nodded.

“One more thing, Snow...the government isn’t going to let me handle this for long. I’ve received word that Parliament is going to send top brass up here, with better forensics and a whole slew of investigators as well as two of the top trackers in the nation. I am pretty sure that I will be back at my desk come nightfall.”

Snow Eagle had seen that coming, and felt bad for his commander, but understood the reasoning. “Sorry.”

Russeux shook his head. “We both knew it was coming…and to tell you the truth, I am not all that upset about it. I don’t think it reflects on me personally…this is more about public relations and crowd control. I am not the guy they want in front of the cameras answering questions.”

“You’d do just fine,” Snow interjected.

They were interrupted by the doctor. He stepped out onto the porch, glancing back into the cabin to nod at Alan.

“He’s okay to travel…I can’t explain the high fever and the rapid heart rate…never seen anything like it. It’s extremely rare but it is possible that the physical symptoms are being driven by the psychological trauma and not by his exposure to the elements.”

“Is he still sticking to the story that he was wounded by the…animals?” Russeux asked.

“Yes, he is, but like I said…those scars
cannot
be from a day ago…hell…they couldn’t be from a month ago. And, I’d argue with anyone that they come from a human hand…and then I would contradict my own self because
no one
has a hand that size or with nails strong enough or long enough to do that sort of damage.” He scoffed. “I’m going to ask the
real
doctors to try to explain them…because I sure can’t.”

A few minutes later, Snow escorted Alan aboard the helicopter and they lifted off. Their weather window was short. They had maybe an hour more before the storm was too bad to fly even at the lake. Alan had been given a camouflaged jumpsuit to wear…and he was glad for it. Snow handed Alan a headset and beckoned him to put it on.

“I was hoping you and I could talk on the way in,” Snow said through the whirring static of the headset. “I was thinking that maybe being up here, just us, might help to put you at ease a little bit…maybe help you recall what happened.”

Alan managed a smile and adjusted the small square microphone so that it hung in front of his lips. “I want to remember…I do. It scares me, but it’s worse not knowing, I think. I’m trying, Lieutenant.”

Snow moved so that he was sitting across from Alan. “I know it’s bad. I believe that you were attacked…I want you to know that…I’m not doubting it.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

“Call me Snow. We know each other, Alan.”

“Okay.”

“James…Captain Russeux, I mean, said that you had flashing images of what attacked you. He said you think it was a bear…but that you’re not positive.”

Alan nodded. “I just see something black…something enormous. I keep thinking that it must be a bear.”

“Great…so, it was black. Was it dark out when it happened? Was it daylight?”

Alan frowned. “Had to have been dark because the Constable left after dark…way in the middle of the night.”

“Think about what attacked you. Try to capture one of those flashes for just a moment longer. You might be able to recall something more.”

Alan closed his eyes, but opened them after a moment. The face that he glimpsed in those split-second memories was too much for him to bear. He shook his head. “I want to remember…but…it scares the hell out of me. I can’t keep it in my thoughts.”

“That’s okay,” Snow said. “Let’s do something else. You said that your last memories were of being inside the cabin, on the couch. Can you remember what time it was?”

Alan shook his head. “It was dark, late at night. I don’t know what time.”

“Okay, now, close your eyes and try to listen. Try to smell. Remember who was there and what was being said…how it
felt
…whether you were hot or cold.”

Alan closed his eyes again. The helicopter was buffeted by wind. They were jarred in their seats. “Turbulence,” Alan said, opening his eyes. “It’s always bad over the lake.”

Snow nodded, and gestured for Alan to continue.

Alan closed his eyes.

“Tell me what you see and hear,” Snow said.

“I was on the couch. The constable was behind me at the kitchen table. I don’t know what he was saying. Wait…I was complaining that he had not sent anyone out to try to locate the Svensons.”

“Good, good.” Snow said, reaching across to pat Alan on the knee. “Now keep your eyes closed and go from there.”

“The constable explained why he wasn’t wasting assets on a hunch.”

“Try to move forward now. Let the memories of the conversation come…and then try to step forward. What do you remember?”

Alan kept his eyes closed, and Snow noticed that he was squinting…clinching his eyes shut. After a long moment, Alan said, “The man with the dogs is going to track whoever came down on the horse…the man on the horse that we’d photographed. It was dark. No one thought it was a good idea.

Snow was ecstatic. He had just heard a completely new piece of information.

“That is great, Alan. Now, stay with it. Hold your thoughts right there for a moment, and then try to move forward. Go easy.”

Alan kept his eyes shut. Snow was getting a little worried when at least two minutes had passed, but then Alan started talking again.

“The Constable is gone…but he is…no…the corporal is on the radio. Something…something has attacked them.” Alan’s voice cracked.

“Easy, Alan. Take it easy. You are safe and sound. Nothing can hurt you. Stop if you think you can’t handle it.”

It was too late for that. Alan could not stop. The floodgates were open, now, and he could not shut them off.