Chapter 2
El Paso County, Colorado
One Week Earlier
"Panthera Atrox," Mulder explained from the driver's seat as he spit sunflower shells into a cup. "The American Lion, thought to have gone extinct during the Pleistocene period. Yet there have been sightings reported with some regularity for at least the last 150 years."
Scully listened quietly, but could not help but raise one skeptical eyebrow.
"And what's even more interesting is that the early reports of sightings describe the animal as some kind of lion/tiger hybrid. Kind of like an African lion, but with stripes near its hind quarters like a Bengal tiger."
He glanced at her, saw that she was giving him 'that look.' After a minute of complete silence, realizing the 'look' was still in play; he grinned and added, "That's nothing. Wait till I tell you the kangaroo stories."
His jibe worked. She could not contain herself any longer. "Mulder, do you believe every ridiculous thing you read?"
"Well, not everything." He popped more sunflower seeds in his mouth. "We do have the word of three credible witnesses."
"Who witnessed the creature from a distance of at least 30 meters, in evening light."
"One was the county sheriff!" He objected.
"Who was on vacation and had been drinking," she countered. "Most likely, they saw a Puma, which are common in mountainous areas of the American West."
The twinkle in his eye made her smile. "Most likely," he agreed. "But summer in Colorado is supposed to be beautiful."
The car pulled up to a ranch-style house at the edge of a barbed wire fence. It encircled a field of what looked like nothing more than weeds, but the cows munched happily away at the hardy plants. Scully waited for Mulder to come around from his side of the car and they approached the door together.
"Mulder, and Scully, FBI," He said by way of introduction.
The Sheriff nodded, and invited them in. "I've been expecting you. Glad they sent y'all out here to verify what we saw."
'The look' reappeared on Scully's face briefly, and Mulder smiled as they were led to a hideous green couch. The floor had plastic runners along the high-traffic areas.
Sheriff Conner looked apologetic. "My wife does the decorating," he explained. He took an 8 X 10 photograph out of the side table drawer and handed it to Mulder. "Not the clearest shot, but you can see it's a lion."
Mulder passed the photograph to Scully, who frowned at the grainy resolution.
"We were camping out by the creek for the weekend, and my nephew's dogs just went crazy barking. We looked around, but didn't see no sign of anything. They took off running, and only one come back that night, so the next day we set off to look for it, figurin' it got hurt or something. We found what was left of him in a gully, and then we saw this," he pointed to the picture, "that evening."
"It ate your dog?" Scully asked.
"Been in a drought for the last year, ain't much deer or elk to be found right now. I reckon it was hungry."
"Why are you so convinced this isn't a mountain lion?" She asked.
"Well, it's that tail. Look how it's up in the air like that. A mountain lion lays low, always ready to stalk. They don't do that with their tails."
Scully typed her notes for the day on her laptop computer and closed it shut. She sat back on the hotel bed and took a long drink of her soda, flipping channels on the tv. Her phone rang. "Hello?" She said.
"The tail thing checks out. There's an animal rescue in Northern Colorado, specializes in big cats. She verified what the Sheriff said."
"I still don't buy it, Mulder. It's possibly a mountain lion with an injury or deformity that caused its tail to lift like that. It's not enough to go on."
"I knew you would say that. Sheriff Conner called me earlier. There are more pictures. From yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"Some kids were out four wheeling in the mountains, they had a run-in. We'll check it out in the morning."
"See you at 6," She grinned, glancing at the clock. It had 12:49 on its display.
"7," he said.
"6:30," she countered.
"There's no place to get breakfast at that hour, he protested."
"Well, maybe your witnesses will give you a donut with some coffee," she said, and hung up.
A/N If you've read "Mysterious America" by Loren Coleman, you'll get the kangaroo reference... and learn a lot about panthera atrox, too!