Chapter 2
Old House
George Patterson fished through the candy bowl and found a piece of caramel candy, one of his favorites. He was on a diet but as long as there was temptation around like this he was doomed to failure. "Well Mr. Collins I will have Rick and the boys look out for this man. You said about six foot, two hundred pounds blond hair, blue eyes and wearing what looked like a black mask and black clothing. Going to be kind of hard to find him with all the teenagers out tonight trick or treating."
Barnabas smiled indulgently and offered George another piece of caramel. "Have another sheriff."
"I really shouldn't, I am on a diet but I just can't resist caramel it's always been my favorite." George took two more pieces hesitated and took two more with an apologetic flush. "Sorry." He smiled, "Can't resist them."
Barnabas smiled graciously, "It is perfectly fine Sheriff I have plenty. Would you like to take a bag with you?" Barnabas reached for one of five bags of candy that laid in plain view.
George laughed took the bag and spoke confidentially. "I really shouldn't but as I said I am it seems addicted to them." He laughed again took the bag and sighed. "So much for my diet tonight."
Barnabas turned to Julia, Willie and Eric. "Miss Winters is upstairs she is feeling dizzy and her leg hurts. I called and they said you had called for an ambulance Dr. Lang."
Julia walked on up the stairs to check on Vicki while Eric extended his hand to shake Patterson's hand. "Sherriff, always a pleasure." He released his hand stepped next to Barnabas. "When Willie told me what happened, I called right away. I was going to call you but they said you were already on your way here."
"It would seem the kids that came by when it happened were pretty upset, the parents had a heck of a time calming them down. The littlest one was the most upset. When she saw Miss Winters thrown down the stairs to land and fall. They went off screaming to their parents who at first thought it was a joke being played by one of the Collins, they had just come from Collinwood and David's prank."
"I see what happened then?"
"Well they were going to come up and explain how much they did not appreciate such antics when they saw Miss Winters lying hurt on the stoop and heard gunshots. That is when the Miller Family drove at break neck speeds to my office to report what was going on."
"It was a good thing. I fear had the sheriff not come the man would still be here trying to intimidate me to give him jewels he claimed I kept on the premises. Anyone with any kind of sense would know I would keep things like that in the bank locked box."
Willie shifted back and forth looking about uncomfortably when another knock on the door caught everyone's attention. Sheriff Patterson turned to the partially opened door and saw an anxious Mr. Miller standing in the doorway looking around nervously.
"Oh Mr. Miller, this is Mr. Collins, Dr. Lang and Willie Loomis."
Barnabas turned and in proper old world form offered him a half bow from his waist. "My apologies that your poor child had to be witness to such heinous actions by that ruffian sir, and my deepest appreciation for alerting the authorities to our plight so quickly."
Wayne Miller was a tired man of perhaps five feet ten inches, and had a few extra pounds from living the life of a hard worker who came home to eat supper and fall into bed to prepare for the next day's work. His weekends had been spent mostly fishing, drinking his one allotted six-pack and eating fried foods. He was a timid man but he was a good family man that tried to be attentive to his three very rambunctious children.
His wife was no less tired looking she stood in front of three pairs of eyes limbs and arms that hid and peered around her skirt. "Is the lady all right? Prissy is worried about her she says its David's governess that nice Miss Winters?" Ann Miller was standing and swiping her hand at the grubby hands pulling at her skirt. "Settle down Timmy, you too Jimmy, let go of mommy's skirt." She fussed and waited to hear about Vicki.
George walked past her to stoop down with his bag of candy. Jimbo, Tim, and you Prissy, come on Uncle George will give you some candy." George stood, encouraged the kids to follow him and along the way gave them a lecture. "It would be fine to take candy from someone like me from the police car but you should never take candy from strangers in regular cars." He lead them away and let their mother have a break.
"Dr. Hoffman is with Miss Winters now Mrs. Miller, and we are very grateful for your assistance in notifying the police as quickly as you have."
Ann looked around nervously, "Did they catch him?"
"Unfortunately no, he got away when he realized you probably had left to get the police."
Ann gasped and looked around almost expecting to see the maniac to pop out and ravage her at any moment. "Perhaps we should get the children home for the night Wayne." She clutched the front of her blouse and tugged it close to her neck.
Wayne also looked nervously about, "What if he finds out I was the one that reported him?"
"I think he is long gone Mr. Miller and Mrs. Miller. He was in a bit of a hurry and I seriously doubt that he saw who was driving up the driveway. I am sure he thought that perhaps another was coming." Barnabas tried to reassure them while he explained the situation to both of them.
"Yes, I am sure you are right, I did tear out of here pretty quickly sorry about the gravel I fear I slung some into your yard."
"Not to worry my man Willie will be happy to collect the gravel and return it to the drive. I plan to get it black topped when the weather breaks."
Mr. Miller smiled and shook Barnabas' hand one more time and turned to slide his arm through his wife. "I am sure you are right Ann, we should get the children home its late and they have school tomorrow."
Josette's room
Watching the Miller's pull out of the drive Barnabas was aware of the Ambulance's arrival. The two attendants walked up the stairs with the gurney and found Doctor Hoffman wrapping and splitting Vicki's ankle. "Careful of the ankle I am pretty sure it's broken."
The two young men nodded and carefully shifted Vicki to the gurney and strapped her in. "Dr. Lang and I will follow behind you we will see you at the Emergency Room." Julia snapped her case shut, lifting it, she turned to follow them out of Josette's room and noticed how the two attendants were curiously looking the room over. She knew that they were filled with their own impressions and was more than likely full of a thousand questions.
The room was charming and it definitely seemed to be a preserved tribute to the dead beauty whose picture hung over the fireplace. They rolled the gurney down the hallway and lifted it to carry it down the stairs. Vicki looked like she was in pain when they lifted her into the back of the ambulance and closed the door. "Do you wish to ride with us Barnabas?" Eric offered before turning to follow Julia down the front stairs to the courtyard.
Foyer old house
"Thank you I will be but a moment." He turned to Willie. "I removed him to the cellar. I will be back after I make sure Miss Winters is well, and we shall put him where we put Jason, they can keep each other company." Barnabas hissed grabbing for his cane and greatcoat. He was annoyed and it was growing with his forced civility when he did not feel like being civil.
Willie knowing him like the back of his hand spoke quickly following behind him. "Look Barnabas I did not tell him about no jewels." Barnabas studied the boy's fear filled face and spoke quietly.
"I believe you Willie, just see you never do tell anyone about the jewels." Barnabas jerked on his great coat turned up the collar and stepped out of the house towards the large car in the front.
"Yah, your welcome you old Bastard." He muttered and then immediately regretted he had spoken out loud.
"Disrespect my mother one more time Willie and I won't need any excuse to kill you now get to the mausoleum and start digging that grave." The words were said with such coldness that Willie knew he was treading on thin ice with his boss. He had not even thought about the term Bastard as disrespectful to the man's mother. He knew he would not have liked anyone to say anything bad about his mother and that made him feel sad and guilty.
Willie's Memories
His mother who had taken the rap for him, gone to prison to protect him and then she died in prison. He had wanted to go see her but Aunt Edith would not take him said she did not want him around the criminal element and then blamed his mother for staying with the man and wished bad luck away from her door. He remembered how she crossed herself and said the prayer to the holy virgin. He would slink off to his room and hide from his Aunt, she was an old spinster and Willie suspected the reason she never got married was she was just too damn mean to be loving to a man or any other human being. He knew all he had to do was tough it out for four more years, graduate and this place could kiss his lily-white ass good bye.
Headed to the Mausoleum
Shutting off the lights to the house and turning the porch light off, securely locking the doors, he slipped out the back door grabbing the shovel and walked to his truck. With grim determination he navigated the truck out of the drive and noticed that most the traffic from the parents driving their children around to the various neighborhoods had slowed to a near trickle the only ones left out after seven would be the ones wanting to smash pumpkins, roll toilet paper in the trees and soap windows or burn a sack of shit on someone's front porch. The really mean ones would be looking for a poor creature to torture and Willie hoped they found the wild creature was more than they could handle. He sure would not want to be the one to piss off the wrong animal and find it had a bite.
Woods of Collinsport
Which is exactly what Zachary Pennington was doing, he had heard about a lair of rabbits in the wood line and he was going to catch one and cut its foot off for good luck. When he approached the area he saw a pretty white fluffy rabbit hiding in a thatch of grass and he smiled. "Well, well, well hello there sucker!" Zach crept towards the rabbit and noticed that is had caught his scent and bolted; Zachary chased it into the thicker part of the woods when he lost sight of the rabbit. Speaking softly he walked towards a bush that rustled. He smiled and said softly, "Come to daddy." The bush parted and the yellow eyes and long teeth that slavered and drooled was no rabbit. Zachary Pennington screamed out when something as large as a man and shaped like a wolf reared up and knocked him down.
With the incredible strength of a super human the wolf stood on Zach's chest, the salivating animal sniffed him then he drove those long vicious fangs into his throat and closed his mouth ripping the throat and sending a shower of blood spraying over its coat and face. Watching the boy die the wolf raised his head looked up at the sky and howled in triumph over his kill.
The wolf howled for a moon, when one was not forth coming, it howled out its rage and then its satisfaction when it began to eat its kill, and then dragged the body over to a ravine and throw its limp body down the hillside. Turning the wolf padded off into the deep wood again to disappear into the night.
Collinsport Hospital
Vicki sat uncomfortably on the exam table. She was feeling the pain of her broken ankle and was embarrassed. She was more so embarrassed when Barnabas entered the room. "You are going to think I have bad luck following me around. "
Barnabas smiled, "Than I would think he is seeking charming sweet company." Barnabas lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles. "I must say you made me worry about your good health when you were unconscious so long my dear."
"I did not know what happened, it happened so fast. I thought he was way too big to be a teen trick or treater but on nights like tonight you just do not know for sure." She was feeling suddenly shy around him and shifted slightly to relieve the tension on her body.
"I realize that my dear. I was concerned that he had a weapon, luckily he decided to just try and fire a shot to frighten me and did not hit you or me. When the Millers left he got scared and he ran off into the woods. The sheriff has the search party scouring the woods now."
Collinsport Woods
In the woods, Jason Metcalf newly appointed deputy sheriff shifted his flashlight around and looked down for a blood trail. Then he heard the most horrid blood curdling scream that was cut off and then a howl surely that must be some of those teens playing around. Looking up at the sound of the rustling brush, he shouted. "Cut it out Hank, just because I have not been to the academy, does not mean you can make me your punk tonight."
The brush rustled again and now Jason was getting upset. "I said stop it." Looking up he saw Hank poke his head through the dense foliage and laughed. "Boy you should see your face, you looked like you were about to shit your pants." Hank Cromstead had been on the force for over five years and loved the fact that his life was meant to be in law enforcement.
Hank shoved his buddy in a playful manner, "Yep about. . ." Jason was standing close to a ravine and nearly lost his footing when Hank grabbed him. Hank pulled him back and in the process of keeping Jason from falling into the ravine he looked down and his face went pale.
"Jason, go back and radio in for back up. Do it now!" Jason turned and that nice steak and potato dinner he had earlier was now a thing of the past. In the present it came up and he bent over away from the crime scene to empty his stomach. Jason turned in a dead run towards the squad car, he grabbed the microphone to his radio in their discovery. He was screaming into the mike demanding the station send them help.
Jess Mooreland was the dispatcher for the sheriff's department and at that moment was trying to discern who was screaming at such a high octave on the radio and calm the one transmitting. "Ma'am, you need to calm down. I cannot understand you." Hearing Jessie call him Ma'am made Jason realize that his voice had gone up in his hysteria.
Dropping his voice he took a deep breath let it out slowly then keyed his mike again and spoke rapidly. "Jess, this is Jason, we found a body all mangled and shit, out by Dawson Mill Road in the ravine. We need back up out here."
Jess knew he would be in trouble for saying shit and might get suspended for improper radio conduct but she could not for the life of her have believed that hysterical voice she heard earlier was Jason. "Geez Louise Jason, you sounded like a civie out there just now. I need you to get a grip and slow down and tell me what you have." Jess had been a dispatcher for more years than she could count and was used to having hysteric from the public but not from one of her officers and make no mistake they were her officers.
"We were searching the woods and Hank met up with me, I tripped and almost fell into the ravine and then he caught me and that's when we saw a body in the ravine and when Hank shined his flashlight down on it, we confirmed it was a bod. A badly mangled one at the bottom of the ravine and Jess it looks like its been torn apart!" Jess knew that most falls from a cliff or a ravine would tear up a body pretty badly and this must be bad, Jason had worked on the ambulance service before applying and being hired by the Sheriff. So for him to be this messed up over seeing a body in a ravine she could only imagine how bad it was.
"All right Jason, stand by." He heard the tone on the radio go out and that tone meant it was a high priority run being dispatched. "All Units in the vicinity of Dawson Mill Road near the ravine, signal code 100 to that location and meet with Officers Cromstead and Metcalf regards to a DB."
The various other units started checking in as the other officers had heard the hysterical transmission. Being law enforcement officers on a slow night of mostly prank calls for Halloween were now curious and wanted to see what had sent a rookie into a spas attack. That coupled with having a case of the curiosities to see some gore started in the direction and began to call off on arrival. By the time Sheriff Patterson arrived he had his hands full with sick officers, and civilian rubberneckers that had been listening to the radio broadcast. With an efficiency that had come with age and experience George Patterson had the near chaos under control and was directing the other officers to go back to their normal patrol or set up a perimeter.
George returned to his car. There he found Hank, the training officer looking pale and sick and motioned him over. "Hank I will be back in a few minutes do not broadcast this information over the regular channels go to tactical channel two to transmit any information about this scene, is that clear?" George knew that the attacker from the old house was probably long gone and now he had a murder on his hands or an accident he would not know until he got the State out here to start checking the scene for him. He knew he would have to go to Collinwood and use their phone. Elizabeth would not mind and it was the closest to the scene.
Collinwood
Driving up the driveway to Collinwood, he exited from his car, approached the front door and knocked. The door was flung open and David stood with his eyes rolled up in his head and looking like warmed over death.
"David is your Aunt Elizabeth here?"
David sighed shrugged his shoulders. "Nobody but you has come by so I might as well go clean up. She is in drawing room." He pointed to the closed doors. George saw the disappointment on David's face and smiled.
"Well for what its worth I had to think twice about drawing my gun just now when I saw you." George assumed a very serious look studying the dejected boy.
David immediately brightened. "Really? Cool. Thanks Sheriff, see you around." He stomped up the steps and George walked to the drawing room door and knocked. The voice he had dreamed about from youth answered.
"Come in." The voice was soft and cultured and appeared to be distracted. George pushed the door opened and she turned and smiled. "George do come in I am surprised to see you tonight."
Drawing room
He stepped into the room and took his hat off. Every time he was in her presence he felt like that love struck puppy he had been so many years and three children ago. She still caught his breath and he found himself near speechless in her presence. "Mrs. Stoddard." He had to remember he was a professional and not that teen.
"Hello George what brings you out with the ghosts, witches and ghouls tonight?" She smiled and once again his heart was fluttering he was pretty sure that was what it was and not the bit of beef he had earlier that gave him indigestion.
"I am sorry to bother you like this Liz, but we had an incident at the edge of your property and I was wondering if I could use your phone, then I need to tell you about something that happened at the Old House earlier. You might want to get your coat."
"Well of course you can use the phone George but what is this? Why am I going to need my coat its not Carolyn is it?" She was beside herself with anxiety and sickened with the thought that Carolyn could be injured. She knew she could be wild when she had been drinking and she was going to an adult costume party tonight.
"Liz it is not Carolyn, let me make my call and then I will tell you on the way to the hospital."
Well that just clinched it for Liz she was now more upset than before, and chewed her lip nervously she watched George dial his office. "Jess this is Sheriff Patterson, we are going to need State Crime Scene Unit at the site. Yep, pretty bad from what I could see, nope not sure looks to be a male teen about sixteen or seventeen. Thanks Jess and keep this locked down I don't want the GP to know what is going on. Don't need to start a panic among the civilians." George watched the shapely woman walk with undefined grace to the hallway and pulled her herringbone coat from the hook and slip it on, the fear edging her eyes and her mouth in a frown she button her coat and looked at her one time lover and friend George Patterson.
"Right it is going to be a long night so I would appreciate you staying over tonight to monitor traffic, not fair to dump that on the State too. Thanks Jesse, I will be in route to Collinsport General transporting Mrs. Stoddard to see Vicki Winters."
Liz felt her world spin and dip and she had to sit down quickly on the steps. Not Vicki that child had been through enough and now she was at the hospital what for? She could only imagine what had happened and she imagined the worse of any scenario.
George frowned as he saw her sit heavily on the steps. "Look Jess, thanks but I got to go. Yep we want a lid put on this. Thanks Jess, you need more money, I will put in a word for you at the next council meeting." He laughed then hung up.
Turning he face Elizabeth, stepping over in front of her, he was tempted to join her on the steps.. He knew he had to reek of caramel candies but did not care she was pale and shaking. "What happened to Vicki?"
George helped her to stand and led her to the squad car and put her in the front seat. "Sitting up here you are like my partner and not a prisoner being transported like sitting in the backseat." He tried to break the tension with levity and not getting the desired affect he sighed. "Look Liz, she was attacked by one of Jason Maguire's old cronies according to Willie Loomis, he came to the old house and Vicki thought he was a trick or treater. He manhandled her and threw her down in front of the Miller kids and scared the beegeebers out of them, well Dad was going to confront Barnabas for a tasteless joke when he realized that it was an actual robbery in progress."
In route to Collinsport Hospital
George watched the color slowly return to her face. "So he drove like a bat out of hades to my office. By the time I got there, Vicki was hurt and it seems she hit her head and broke her ankle and she is at the Emergency Room."
Liz sighed and looked at her hands clasped in her lap. "It seems that poor child cannot get a break, she seems to attract all the wrong elements around her I don't know what to do for her?"
George smiled and reached over and squeezed her hands. "You just be there for her Liz, that is about all you can do. Nobody knows why some people are more prone to this type of things. If it were a soap opera I would say the writers like to have the character suffer, in Vicki's case the writers of her life are testing her all the way."
Liz did offer a small smile she looked up and then down at the large hand that held hers. "Thank you George, I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate all you have done for me my family and me. Your friendship has always been important to us."
"I know Liz, and your continued good health has always been of concern for me. Now we have to make sure that the man that tried to hurt Vicki is caught and I find out what exactly happened to that poor man or I should say boy that is lying in Dawson's Ravine."
The rest of the drive was done in near silence George realized he had held her hand too long and put his own hand back on the steering wheel. He kept his thoughts closed watching the road and then thought he saw something huge run across the roadway sending him to slam on his brakes and throw his arm in front of Liz to keep her from flying through the windshield.
"My God George what was it!" Liz gasped as her eyes widen.
"It looked like a wolf but it was way to big to be a normal wolf!" He got out with his flashlight and stepped around the car in front of the headlights. Hearing movement in the brush he turned his flashlight on the area he heard the growl and caught the glint of yellow feral eyes. George pulled his weapon and aimed it towards the eyes. The wolf jumped and knocked George down as he got off a round and he knew he had hit the animal because it yelped in pain, Liz opened her door and rushed towards the fallen George.
"George, are you all right?" He let her help him up and he hurried her back to the car. "Stay put Liz, I am going to call for help we got to get some trackers out here we cannot have a wounded wolf roaming about."
Liz spoke softly sliding into the warmth of the car and the safety of the closed door. "That was no wolf George it was as big as a man."
