Hominid (5 page)

CHAPTER 10

T
he next afternoon, Tess got off the plane at Susanville Municipal Airport with a groan. The sun was awfully bright. She said a silent thank-you that she hadn’t driven herself to the airport.

Last night, she, Pax, and Shawn had celebrated with margaritas. Lots of margaritas. They’d left Pax’s car at the restaurant and taken a cab back to his and Shawn’s place. This morning, Tess had then had to rush to the hotel to grab her stuff, check out, and get to the airport.

Now her head pounded as she made her way past the gates at baggage claim. A tall brunette in khaki slacks and a sweater made her way over with a smile.

“Well, you look like hell,” Abby Newman said.

Tess groaned. “Must you yell?”

Abby laughed as she hugged her. “I’m barely whispering.”

“And yet…”

Abby took Tess’s bag. “Let me get this. You take these.” She handed Tess a bottle of water and two aspirin.

“How…?”

“Pax called. He was worried you’d be a little bad off.”

Tess took the pills gratefully. She’d taken some this morning before she left, but the droning plane had not helped her pounding head.

“Sasha is meeting us at the curb. Do you have another bag?”

Tess shook her head. “Nope. Traveling light.”

Abby took her arm. “Come on, lightweight. Let’s go.”

They headed for the automatic doors that led to the passenger pick-up area. Even from here, Tess could see Sasha’s bright blue FJ Cruiser. Sasha bolted from the driver’s door with a squeal as Abby and Tess stepped onto the pavement—and all the men nearby stopped to watch. At five foot two, Sasha was petite and busty, with a body that even Tess could admit was sexy as hell, long dark wavy hair, and a pouty mouth that you usually found only with a plastic surgeon’s help.

Sasha wrapped Tess in a hug. “Congratulations!” Tess had called both Sasha and Abby last night with the news of the grant.

Tess hugged her back. “Thanks, but not so loud.”

Sasha grinned. “Lightweight. So, I’m guessing lunch is on you?”

“You got it.”

Twenty minutes later, the three of them were tucked into a booth at the back of Poor Richard’s. They ordered sandwiches and drinks, and when the waitress left, Abby turned to Tess. “You ready to talk about the contract?”

In addition to being one of Tess’s best friends, Abby was also a lawyer, and Tess had sent her the contract last night to look over.

Tess cleared her head and took a handful of chips. “Yeah. What do you think?”

“I think there are a lot of strings.”

Tess had expected that, of course. But from Abby’s expression, she could tell her friend was not happy with the number of strings.

“Okay. Tell me.”

“Well, according to this, any discovery you make, Hayes gets credit for. He gets top billing. From the way this is worded, you work for him as a practically unnamed employee.”

Tess had been expecting something like that, but not quite so strong. “Well, I’m not really looking for the notoriety. But how would that affect my research? How would it affect my publications?”

“You couldn’t have any. Everything would have to go through Hayes and be sent out by Hayes, if he agrees.”

Tess’s stomach dropped “So are you saying, that even though I’m the lead researcher, Hayes will have the rights to anything I discover
and
veto power over anything I try to publish?”

Abby nodded. “And that includes all your casts, hair samples, et cetera, too.”

“I can’t do that. I can’t hand everything over. Especially the casts.” Tess shook her head, her hopes dimming. “I mean, I need the grant money, but not if he ties my hands with regard to the research. That’s the whole point.”

“I know. And there’s another issue I’m concerned about. There’s nothing in here that allows you to sever the relationship with Hayes. You would essentially be locked in for two years, and there are huge penalties if you don’t come through.”

Tess slumped down in her seat. “So this grant is not a dream come true after all. It’s a nightmare.”

Abby reached out and squeezed Tess’s hand. “Let me call his people. I’ll see if I can rework the contract, make it more palatable. But… if I can’t do that, will you be willing to walk away?”

Tess looked away. Ever since what had happened with her father, she had focused on this one goal: proving bigfoot exists. And she knew she was close. But with this contract, Hayes would take over. He would control every aspect of her research. She couldn’t let that happen.

She sighed. “If I have to, I’ll walk.”

CHAPTER 11

M
adge and Shelby were waiting on the porch when Sasha and Tess drove up. Madge invited them both to dinner. Sasha accepted, but Tess declined. She needed to get home and get caught up. She wanted to get everything set up, check emails, grab a shower, and have an early night so she’d be ready to face tomorrow. Plus, after Abby’s review of the contract, she wasn’t really in the mood for company.

When Tess pulled up to her cabin just before dusk, she smiled. Just the sight of her place lifted her spirits. Some people loved the hustle and bustle of the city, but Tess would take a little cabin in the woods any time.

She stepped out and breathed deep. Yup—this was home. She looked around, feeling the quiet. “Come on, girl.”

Shelby was still in the truck. And instead of hopping out and running around like she usually did, she whined and cowered on the floor.

Tess whirled around, looking for what was wrong. But she couldn’t see anything. She reached into the back of the truck and pulled out her shotgun. Whenever she traveled, she left her weapons with Madge—the shotgun, a rifle, and her Browning handgun. Teenagers had broken into empty cabins a few times, and Tess didn’t want to take a chance on them finding her weapons.

“Stay there, girl,” Tess said, closing the door with Shelby inside.

She walked slowly toward the cabin, straining to hear anything out of the ordinary. But she didn’t see or hear anything out of place until she walked around the side of the cabin and saw some broken tree branches scattered on the ground.

She frowned.
How’d these get here? Windstorm?
No, her herb garden and flowerpots sat undisturbed on the porch. And
Madge hadn’t said anything about bad weather.

She walked to the back of the cabin and froze. Beside the window that looked in over the kitchen sink, a giant footprint was clearly outlined on the ground.

Tess whirled around, her heart pounding. She brought her shotgun to her shoulder. But there was nothing. The forest hummed back at her, giving no indication that a predator was nearby.

Tess began to shake. She’d never had one come this far out before. Had it somehow tracked her? But why?

Slowly she continued to make her way around the cabin. She found another print, a heel print, at the window on the other side. She moved away from the cabin, studying the ground a bit farther out. At about twenty feet from the building, just inside the tree line, she found another print.

Tess looked around, goose bumps breaking out along her skin. There was no smell that she could make out, but she had no doubt that a faint smell was what had scared Shelby. And Tess couldn’t help be a little freaked out as well.

Still, whoever had visited seemed to be gone now. Tess forced the scientist part of her mind to the forefront.
Okay, get some casts and let’s see who we’ve got.

She headed back to the cabin, cautious of her surroundings. Nothing set off any alarm bells.

She stopped at the truck and opened the door. “All right, you big chicken, let’s go.”

Shelby just peered up at her from the floor on the passenger side.

Tess adopted a gentler tone. “It’s okay, Shelby. I won’t let anything hurt you. Come.”

Shelby slowly crawled out from her spot. Tess rubbed her back. She hated how hard Shelby was shaking. And she knew that inside, she was shaking just as hard.

CHAPTER 12

T
ess headed down the path, her thoughts still on the footprints outside her cabin. She had slept little last night, jumping at every sound. But getting back into her routine energized her. As she rounded a mountain maple, her mind ran over everything she’d learned for the millionth time.

The feet, of course, were fascinating. They truly were amazing—more similar to primitive humans’ feet than gorillas’ or modern humans’. Gorillas had a divergent big toe, but there was none on the casts she’d found, or on any of the other casts found in Northwest. Instead, all the very long toes were lined up, and there was no arch.

In fact, when the foot bent to allow for bipedalism, the bend occurred almost under the ankle. That meant a full two thirds of the foot supported the being’s body weight. It was both amazing and understandable. Due to bigfoot’s alleged muscle mass and height, he had to weigh in excess of eight hundred pounds. The prints outside Tess’s cabin confirmed that—the foot that had made them had sunk in almost three inches into the ground. Only an incredibly large animal was capable of creating such a deep print. And there was no way the ball of a foot, even a large foot, would be able to support that much weight by itself.

Tess considered what science knew about other bipeds. There weren’t many. Besides humans, of course, the most famous bipedal animal was
Gigantopithecus
.

And now there’s the Bili ape, too,
she thought.

Of course, many animals occasionally walked on two feet for short distances, but that didn’t make them true bipeds. Very few had the physiology to walk for extended periods of time.

Tess pictured the bigfoot in the Patterson-Gimlin film.
I wonder if she ever moves on all fours. Her arms are certainly long enough.
She tried to picture it, but it felt wrong. Bigfoot was too… Tess struggled to find the right word. Too
comfortable
on two feet to travel that way, she decided.

Tess was only a few minutes from her camp when something in the trees to her right caught her attention. She squinted and made her way a few feet into the brush.

A structure stood there, created out of tree branches. Each branch was easily twenty feet long, and they were layered one over the other, creating the framework for a tent.

There was no way wind could have blown these trees into this shape. Nor had these branches merely fallen from their trees. The end of the branches had no rot; they were still healthy when they were broken free. Tess tugged on one branch. It was wedged in tight. She inspected it, and saw that it had been laced through three other branches. Excitement began to build in her.

This was made intentionally.

There was no one nearby, and no noticeable footprints. Tess shrugged off her pack and pulled out her camera. She had never seen a bigfoot structure before. She’d read about them, of course. In areas where bigfoot were believed to be, it was not unusual for individuals to come across trees or branches arranged in a tepee style. But their purpose was unknown. They weren’t created for shelter—they were too open to the elements.

Tess walked around, snapping shots, her certainty growing. She had always suspected that these structures were a form of communication, maybe a road sign. She placed the camera back in her pack and studied the structure again. The branch that was woven between the three other branches pointed northwest. The others made a sloppy circle.

Tess shook her head, not sure what any of that meant but convinced it meant
something
. These had been carefully arranged. There had to be a reason for it.

Tess shouldered her pack, and with one last look at the structure, she made her way back to the trail. But the structure stayed in the forefront of her mind as she continued on to her camp.
Maybe I should set a camera up near it. It might—

Tess went still and then whirled around. She could still see the structure. She looked at the interwoven branch and then toward her camp. Her heart began to race. The branch pointed right to her camp.

She swallowed, looking around, a thin sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Is he warning others to stay away? Or warning me?

From the blog
Bigfoot Among Us
by Dr. Tess Brannick

This week’s question comes from Jane Haskell in Burlington, Vermont. Jane writes:

I’ve heard people say bigfoot builds stuff. Is that true?

Actually, it may be. Most people agree that bigfoot are not tool users, but tree structures have been found in areas frequented by bigfoot. In fact, there’s a great website that shows the tree structures alleged to have been constructed by bigfoot in Colorado. You can find it
here
.

No one is really sure why they build the structures. Some argue they are announcements of life events, such as a birth or death. Others argue they are simply art. The structures are all open to the elements and therefore are not shelters. But they are solidly created. There is a plan to their construction, we just need to figure out what it is.