“Anyway, good luck.”
They shook hands once more; Meyer walked to his Civic, where Laura was already waiting in the passenger seat. As they pulled away, Darryl noticed little Samuel in the back of the car. The child was waving. Darryl returned the wave. Then the car disappeared. The three men were alone.
“DARRYL?”
They jolted around. It was Monique, walking out of the darkness with Lisa.
“Monique?” Darryl was stunned. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? Phil told us to meet you here. We got lost, so it took a while.”
CHAPTER 63
“THEN I guess I misunderstood you, Darryl.”
They were standing on the creek’s dock under the moonlight.
“How could you possibly have misunderstood me, Phil?! The whole point of sending you here was to tell them not to move!”
Jason shook his head in disbelief. “What the hell were you thinking? My God, they could have gotten hurt.”
Phil ignored Jason. “I’m telling you, Darryl. You told me to do it.”
“You’re gonna lie right to my damn face?…” Darryl lunged for him, but Jason thrust himself in the way.
“Please let’s not do it this way.”
Darryl stepped back. Then slowly exhaled.
“Darryl, I would never, ever, intentionally put Monique and Lisa in harm’s way.” Phil shook his head, almost as if trying to figure it out himself. “Maybe I got confused. You’re right; when I think about it now, it doesn’t make sense to send them out there, but that’s honestly what I thought you wanted me to do. I thought you were worried and wanted to see her right away.” He turned. “Monique, do you actually think I wanted you to get hurt?”
Monique was perfectly calm. “No, Phil, I don’t. I think we should all take a breather and relax.” She patted her husband’s back. “Everything’s cool, all right?”
Darryl exhaled again. “Yeah, sure.”
Monique shoved him. “It was a misunderstanding. Why not shake on it? This bad blood isn’t good for anybody.”
Phil extended his hand, and Darryl reluctantly shook it. As they did, Craig watched Phil like a hawk. Jason watched Phil, too. Somehow his college friend had gotten even dumber with age. Then Jason turned to someone who mattered. “Lisa, you got a second?”
The two of them walked farther out on the dock. “What’s up?”
“Sorry we didn’t consult you before we made the… arrangement to stay here.”
She glanced at the full moon. “I understand, under the circumstances.”
He looked at her. “You going to tell me what’s wrong, then?”
She continued to look up. “I’m fine.”
He gently turned her chin. “Please.”
She exhaled. “Something out there killed someone, Jason. I still can’t fathom that it’s what we’ve been tracking….”
“Neither can I.”
“But it’s something; it’s out there, and—” She stopped talking.
“And… what?”
“And I’m scared. I mean, I am really, really scared.”
“Do you want to leave?”
“Do you want me to leave?”
“Lisa, you’re right; you are a biologist. You don’t need to be here.”
“I didn’t ask you that.” She looked him in the eye. “I asked you if you want me to leave.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then I don’t want to either.”
She scanned the dim, dark outline of the forest, a strange look on her face.
“What?”
“Just realizing I haven’t learned how to fire a rifle yet.”
“We better get on th—” He stopped talking. Something was behind them. Right on the dock. He turned and—
“Sorry to scare you,” Darryl said.
Jason chuckled. “No problem. What’s up?”
“I know how we’re gonna hunt this thing.”
“How?”
“We’re discussing it right now.” Darryl walked back down the dock. “Let’s go talk about it.”
CHAPTER 64
“FIRST WE gotta confirm that what we think killed that jogger actually did.”
They stood in the tall grass near the dock, the moon’s mirror image gently rippling on the water.
“How are we going to do that?” Craig said to Darryl.
“For starters, by checking the base of the tree where the body turned up.”
“Why?”
“To see if anything climbed the tree. Maybe something else entirely killed that guy. Maybe a bear or a mountain lion.”
“Can they both climb?” Jason asked.
“Mountain lions sure can. They regularly eat their kills in trees.”
Craig shook his head irritably. “Gimme a break, Darryl. That jogger was, what—two hundred and twenty-five pounds? Are you saying some puny fifty-pound mountain lion killed him and dragged his corpse to the top of a redwood tree?”
“I’m not saying that at all, Sherlock.” Darryl knew full well that mountain lions never went after fully grown adult men. “I just think we should be methodical here, cover all the bases. Maybe a bear did it. Some black bears can get up to nine hundred pounds. They’re certainly strong enough.”
“But they don’t attack people, Hoss.”
“Not generally, but there are exceptions. This guy was jogging at night? What if he surprised a hungry bear? Or a bear with cubs? Either of those situations could be lethal, believe me. And that jogger’s body was covered with saliva, remember?”
Before the hearse arrived, Jason and Darryl had checked the corpse for teeth marks. While they didn’t find any discernible evidence, the skull had been partially crushed and dried saliva covered much of the body. Both findings were consistent with bear attacks. Bears could easily crush a human skull simply by falling on it with their front paws, and they often licked their kills as a way of marking them.
“It could have been a bear.”
Craig shook his head. “I don’t buy it.”
Darryl shrugged. “Neither do I. That’s why I want to see the tree. To be sure.”
Jason pivoted. “What would a redwood look like after a bear had climbed up it?”
Near a few huge suitcases they’d lugged off the boat, Phil cleared his throat. “Torn to bits. I know so from my fire-ranger days. Redwoods have very tough inner heartwood, but their bark is incredibly delicate. You’d be amazed—you can flake it off with your bare hands.”
Jason stared at the man he no longer trusted. “So you’d know if a bear had climbed up a redwood?”
“In a heartbeat.”
“All right. When do you want do this, Darryl?”
“Now.”
“Now?” Jason looked around. “At night?”
Darryl removed a map from the back of his khaki shorts. “I know exactly how to get there. And for those of you prone to the jitters…” He grabbed a rifle. “Let’s go.”
MONIQUE COULDN’T believe the size of it. The tree was monstrous, even for a redwood. With a cornfield and the moon behind it, she made it out in silhouette. The tree reminded her of a Manhattan skyscraper, forty stories high, as straight as a steel bar and so big around that a car could drive through it. As she craned her neck up, she literally couldn’t see the top of it. “Could a bear actually climb this thing?”
Craig turned on a flashlight. “Let’s see.”
A small golden circle illuminated and shifted to the tree. The bark was thick, fibrous, and filled with crisscrossing four-inch-deep grooves. Craig scanned the redwood from the roots to several feet above his head. “Not a mark on it.” He methodically circled the entire perimeter. Nothing. “This bark hasn’t been touched.”