Chapter Three
Old Man Benny
Old Man Benny wasn’t even that old.
At most, he was in his early fifties, only a few years older than Theon was.
His hair was still mostly black, although Theon suspected the man doused it in dye on a weekly basis.
For someone in his fifties, he was surprisingly fit.
But it was his teeth that had everyone in town calling him “old”—they were scanty, crooked, and yellowed, most likely from tobacco.
“My farm’s ruined!” he snapped, giving Theon a close-up view of those teeth. “I’m ruined! Benny’s Best might never even make another sale after this attack.”
Theon stepped away in a discreet attempt to avoid the spittle flying from the man’s mouth, and took the opportunity to look around yet again.
He wiped what he hoped was a bead of sweat from his forehead, momentarily shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun as he inspected the scene.
He, Janice, and Benny stood just outside one of the farmer’s barns, examining the damage that had been dealt to its contents.
Long story short? The place was a mess.
There were vegetables scattered everywhere—cabbages and tomatoes smashed together, a few pumpkins lying squashed in a corner.
But it was the trail of blood that had trickled from underneath one of the stable doors, flies hovering above it, that sent a chill traveling up his spine.
He’d already seen what lay behind that door, and it made a slaughterhouse look tame.
He coughed into his hand, trying to ignore the stench emanating from the barn.
The rest of the ranch seemed almost frozen.
Workers stood on the farm, around the barns, near the main house, and simply watched.
It was as though a deathly calm had settled over the entire ranch.
If he didn’t know better, he would’ve assumed there’d been a murder.
Not that this wasn’t gruesome enough. In his years of animal rescuing, sights like this were rare. Sure, he’d found the occasional animal that had been shot in the neck by some poacher, or a creature that had bled to death while caught in a trap. This was something else.
“And you’re sure you didn’t see anyone come in here last night?” Janice was asking. The detective stood with her arms folded across her breasts, her lovely features set in a slight frown.
Benny shook his head. “Didn’t see a damn thing.”
“You don’t think one of your workers might’ve done this?”
The farmer simply scoffed. “Might as well be accusing me. My guys would never do anything like this.”
She breathed a frustrated sigh. “I thought as much. That’s what the other ranch owners said.”
Theon had to admit, it was a little odd being here. A few hours ago, he wouldn’t have figured he’d be visiting a crime scene with his ex. Why had he even agreed to help her? It certainly couldn’t be simply the possibility of supernatural involvement. What was in it for him, anyway?
“My damn pumpkins,” Benny bemoaned. “I can’t believe he tried to destroy my pumpkins.”
Theon frowned in the direction of the few squashed pumpkins in the barn. “You lost one of your animals and you’re worried about pumpkins?”
“It’s Halloween,” Janice said before the farmer could express his indignation. The detective tightened her arms around her torso, and Theon found himself wondering why she’d left her blazer in her car.
“Right.” Half the town was going to have jack-o’-lanterns on their front lawns on Halloween night. Those pumpkins had to come from somewhere.
“I was hoping to make big sales this Halloween, y’know.
” Benny’s voice broke into his thoughts.
“If Benny’s Best gets attacked again, that dream just might stay a dream.
No one wants to buy ruined pumpkins. And if word gets out that someone might be targeting me, I don’t think the townsfolk will want anything to do with me. ”
“Except you’re not the only one being targeted.” Theon glanced at Janice just in time to see the detective roll her eyes. “And the first two suffered even greater losses. Ed doesn’t even have a pumpkin patch to protect anymore.”
That shut Benny up, though only for a moment.
“Maybe I was a bit lucky,” he mumbled a few seconds later, with a slight grin that revealed his teeth, and for a fleeting second, Theon couldn’t help but wonder whether the man had ever heard of a dentist before. “But I still want whoever did this to be caught so I can wring his neck.”
“Or hers,” Janice added. “We don’t know it’s a he for sure.”
It was Benny’s turn to roll his eyes. He shot Theon a look that said, Can you believe this chick?
Theon cleared his throat. “Why don’t we check around some more, Detective? Maybe there’s a clue we’ve missed.”
“Good idea,” Janice said.
The pair of them stepped into the barn, leaving Benny outside.
Theon scanned the scene, searching for anything amiss.
There was a lot amiss, he decided. For one, whoever had left this destruction behind hadn’t left a single footprint.
It was, in Janice’s words, as though a mini tornado had swept through the place.
Instead of prints, Theon caught sight of a few small holes in the ground.
“Still nothing,” he heard Janice groan after a few minutes of inspecting. “At least, nothing new.”
A thought occurred to Theon then, and he frowned. “Maybe it was those teenagers.”
Janice lifted an eyebrow. “What teenagers? You mean the ones that TP’d your barn?”
He nodded.
She lifted an eyebrow as though she couldn’t believe what he was implying. “You think a bunch of teenagers are destroying vegetables and killing cattle? That’s a long way from TP’ing barns, Theon.”
“They could be psychopathic kids,” he countered. “Killing animals sort of fits that profile.”
But he already knew the detective had a point. The odds that a bunch of kids in masks would do something this horrible as some sort of Halloween prank were pretty slim. A barn covered in toilet paper was a nuisance at best. This was way more serious.
“If it was those kids, they’d have left footprints. Whoever did this was smart enough not to. Either that, or they came from underground.”
Theon stared at the holes in the ground. “You’re saying they’re supernatural.”
“That’s why I asked for your help, isn’t it?” She sighed. “I don’t think any human could’ve done this. What do you think?”
She shot him an expectant look, like she was waiting for him to begin listing off all the types of animals or supernatural creatures that could possibly emerge from the earth and wreak havoc on a farm.
Theon couldn’t help pondering for a moment.
What could’ve done this, anyway? A ghost?
A corpse brought back to life? The undead rising from the earth was just what this town needed to spice things up for Halloween.
“It could’ve been an ordinary animal,” he pointed out. “Something capable of burrowing.”
She shook her head. “That might explain the ruined vegetables, at least to an extent. But what about the dead animals? This is targeted. Someone is attacking ranches. It’s a pattern.”
She stared down at the ground, her features morphing into a slight scowl.
Theon watched her, feeling his heart flutter slightly in his chest. How many times had he seen her like this?
In the few months they’d spent together, he’d watched her rack her brain, trying to solve whatever case she had before her.
As far as he knew, she was an amazing detective.
Hell, she was amazing, period.
But she wasn’t his. Not anymore. Not since she said those words to him that night.
I think we need to see other people. Had she been seeing other people since then?
Was that the real reason she’d broken up with him so abruptly?
Theon’s jaw tightened against his will. He hadn’t been with anyone since Janice.
Not that there hadn’t been offers from women in Sylva—he simply hadn’t been interested.
In fact, for a while, he’d figured he’d lost all interest in women in general.
The flutter in his chest was proof that he’d been wrong.
“Well?” Benny’s voice broke through his thoughts.
He turned to see the farmer entering the barn, wrinkling his nose as he did.
“Find anything new?” the man wanted to know.
Janice shook her head. “Not yet, but we’ll get to the bottom of this and find whoever’s responsible, I assure you.”
He merely scoffed. “You’d better.”
He turned and walked out of sight. Theon turned to Janice, who was staring at him, her expression almost unreadable.
“I’d give you a penny for your thoughts, but all I’ve got is a hundred-dollar note,” he said with a shrug.
She didn’t smile at his quip. “There are five ranches in Sylva.”
“Yeah.” Where was she going with this?
“Three of them have been hit so far. Ed’s was first. And now, Old Man Benny. That leaves two more ranches: Mama Martha’s and Svenson and Sons.”
She said nothing more, but Theon already understood what she meant: two more targets.
Someone was attacking ranches. The odds that they’d stop at the first three were almost non-existent.
A thought occurred to him suddenly, sending a jolt up his spine: what if Green Sanctuary was a target as well? It was, after all, technically a ranch.
He stared at the blood pooling underneath the stable door and felt his insides tighten. If something like that happened at Green Sanctuary, this town might not be big enough for him and whoever was responsible.
“I’ll have to go and check on the farms,” she said, turning toward the barn’s exit. “I’ll head for Mama Martha’s first, make sure it hasn’t been attacked.”
He followed her out of the barn and across the ranch to the spot where they’d parked their vehicles. She stopped by her car, her hand on the door handle, and turned to face him.
“Thanks for agreeing to help me, Theon,” she told him. “I really appreciate it.”
Theon’s lips parted slightly, but no words came out of his mouth. Before he could come up with a response, she spoke again.
“I’ll give you a call if anything comes up,” she said. “I’ve got your phone number. You still have mine, right?”
He nodded. For some reason, he’d held on to it, despite her ignoring his calls and texts following the breakup, despite the fact that he’d all but tried to bury the thought of her underneath layers of work and responsibility.
“Good.”
Janice bit her lip, looking like she had more to say, and Theon held his breath, his mind already wandering with possibilities of what her next words might be.
“I...” She shuffled her feet awkwardly, glancing away for a moment before returning her gaze to him. “I’d like to stop whoever this culprit is before they do something worse and ruin Halloween for everyone.”
“Yeah,” he replied, feeling a twinge of disappointment. “Me too.”
She said nothing else, but climbed into her car and drove off, leaving Theon standing by his truck with a light stirring in his gut.
***
He decided to stop by a grocery store on his way back to the sanctuary, taking the opportunity as he shopped to invite as many people as he could to his Halloween party.
Most sounded excited at the prospect, and by the time Theon climbed back into his truck, driving through the streets of Sylva, he had a small smile on his face.
At least something seemed to be going well.
Still, he had only a few days left to prepare. And since he’d agreed to help Janice on her case, he was going to have to prepare twice as hard if there was to be a party to attend.
The streets were lively this afternoon, a couple dozen pedestrians within view.
Some of them wore full costumes or masks.
They were mostly kids, Theon figured as he drove past. His smile wavered a little.
If Clara hadn’t passed away all those years ago, they might’ve had kids of their own.
Perhaps by now he’d be scrambling around town, searching for Halloween costumes.
More than a few times, he’d wondered whether it was one of the reasons he’d been so drawn to Janice, the fact that she had a child.
More than a few times, he’d dismissed that thought.
In the months he and his ex had spent together, he’d occasionally hung out with her son, Charlie.
Great kid. Brilliant, too. If he’d dated the boy’s mother for much longer, he might even have begun thinking of him as a son.
But he hadn’t.
Pressing his lips together, he steered the truck into the next street. Keeping his eyes on the road, he reached for a six-pack in the passenger seat and pulled a can of beer toward him, opening it with one hand. He took a sip, setting the can in the cupholder next to the glove compartment.
Knowing Janice, she was probably drinking as well right now. Only she’d always favored coffee. He’d teased her about being a caffeine junkie more times than he could count, and her response had always been the same: a defiant sip of her latte.
A grin tugged at his lips at the memory. He and Janice had shared amazing times in the months they’d been together. It was a shame that had had to end.
Theon felt his smile fade. It hadn’t had to end, had it? No, she’d made that decision.
But it didn’t matter now, did it? Things had ended between them. It was all in the past now. She was in his past now.
Except...she wasn’t. Not anymore. She’d come back into his life just as suddenly as she’d left it, and now they were working together on a case like she hadn’t dumped him just months ago.
What was worse, he could feel the emotions stirring inside him again, emotions he’d fought to bury since... July, was it?
Agreeing to help her hadn’t been such a bright move. But he wasn’t about to pull back now. If she was right about the supernatural being involved in these attacks, he needed to be involved, at the very least to contain it before word spread through town. He’d help put a stop to the unfolding chaos.
And then he would get back to his life.