51: The Beginning Chapter 3 Part 4

When Lindsay got home, she was the only one there, which was rare. She walked into the bedroom to change out of her uniform. She turned on the light, and the first thing she saw was her dog, Crook, lying on his back on the bed. When the light came on, he stretched, groaned, put his front paws around his snout, and pulled his head down. She walked over to the bed and scratched him on the head. He finally opened his eyes and wagged his tail.

He was not a beautiful dog. He was a scrawny white hound mix. He was born with a strange crook in his tail that, as he had gotten older, made him look like his tail was short with a ball of fur at the end. When he was just a couple of years old, he injured his ear, which, upon healing, became wrinkled and shorter than the other ear. Nevertheless, what he lacked in looks, he made up for in personality and love. 

Lindsay changed her clothes and then went to the kitchen, closely followed by Crook. He hopped into a chair in the living room by the kitchen door and watched her start cooking. She knew Wren would be home any minute, and her son had gone to a friend’s house and should be back soon. She pulled everything out to make stir-fry for supper. Just as Lindsay set everything on the counter, she heard the front door open. She peeked around the corner to see Wren coming in, followed by Andy.

“Hey, babe, look who I found outside,” Wren said as he came into the kitchen to hug and kiss her. “Dillon, home yet?”

“Not yet,” she said. “Hi, Andy. How has your day been so far?”

“Hi. Good so far,” Andy said. He even looked at Lindsay when he answered her.

“That’s good. Supper will be done in about fifteen minutes if you want to eat with us,” she told him.

“Thank you, ma’am, but I am meeting Big Bob later to go over a few things, and we’re eating then,” Andy answered her.

“What did I say about ‘ma’am’?”

“Sorry, sheriff,” Andy said.

Wren had gone into the office to put his things down and returned to the kitchen.

“I’m hungry. What can I do to speed up this process?” Wren asked.

“Nothing, babe. It has to cook, and it will only take about fifteen minutes,” she told Wren.

“OK, Andy, where do you want to start with this conversation?” she asked.

“I would really like to know what happened. I mean, why were you fired?” Andy said. This time, he could not look Lindsay in the face.

“OK, then. Let’s sit down,” Lindsay said, motioning to the table. “First of all, last night was a very similar call to the one I had the night everything happened to me. I had been dispatched to a call about a residential alarm sounding south of the base. It was a rainy, cold, foggy night, making it miserable to have a call where you have to search outside in the dark. I arrived and could hear strange growling and snorting sounds even above the high winds that night. I could also hear something moving in the trees at the edge of the yard. I shined my light in front of me and could see eyes reflecting high up next to a tree. There is no way it could have been a deer or a person. It may have been a bear standing on its back legs, using the tree to balance, but I couldn’t tell.” She paused and took a deep breath. 

Wren was sitting next to her and put his hand on her leg to comfort her. When she looked at him, he nodded, encouraging her to continue with the story.

Lindsay continued, “I had started to draw my weapon, but before I could, something hit me. It was huge, hairy, and smelled like what we smelled last night. It hit me hard enough that it dislocated my shoulder, broke my collarbone, and gave me a concussion. I put all of that in my report. The old sheriff told me to change it. He told me to put in the report that people had attacked me, and he even gave me names to use. I refused to do it, so he fired me. He gave his version of what happened as the truth and claimed I was lying and protecting a person or people.”

She watched Andy the whole time she spoke, seeing how he was reacting. He had sat silently, his eyes growing wide and his mouth opening. She did not think what she said was particularly shocking, but it was also something she had lived with every day.

“Andy, are you OK?” She asked him.

“Um, I don’t know,” he answered. “So, what exactly was it? Is there more than one? What should I do if I see that, whatever it is?”

“Those are all excellent questions, but I don’t have good answers to any of them,” she told him. 

Wren looked at Andy and said, “Andy, you smelled it on that call. I can promise that you do not want to be any closer than that. There have been reports of that thing for hundreds of years in this area. Most people write it off as a legendary creature or some misidentified animal. There have been reports of this thing on the base since it was first established. Reports of attacks on people and animals date back at least two hundred years. Whatever this is, it is real and extremely dangerous.”

Andy looked at Wren and Lindsay. He was bewildered. None of what he was being told made sense to him. He had to admit to himself that he could not explain the damage he had seen at Rita Johnson’s or the smell.

“Andy, do you have any other questions?” Lindsay asked him.

“No, sheriff, I think I need to process some things first,” he answered.

Lindsay asked, “Are you still up for explaining why you can’t speak to women? That is something that we need to work on with you.”

Andy looked down at the table and started. “Well, I don’t know. I have just always been really awkward with women. I could talk to my mom and grandmother, but that was it. They tried to help me, but so far, nothing has worked. I never even had a date in high school. Every time I got close to a girl, I would hyperventilate. I even passed out a few times. But it has gotten better; I don’t hyperventilate anymore.”

Lindsay and Wren looked at each other and then back at Andy. They were almost disappointed that there was not more to it. 

“Andy, I have noticed that you seem to be able to speak to me rather well. Why is that?” Lindsay asked.

“I think because you make me think of my mom,” he said, looking her right in the eye with a big smile.

Wren burst out laughing. Lindsay looked at him with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t laugh too much about that. You are older than I am,” Lindsay said to Wren with a smile.

Wren stopped laughing and looked at her with a pained expression. He stood up, kissed her on top of the head, and went to the stove to check on the food that was cooking. Just then, the front door opened, and Dillon came in.

“Hey, Dillon, come here. I want you to meet one of the deputies,” Lindsay called to him. He walked into the room, and Lindsay said, “Dillon, this is Deputy Andy Baxter. Andy, this is my son, Dillon.”

Andy nodded toward Dillon, and Dillon did the same to Andy before hurrying toward his room, muttering that he would be right back. Andy stood up from the table suddenly.

“Thank you for telling me all of this, sheriff. I think I had better go. Big Bob said he wanted to talk to me this evening if that is OK,” Andy said.

“Of course, that’s fine,” Lindsay answered as she stood. “If there is anything that you want or need to talk about, just let me know. This is a lot of information to take in at once. I do want to say thank you for talking to us tonight,” she said as she walked him to the door.

Andy looked at her, smiled, and nodded as he stepped onto the porch. She closed the door behind him and turned around to see Wren standing in the kitchen doorway.

“Supper is done,” he said.

“I make him think of his mother?!” she questioned.

Wren once again burst out laughing. This time, he held the door frame to keep from falling.