Chapter Six

Protect and Serve

The air around the Crawford Mill stank of corpse and blood and I wrinkled my nose as soon as the smell drifted in our direction. The heat was certainly doing nothing to help our situation and I almost preferred going back into the woods with the killer bunny rabbits. I walked over to a tower of tires, piled almost as high as I stood and attempted to sit down upon them, but my sudden weight upset them and I fell backward, against the dusty ground. As I attempted to untangle myself from the tires, I could hear Andy and Morgan laughing over my spill and doing nothing to hide their amusement. Finally, Andy walked over to where I still remained, tangled in tires and grinned at me; he offered his hand but I didn't take it. I didn't need his help.

But apparently, Andy thought that I did because he grabbed my wrists and yanked me effortlessly out of the tire I had been stuck in and to my feet. "Be more careful next time." He suggested with another smile before heading back toward the van, stopping every once and a while to gather more rocks off the ground.

I searched around for another place to sit, my cheeks still burning with embarrassment, making sure that whatever place I sat at next wouldn't spill me onto the ground. I finally found a rusty metal crate, box type thing and sat down upon it, dropping my chin into the palms of my hands and sighing. Erin and Kemper better get back here with the sheriff soon, I was tired of sitting out in the heat in front of this stupid Crawford Mill with all its stupid possums and stacks of tires. Morgan was pacing around, muttering to himself, not looking very happy and Andy had gone back to throwing rocks, this time aiming at targets off in the field that I couldn't really see.

With another sigh, I looked around for that kid Jedidiah and saw him a few feet away from the van, drawing in the dirt with a giant stick. I wanted to ask him what his story was but figured that I wouldn't get too much of a response; he didn't seem to want to talk to anyone but Erin.

Andy tossed the last of his rocks and then turned to face the van. "Hey!" He shouted suddenly and I glanced lazily over in his direction. It seemed like I had been startled enough for the day and the only emotion left was exhaustion. "Get away from there, you sick little mutant."

Jedidiah had given up drawing in the dirt and had climbed halfway in the van and was currently poking and prodding the girl in the backseat with his stick. Morgan rushed over toward the van, interested and peeked through the bloody hole in the glass to see exactly what was going on. I sighed, boys were amused by the stupidest things.

"That's police evidence." Andy continued and snatched the stick away from the kid. Jedidiah scooted out of the van and hurried away, but not before Andy managed to smack him with the stick he was holding. I watched as Jedidiah rushed toward the field, rushing through the tail grass until he disappeared into a copse of trees and I couldn't see him anymore.

"Freaky kid." Andy muttered and hurled the stick into the field. "Everybody around here is fucking nuts."

I wouldn't disagree with that statement. "I just want to get out of here." I muttered. I was never traveling into Texas again, that was for sure.

"Don't we all." Morgan mumbled as he walked away from the van and starting poking around at all the strange creations that hung on the walls of the mill. I watched as he moved from each object to the next; some of the creations were animal skulls, some where toys and some I couldn't even identify. And didn't want to, for that matter.

I decided to watch Andy instead and he noticed my gaze and smiled at me, a real smile this time and I returned the gesture, admiring the way his muscles flexed every time he moved his arms and how his eyes peeked out from beneath his shaggy bangs. One thing was for sure, I definitely liked him.

Suddenly, Morgan shouted out in surprise and both Andy and I turned in his direction. "Something just moved inside of there." He exclaimed, backing up a few paces. "Something big."

Andy narrowed his eyes. "Probably just another possum." He grumbled, clearly sick of being led on numerous wild-goose chases.

"Morgan, if you're just messing around, it's not funny." I snapped, though I had the feeling that he wasn't messing around at all. Last time we saw something moving inside the mill, it had turned out to be Jedidiah, a mostly harmless, though creepy, little kid. But what if we weren't so lucky this time? What if it was something worse?

"I'm not messing around." Morgan insisted. "I really saw something."

As if to prove his point, something rattled around the mill and I leapt to my feet; there was something inside after all. I hurried over to Andy's side and took his hand; he squeezed my hand reassuringly and muttered, "It's probably just that damn possum again." I hoped that he was right.

"What if whatever's inside of there is what drove that girl crazy?" Morgan said, backing up until he was standing beside us as well. "And you guys are just content with standing outside here, waiting to find out."

I glared at him. "Well, if you want to go inside and tell us for sure what's inside, I'm not going to try and stop you." I snapped, a bit more harshly then I had intended.

Andy decided to referee before Morgan could offer a retort. "I think Morgan's right, whatever is inside there could be something not pleasant. Or it could just be the stupid possum again. But, maybe one of us should go inside and check."

Both Morgan and I looked at Andy like he had lost his mind; he quickly held up his hands somewhat defensively. "Hey, I'm not volunteering myself here." He clarified quickly.

"You should go, Morgan, it was your idea." I suggested, wondering if it was a bad thing that I didn't care one way or another whether he went inside there and got attacked by whatever was in the dark.

Morgan narrowed his eyes. "I think you should go, Pepper, since you seem to be so fearless lately, walking into the woods by yourself and fighting off those killer bunnies." Ah, so he had overheard the rabbit story that I had told Andy while we were walking back to the Mill. I narrowed my eyes as well and gave him the finger.

"All right!" Andy snapped and I looked back over at him, as did Morgan. He seemed to be the unspoken leader when Kemper wasn't around. "I say we all go inside and check." He suggested. "There's safety in numbers."

Morgan didn't seem very pleased by this idea and let Andy know it. "Well fine then, either we all go in together, or you go in alone. Or, we can just sit outside and wait around for something to happen." Andy pointed out, clearly just as tired of Morgan as I was. I wondered how Morgan had become friends with everyone.

Andy's words shut Morgan up. I held Andy's hand tightly as we headed into the mill, Morgan following behind, constantly glancing over his shoulder. Andy slipped his arm around my waist as we entered the darkness of the mill, just as we had only thirty minutes earlier, when there had been five of us instead of just three. I was glad that the sun was up, because that way a little light managed to get into the Crawford Mill.

The rattling noise started up again almost as soon as we entered the building, as though whatever was making it had wanted us to come inside. Suddenly, I felt like I was walking into a trap. I clung to Andy as he walked toward the sound, walking behind him with one hand laced with his and the other clinging on to the back of his shirt.

"Dude, this was a bad idea." Morgan whimpered, huddling close behind me. The noise got louder and suddenly Andy stopped dead in his tracks; I knocked into his back and Morgan into mine, almost comical if we had been in any other situation.

"Did you guys hear something?" Andy questioned and I raised an eyebrow. Of course we'd heard something, wasn't that way we were in the mill in the first place?

Morgan had the same expression on his face. "Andy, what do you mean? We all heard whatever noise is coming from the other side of that door." I hadn't realized the sound was coming from behind a door until he had said something. Now I saw that most of the rattling noise was coming from the rusted handle, as though someone was trying to open it but wasn't quite sure how.

"That's not what I'm talking about." Andy snapped, looking back at us. "It was a different sound, almost like a car."

I cocked my head to listen and heard the faint rattling of a car's engine as it traveled through the heat, growing nearer with every second. "Maybe it's the sheriff." I said hopefully.

Morgan turned around and headed out of the mill without needed another farther prodding. I turned to go, turning to look at Andy when he didn't follow. "What's the matter?" I questioned.

"Whatever's on the other side of that door isn't trying to get out anymore." Andy noted and I realized he was right. The rattling had stopped and the Crawford Mill was silent once again.

"C'mon, let's go." I tugged on his arm, stepping away from him and abruptly tripping over something laying across the ground. I fell flat on my face, landing so hard that my teeth snapped together; this time, Andy didn't laugh at my sudden onset of clumsiness. I groaned as I lifted myself upward, looking back at him; he had a shocked, almost frightened look on his face, which caused my heart to skip a beat. "What's the matter?" I questioned, fearing the answer.

Andy blinked and quickly stepped over toward me. "Nothing, let's get out of here." He all but yanked me to my feet and ushered me out of the mill. I didn't even get a chance to see what I had tripped over.

Outside, I saw that a car, marked Travis Sheriff Department had pulled up along side the van; Morgan was standing just outside the mill, watching the burly, middle-aged man climb out of his car and place a beige hat on top of his head. He was dressed like a sheriff, complete with a gold badge in the shape of a star and I felt my heart leap with joy. Finally! We were going to get out of this place!

The man nodded in our direction and headed over toward the van; he peeked through the hole in the glass, nodded thoughtfully to himself and then turned back toward us. "I'm not detective," he began, his voice thick with Southern drawl. "But my guess is that this is where your dead body is."

Great, a real genius.

Andy held my hand as we walked closer to where the sheriff was studying the van, Morgan following reluctantly behind. There was something strange about this guy, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. When I got close enough, I saw that the tag on his shirt, below his shining badge, read Hoyt. What sort of name was Hoyt? Well, I'm sure a lot of people would say the same about the name Pepper.

"So, why don't you tell me exactly what happened to this girl." Hoyt suggested as he walked over to the side of the van and swung the door open. It clanged against the side of the van and I wondered if it had left a mark. If it had, I bet Kemper wouldn't be too pleased.

"She shot herself." I informed the man and he looked over at me with a bemused expression on his face.

"Is that so?" Hoyt questioned and I nodded, not quite so sure I should have spoken. "Well, I could have guessed that from the fact that she didn't have a head." I slunk behind Andy without even realizing it. This guy reminded me of my father and that wasn't a good thing.

"Calm down man," Andy muttered to the sheriff. "She was just telling what you wanted to know."

Hoyt glared at Andy. "If I want your opinion, I'll ask for it." He snapped. "Until then, would you shut your fucking mouth please son?"

Andy seemed taken aback by his attitude and we both remained silent as Hoyt pushed past Andy and stepped up to Morgan. Morgan looked slightly worried and glanced around, as though he was looking for possible escape routes. "You look like a smart kid, why don't you tell me what happened." He suggested.

I watched Morgan and Hoyt from behind Andy's shoulder, wondering if there was another sheriff in town that we could possibly talk to. This guy Hoyt just seemed like an overgrown kid with an attitude problem that happened to parade around in a sheriff's uniform.

"Well," Morgan began, seeming to be careful of the words he was choosing. "we were driving down the highway, about ten minutes from here and we saw that girl, walking on the side of the road. Our friend Erin, she was the one that called you, thought we should pick her up and help her, so we did, only this girl was beyond our help. She said something about how everyone was dead and then she pulled out that gun and shot herself."

Hoyt nodded and then turned back around to face the van. He knocked roughly into Andy and snapped, "You mind getting the fuck out of my way?". He caught Andy by surprise and he stepped backward, knocking into me. I stumbled backward and almost crashed into the ground for what would surely be the hundredth time today.

Andy grabbed my hand and then glared at Hoyt. "What the hell is your problem?" He snapped.

"Andy." I warned, figuring that it wouldn't help our situation any to get the sheriff pissed off. He'd probably say something like we shot the girl and we'd spend thirty years in jail all because the sheriff rubbed us the wrong way.

Hoyt narrowed his eyes at Andy. "You're my problem." He snapped. "Fucking pricks like you that thing you can do and say anything you want. Well, that's now how it goes down here."

Andy remained silent this time and Hoyt smiled, something that was even more unnerving then when he was angry. "Now that we understand each other, I can go about my business." He remarked and turned back to study the girl, and he didn't like what he saw. "Who covered her up with newspaper?" He didn't sound too pleased.

I looked over at Morgan, who crossed his hands across his chest and raised an eyebrow, and then looked back over at Hoyt. "I did...sir." I told him.

"Now why did you do that, missy?" He snapped and I didn't like the way he said any of those words. Especially not the way he said missy; it was as though he was thinking something completely different.

"I just..." I didn't know what to say. "It seemed like a respectful thing to do." I didn't think I could really explain how the girl's lifeless eyes had unnerved me so much that I had to do something about it.

Hoyt seemed to consider this. "Respectful, huh?" He repeated. I just stared at him, I didn't know whether or not he wanted me to confirm what I had said again. "Well, you just tampered with the crime scene."

"Look, can't you just see that it's a suicide, whether or not there's newspaper on the body?" Andy questioned. "Can't you just take the body?"

Hoyt smiled that eerie grin of his eyes. "Sure I can. Just let me do my job." He instructed and recovered the gun that the girl still had laying in her lap. "Who does this belong to?" He asked.

"She had that on her, sir." Andy muttered.

"Really?" Hoyt grinned. "You don't say?" He checked the bullets left the chamber before slipping the gun in a holster around his ankle. It was a perfect fit. Something just wasn't right.

Hoyt climbed into the van, leaving Andy, Morgan and I standing outside, watching him as he prodded the girl, much like Jedidiah had done earlier. I looked at Andy. "Something's not right about him." I whispered.

Andy wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me against him. "Look, as long as he takes the body and we can get out of here, I don't really care." He muttered. I still wasn't so sure. "Everything's going to be all right." He smiled slightly and gave me a gentle kiss. I returned the kiss, feeling that everything was going to be all right. That is, until Hoyt decided to make his jackass presence known again.

"If you two kids could stop groping each other long enough to give me a hand I can get this body out of here." Hoyt snapped and I pulled away from Andy to glare at him.

The sheriff hopped out of the van and looked me up and down, not bothering to hide it. Andy narrowed his eyes and Hoyt only smiled and headed back to his police cruiser. Morgan joined us as well and we all watched Hoyt rummage around through the trunk; I knew we were all thinking the same thing: that this guy was just another crazy that we had to put up with long enough to get the hell out of here.

After a moment, Hoyt returned with a faded yellow slender cardboard box in his hand; he hoped the box and unrolled a long strip of cellophane. "All right, let's get her wrapped up."

He couldn't be serious. He wasn't really talking about wrapping that poor girl up in the stuff that I had used to wrap my sandwiches in in grade school. Hoyt grinned as he climbed back into the van; the smile disappeared when he turned back around and looked at Andy. "You mind giving me a hand, asshole?"

Andy's face fell. "I am always getting yanked into this shit." He muttered, looking like he was dreading the task more then he let on. I didn't blame him, if I had to get back into the van with that body and touch it, I wouldn't be too happy either. Andy climbed in beside Hoyt, recoiling at the smell. "What am I doing?"

I watched with a concerned look on my face; that psycho Hoyt was supposed to be the sheriff, he was supposed to handle stuff like this on his own. He instructed Andy to lift the girl off the seat and hold her up so that he could wrap the cellophane around her entire body. When Andy lifted the girl up, there was a cracking, sucking sound and I felt my stomach lurch again; I turned away, dry heaving when I saw Andy holding up the girl by her hair, which was barely attached to what was left of her skull. "Pepper? Are you all right?" Andy called from the van. I was too busy dry-heaving to answer.

"Excuse me, can we finish this please?" Hoyt snapped and Andy returned his attention to holding up the girl.

Finally, the corpse was mummified in cellophane, wrapped like a bug in a cocoon in the backseat of the van. Hoyt smiled proudly and got out of the van; I watched him, feeling close to nausea again. I noticed the girl and frowned. "It just seems so wrong." I whispered, hoping that he hadn't heard what I had said.

No such luck; Hoyt whirled around to face him, jabbing a finger in my face. "Look, you've been a pain in my ass since I got here, missy, and I don't need any of your lip. I've got just as much respect for a dead body as anybody else." I backed away from him.

Hoyt turned around and noticed that Andy and Morgan, who he had put in charge of carrying the dead body out of the van to his cruiser, were trying to put the girl in the backseat. "You get that nasty thing out of my car!" He shouted, stalking over to him. Just as much respect huh? "Put it in the trunk."

I watched Andy and Morgan wrestle the girl inside and then slam the trunk lid shut; I was relieved, at least the body was gone. All we had to do was wait until Erin and Kemper returned and we could get the hell out of here for good.

Andy returned to my side and pulled my against him, wrapping his arms around my waist. Hoyt opened the front door to his cruiser and paused before getting inside. "Protect and serve, that's what we do." He gave a salute.

"And that you did, sir." Andy remarked, and I could sense the sarcasm in his voice. I bit my tongue to keep from laughing at his words as Hoyt climbed into his car and slammed the door shut behind him.

When the car finally disappeared, I sighed and leaned against Andy. "Thank God." I mumbled.

We stood in silence a moment, not quite sure what to do next. For the moment, there seemed to be nothing to do, besides wait.