“Katie, I don’t know what he’s talking about.” Ryan listened as his new girlfriend spilled a confusing tale about Lyle Mason over the phone. “I barely even bumped elbows with the guy before he left town.”
He turned his back on a squabble happening behind him. After three days of Mothman terror, sightings had started to dwindle. But that didn’t stop residents from inundating the sheriff’s office, demanding to know what steps were being taken to assure the winged cryptid didn’t return. At present, Wayne Rosling was getting an earful from a thick-waisted man waving a map of the TNT under his nose.
Ryan clamped a hand over his ear to block the noise. “Are you sure Mason is gone?” Despite the sheriff’s office and local Point Pleasant police being on the lookout for Mason’s van, nothing had surfaced. Not surprising, given he’d just learned Mason was driving a T-bird. Nothing like a false trail to stall in a dead end. Worse, it meant someone else had been staking out Katie’s house. Maybe Jerome had spilled his guts to the mysterious Deputy Brown while under hypnosis and relayed how he’d passed along Parker’s coded message. The jumble of numbers seemed to be the brass ring everyone wanted. “I think you should go stay with your mom for a few days.”
Several seconds of tense silence passed before she unloaded her frustration. “I am not going to let that creep force me out of my house.”
“Listen, Katie, it isn’t just Lyle I’m worried about. If he showed up in a T-bird, it means someone else was in the van. They could be connected to Parker and Jerome. We don’t know who we’re dealing with, or what measures they might take to get the message.”
A pause. “I’ve considered that.” Grudging acknowledgement indicated a step in the right direction.
“I’m glad you’re thinking clearly. The van aside, Lyle is a loose cannon. Now that we know he’s in town for sure, he’ll probably hook up with his cousin. I’ll check with Darrell and see what I can find out.”
“Aren’t you the least bit concerned Lyle threatened you?” Katie’s voice rose in disbelief. “There must have been someone you dated in the past who—”
“Katie.”
“I don’t care who you saw before me.” Her words came quickly now. “I don’t want him blindsiding you. If you’d seen him, heard him… I can see why Lach Evening said he’s messed up in the head. He came here looking for you because he heard we’re together.”
“Which is why he could return again.” Ryan clenched his jaw, frustrated by his limitations. “Stay with your mom for a few days, Katie. I’m sure Sam misses you too. You can keep an eye on them.” He didn’t add in the event Lyle decided to snoop around Doreen Sue’s place, but it was a fair possibility. He’d see what he could do about sending a patrol that way.
After a few more minutes of coercion, she finally agreed, and he hung up the phone. Ryan blew out a breath. The man who’d been complaining to Rosling had left, but the older deputy looked no less harried for the grumbler’s departure. Standing, he shook his head and randomly stacked files on his desk.
“What was that all about?” Ryan pushed from his chair and walked closer.
“Ready for this one?” Rosling picked up several loose sheets of paper and added them to the stack. “The guy drove here overnight from some place in Delaware because he’d heard the Mothman was back. Spent all day in the TNT but didn’t catch so much as a glimmer of that winged freak. He complained because he thinks we scared it away. While most everyone in the county is telling us to get rid of the thing, this idiot is ticked because we might have done the job.”
“Sounds like he’d be a good match for Duncan and Donnie.” Ryan grinned.” Hey, I’m headed out. I’m going to go pay Darrell Mason a visit. Looks like Lyle finally surfaced.” He gave Rosling a rundown of his phone call with Katie. “When Weston gets back, can you bring him up to speed?”
“Will do.” Rosling gave him a thumbs-up. “Sure beats getting my butt chewed out for keeping the public safe.”
Ryan caught up with Darrell as he was getting home from work, but the visit turned into a dead end. Darrell insisted he hadn’t heard from his cousin, although he’d had several people tell him they’d seen Lyle around town. A co-worker thought they’d seen him driving an old white T-bird, which supported Katie’s description. And while that helped target Lyle, the information did nothing to narrow down the owner of a dark green van, or why the driver would be stalking Katie. More and more, Ryan found himself thinking of the coded message Jerome passed to her. If there really was some shadow organization intent on recovering the code, Ryan had to find a way of turning that attention from Katie.
After ending his shift at five, he headed to the Parrish Hotel, hoping to catch Lach Evening. As luck would have it, the impeccably dressed man occupied a rocker on the front porch. Most would have considered it too cold to linger outdoors, but Evening didn’t appear to mind. He wore an overcoat and his black fedora, but the coat was open and he hadn’t bothered with gloves.
Probably wouldn’t be able to find any to fit.
Ryan considered offering a “good evening” as he stepped onto the porch but the greeting seemed too much of a pun, and far from true. “I was hoping I’d catch you here.” Turning his back to the street, he braced a hip against the railing. He had no idea how long the man had been sitting there, but his skin showed no signs of reddening due to the brisk weather. He seemed comfortably content, one leg draped over the other, his hands resting on the broad arms of the rocking chair.
“I gather this isn’t a social visit.” Evening’s gaze remained on the street, the look on his face like a cat intently waiting for a mouse to appear.
A ragged scarecrow slouched in the chair beside him, a Halloween caricature out of place beside Evening’s crisp attire. Or maybe it was the other way around. Sitting among cornstalks and pumpkins, the man in black might have easily passed for a fairy-tale king.
“Katie told me what happened today with Lyle.” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest.
“I expected as much. Mr. Mason seems to have fixated on you.”