Come Get Me (13 page)

“That’s not what I said,” Rob quickly
replied, “I just told you what the guys hunting out there said it
looked like when they first got there. I mean, from the way they
tell it the place was a slaughter house. It wasn’t like that
though. There was some blood on the bushes around the tree where
Tommy fell and a few other places but the sheriff, along with the
doc, figured it was just from him struggling to get off the thing
jammed in his back. They said he finally just lost too much blood
and fainted. A little while after that he died and that’s how we
found him.” Rob looked a little greener than he had when he’d
started his story but it couldn’t be helped. Jim didn’t like making
him talk about stuff like this but unfortunately he needed to know
and Rob seemed to understand.

They’d slowed their pace while they were
talking but now resumed a more normal step. Jim was having a hard
time believing everything he’d been told. Everything pointed to
some kind of accident but he was still having a hard time believing
that. Tommy just wasn’t the type who would fall out of a tree. It
just didn’t sound like him. Jim had seen him climb one when he was
half drunk one time without a problem so he just couldn’t
understand how it could happen to the same guy when he was stone
sober.

“Was there anything else that you saw out
there that you haven’t told me about?” he asked hoping Rob would
remember something that would make it all easier to accept.

Rob didn’t answer right away. He looked as if
he’d recovered somewhat from his earlier description of the grizzly
scene he’d witnessed but there was something else going on in his
head. Jim didn’t know what it was but he had a feeling it was
important especially since Rob was having a hard time looking him
in the eye. He looked almost as if he was trying to decide whether
to tell Jim anything else or not. Seeming to come to a decision he
shrugged his shoulders slightly then began adding more to his
story.

“Alright, there were other things out there,”
he said almost too quiet for Jim to hear. “But you can’t tell
anyone, and I mean anyone, you know about this stuff. Not even your
mom. I mean it. This is stuff nobody else is supposed to know.
Before I say anything else I want your word you won’t go spouting
off to anyone who will listen and getting all excited about what I
tell you. Don’t make any of it any bigger than what it is.” Jim
made the promise and hoped he didn’t regret it later.

“Ok,” Rob said after being satisfied,
“remember how I said the tree looked like it’d been cut? Well we
found what was left of it a little ways off from Tommy’s stand. It
was sorta buried under some bushes and fallen trees, kinda like
someone hid it or something. You definitely wouldn’t have seen it
when you walked up. The only reason we found it at all was because
we were looking for stuff like that. You know, things that were out
of place.” Rob watched Jim as he spoke as if at the first time Jim
had a reaction he would quit speaking. When he saw Jim was about to
ask a question he quickly continued before his first word could be
uttered.

“I said it looked like it was hidden that
doesn’t mean that it was. The sheriff said that it might have just
fallen where we found it. It was close enough to the tree that it
could’ve happened like that. It was just a little suspicious.” He
said pausing to let what little he’d revealed sink in.

“Anything else?” Jim asked after a few
minutes of waiting.

“Boy, you sure are in a hurry,” Rob said
slowly almost like he was reluctant to continue. “I really didn’t
want to bring this up but it doesn’t look like I have any choice
now. Like I said I don’t you want getting all excited about
anything but while we were looking around we found two other things
that everybody thought were just a little out of place.”

“Well, what was it?” Jim asked
impatiently.

“We found some hair and some prints,” he said
quickly looking away.

“Is that it?” Jim asked. “Why were you afraid
that I would get excited over something like that?” He didn’t
understand what the big deal was. It was the woods. There was bound
to be other types of prints out there and probably a lot of other
types of hair as well what with all the animals running around back
there. There were things like that in the woods last time he’d
checked so it wasn’t very surprising to find hair and tracks.
Humans weren’t the only things that walked the woods. Maybe that
actually was what happened to Tommy. He’d been attacked by animal
or something. Maybe a bear or some other big animal. It could’ve
scared him which in turn caused him to fall out of his stand and
onto the tree.

“You’re right,” Rob said, “Normally it
wouldn’t be a big deal finding stuff like that out there but the
things we found aren’t what you would usually find in.” He stopped
talking again and took a deep breath. These dramatic pauses were
really getting on Jim’s nerves. He wished Rob would just come out
and say what he had to say. “We think the tracks belong to a goat.
A big one. Since the tracks look like goats we’re guessing the hair
belongs to one too. We aren’t sure yet but that’s what we’re
looking at.”

Goat hair? Jim thought. What the hell would
goat hair be doing out in the woods. He didn’t even think there
were any goats anywhere near town much less out in the woods the
only goat he could think of wasn’t even a real one. With that one
thought he began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his
stomach. Looking at Rob he saw that he had thought the same thing
when he’d first seen the tracks. The greenish color had returned to
his face.

“Now Jim, you’re thinking the same thing I
did. But you and I both know it can’t be. That thing isn’t real.
There’s no way it was the Goatman.” Rob didn’t really sound like he
believed what he was saying. He sounded like he wanted Jim to agree
with him and tell him he was right. But deep inside, they both
knew.

“You’re right,” he heard himself say as he
looked at Rob. “It can’t be him. That all happened a long time ago.
It was all our imagination. Plus like you just said, it isn’t real.
There is no such thing as the Goatman.” The creature’s name flew
off his tongue like a curse. Denying its existence did nothing to
make his stomach feel any better. He could say it until he was blue
in the face and he wouldn’t feel any better. If he didn’t even
believe himself how could Rob?

There was no way Tommy could have been killed
by something that didn’t exist. It simply couldn’t have happened.
There had to be some other explanation for why the hair and tracks
were out there. Maybe a goat had somehow gotten away from a farm
and was now roaming the woods looking for food and whatever else
goats looked for. That scenario didn’t make much sense but the only
other option made even less. He quickly asked Rob about his theory
and was shaken by his answer. No one in the area had any goats.
They seemed to be far and few between out here. They’d checked, or
at least Rob had.

“Well, like I said before,” Rob began after a
few shaky minutes, “don’t tell anyone else. Everyone around here
grew up hearing the stories about that damn thing and the sheriff
doesn’t want the town to getting fired up thinking there’s some
creature on the loose killing people. That’s all we need right now
is a bunch of the good ol’ boys going out hunting for the thing and
shooting everything between here and the next town up. The only
thing they’d probably manage killing is each other and some poor
animals. Tommy’s death is being reported as an accident. End of
story. I don’t like it but that’s what the law says it was so
that’s what it is.”

Jim knew Rob didn’t believe it but that was
the way the sheriff was going to tell it so he guessed he had to go
along with it. Nothing would be accomplished by trying to get him
to say otherwise except getting Rob in trouble. It definitely
wouldn’t bring Tommy back.

They slowly walked down the street for a few
more minutes trying to talk about other things to take their minds
off the Goatman. It didn’t work very well until Pete’s name came
up. Rob told him that after he left, Pete started getting a little
strange. First he’d moved into one of the old houses that sat on
the edge of the woods all by himself. Anyone other than Rob got
chased off whenever they went around including his own parents.
Then a few weeks after Pete had moved in he started doing a lot of
strange things. One night Rob happened to be driving by on his
normal rounds when he saw a glow in the sky near the area of Pete’s
house. Wanting to make sure his friend was ok he’d decided to
investigate. He didn’t know what he expected to find but what he
found sure wasn’t it.

There were fires burning all around the house
with Pete right smack dab in the middle of it all striding back and
forth poking at them making them like he was one of hell’s own
demons tending the pits of the damned. Rob had gone out a few times
and tried talking some sense into Pete but to no avail. All he did
was watch the flames burn and mumble strange things about stuff
from the woods coming to get him and how he had to, no needed to,
keep the fires burning so he would be safe. Jim agreed that it was
strange but confessed he had no idea what to do about it. He’d been
gone a long time. If Pete was really as far gone as he sounded he
might not even remember who Jim was. Plus he wasn’t even going to
be there that long. There was nothing he would be able to do for
Pete in the short time he had.

Rob ignored Jim’s excuses, saying that the
only time anyone saw Pete anymore was when he came to town to get
food. Pete’s parents were worried about him but they continued
paying for everything he needed. The house he lived, the food he
ate, even the gasoline he used in his fires. They paid for it all.
They wanted him to get help but knew they couldn’t force him. He
had refused when they suggested it and they couldn’t make
themselves send him away. They’d gone to the sheriff and asked if
he could do anything but he’d told them that Pete wasn’t hurting
anyone and as long as he didn’t set the woods on fire there wasn’t
anything he could do. Rob finished up by telling Jim that he should
visit Pete and see if he could talk some sense into him. Even
though he wasn’t going to be there long seeing him might do Pete
some good. Jim said he’d try to make it over there but knew he
probably wouldn’t. He had one friend dead already. He didn’t know
if he could take seeing another going crazy right before his
eyes.

“I really do need to get back to work now,”
Rob said after finishing the story of Pete’s plight. He looked at
his watch and winced. “Yup, I’m real late for my rounds. So, I
guess I’ll see you tomorrow at the funeral then.”

“
Yeah,” Jim mumbled as Rob
turned to go. “We’ll have to get together before I
leave.”

“We can do that,” Rob said turning around and
walking backwards. “Next time we won’t talk about so much of this
bad stuff. We can talk about other things.”

“Like what?” Jim asked giving him the opening
he was looking for.

“I know, you can tell me all about your
date,” Rob said with a mischievous grin.

“Hey, you know what?” Jim asked blowing off
his comment. “You’re such a great police officer and all that now
so why don’t you see if you can find a life or something. Quit
living through me.”

“Why? Yours is so much more entertaining,”
Rob quickly fired back.

“You know me; I’m here for your
entertainment,” Jim shot back just as fast.

Rob waved over his shoulder and walked down
the street. Jim watched him go then looked up at the sky and saw it
was later in the day than he’d thought. He still needed to get back
to his mother’s house so he could grab a shower and be ready for
his date later on. He had no clue what there was to do around here
but no matter what it was he wanted to be clean and smelling good
so he made a good impression. Jill might’ve just been being nice
when she’d said she would go out with him but then again she’d come
up with the idea herself, so she must be at least a little bit
interested. At least, he could always hope, he thought.

5

Jill was just closing the store when Jim came
running up hoping he wasn’t late for their date. He’d only had a
few minutes once he got to his mother’s house to take a quick
shower put on some clean clothes then run back out the door. He’d
cut it close but he’d made it. True to her word Jill was ready to
go.

“Hi!” she said looking at him a little
funny.

“Hi yourself,” he answered while catching his
breath. After taking a few minutes to calm down he asked, “So, what
are we going to do tonight?”

“Well,” she began nervously, “Gran came by a
little while after you left to say hi and we got to talking about
what all had been going on today. You know, gossiping. Well, I told
her you’d come back for a short visit and that you’d been talking
to Rob about Tommy’s death and how the two of you thought something
a little strange was going on. She pretty much agreed but I cut her
off before she could get started by telling her you and I were
going to be seeing each other later. She quieted down for a minute
then said if we didn’t have anything else to do then we should stop
by and visit with her for a while. She said she’d missed seeing you
after all these years. She also said she wanted to talk to you
about something too. You know, since you were here and all.”