The Chronicles of Beast and Man (13 page)

Rod jumped a little when his phone rang from an unexpected phone call.

-

Around the same time that Rod and Evan gazed down at the remains of Ryan Lovett, Matthew Russell was sitting in his office. He was going through blueprint after blueprint. It had been a long month and his company had two different projects that needed to be done before any serious winter weather began. It did not appear that he was going to get much of a warning as for when the really nasty weather would hit. It was expected any time, December was right around the corner after all.

Matthew stepped away from his blueprints, he had to take a moment for himself. He felt the stress beginning to wear on him. Most of the time he didn’t get all that worked up, but the jobs he had going on at this time were a little different. They both were for the state and if he didn’t have them completed it would be a huge disappointment, and Matthew would be left looking like a fool. In frustration he sat down and ran his fingers through his slick black hair. He needed something to take his mind off of work, even if only for five minutes. Matthew began looking around the office until he noticed an envelope sitting by itself on the corner of his desk. It was the latest cell phone bill He thought he might as well take a look at it. He could make sure they weren’t being billed for things they didn’t need, or didn’t have. Matthew tore open the envelope and began to look the bill over. Everything seemed normal; he saw nothing that would cause alarm. Then he flipped over to the other side to see the cell phone records. It was not long before Matthew noticed an odd trend. It was a reoccurring cell phone number that Matthew did not recognize. The unknown number had contacted Marcy on several occasions by way of text messages.

What the hell is this?
Matthew asked himself.

Marcy is talking to another man, Marcy is cheating on me
. Those were the first thoughts that sprang up in his head. Matthew was immediately furious, he stood up and began pacing around the room.

Wait, no. There has to be another answer. Marcy would not cheat on me; there is nothing wrong with our marriage. Besides, wouldn’t she be smart enough to hide the records a little bit better? Then again how could she? The cell phone records have been coming to my office since we got cell phones.

Matthew had to figure out whose number it was, then
he would be able to understand the situation better. He then realized that the number could just belong to one of her friends. This idea did not linger in Matthew’s head for very long, he recognized all of her friends’ numbers. Matthew did not consider himself a stalker and he didn’t try and keep track of his wife. He had just seen her friends’ phone numbers enough that he knew them when he saw them.

Matthew knew he had a couple of options: he could either go through the cell phone company and try and have them tell him who the number belongs to. Or he could ask someone at the police department if they can track down the owner of the number. He could also start off his search by going straight to the source and simply call the unknown number. Matthew thought a great deal about these options. Then he picked up his cell phone and punched in the unknown number, without another thought he pressed send. That was when his phone acknowledged the number as Rod Truex’s cell. Matthew saw the name pop up as the phone on the other side began to ring. At first Matthew was shocked; he had no idea what he would say when Rod’s voice answered. He wondered if Rod would have his number stored in his phone as well. Rod and Matthew were not what you would call friends by any means, but as a local businessman in town he had at one point acquired the Sheriff’s phone number.

"Hello?" Rod answered.

Matthew sat there not saying anything at all.

"Hello…you called me…who is this?"

Rod didn’t have Matthew’s
number
stored. Matthew knew then that he would not say a word.

"Hello…hello? Okay?" Rod finally said and hung up the phone.

Why had Marcy been texting the sheriff Truex?

If there had been a situation, why wouldn’t she have simply called 9-1-1?

Something was certainly strange here. While trying to shed some light on everything, Matthew suddenly had a moment of clarity. He remembered that years ago in a conversation, Marcy mentioned that she and Rod had been in a relationship back in high school. It was all becoming painfully obvious now;
Marcy was having an affair. Not only that
,
but she had chosen a man of the law to commit the awful acts with. Matthew knew that he was going to have to do something, but first he would have to make completely sure that he was correct. He doubted that there could be any other answer. If she and Rod were only chatting that would still be a threat to their relationship. If Marcy needed someone to talk to, she had him, and she had plenty of friends. There was no reason for her to be texting some cop/ex-boyfriend. Matthew was now thinking about how much pleasure he would get out of squeezing Rod Truex’s neck until he let out his last breath. Of course this was nothing more than a demented fantasy of anger. Matthew was not a violent person and had only ever been in a couple of fights
,
and those had been back in his college day. Matthew sat there in his dimly lit office running the situation through his mind over and over. He felt as if he might break down, he wanted to drop his head into his hands and let his emotion take control. Matthew had a hard time letting himself open up enough to trust anyone. He had no idea where this came from but it took a toll on every aspect of his life. He hadn’t had a lot of relationships before he found Marcy. She was ten years younger than him.
He had met her when he moved to Medusa and started laying roots down here. She was sweet, kind and she was also very sexy. Marcy was Matthew’s trophy wife. When they met it had felt like his entire life had finally begun to make complete sense to him. In this single moment
he felt that things were in question. What made Matthew worry the most was the fact that if his suspicious were correct, that meant that Marcy had been able to hide the whole thing from him without revealing the slightest hint of deceit.

There is no time for this right now, I have work to do. I will confirm my suspicions later. Then I will take care of the whole mess.
Matthew thought to himself. With that, he began looking over the blueprints he had been studying earlier. Still, the thought of Marcy having an affair remained in the back of his mind.
 

D
awn officially broke the following morning at exactly five minutes after six. Freddy Alexander, on the other hand,
did not rise until nine o’clock. His first class did not start until a quarter till ten, he had plenty of time to clean up and get ready.

Once he had taken a shower, dressed, and fed his face, Freddy was out the door and headed for his recently fixed vehicle. His car might not be the nicest one on the block, but he certainly appreciated it. This appreciation had grown a little since the accident. Freddy walked down the side walk when suddenly a large dark figure stepped in his way. Freddy nearly ran right into the man. In fact, he had to stop his books from flying out of his arms. It was as if this man had literally appeared out of thin air. In one moment there was no one around but Freddy, the next moment the dark figure was there.

Freddy looked up to see a large man towering over him. He was dressed in a long black trench coat and wore a tattered black, long brimmed hat. It was the kind of hat the villains always seemed to wear in the old western movies. The man looked down upon Freddy intensely, with great purpose. The man’s cold narrow eyes locked on to Freddy and wouldn’t remove their gaze. Freddy did not know what to do, he seemed helpless. He felt the need to flee despite the fact that the man had actually not done anything threatening at all. It was as if just being near this man was threatening enough.

"Excuse me." Freddy said as he attempted to move around the large man.

"There is a light that shines." The man said in a deep voice stopping Freddy in his tracks.

"What?"

"There is a light that shines from with inside of
you. It is radiant; you shouldn’t let it go out." The strange man advised Freddy.

Freddy was now only five feet away from his car, he had to keep moving and get away from this enormous stranger. Freddy wondered what insane asylum he had escaped from.

"You need to understand what is there inside of you. Only you know the truth, and only you can use what has been given to you." The man said softly.

Freddy then felt as if this man knew what he was talking about. It was like he had just revealed some secret that Freddy had been hiding from everyone. But that had not happened; this man had not unlocked any mystical door. This odd man knew nothing about Freddy, or how he chose to live his life. So why did it feel as if he knew more about him, then he did himself?

His eyes were large and seemed to speak volumes even when his mouth was closed. Where had this man came from, and why did he deliver such a cryptic message to Freddy?

"I don’t understand?"

The man continued to gaze down upon him. "You will."

With that said the man began to walk away.

Freddy wanted to ask the man who he was, why he had come to him, what he wanted, but Freddy did not have the words.

"By the way, I did not and never have escaped from an insane asylum." The man said and continued walking further into the distance. Freddy hadn’t said anything to the man about the insane asylum, he had only thought it. How did he know?

Then Freddy heard something loud approaching from the east. It was an unusual sound that Freddy had not expected to hear.

-

Rod was just walking out of the police station when he heard the noise. It was a noise that he had heard several times, but this time it was coming in from the wrong direction. It was a helicopter, which were not uncommon in Medusa. A few times every month the hospital would have to fly someone out of town to one of the hospitals in Peoria. This helicopter was not one of those, this one was moving in from the south. The rescue choppers always came from the north, unlike this one. This was a News helicopter; it flew over the city and back down toward the country side. Once it had gone over the Lovett property it took a sharp turn and headed back toward the town. He watched the helicopter fly overhead again and move off into the distance. Rod’s stomach began to turn. Rod was not ready for the media attention that was on its way. He had no interest in having reporters ask him and the people of Medusa random questions. In his opinion it was going to do nothing but make it harder for him to investigate.

He had no idea what kind of attention the murders would get; the media would of course suck the life out of the fact that the murderers were similar to the one five years ago. This was exactly what Rod did not want to have happen. Medusa was a fine town deserving of attention, but not like this. Rod stepped back into the station and wiped sweat from his forehead.

"You alright?"

Rod turned to see Clara observing his unusual appearance. He felt as if the entire world was crumbling around him. He had to stop this
thing
from killing the people of his town, but he had no clue what to do. All he knew was that it was not human and only seemed to need to feed when the moon was full. The thought that it might be a mythical beast created in folklore ages ago, did creep up in the back of his mind, but he could not utter its name.

"I am fine." He answered although he did not feel fine at all.

Clara got up from her desk and slowly waddled over to him. "Listen, everyone in this town is going crazy over this. It is all anyone wants to talk about."

Rod listened closely to Clara’s down home mid-west accent.

"It is putting a strain on everyone, but you most of all. You can’t let this beat you down. You have to make sure that you are okay."

"I am okay."

"Now listen here, I have known you since you were knee high to a duck. Your father was an upstanding police officer. It was a pleasure to work with him, I know for a fact that he doesn’t want you to act this way."

He could not help but smile, every time he was reminded of his dad. He and his father had been close, and his he always seemed to know what to do. He wondered what his father might have done in his situation.

"A lot of people depend on you for protection. You need to stay firm and let them know you are doing the best you can to protect them. Don’t beat yourself up over anything."

"Thanks Clara." Rod said and softly gave her a little hug. Rod accepted what she had to say although a proud voice in the back of his head told him he did not need anyone’s advice.

He then moved his attention out the window toward Main Street where he saw a news van pull up. A few moments later there was another. The third would not show up until later that day.

As Rod continued to watch the activity going on across the street, Dusty Welker randomly walked by the window and came in the main entrance. A visit from Dusty was going to be most appreciated considering he had not spoken to him much lately.