“Did you hear, Deputy Sally?” the taller of the boys asked as he and his friend approached them with Dave.
Sally reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. “I heard, Tico.” She turned to me. “This is Tico Mendez, and his friend, Brady Eubanks. Boys, this is Sheriff Harmon.”
I put out my hand, and the boys took turns shaking it. “I’m glad to meet, you guys. Thank you for calling Deputy Chesney as soon as you found the body.”
“Sure. No problem, Sheriff. You want to see him?” Brady asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“Yes, but I want you boys to stay out here with the deputy now.”
They groaned with disappointment, but I ignored them and glanced at Dave. “Did you call the ME?”
“Sure did. She should be here any minute,” Dave replied, putting a hand on each of the boys’ shoulders. He turned back and nodded his head at the mine. “The body is about a hundred feet into the mine, straight back.” He glanced at Tico and Brady. “Now come on over here and we’ll wait by my Jeep.”
The boys groaned again, but I ignored them as I set Sally’s heavy pack on the ground and pulled out the Geiger counter, handing it to her. I stuck the radios back in the pack and handed Sally a powerful Maglite, taking one for myself, before zipping up the pack and hoisting it back into place.
We headed into the dark mine after squeezing through the entrance made by someone who’d pushed the boards aside. I noted the presence of trash littering the ground near the opening. Discarded beer bottles and fast-food bags were covered with dust. It looked like someone had partied inside the mine, and I had to shake my head as I wondered at the stupidity of people who thought it was exciting to spend time in an abandoned uranium mine. Then again, Precious had told me she thought it was a gold mine. Maybe others didn’t pay attention to the radiation sign outside and thought it had been gold as well.
Ignoring the warnings seemed awfully stupid to me especially when the Geiger counter Sally held began to make a low ticking sound. I glanced over at her, shining a flashlight on the box and watched the hand on the screen moving back and forth on the low end. That made me feel a little better. Enough weird things had happened to me since coming to Prosper Woods. If I started glowing from radiation, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t be a good look on me.
“So, when Sheriff Willis vanished, a letter arrived afterward?” I asked as Sally and I headed into the mine using the bright halogen of our flashlights to pick our way over rocks on the dirt floor, walking deeper into the shaft.
“Like I said, he didn’t show up for work that first couple of days but then again, he’d been scheduled off for the weekend, so we didn’t think anything of it. On the second day, we got a letter, and then I called his cell. When he didn’t answer, I drove over to his house to check on him.”
“That’s the same place I live now?”
“No. Sheriff Willis had his own cabin, his family home. His people lived here for generations. Anyway, when he didn’t answer the door, I thought it was odd, but I walked all around the place looking in windows and checking the back door. His truck wasn’t parked in the driveway or in the garage which he’d left unlocked, so I drove back to the station. I kept trying his cell, even using a GPS locater, but he must have turned it off because I got no signal. When I checked for his last GPS location on the computer back in the office, its last position was at his home nearly eight hours prior. I guess we know what happened to him now.”
“This has to be murder, right?” I asked absently. I knew that it was unlikely the sheriff had walked into the mine and laid down to die on his own.
“I’d say it has to be, but we’ll know more when we scope out the scene and get the ME’s report.” Sally stopped walking and lifted her face. I stopped beside her and turned to look at her. She glanced back at me. “Smell that?”
I sniffed the air and caught a faint whiff of something animal on the air. I wasn’t sure what it was. “I smell something like wet dog, but I can’t really make it out.” I stared at her wide eyes. “What is it?”
“Werewolf,” she replied. “Werewolves have been here but not recently.”
My jaw dropped open as I realized how strange this conversation was. I hadn’t talked about werewolves with anyone other than Vincent, Sid, and of course, Floyd Reardon, the werewolf alpha who had come to kill Vincent.
“You know about werewolves?” I asked, still kind of freaked out to be having this conversation with Sally who’d only just admitted to being a shifter herself.
She nodded. “I know Floyd Reardon is the Frederick pack alpha, and that Greg Brown, the bartender at the Prosper Woods Saloon, is a pack member. I also know his whole pack paid Vincent Lasco a visit, intent on killing him, just because he’s a vampire. By the way, nice job on diffusing the whole situation that night,” she said.
“You know about all that?” I asked, totally shocked. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around my deputy living in the same alternate universe I seemed to have
