window. “Barry? I saw its teeth. They were human teeth. And it stood up.”
“So what are you saying? It was the Jersey Devil or what?”
Steve asked, “Did anyone else see this…this thing?”
Athena looked away from the window. “My sister-in-law was there.”
“And did she see it?” he repeated gently.
Doris leaned forward.
She shook her head. The Formica tabletop was scratched and yellowed, and she stared at the worm tracks of cigarette burns.
Steve’s voice coaxed. “What did she see?”
“Dogs,” she whispered, gazing into her coffee mug as though peering down a well.
With a laugh both exasperated and triumphant, Barry sat back. Before he could speak, Doris added, “I took some scrapings from the bodies of both victims.”
“What both?” Barry looked ready to snarl.
“Athena’s brother-in-law and the construction worker found in the car.”
“Oh for—”
“I took scrapings,” she continued, “and left them with a friend of mine at the lab. Unfortunately, the hospital administrator got wind of it. Took sort of a dim view.” She sighed. “So we don’t exactly have a lab report, but —”
“You support this?” Steve interrupted, watching her face. “You’re supporting this story? This claim that there was a man or what ever involved? Do you know something about this?”
“It’s like I was saying, I don’t exactly have a report. But one of the bodies, the hard hat, I’m pretty sure what the scrapings were. Semen.”
“Jesus,” Larry breathed.
“You may have noticed this last little fact wasn’t in the official account,” Doris finished. “No mention of it at all.” Exhaling a cloud of smoke, she put a supportive arm around Athena’s shoulders.
Barry stared hard at Athena. At the next table, a woman asked loudly for the check.
“Even so.” Steve nodded slowly, his voice grim. “It could still have been dogs.”
“Oh shit.” Larry looked sick.
Unnoticed until now, photographs had been lying facedown on the table. Doris flipped them over.
“Jesus H. Christ!”
The color enlargements revealed each wound in pornographic detail.
“Where the hell’d you get these?” demanded Barry. “Oh. Of course. You and your frigging friends.”
“Doris?” A slight tremor marred Steve’s attempt at a tone of mere professional interest. “Have you got anything else to go on?”
Some of the anger drained from her face, but her hands remained clenched. “Well, for one thing,” Doris began, “there are no animal hairs on this body. And there should be, especially considering the method of attack— the ferocity, the violence. Look at the claw marks.” She pointed to a photo, nodded to Steve. “We both saw those. Even on the side of the car.” She stubbed out her cigarette. “There should be fur all over, inside the wounds, even.”
“And the other? Lonny?” asked Steve. “Was there any fur on him?”
“Well,” Doris hesitated. “He may have been killed first and later eviscerated by dogs.”
“Shit,” Barry grumbled. “So what you’re saying is there were dog signs all over Lonny. Am I right?” Again he laughed. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
Steve watched Athena. Her fingertips stroked her forehead, one hand shielding her eyes from Barry, screening her face from his words. She seemed so drained, so weary, yet still so strong. He felt as though he were seeing deep inside of her now, as though this quality, this endurance, this purity were something she normally kept hidden from the world.
Hesitantly, Larry turned to the older cop. “But what about the guy in the car?” he ventured. “I mean, like Doris says, if the dogs did it, why isn’t there…?”
“The rain.” Barry spoke slowly. “The rain washed the dog fur off him. That’s all, twit.” He looked at his watch. “Is that it?”
“The stateys may have something,” added Doris.
“Yeah, so? What do you want me to do about it?”
“Couldn’t you maybe talk to somebody?”
He mumbled an obscenity.
“When I was in the trailer…”
Everyone turned toward the flat voice.
“I think I heard…what ever it was…fighting with the dogs. It…the man…may be bitten. We could check hospitals.”
Barry made a scornful noise.
“Maybe what you heard was your brother-in-law,” Steve suggested, “being attacked by the dog pack.” His hand inched across the table toward hers, then stopped, fingers curling.
Barry blew smoke. He leaned forward, parodying Steve’s position and tone of voice. “Listen, Athena, I understand how bad you feel about poor old Lonny, but you really do know it was dogs tore them men up, don’t you?”
Athena clenched the handle of her mug so hard her knuckles stood out like a row of pearls.
Steve cleared his throat. “Barry, I thought you were the one saying these animals weren’t dangerous.”
“I never said they wasn’t dangerous,” Barry railed at him, obviously feeling betrayed. “I just said—”
“It wasn’t an animal! I told you, it stood on two legs like a man! Why doesn’t anybody believe me?”
“And I’m telling you we don’t need to stir up no trouble like that!” Barry answered, breathing hard.
“About what time would you say this all happened?” asked Steve. “’Thena?” When she didn’t answer him, he looked around and realized that all over the restaurant, people were staring at them. “’Thena?” he repeated. “What do you want us to do?”
She looked at him and didn’t say anything.
“What?” He furrowed his brow.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I want you to help me, I guess. I had a chance to shoot it and couldn’t do it. I waited too long. I don’t know why.”
“Could it have been your brother-in-law who chased you?” asked Steve.
“Listen, Doris.” Jack started to get up. “Larry and me, we got to get going.”
“Yeah, right,” said Larry. “We, uh, got things to do.”
“Could a couple of scrawny mutts tear a man’s arm off?” demanded Doris.
“You saying a man did that?” Barry slammed the photos down in the center of the table. “You said it yourself—look at the claw marks.” He sat back, satisfied he’d made his point. In a softer, patronizing tone, he added, “Now, it would be different if you had one shred of evidence.”
“That’s exactly what we do have.” Doris shoved the pictures back at him. “Shred of evidence.”
“I’m not crazy. Don’t everybody look at me like that!”
“Honey, nobody said that.”
“Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait a minute, Barry,” Steve said. “If it is wild dogs, and if they have started attacking people…”
“What the frig’s going on at this table?” Doris looked up to find Sims glaring down at them, his mustache twitching with outrage. “People comin’ in here for lunch, an my customers is complainin’ you’re takin’ their appetites away. Good Christ, what are those?” He snatched the photos off the table before anyone could stop him. “What the hell kinda thing is ’is to bring inna restaurant?”
Larry and Jack took advantage of the diversion to edge away from the table. Hopelessly, Athena watched as they headed for the door.
“If they’re your patrons, they don’t need us to make them sick,” Doris growled, her hand on Athena’s shoulder. “They should thank us. We probably saved them from ptomaine.” She turned back to Athena. “Excuse me, honey. I have to go to the little girls’ room.”
“Wait, Doris, please, just…Even if the dogs killed Lonny, I tell you I saw what was chasing me. After I got
