Four #4
Teddy was young and earnest and had a job, which all the women who worked for me had pointed out to Dakota, but again, she had a thing for lumberjacks, so that wasn’t going to work. If you thought of the exact opposite of a man who cut down trees, you’d get Teddy.
“Mere, you need to have a talk with Teddy,” Desta had ordered me last time he’d been in.
“Not it,” I’d called out. “I refuse to be the one who has to break the game warden’s heart.”
“Is he the game warden?” Paris wanted to know as she joined us.
Both she and Desta were staring at me, perplexed, waiting for an answer.
Again, I had no idea. Because if he was, what was he doing in our tiny town? Shouldn’t he have been in White Sulphur Springs where the rest of the regional offices were? What was he doing in Coille?
But here he was, still early in the morning, not yet ten, giving me a wave. Couldn’t miss him with his red hair, freckles, and sheepish smile.
“Teddy,” I greeted him.
“That’s Officer Theodore Braun, Mr. Baker.”
Goddess help me. “Officer Braun,” I amended quickly.
The policeman in front of me rolled his eyes, and then introduced himself as Officer Reed. His partner was Officer Schiff, and they had a K9 unit that would be arriving shortly, and then later, a cadaver dog coming from Lewisburg. Both would be checking my property.
“We have a warrant.” Reed passed me the piece of paper.
I took it from him, skimming it quickly. “May I ask what you’re looking for?”
Schiff was shaking his head, and Reed grimaced, clearly not about to tell me, at which point Teddy blurted out that they were looking for bodies.
“Really?” I asked, going for wide-eyed surprise.
“Aww hell, Braun,” Schiff grumbled at Teddy.
“It’s just Merritt,” he said, gesturing at me.
Both policemen shot Teddy exasperated looks.
“Whose bodies?” I asked good-naturedly. The thing was, even if they didn’t want to tell me, they would be compelled to do so. No one could keep anything from me, it simply wasn’t possible no matter how hard anyone tried.
“Look, Mr. Baker,” Schiff began, “we know you’ve helped us out a lot in this town, especially with domestic abuse situations and restraining orders, and of course there was the guy cooking meth and that backyard breeding situation with the pit bulls.”
I nodded.
“Seargeant Branson said we should just tell this Tuss Haviland, who was the one who called, that we didn’t find anything, but they spoke to law enforcement in New York who contacted the state police here, so now we have to do our due diligence.”
“Of course.”
They both looked relieved that I wasn’t being a dick about the search.
“This guy, Tuss Haviland, apparently he knows your new neighbors, Abel and Narah Swann,” Schiff said.
“We figure this is some problem from when they all lived near each other in New York City, and that this Tuss—weird-ass name if you ask me—has an old score to settle. And though there is, in fact, a record of a private flight in from New York to the Greenbrier Valley Airport yesterday, then back out around two in the morning, there’s no way to verify how many people came and how many left. ”
“So you think this Tuss Haviland is having a go at Mr. and Mrs. Swann.”
He nodded. “But we still need to walk around down there where your property and the Swanns’ meet, and bring both dogs with us. Mr. Haviland was adamant that the men who came with him were all buried there.”
“How many men?”
Schiff turned to Reed, who said, “I believe it was eight.”
I squinted at him. “He thinks someone buried eight bodies on my land?”
“This is why we think this is a lot of bull—nonsense. If you had to bury that many men alone, you’d still be at it now.”
“Yessir, I would.”
“But again—”
“No, no, I’m not arguing. I’m ready to go when you are.”
“I told you,” Teddy chimed in. “Merritt had nothing to do with this.”
They both seemed relieved.
“Do you want to wait for the cadaver dog or go now?”
They wanted to wait and were all very appreciative of me making coffee, and yes, frothed oak milk creamer sounded lovely.
The K9 unit arrived—Officer Harmon with her dog, Jett, two Ts, and then the cadaver dog, Elvira, which was funny if you thought about it.
She came with her handler, Officer Petrovsky, who corrected Schiff on the cadaver part—they preferred Human Remains Detection dog—and we all trudged down to the grove.
Before we could leave, though, Officer Harmon said that since she didn’t want me to freeze to death, I needed to put a jacket on over my long-sleeved T-shirt.
I thought she enjoyed mothering me a bit, reminding me to take care of myself.
She did it whenever she came into the restaurant when she happened to be in the area too.
I stood between Officers Reed and Schiff, and we all watched, along with Teddy, as both dogs walked all over, sniffed, checked the dirt, came back and smelled me, my beat-to-hell hiking boots, and my jeans.
They checked Teddy, then went back around the edge of the property before leaving the grove and starting down the hill toward Abel and Narah’s lodge.
I followed along, and as we approached the house, passing a shed where I was guessing the lawnmower was kept, Jett froze.
One second he was moving, and the next, he wasn’t.
In fact, he stopped so suddenly that Officer Harmon was almost thrown off-balance.
She wasn’t a big person, and the dog was easily eighty pounds.
“Jett?” Harmon said gently.
The German shepherd looked at her, then took a step back, and even whined softly.
“What is that about?” Schiff asked her.
“I have no idea.”
Elvira, who was a bloodhound, was circling the shed, and when she scratched at the door, Petrovsky opened it. Just inside, next to a ride-on mower, she made a couple of turns and then lay down.
“What does that mean?” Reed asked.
“That means there’s a body here,” Petrovsky said.
“Okay, so maybe Tuss Haviland isn’t crazy.”
But when I turned and looked at Jett, he was up and pacing.
“I’m going to take him back,” Harmon informed the other two officers. “Are you calling the state police?”
“Yeah, we’ll call it in now.”
Elvira suddenly jumped up like something had touched her, yelped, yanked her leash out of Petrovsky’s hand, and ran over to me. She stood for a moment, then moved around behind me and sat down.
“Vira, what are you doing?” her handler asked, walking over to join me.
The moment Petrovsky reached me, she slipped around behind him.
Whatever was in the ground, I was guessing it wanted to come out.
There was a sound in my head. It started small and got loud quickly, like a big eighteen-wheeler passing you on the highway.
I took a step forward, but froze just like Jett had as I realized what it was.
It had taken me a moment because I hadn’t had a warning like this—from the earth, the trees, the wind, everything, all at once—in centuries.
I was not to step forward into whatever was there, in the ground.
It wouldn’t kill me. Not me. But it was unnatural, and so I was warned by the elements not to enter.
“What the hell is going on?” Schiff asked Petrovsky.
“The only thing I can think is that maybe she’s confused because there’s something dead there, but it’s really old.”
“Which is possible,” Teddy chimed in.
“Yeah, but that ain’t gonna help Abel Swann none. We need to get a team out here and see what’s buried on his land.”
But the land had been empty; it made no sense that there was anything dead there. Of course, the real concern was, why did the elements that had been my only companions for much of my long life not want me anywhere near that patch of ground?
The activity was hectic after that. I was sent back to my home, as there was no need for me to be there. Nothing had been found on my land, after all. I caught a glimpse of Abel and Narah returning in their SUV before I turned for home. I had to wonder what they would think of me being there.