B008IFNJZM EBOK (48 page)

             
“After everything that woman has been right about, it deserves a second look.”

             
Crosley led the group back into the trailer and scanned it again.  Tom climbed up to look at the roof.  If he was there, maybe he was waiting on the roof to pounce down on them or just hiding.  The only thing on the roof was some tree branches.  Carl and Tom now stood by the door looking in as Crosley kept examining the contents to insure that the old man wasn’t hiding.  That is when he noticed something.  He looked at the two men standing at the entrance.

             
“Tom, throw me your flashlight.”

             
Tom pitched the light and Crosley shined it on the floor.  He found a seam that led to another.  There was a trap door in the floor of the trailer.  With his gun in one hand and his other on the handle he looked at the pair of men.  Tom reached over and grabbed a pair of kitchen knives and handed one to Carl.  When they were ready, Crosley slowly opened the door.  Nothing sprung out at him so he continued to raise the door until it was flat on the floor.  He looked in.  The rotten wooden stairs led to a dirt floor basement.  That was the reason for the trailer skirts that covered the area between the ground and the bottom of the trailer.  There was a light switch and he flipped it on and immediately drew back just in case of an attack.  Nothing happened the area below was now lit with old strings of Christmas Lights.  He peered below shining the flashlight.  The girls waited outside ready to defend the others.  Crosley looked up.

             
“He is here!”

             
Tom squeezed the handle on the knife.  He whispered to Crosley.

             
“What is he doing?”

             
Crosley released the hammer on his pistol and put it to his side.

             
“He is taking a bath.”

             
Crosley turned and started down the stairs and Tom and Carl followed him.  There in the middle of the room was a large white plastic barrel and a gun on the dirt floor.  The entire area’s floor was wet and muddy.  Crosley kicked the weapon away and looked at the owner of the trailer.  He was hanging by his feet from a rope that was attached to a pulley that was hung from the bottom of the trailer.  The man’s entire body up to his waist was inside of the barrel.  The girls came down and Elizabeth told them to stay on the steps and she went over to the barrel.  It looked like the man was dead and no one touched anything.  Elizabeth examined the area.  She saw large plastic chemical containers and examined the labels.  She walked over to the barrel and looked in.

             
“Okay, Carl and I will stay.  The rest of you return to the mansion.  I will call you later after the police arrive.”

             
“What happened?”

             
“He killed himself.  Somehow, he lowered himself into a barrel of acid head first.  Everyone, outside and I think I can explain how he did it.” 

             
The group withdrew and Elizabeth made sure that the dirt floor only had her footprints and Carl’s prints left in the dirt.  Once outside, she put on plastic gloves and prepared to go back in as Carl called 911.

             
“So how did he do it?”

             
“I have a theory and it is only that, a theory.  You all have to leave.  Carl and I will say we found him alone.”

             
“Okay, we will take the rental car and leave but we still would like to know how he killed himself without anyone helping him.”

             
“I’ll call you just as soon as we check a few more things out.”

             
The others left in the rental car and about a quarter mile outside of town, several police cars passed them in response to the 911 call.

             
The sun came up as Carl and the limo pulled up in front of the mansion.  Crosley and Tom sat on the steps.  Elizabeth got out of the car with a medical container.

             
“I got four pints of blood for the girls.”

             
“That is great.”

             
Carl took the carrier.

             
“I’ll put them into the frig.”

             
“Thanks Carl.”

             
Elizabeth sat down next to her brother.

             
“So how did it go?”

             
“They just asked me what made me show up at the trailer.  I told them my concern about rabies and the fact that Mr. Mackay had been treated for an animal bite.  They seemed to take that as an acceptable reason for my presence.  The only question they might have had as to why I went there so late in the evening.  I stayed a while longer and helped out the investigators.”

             
“So how did he do it?”

             
“They found a book that outlined the entire procedure.  It was called ‘how to end your life’.  It showed a way for a possessed man to kill himself if he believed himself to be a werewolf.  It showed a picture of a man whose body was dunked into a vat of acid.  That would cause the upper half of the body to be eaten away by the acid.  By the time the body was removed, there was almost nothing left above his shoulders.  The brain and most of the skull itself was gone.  If in fact he was a type three or four werewolf, he won’t be coming back.”

             
“So what was the story with the gun?”

             
“They think he tied his feet with the rope and jumped off a shelf.  Once he was dangling over the vat of acid, he shot himself in the head.  The blood and gray brain matter splatter does verify that part.”

             
“But how did he get lowered into the vat?”

             
“The other end of the rope was tied to a pallet with several cinder blocks on it to offset most of his weight.  They think he set several large blocks of ice.  After he shot himself to avoid the pain of the acid, the ice melted and dunked him into the acid.  That is the reason the floor of the dirt basement was so wet.”

             
“You know he did us a favor.  Had we found him alive, we would have had to kill him and then cut off his head.  You know how messy that would have been?”

             
“Yes and you would have had to destroy the head and do it without leaving any sign of trace evidence and it would have been classified as a murder rather than a suicide.”

             
“The problem is now, who turned him.”

             
“And killed our father… “

             
The group turned in and all the bedrooms had ‘do not disturb ‘signs on the door.  They would all sleep the day away and resume their hunt in the early evening.

***

             
  Tom woke up first and Carl told him that several packages were delivered and placed in the study.  He went in there to see what was delivered.  The note was from his uncle and it told him that the ‘melting pots’ were easy but he needed more time for the weapons.  Tom looked at the gun case and all the shotguns were gone.  Tom figured Uncle Joe needed parts for building the weapon in the back.  He had also found several silver ‘Bowie’ knives in the boxes.  He set them all out on the table as the new maid entered the room.

             
“Would you and the others like some breakfast now?  I was told that because of your current work hours you would probably prefer breakfast to supper.”

             
“I am the only one up so far and yes, could you bring me some eggs or whatever Margaret has made.”

             
“She has sweet rolls and coffee and I am sure she can make you some eggs.  She did ask about the container in the frig.  She wondered what it was.”

             
Tom remembered Carl putting away the blood supply for the girls.

             
“Tell her under no circumstances to open it.  It belongs to my sister the doctor.  It contains blood samples and they must stay refrigerated.”

             
Tom told her how he wanted his eggs, toast and coffee and the maid left the room as the phone rang.  It was Uncle Joe.  As he answered the phone, he felt bad for not even asking the maid her name.  his sister came in and he mouthed Uncle Joe to his sister.

             
“Yes Uncle, I just got done opening the boxes.”

             
“I am afraid we haven’t finished the shotguns yet.  We have a problem with the projectile’s flight.  It is still not balanced right and it wants to flip in flight and become unstable.”

             
“Is it doable?  Can the projectiles be balanced?”

             
“They assure me that they can.”

             
“What do they see as the maximum range?”

             
“If the projectiles are balanced, they say the maximum range should be one hundred yards or possibly a little less.”

             
“Nathan thinks we can live with fifty yards because once one of us fires that thing, any others will be coming at us.”

             
“So if we can fix the balance issue, how many rounds do you think you’ll need?”

             
“At least a dozen for each weapon...”

             
“Well let’s see how far we get today.”

             
“Thanks Uncle.”

             
“Don’t thank me yet Tom.”

             
As the phone went dead, the maid entered with Tom’s coffee on a service tray and Elizabeth finally introduce Tom to the young woman.  Her name was Tierra.  Tierra took Elizabeth’s order for breakfast and left the room.

             
“She really has no experience but after the rumors in town, she still wanted the job so I hired her.”

             
“What rumors?”

             
“Rumors about a werewolf in the area and several wild accounts of the deaths that took place out here...”

             
Tom started to show her one of the melting pots.  They were made out of aluminum trash cans and covered with plastic.  On the side was a small box.  The head of a werewolf would be dropped into the container without even removing the plastic covering.  The content of the can was a thick layer of thermite.  All one had to do after dropping in the head was to kick the small box and a magnesium ribbon would ignite the thermite causing it to burn so hot that the contents and the can itself would melt to a point that the contents should be vaporized leaving only a small pool of molten metal.

             
Evening breakfast was served and Carl let Tierra off for the rest of the evening with pay.  Margaret was also given the rest of the evening off.  The girls came down with Crosley and they all had a meeting in the study as Elizabeth and Tom finished their meal.

***

             
Once the staff was dismissed, the group could then begin their plan.  Their plan was simple.  The girls would change into birds and begin at the mansion and continue to fly in an ever expanding circle from there outward.  Chelsea was told that werewolves would growl or howl if a vampire was nearby.  The only thing more powerful than a vampire’s hearing was a werewolf’s sense of smell.  The plan was to fly and glide and hope a werewolf would smell one of them and respond with some sound.  That would tell the women and give them an idea where the creature was.  Everything pointed to the old man who killed himself as being a type three werewolf.  That would imply that his werewolf attacker or this pack of werewolves had to be the worst type or type four.

             
Crosley watched Chelsea and Iolana sucked down their nourishment.  He wasn’t a weak stomach person so he ate his sandwich next to them.  After they ate, they began to fly starting at the area around the mansion.  Tierra thought she had heard something as she drove down the driveway but saw nothing and continued on her way home.  The women flew the rest of the evening.  They heard nothing.  Sometimes they would hover in flight until other sounds like vehicles faded away to listen for anything that could be the growl or howl of a wolf.  Neither woman found anything and the same procedure would be repeated the following night only the circle away from the mansion would extend out farther.