Dead Water (3 page)

“
This is the place,” Murphy suddenly said. I snapped open my
eyes and stared through the window. We had stopped alongside a
snow-covered field. In the distance there was a barn. I slid open
the side door of the van and climbed out. It was cold and bleak.
The hills rolled away into the distance, so white, they almost
seemed to blend into the snow-laden sky. I crossed in front of the
van and headed towards a small stone slate wall, which ran the
length of the narrow road.

“
We last saw Kayla and Sam in this field,” Murphy said,
pointing into the distance.

“
Any tracks will be covered by now,” Potter said, joining us at
the wall.

“
Not necessarily,” I said, clambering over the wall and into
the field. I landed in the snow. Potter and Murphy climbed over the
wall behind me. I turned to look at them. Raising my hand, I said,
“Keep back, we don’t want any tracks trampled over.”

I caught
Potter shoot a sideways glance at Murphy. That look reminded me of
being back in the Ragged Cove. It reminded me of how Potter had
called me ‘Miss Marple.’ Did he still think the same, or was that
me just being paranoid? I pushed the memory from my mind and
surveyed the scene before me.

“
Now what do I
see
?” I whispered, slowly setting off across the
field.

Chapter Four

Potter

Maybe
the signs that Kiera had always been part wolf had always been
there, but I’d been too dumb to notice. As Kiera dropped low and
worked her way across the field, she looked something close to a
giant bloodhound wrapped in a long, dark coat. She paused, looked
closely at the ground, then moved on again, weaving her way across
the field. Kiera would stop suddenly and run the tips of her
fingers over the snow. She would take some, hold it up to the
light, then let if fall from between her fingers. Fuck knows what
Kiera was able to see. To me it just looked like a bunch of white
stuff.

Sometimes she appeared methodical in her examination, other
times more frenzied, as she darted forward, stopped for a moment,
as if getting her bearings, spinning around in a spray of snow,
then racing forward again. I watched as several times, she dropped
completely onto her front. Then, as if she were burying her face in
the snow, she would make an examination of the ground and whatever
else it was she could see.

Murphy
and I watched from the wall, occasionally sharing a quick glance at
each other, then back at Kiera. With a look of pride on his face,
Murphy whispered, “Look at her go. You can tell she’s a chip off
the old block.”

“
What’s that s’posed to mean?” I frowned.

“
She’s a natural copper – a natural investigator, just like
me,” Murphy said, puffing out his chest and sucking on his
pipe.

“
You couldn’t solve a crime even if you stumbled across a
killer standing over a headless copse with an axe in his hand
shouting, ‘I’m glad I chopped the arsehole’s freaking head off!’” I
groaned. “You’re nothing like Kiera.”

“
She takes after me, alright,” Murphy said thoughtfully as he
watched Kiera at work. “We’re definitely related.”

“
And you say I’m the one who is taking fucking drugs,” I
sighed, stepping away from the wall and Murphy. He was starting to
piss me off with this newfound admiration and concern for Kiera. It
was like now that the truth about her being his niece was out, he
had to take credit for every little thing she did.

I
continued to watch Kiera zigzag across the field as she made her
way towards a line of trees in the distance. Reaching them, she
stopped, hunkered down again briefly, then stood up. Turning to
face us, she beckoned us towards her with a wave of her
hand.

“
Looks like she’s found something,” I said over my shoulder,
but Murphy was already passing by me.

“
Just like I said she would,” Murphy grunted, heading out
across the field towards Kiera.

“
Just like I said she would
,” I
mimicked under my breath, following Murphy across the
field.

With
plumes of breath escaping my mouth and disappearing up into the
fresh morning air, I reached the line of trees with
Murphy.

“
What have you found, Kiera?” he asked.

Nodding
back in the direction that we had come, Kiera said, “Okay, so over
there is where you, Kayla, and Sam fought with wolves. There were
seven of them...”

“
Seven different tracks,” Murphy cut in knowingly.

“
Right,” Kiera said. “Potter was being held face down and
that’s where he took a beating...”

“
Blood splatters,” Murphy cut in again, glancing at me with a
smug smile.

“
Right,” Kiera said. “The fight was fierce, but over quickly.
One of the wolves was decapitated, I’m guessing by you, Murphy, as
Potter was face down in the snow, and Kayla and Sam were fighting
with wolves just over there.”

“
Yes it was me,” Murphy said, puffing his chest out in
pride.

“
Okay, so while you were distracted by the fight, another
person appeared. This one didn’t join the fight. Whoever it was,
was watching from the edge of this treeline.”

“
How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“
See the footprints?” Kiera said, pointing at the ground
beneath a nearby tree.

I looked
and could see them. The snow wasn’t as deep beneath the trees, but
they hadn’t been filled in either by more falling snow – so they
were clearer than any other tracks she had managed to
find.

“
Kayla and Sam ran across the field towards her,” Kiera
started.

“
Her?” I asked. “How can you be so sure it was a
female?”

“
She was wearing boots with a small heel,” Kiera explained,
dropping to her knees and pointing to the footprints in the
snow.

“
So how do you know Kayla and Sam ran towards her?” I asked. It
wasn’t that I didn’t believe her, but I was tired of Murphy jumping
in with his explanations.

“
By the distance between each footprint,” Murphy cut in anyway.
“If someone is running, the gap between each footprint will be
larger than if they were walking.”

“
Correct!” Kiera said. “But don’t forget that the toe of the
shoe will be more pronounced, again suggesting running instead of
merely walking.”

“
So what happened when they reached this point?” I
asked.

“
They stood and talked to whoever she was,” Kiera said. “You
can see by the spread of prints they stood here for a little while
before heading off through the trees with the female.”

“
Where did they go?” I tried to follow the prints, but the snow
just looked like a trampled mess.

“
Let’s find out,” Kiera said, setting off between the
trees.

We
followed behind as she sometimes raced ahead, then slowed to an
almost standstill. She would inspect the ground again, then set
off. We followed at a distance, both of us mindful not to get in
her way or destroy any evidence. Then, up ahead, Kiera came to a
sudden halt.

“
What’s wrong?” I asked, joining her beneath a large oak
tree.

“
The tracks just suddenly stop,” Kiera said with a frown,
looking down at the ground. “It’s like the three of them just
vanished.”

“
Vanished?” Murphy grunted.

“
Perhaps this other person they met was a Vampyrus and they
flew away?” I suggested, believing it to be a reasonable
possibility.

“
Sam’s a wolf and can’t fly,” Murphy said.

“
Maybe Kayla carried him?” I said, not wanting my theory to be
proved wrong – not just seconds after formulating it.

“
And perhaps an army of pixies appeared and sprayed them all
with magic disappearing dust?” Murphy scowled at me.

“
No one flew away,” Kiera cut in, as if trying to diffuse the
growing tension between me and Murphy.

“
How can you tell?” I asked her.

Looking
up, Kiera said, ‘See how the branches of the trees are so close
together? If they had flown away from here, they would have
disturbed the branches and the snow would have fallen away. But as
you can see, they are still covered in a thick layer of
snow.”

“
So what do you think happened to them?” Murphy
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Kiera whispered thoughtfully. “I just don’t
know.”

“
Well, standing out here isn’t going to help us find them,”
Murphy said, turning away. “Good job, Kiera, but if the tracks have
run cold, then we need to start looking someplace else.”

“
Where?” I asked, watching him walk away.

“
Kayla and Sam knew we were heading for the Fountain of Souls
and the Dead Waters,” Murphy said, glancing back at us. “Perhaps
they will head there.”

“
But how can they have just vanished, into thin air?” I
frowned. “And who is this female they were talking to? Kayla
wouldn’t have just walked away and left me and Murphy to get the
shit kicked out of us. How do we know Teen Wolf hasn’t taken her,
we don’t even know if we can trust him? You know what happens to a
human who has been badly matched to a wolf, they turn in to those
freaky fucking berserkers! Sam might have become one of them and
eaten Kayla.”

“
Have you been sniffing fucking glue?” Murphy rounded on me.
“Jesus Christ, you make Sam sound like the big bad wolf out of
little-red-freaking-riding-hood!”

I looked
at Kiera, and without saying a word, she set off after Murphy. I
followed at a distance as we made our way out of the small woods
and back across the field. I looked back and could see the barn
where I had been tricked into believing that teacher had been
Kiera. I remembered how I had killed the wolf-boy, Dorsey, and how
that hooded photographer had appeared and taken a photo of him dead
in my arms. I looked away, and it was then I saw several of those
creepy statues standing in a row on the other side of the field. I
opened my mouth to call out after Kiera and Murphy. But what was
the point? Neither of them seemed to be interested in anything I
had to say. I closed my mouth, turned away from the statues, and
caught up with Kiera and Murphy.

As I
walked silently alongside them, Murphy looked sideways at Kiera,
and trying to sound knowledgeable, he said, “What I can’t figure
out is how you knew I decapitated one of those skinwalkers. Was it
blood splatter patterns again?”

“
No,” Kiera said, looking straight ahead.

“
What then?” Murphy frowned.

“
You left its freaking head behind,” Kiera said, striding
ahead, back towards the van.

Murphy
stopped in his tracks and watched her go, his mouth open
wide.

I
couldn’t help but secretly smile to myself.

Chapter Five

Kiera

I scrambled over the wall and dropped down onto the other
side. I couldn’t explain where Kayla and Sam had suddenly
disappeared to, and that troubled me. It frustrated me. What wasn’t
I
seeing
? As far
as I could tell, there was nothing left to see once those tracks
had come to a sudden halt. It really was like Kayla, Sam, and this
other female had just vanished into thin air. Had this something to
do with the layers that Jack had mentioned?

Both
Potter and Murphy leapt over the wall behind me, their feet
thudding onto the hard-packed snow. I glanced back at them; both
were dressed in black police-issue coats. They both looked worn and
beat up. Potter’s bruises had almost faded away as his body quickly
healed from the beating he had taken out in the field. Had he
received such punishment coming to recue me? The thought made me
feel sorry for him. But I didn’t want to feel like that. Not yet –
I was still too hurt, angry, and confused.

Potter
caught me looking at him, and raising an eyebrow, he said,
“What?”

“
Nothing,” I whispered, turning away and sliding open the van
door.

Potter
brushed past me as I climbed inside, his hand deliberately coming
to rest against my thigh. As he went, he leaned in close to me and
whispered, “You may hate me, sweet-cheeks, but you just can’t stop
looking at me.”

“
Dream on,” I muttered under my breath, yanking the van door
closed in his face. I caught sight of Potter smirking to himself as
he climbed into the seat next to Murphy. I so badly wanted to wipe
that smile from his arrogant looking face. I clenched my fists and
sat on them.

“
Looks like we’ve got company,” Murphy suddenly said from the
front of the van.

I
glanced up to see a car heading down the narrow lane towards us.
Although it was just black in colour, we knew it was an unmarked
police car, because of the removable blue light attached to the
roof. “Real cops or Skin-walkers?” I breathed.

“
Either way, we’re fucked,” Potter said. “It isn’t going to
take them too long to figure out we’re the ones who ripped up their
friends back here yesterday. I knew it was a bad idea coming back
to this field.”