Dead Man's Song (Pine Deep 2)

It wasn’t the question Terry was expecting and his surprise showed on his face. “What does it matter? A monster’s a monster. ”

“When it comes to nightmares, I don’t think so. Maybe if we understood the kind of critter you’re seeing it might mean something, you know—the way one thing means something else in regular dreams. You dream of hotdogs flying through the Lincoln Tunnel and it means you need to get laid. ”

A crow flapped out of the east and landed in the tree above him, cawing softly. “It’s a wolf,” Terry said at last.

Crow nodded. “Well, that much makes sense. ”

“How?” Terry loaded that one word with a hundred questions.

“Well, last time I looked at the name on those checks you give me to manage the Hayride, your last name is ‘Wolfe. ’ Not really much of a stretch. If you’re dreaming about becoming a beast and fate conveniently gives you a last name like that, it’s pretty much a gimme. Plus, we’ve all been calling you Wolfman since grade school. Look at me—Crow—if I dreamed about becoming a bird, what do you think would be first on the list?”

“No,” Terry said with a vigorous shake of his head, “it can’t be that simple. ”

“Not saying it is, brother,” Crow said, “but it’s at least part of the puzzle. What’s your doc say about it?”

“He thinks it’s stress. ”

“And you don’t?” He waved his hands to indicate the town. “You’re the mayor of Shitstorm, USA. Can we say ‘blight’? Can we say ‘township-wide financial crisis’? Not to mention Ruger and those other ass-clowns shooting up the place. ”

“This started before Ruger. ”

“Has it gotten worse since he’s been here?”

A silence, then Terry nodded. Crow gave a “well, there you are” hand gesture.

“No,” Terry said, “there’s more. ”

(2)

Vic always drove carefully. He’d never so much as logged a parking ticket, let alone a speeding ticket, so when he saw that there was a police unit behind him he didn’t sweat being pulled over. On the other hand, he was less than half a mile from the hospital, heading away from it on the only major road that passed those gates. He stared at the headlights of the cruiser in his rearview mirror and his mind was working, working.

When the light ahead turned red, he made a decision and braked to a stop, pulling halfway onto the shoulder and waving his arm out the window. As the cruiser pulled up Vic could see that it was Dave Golub riding alone. He knew Golub through Polk. A big Jewish kid playing cop to pay his way through law school. Vic grinned. “Hey! Dave!”

Golub peered through his passenger window and saw who it was. He put his unit in park and hit the button to drop the window. “Vic?”

“Yeah, glad to see you,” Vic said and jerked his door open. “You’re a gift from God, let me tell you. ”

“Everything okay?”

“Oh, well it is and it ain’t,” Vic said, flashing his grin. “I hit a deer a couple miles back. Mashed the son of a bitch but good and slung him in the back. ” He jerked a thumb toward the truck bed. “But I just heard a thump and I think the poor bastard ain’t dead after all. Mind taking a look?”

Without waiting for an answer he started walking back toward the tailgate, knowing that Golub would follow. He just hoped he wouldn’t call it in, but didn’t think he would. Vic was a townie and everybody knew Vic. Vic never got drunk, never got into trouble, and he was a buddy with Polk.

Golub said, “Sure, but I’m no vet,” and got out.

As he crunched along the gravel on the shoulder, Vic waited, one hand inside the cab holding onto the corner of the tarp, sizing Golub up. The kid was huge, maybe six-five and beefy tending toward soft. Vic knew he could take him if he had to, but that wasn’t on the menu.

“Let me see what you got,” Golub said, putting one hand on the rim of the bed and using the other to shine his light at the tarp. “If it’s still wounded I can call someone to bring out one of those humane-killer things, and—”

As he said this, Vic whipped back the tarp. There was nothing humane about what happened next.

(3)

Val parted the curtains just slightly and peered out. The kitchen was dark and she could see Terry and Crow outside. “What do you think they’re talking about?” she asked.

“Besides what’s going on in town?” Sarah asked from the doorway. She had her arms folded and was leaning against the frame. “Probably talking about Terry’s dreams. ”

Val let the curtains fall closed and turned to Sarah. “Dreams?”