By the time they arrived in town, Rook’s shoulder felt like a crazed drummer was using him for percussion practice. Fossen’s balance had improved, and he made it most of the way back without leaning on Rook. As they started by the first houses, people started coming out of the doors. Rook didn’t see how they could know that the deed was done, but he figured maybe two battered figures limping down the main drag spoke for itself. Still, at four in the morning, he wouldn’t have expected it.
Lights flicked on all the way down the street, and they received nods and varying degrees of smiles from each house. A few people walked out to shake their hands. Anni actually walked out and embraced Fossen, then offered her hand to Rook. He returned her smile along with the handshake.
Soon enough, they reached Peder’s car, and Rook stopped.
“Fossen, I think this is where I get off. I need to sleep for a couple days, but I’ll settle for a few hours in Peder’s barn.”
Fossen pursed his lips. “I could offer you a bed in my house, but I sense that you are comfortable where you are, yes?”
“Yeah, I think so. I’m a sucker for the smell of horse shit.”
“I believe you are. I will arrange for the doctor to drive up to Peder’s house sometime in the late morning.”
“Thanks, Fossen.”
“Thank-you, Stanislav. You can call me Eirek.”
Rook looked into those eyes again, trying to read them. Maybe he was just tired, but Fossen’s look didn’t give anything away. Fossen had done well tonight, and only Rook’s own failure to look up when they entered the first door had allowed the creature to take him out. He didn’t trust the man yet, but he’d gained some respect for him.
“Okay, Eirek. And now, I say good night.”
Rook sat down in the car and closed the door. He let out a groan as his shoulder moved, the first expression of pain he had allowed himself tonight. Then he put the car in gear.
A couple of minutes out of town, he remembered the envelope. He was weary, and his eyes had started drifting shut, but he didn’t want to wait to get to Peder’s house to examine its contents. He stopped the car in the middle of one of the lesser inclines, put on the emergency brake, and opened the envelope.
The envelope contained a black and white photograph of about eight by ten inches. The picture contained two figures, and a caption scrawled underneath read “Father’s Day.” Rook couldn’t be certain, but the writing looked an awful lot like those signatures he’d seen so many of when looking through the folder of lab reports earlier in the day.
The father in the photo was a man with hair starting to go gray, with the name Edmund printed under it in a different hand.
The son was around twelve years old; his picture had the name Eirek printed under it.
EPILOGUE
Rook crouched on a cliff halfway between Peder’s house and the town. Below him lay the road, and below that another cliff and the ocean. Fenris Kystby lay a mile to his right, just visible through the lifting fog. The rays of the early morning sun sparked as they met the waves, lending the scene a tranquility that Rook welcomed.
But he knew it was an illusion. The past few days had shown him how much conflict lay beneath the town’s calm exterior. The question once again was whether he should return to his team or stay just a little bit longer. He was beaten and bruised and not in any condition to hoof his way out of town, but Peder had offered him a ride. The man did his best to make the offer sound innocent, but the underlying tone of “get out while you can” lingered.
Peder wanted him to leave because the old man feared for Rook’s life. Even after the serious smack-down he’d delivered to the mad scientist turned yeti. And that meant that whatever secret the town of Fenris Kystby still concealed was even more dangerous. Worse, the man in charge oozed megalomania.
Fossen. He was up to something. But what? And what was the endgame? All Rook really knew was that the man wasn’t alone.