Demon Hunt (6 page)

“
Do either of you have any idea who’d want to do this to her?”

Pam sat back and stared ruefully at the licked clean plate in front of her. “No idea, Nick. I can’t see her making anybody that angry. Maybe the boyfriend who traveled up with her from the cruise ships in Key West, but he hated the cold and took off a few months ago. He was kind of a jerk but this?”

Boyd nodded. “We’re digging him up and going over her house. I brought her cat to you.” He glanced sideways at Pam, who was famous for taking in every stray that wandered across her property.

“
Drop the fuzzy-wuzzy off at my house. I gave the kitty to her in the first place. Bart knows how to get to the barn to keep warm with all of his buddies.” Pam sighed and patted her bulging stomach. “I’m glad I’ve got you to feed me, Rhi. I won’t be able to afford food with all of these critters taking over.”

“
Did any customers get angry with her last night?” he asked as he scribbled in his little notepad.

The two women exchanged tired looks.

“
Nick, you’ve got to know enough about casinos to know we piss off about a hundred people a day.” Pam fidgeted with her silverware as she spoke, a sure sign of restlessness. “We’re blackjack dealers - we make twenty people angry enough to commit murder every day of the week.”

“
She dealt to the same lunatics we all do, Chief,” Rhi added. “I’ve gotten two death threats in the last week. Gaming tracked them down through pictures from the security tapes. Can’t you check out the tapes of Marie’s tables for the night? You might get lucky.”

“
My guys are reviewing her tapes as we speak, Miss Rhi.” The chief stood, his knees creaking, his gaze taking stock of the well-kept little A-frame. “You girls need to be careful out here. Someone nasty visited town last night.”

“
I think we can handle things, sweetie.” Pam grinned at him wickedly. “A locked door is nice but there’s no substitute for a product from Smith & Wesson. You need to tell Rhi guns don’t kill people. There’s always a warm body pulling the trigger.”

“
Guns need a hand on the trigger that knows what to do and has respect for the weapon. If Rhi doesn’t know how to use a gun - she doesn’t need one.”

Rhi sputtered, spewing pancake over the table. “Mrff - I didn’t say I
couldn’t
use a gun. I just never liked using one.” She stood to glare at him. Direct eye contact was a rarity for her. “I grew
up in North Carolina. Back home, we like to shoot something every day, just to keep our hand in.”

“
Then, living out here with the lions and tigers and bears, you might want to think about some firepower,” the chief replied. He pointed out Ellie Mae as she made her way back down the stairs towards him. “Unless you want to depend on this mutant lap dog to protect you. How much bourbon have you guzzled this morning, girl?” he asked the dog, who leaned against his leg, staring up beseechingly. He obliged and rubbed the dog’s golden head.

Pam inquired, “Can we expect some police protection out here in the wilds?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Since you are the one female who I know I could drop off in a battle zone and pick up a week later looking like you just visited a spa - no! Ms Brennan,” he nodded in Rhi’s direction, “It has been a pleasure. Don’t let Pam eat you out of house and home.” He stood to begin the process of refastening his cold weather gear.

Rhi walked him to the door. The moment she opened it, Ellie Mae rushed straight through to jump into the bed of the police pickup in the driveway, eliciting a hiss from the cat carrier in the truck’s bed. Rhi moved to retrieve the dog but the chief breezed past her.

“
I think I can get my own dog if you don’t mind.”

“
We wouldn’t want those delicate southern tootsies out in this cold, now would we?” he answered, reaching in the truck to grasp the dog’s collar. “Come on, old girl, we can maybe go out for a cocktail later,” he whispered loudly to the dog as he led her back up the steps where Rhi took hold of the dog’s collar.

Moments later, as the chief’s truck steered down the drive, the hair on Ellie Mae’s neck rose and a low growl rose in her throat. Shocked at the unfamiliar sound, Rhi gaped at the dog, who stared into the woods off to the side of the house. Rhi clutched the animal’s large leather collar and made soothing noises to the frantic hound.

Pam joined her, hands on her bony hips, staring after the truck with disgust. “You mean to tell me with us hot, lonely women here in this godforsaken forest, he asked out the dog?”

With an uneasy laugh, both women began to return to the warmth of the house, Ellie Mae’s discomfort almost forgotten. Ellie Mae was protective of her mistress, but to Rhi’s recollection the dog had never growled in her life.

“
What do you think of Nick?”

Before Rhi replied, Ellie Mae jerked herself free of her restraining hand to bound, yelping, into the grove of pines covering the side of the hill across the yard from the deck. The baying of the dog rose to a fevered pitch as Rhi and Pam ran to the open area where the animal dug and sniffed. Rhi grabbed the dog’s collar in time, as Ellie Mae stared up at her, pleading to follow the scent.

“
Oh, no, you don’t, I’m not chasing you to the Sangre De Cristos today.” Rhi gritted her teeth as the tops of her moccasins filled with snow and she tightened her hold on the dog’s collar. Bloodhounds were notorious for following a scent to the bitter end.

Pam hunched down in the snow, poking at the fresh powder Ellie Mae had excavated a few moments earlier. The other woman’s face turned grim. The crusted, red snow beneath the powder stood out in stark contrast with the fresh white snow and the deep green of the trees.

“
You had a visitor last night. Probably a mountain lion with a fresh kill - somebody didn’t watch their poodle close enough.” Pam rocked back on her heels when an unexpected movement behind them startled her enough to fall over in the snow.

The trees rustled, and Ellie Mae struggled against Rhi’s hold. The hound began to bay, and Rhi whirled to see a man clad in black, white and gray snow camouflage and holding a large shotgun rise from the cover of several bushes.

Chapter Six

Pam scrambled to her feet as the stranger approached. Shocked, Rhi realized that she appeared unconcerned about a man who had crawled out of the underbrush, wearing more guns than a rap star.

Refusing to let Pam know she was shaken, Rhi took a moment to examine him further. The man’s shotgun was tucked under one arm, a game bag hung off his shoulder, and his camouflage ensemble was starched to perfection. The newcomer’s heavy boots were spotless, the creased pants tucked neatly into the tops.

His guns, both the foot long forty-four strapped to his side and the pump shotgun tucked under his arm were immaculate. The blue-black metal shone dully in the morning light. The sixty-something man’s salt and pepper hair had been buzz cut and his leathery face had no acquaintance with SPF 30. Hard blue eyes took in the scene, narrowing at the sight of the stained snow.

“
What have we here, ladies?” he queried, approaching to examine what Ellie Mae and Pam had dug up. “This looks fresh - but where’s the carcass? I don’t see any bits and pieces?”

Rhi’s stomach gave a lurch, and she surveyed the snow around her, fearing the worst.

“
Maybe something dragged away after one of those big cats brought it down?” Pam suggested. She went to Rhi’s aid, who struggled with the dog, trying to hold her back. Both women succeeded in getting knocked down by the bloodhound, which made a beeline for the well-starched visitor.

The man stood immobile, his empty hand held out for the dog to smell. Ellie Mae skidded to a stop in front of him to examine his open hand, sniffing at it before giving the unoffending limb a long bath with her tongue. She turned her back on him to rejoin her mistress and stand protectively to one side.

“
Interesting choice for a dog, ma’am,” he said in his gravel filled voice to Rhi. He nodded at Ellie Mae. “Purebred bloodhounds like this one can smell or sense anything. Even ghosts.”

Pam huffed. “Bobby Wayne, if you’re trying to freak us out, jumping out of the bushes armed is good. You don’t need to add a ghost story on for good measure.” She turned to the house where Katie observed from the door. “I told you that you could hunt on the property but not near the houses. You’ll scare off my tenants.”

“
I think this lady and I are your
only
tenants. Besides, I was just strolling through. I’ve been hunting up on the ridge.” He glanced at Rhi, then at Pam.

“
Oh, crap, am I being
rude
again?” Pam exclaimed insincerely. “Bobby Wayne Bedford, this is Rhi Brennan. Rhi, this is Bobby Wayne, the nut job who rents an old hunting cabin from me.” She whispered, in a voice loud enough to be heard in the next valley. “And if you give him a chance, he’ll tell you about the end of the world. He’s stocked up. You, too, can survive!”

Rhi nodded at the intruder. He offered her a gruff nod in return before squatting down to examine the stain in the snow. He continued, ignoring Pam’s jibes. “Snow is covering the blood, which I find curious. Whatever left these stains did it during the storm last night. And what predator in its right mind would be out hunting in that weather? But I’ve seen more than a few odd prints covered up with fresh snow this morning,” he mused, digging around with a gloved hand.

Even his gloves were crisp, Rhi realized before she caught the intense expression on Pam’s face. What kind of predator was crazy enough to hunt in a snow storm? Only one predator killed for fun. Suppressing a shudder, she nodded towards the house. “Mr. Bedford, you’re welcome to some breakfast if you’re hungry.”

“
Bobby Wayne,” the man corrected her as he stood. “I’d be honored, ma’am.”

As the group marched back to the house, Pam whispered into Rhi’s ear, “Good thinking. Have no gun - feed the owner of the nearest one.”

Inside, Rhi served her newest guest some fresh coffee and breakfast before sinking into a chair to enjoy her now cold meal.

“
What did you mean, Ellie can sense ghosts?” she asked, interrupting Pam and Bobby Wayne’s running monologue of local news and gossip.

Bobby Wayne gave Rhi a hard stare, his watery blue gaze almost disappearing into the weathered folds of skin around his face. “Pam, you haven’t shared much of our town’s curse with our pretty newbie.”

“
She has enough problems without loading her up with that horseshit,” Pam replied from where she lounged in her chair, sipping coffee. “There’s no use bringing it up this morning.”

He ignored her and turned towards Rhi. “In answer to your question, darlin’, your dog is a descendant of an ancient breed of animals bred by the Templars during the Crusades. The knights were mixed up in the dark arts and there are rumors that their dogs’ abilities were of a supernatural nature. Ellie Mae is much more than a mere tracking dog.”

“
Why should this matter to me?”

“
Pam hasn’t seen fit to fill you in so I will. Cripple Creek is one of the country’s most haunted towns. We’ve got more ghosts than we do cockroaches,” he noted between sausage bites. “A dog like Ellie Mae might come in handy. Or if something nasty has gotten loose from the control of those idiots down at Fort Carson, she might give you some warning. You do know they let loose their Bigfoots in the area now and then to scare off snoopers around Cheyenne Mountain and NORAD.”

The close proximity of the legendary military command center located in the hollowed out confines of Cheyenne Mountain above both Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs had always been an uncomfortable itch in the locals’ psyche, Rhi discovered a few weeks after her arrival. Rumors of government conspiracies and odd experiments were interspersed with the grim knowledge that in a nuclear confrontation, NORAD was ground zero - a gigantic bull’s-eye for a multi megaton nuclear blast. The population living in and around Colorado Springs would be reduced to dust. This fact made the surrounding populace nervous. And a bit batty.

Pam rolled her eyes at Rhi and broke in before Bobby Wayne could detail what conspiracy the government and the local military bases had unleashed on them this week. “It might
be nice to have someone around who can point out the difference between the real and the otherworldly in this town, if you know what I mean.”

They peered towards the living room where the television belched the inane noise of cartoons and Ellie Mae lay stretched out beside Katie, absorbed in the cartoon along with the little girl.

Rhi sighed. There was no way her dog was anything but spoiled. “If Ellie did have ESP of some kind, her mystical power has been burned out by all of the television she watches. She might look intimidating, but I suspect Ellie’s under the delusion she’s a lap dog.”

“
Well, remember. If your dog has something to say, listen. And I’ll leave you my card as well, Miss Rhiannon. If you need anything, please feel free to give me a call. I’d be honored to drop by and take Miss Ellie out for a run now and then. But don’t call my cell unless there’s an emergency. You don’t know
who
is listening.”