The Chronicles of Beast and Man (11 page)

“Rod here.” He answered.

“Yeah, I am afraid we might have a situation.” Arnold said with his usual southern draw.

Terrific
, Rod thought to himself.
Why in the world couldn’t I have been wrong? I seriously thought maybe, just maybe, nothing happened last night.

“Ryan Lovett’s wife, Julie called and said she hasn’t seen him since yesterday morning.”

“He went deer hunting right?” Rod asked as he stumbled out of bed and put on a new pair of pants.

“Yes, he did.”

“Okay, I know where he would have been hunting, I’ll be out there right away.”

“Alright, that sounds real good.” Arnold said in a most worried voice. Arnold and Ryan Lovett used to be the best of friends in high school. In recent years their friendship had grown a little weaker. The friendship went very much downhill when Arnold married his wife Ruth. It was not a secret; that most people in town considered Ruth to be a bit of a bitch. She had a bad habit of always telling Arnold what to do. Ryan could not stand her, and at Arnold and Ruth’s wedding reception a very drunken Ryan let both of them know exactly how he felt.

However strained the friendship might have become over the years, Arnold and Ryan were still childhood friends, and would remain closely connected.

-

Rod drove as fast as he could to get to the Lovett’s property, just outside of town. When he got there he noticed Ryan’s pick-up truck and his wife’s red Chevrolet Blazer. Rod didn’t want to waste any time. Without another thought he got out of his truck and started toward the open field to get to the spot Ryan usually sat at during deer season.

“Rod!” Julie shouted.

“What is it?” Rod asked hoping that she wasn’t going to ask him a thousand questions. He knew she was worried about Ryan; he only thought that her going on and on at that moment would be unnecessary.

“Find Ryan okay…” She said and got back into her vehicle.

Through his thick warm gloves Rod zipped up his brown police jacket in an attempt to defeat the cold November wind. He retrieved a small flash light from his pocket, in most cases he would have been using his Mag-lite, but he forgot it in his truck and didn’t want to go all the way back to get it.

“Where the hell are you Ryan.”
Rod asked himself as he shined the light into the darker areas of the field. He knew Ryan to be an experienced hunter, who knew his woods very well. It would have taken something awfully unusual to prevent him from returning.

“Tell me you have a girlfriend Ryan. Tell me you have a girlfriend, and you ran away with her.”
Rod continued talking to himself. As bad as that might have been, it still would have meant that Ryan was alive and not a victim like the others.

Finally, after his long walk through the open field, he came to the spot where Ryan had been hunting the day before. There was nothing at all to be found. No evidence of a struggle, none of Ryan’s possessions left behind. It was beginning to look like Ryan had just disappeared into thin air.

He was going to have to give up for now, the sun had all but gone down, and it was getting too dark to continue searching. Rod was feeling very frustrated and did not notice the large black object he tripped on. He caught himself with his hands, and immediately sprang back up to his feet. His eyes searched the area until he found the item he had tripped on. It was a black Mossberg shotgun. Ryan’s 12 gauge Mossberg shotgun. He knew right away that this was a terrible sign. Rod fortunately already had gloves on so he was able to pick the shotgun up to use as possible evidence. He began searching for something to mark this location; he needed a way to signify that this was where he found the gun. He eventually found a broken old corn stock which stood at around five feet tall, which was considerably
taller than the rest of them. Rod was not sure if the old withered corn stock would stay in place or not, but it was all he had. So with one hard thrust, Rod plunged the corn stock straight into the ground. This marker appeared to be good enough and that it might stay where it was until he could find something better to mark the area. Rod understood that he had very little time and needed to get back to the station quickly but he couldn’t help looking a little more. It was in that moment that he saw the strange prints on the ground. Rod had never seen anything like it, they appeared to belong to a wolf or a coyote. The only problem was that they were far too big to belong to either one. These prints had to belong to an animal, but the animal had to be larger than anything he’d encountered. Then Rod noticed another set of foot prints, these foot prints were from a boot. More than likely they belonged to Ryan. Strange patterns in the prints and odd marks in the ground indicated some kind of struggle. Rod then found a small trail of blood on the ground; having no supplies with him to take a sample, he would have to go to the station and get everything he needed. In that moment he came to the complete realization that things had become stranger than anyone had expected.

He hurried back through the field as fast as he could; he had several things he would have to do now. Unfortunately, Rod had completely forgotten about Ryan’s wife Julie, she was still there waiting on the edge of the property. When he emerged from the woods she immediately got out of her vehicle. Rod saw the look of disappointment on her face because he was alone. This meant that either Ryan was dead or missing, then she noticed the shotgun in Rod’s hand. Julie’s expression turned from one of disappointment to one of utter sadness.

“What happened?” Julie asked as tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.

“I don’t know Julie, but I couldn’t find Ryan anywhere.” Rod said stiffly, trying not to sound worried. Julie began crying and let out a small wail; she then covered her face and ran to her vehicle. Rod felt terrible, but her display of emotion also reminded him of something a child might do. As he watched her drive away as fast as she could Rod couldn’t help but wonder.
Maybe we are all nothing more than big frightened children.

-

It was only shortly after eight o’clock when Rod called Deputy Dolgen and informed him that he would need him to work for a few hours.

“I had just settled in to watch a little TV, what is going on?” Thomas asked.

“It is serious. I need you to just meet me out on Ryan Lovett’s property.”

“Lovett’s property?”

“That is what I said.” Rod replied and closed his phone.

When Deputy Dolgen arrived on the Lovett property Rod was already there waiting for him. Rod immediately went to the bed of his truck and retrieved a post, a sign, and a post driver.

The sign read:
DO NOT ENTER By orders of the Medusa Police
.

Thomas had not realized how serious things were until he read the sign.

He said nothing at first, he went ahead and
began helping drive the post into the ground.

“What is going on here, chief?” Thomas finally asked as Rod screwed the sign to the steel post.

“I don’t know exactly.” Rod answered.

“The Killer Wolf again?”

“I don’t know. Ryan Lovett is missing, that is all I know.”

His words were cold and empty. Thomas had a very hard time wrapping his head around them.

The two police officers began walking through the open field with flash lights in hand.

“You said Ryan was missing, you got any ideas where he could be?”

Rod then explained that he did not know where Ryan was, and that his wife had reported him missing. He went on to explain that he had found Ryan’s shotgun
and signs of a struggle. This all sounded very mysterious to Thomas.

Finally, they came to the spot that Rod had earlier marked with the corn stock. Right away Thomas noticed the prints.

“What do you think made those, Chief?”

“I have no idea.” Rod said as he took a snap shot of the pictures with an old disposable camera.

Thomas gazed over the surrounding area
and a cold chill ran down his back. He had a horrible feeling that something just wasn’t right.

Rod crouched down low to the ground and started to retrieve samples that might unlock the identity of the murderer.

Once the little bit of evidence was gathered,
the two officers continued the investigation. With their Mag-lite flashlights
spotlighting everything in their view, they began combing the area. It did not take them long to see that it was going to be far too hard to see anything that would make a difference in the case. With very little conversation they agreed to go back to the station and start over in the morning.

-

Back at the police station Rod found Blake Clancy already manning the radio. Rod explained to him the situation that had presented itself during the evening. Officer Clancy had already read some of the transcripts from earlier and had a fair understanding of what had occurred. He automatically expressed his sadness over the situation and promised to help in any way he was requested.

Thomas hastily documented the investigation and recorded his hours for the week.

“Just out of curiosity, why didn’t you just call Chapman to come in a little early?” Thomas asked Rod,
knowing that Officer Chapman would be on duty very soon.

“Well, I didn’t want him to be too tired tonight during his shift. Plus, I knew that you would be waiting by the phone.” Rod answered, trying to compliment Thomas on his work ethics.

Thomas respected Rod’s comment and once he was finished,
he left to go home to prepare for a very full day. It appeared that the next day would be anything but a usual day. More than likely Rod was going to form a search party to comb through the Lovett property. The murder of Gabrielle Parker, Duane Ensig, and now the disappearance of Ryan Lovett puzzled Thomas, but he was sure that they would figure out all the answers. But he was curious if Rod was doing everything he could be doing. Thomas was not sure how he would handle things if he was sheriff, but maybe there was something Rod had over looked. Thomas usually did not question Rod’s process, he had never needed to before, and he didn’t want to now. Perhaps he was just thinking too much, lord knows everyone on the police department has been under a lot of stress. He thought about how much vacation time he might have to use once the whole thing blew over.

-

Officer Chapman was surprised when he strolled in the station and saw Rod sitting at his desk waiting.

“Hey, Chief!”

“You are late.” Rod said, displeased.

“Yeah, just a few minutes Chief! I don’t make a habit of it. It is just all the hours we worked…”

Rod quickly stopped Chapman’s rambling.

“I don’t care about you being ten or fifteen minutes late. We have much bigger problems at hand.” Rod told Chapman and began to explain the situation. Chapman appeared to be a bit taken back by the things that had gone on. Just like everyone else, he had hoped that maybe The Killer Wolf hadn’t struck again, but unfortunately he had lost the hope.

“I can’t believe it Chief, is there anything that still needs done?”

“Not really, I just need you to do your job and do it well. I guess you could take a few drives out past the Lovett property, but I doubt that you will see anything.” Rod said as he began to shuffle through different documents scattered upon his desk.

After their conversation was over Chapman made his way out to his car, and started his patrol.

Rod then went back to documenting a missing person case. He estimated Ryan Lovett’s age at fifty five. (Which he could of course fix later) He entered his hair color: brown, height: six foot. He went on to describe the details of him locating Ryan’s shotgun and the scene of the struggle. It did not take him long to place all the details he felt necessary to this report. The insanity from earlier and the day before had left Rod exhausted. He was ready to go home for a nice long nap. It would have to be only a nap, because he needed to get right back up in five hours and start getting a search party of sorts together.

Before leaving, Rod stopped and spoke to Officer Clancy one more time. Rod simply told him to keep a close eye on the phones and to be ready for anything

Now it was time to go home, time to get that much needed rest. Then something distracted him. It was something he noticed on the side of his truck, something that hadn’t been there before. He examined the door a little closer. Someone had taken a key, or a different sharp object
and dragged it across the side of his vehicle.

“Son of a bitch!” Rod exclaimed out loud. He couldn’t believe that someone had the nerve to do such a thing. He began to think of the possible suspects that could have committed such an ill-advised crime. Perhaps it was someone who was angry with the Gabrielle Parker murder, which should not be taken out on Rod. He doubted that it was anyone mad about Duane Ensig and he also doubted it was connected to Ryan Lovett. Not too many people knew about that yet. That is unless Julie had made a lot of phone calls, but there probably weren’t too many she could call during the night. Then again Medusa was a small town and rumors can spread faster than wildfire in a small town. Rod then thought of Matthew Russell, he could have done this. He could have found out about his and Marcy’s relationship, and ran out to key Rod’s truck. Rod quickly changed his mind. Matthew seemed like a jerk, but he would probably be more direct with Rod if he learned such a thing. That or Matthew wouldn’t be direct at all, and he would just divorce Marcy:
either way he probably wouldn’t have done this.