Chapter 5

“James, tell us what this is all about. There has to be more to it than you just told,” Coop said, as they raced across the open field behind Doolin’s place and cut back on the old road that led over to the campgrounds at the dam.

“Coop, the wildlife officer called it in to dispatch and they got me on the radio. They gave me his phone number and I called him. He’s at the scene now and told me to get a boat at the dock and head upriver about two miles just down from the old bridge. He said we couldn’t get to the wreckage from up on the county road anyway. Seems there was a young man and an unidentifiable animal in a pickup when it went over the cliff and landed in the rocks down beside the river.”

“Unidentifiable animal?”

“Yes, I asked the same thing and he told me he’d never seen anything like it in his life. He also told me that the young man had been decapitated, but not in the accident.”

“It’s them ... isn’t it?” Don asked.

“Coop, he told me the animal was inside the cab with the man. There’s no way the creature you showed me in the pictures could fit inside the cab of a pickup.”

“That means there’s an offspring in there,” Don Cooper spoke up.

“My thinking exactly,” James agreed.

“Anything else?”

“He told me he called the license number in to his office and they confirmed the owner of the vehicle. The wildlife officers have been after him for some time; his name is Harold Griffis. He and his cousin are suspected poachers who only go after the trophy Whitetails each fall.”

“Did he have a weapon with him?”

“He didn’t say. He said the pickup was about to slip off the rocks into the river and if it did, we’d lose it.”

The deputy drove onto the boat ramp parking area and all three jumped out, running as hard as they could toward the office. When the manager saw the Sheriff’s deputy coming, he walked out to meet them.

“We need a boat and motor in a hurry!” James said, nearly yelling at the man.

“You got problems upriver, Deputy?”

“Yes, and I need that boat now!”

“That’s my personal boat over here ... take it, Deputy. The tank’s full of gas and there’s a twenty-five horse Mariner hanging on the tail. It’ll get you where you’re going so fast, you’ll have to wipe your eyes to see.”

“Get in front, Deputy, I’ll run the motor,” Don Cooper told him, as they ran down the narrow wooden dock to where the boat was tied up.

The dock manager pushed them away from the dock as Don hit the electric starter. They were about a mile upriver from where the river empties into the reservoir, and the current wasn’t as swift here. The farther north they went, the more the current rippled and rolled.

Don had the throttle twisted wide open as they sped upriver. They saw the wreckage in the distance ahead and he steered the boat over in that direction. The wildlife officer’s boat was pulled up on the bank and tied to a small bush. He stood waving to them as Don let the boat ease up on the sand and gravel shore. James jumped out and grabbed the short lead rope, tying it beside the wildlife officer’s boat as soon as the front of their boat touched shore.

“Gene Rash here, Deputy. Glad you could get here when you did. This pickup is about to slip into the river. I knew you’d need to see what was inside.”

“James Wetterman here ... this is Don Cooper and his son, Coop. They’re helping me investigate some things here in the county.”

“Some things like the one in that pickup?” he said, as he pointed through the side window.

“MY GOD!” James Wetterman said and turned his head.

Coop was taking pictures as fast as the camera would click. When saw the smaller version of the beast they’d seen at Doolin’s place, he knew his dad was right. They have offspring.

Coop put the camera back in the boat to keep from getting it in the water as they tried to secure the pickup to the river bank.

“I’ve got two heavy ropes we can tie this truck off with to keep it from drifting out in the current. I was afraid to try it by myself, if it had slipped, I’d have lost it.”

“Hand me the end of your rope, I’ll step out on the pickup bed and tie it to the back bumper. Wrap that end around that tall rock over there and as soon as I get it tied - pull the slack out,” Coop told them.

The water was knee deep in the back of the truck as Coop stepped across the rocks into the bed. He saw the trailer hitch with a chrome ball on it, about two feet underwater. Tying a loop in the end of the rope, he bent over the tailgate and leaned down as low as he could. Letting the loop drop down between the back bumper and the tailgate, he reached into the cold clear water and pulled the rope up on the other side of the bumper, slipping the loop over the chrome ball.

“Pull it tight, I felt the truck slip into the water some more,” he yelled to them, and jumped back when the slack came out of the rope.

“We better get a rope on the front of the truck too,” Don told them.

Coop was already wet to his knees and waded out to take the end of the other rope, tying it next to the winch mount on the front bumper.

“Tie it off, I’ve got it secured on this end,” he said, as he loosened the hook on the winch cable and tripped the cable release. He held the hook as he pulled the long cable back with him, wading out to step up on the rocks.

“Do you think that winch will still work?” Don asked.

“If the battery isn’t busted, it should,” Coop said.

“I agree, if we can get the truck to winch itself back on those low rocks, we can get in there and check this out better. Looks like the man was dead before the impact. That creature must have died when the truck hit the rocks,” James said, taking the cable from Coop.

He hooked the cable around an old tree stump at the base of the bluff and pulled to check it.

“It’s going to be rough, getting in that cab with those two and working that winch,” the wildlife officer said.

“There’s a remote switch on the winch. If it still works, I can get on the hood and winch the truck out of the river. We need to do something with both these bodies, James. You got any thoughts.”

“I have two body bags in my vehicle. I could go back and get them.”

“Better leave now, we’ll need to get this mess cleaned up before someone sees it down here and comes snooping around.”

“I’ll be right back,” James said, and ran to the boat.

“Dad, if you and Gene will watch for me, I’ll get on the hood and reach down to operate the remote switch. If everything breaks loose, just yell and I’ll get off and let it go.”

“Be careful out there, Coop,” Don Cooper cautioned his son.

The front of the truck was beat up pretty bad and the hood was wrinkled, but Coop managed to lie on the hood and reach down toward the front bumper, to operate the switch. He hit it quickly and released it, testing it. When it whined and began to reel in cable, he reached back down to hold the switch down.

The front of truck began to turn back toward the bluff and the back swung around, still tied off with the rope on the back bumper - one front tire was blown out and the other was still inflated. The truck slowly inched its way through the smaller rocks and up on top of a larger, round rock before it stopped and the winch stalled.

“Is that as far as it will go? If we can, we need to get it up here just a little more to get the bodies out,” Don said.

“I’ll try again; I’m not sure if the battery gave out or the truck is lodged in the rocks.”

“Hold up, Coop, I see what it is. I’ll try to roll this big rock from under the back wheel and it should roll upon the bank,” Gene said, as he stepped knee deep into the cold water.

“Here, let me get down there and help you, if this is what stopped it, we’ll get the truck out on the bank and get this mess cleaned up,” Don said, as they both reached back to pull on the smooth round rock.

The rock rolled forward, then fell back when their hands slipped.

“Try it again, we’ve loosened it from the sand now,” Don said.

When they pulled the rock forward this time, it rolled out of the sand and away from the truck wheel. When they were clear, Don told Coop to try it again.

When the winch started, the truck bumper was pulled all the way to the tree stump, right up to where the cable was hooked. Coop jumped to the ground and the three men stood looking at one another.

“We may as well get that door open if we can, James will be back shortly,” Don said, as he reached for the door handle.

“Here comes James now, let me get the camera out of the boat and get some pictures before we open the door, Dad,” Coop told him.

When Coop reached the boat, he grabbed the rope and pulled it up on the bank to tie it off. He turned and James held the camera out to him.

“I was so nervous when we got here, I forgot that I’d put it back in the boat,” Coop told him.

“I didn’t even see it until I was halfway back down there. I see you got the truck up on the bank and secured. How did you do that?”

“Dad and Gene had to roll a rock out of the way, but at least we’ve got it secured.”

“Let’s take some pictures and get these bodies in the body bags. I hope that creature over there will fit into this bag, he sure looks big to me,” James said, as they hurried back to the truck.

Coop took pictures of the grisly scene in the cab, through both door windows, then from the back of the cab where the back glass had been broken out.

Both bodies were jammed into the floorboard with the man’s decapitated head lying on the dash. Blood was running from the stump of the neck and down over the dash onto the animal below. The stench of the beast was burning their nostrils, but they had to get this done.

“Let’s get them out of there; be careful of those claws, they look razor sharp,” Coop told them, as he climbed out of the truck bed. There were three pair of rubber gloves in each body bag and they each slipped a pair on.

“We may need to try and roll this creature out onto the open body bag, then zip it up. I’m not sure all of us together can even lift it,” Don told them.

They pulled and tugged until they had the limp body of the creature in a position to just let it fall out of the truck onto the opened body bag. When they stopped to get the bag in place on the ground, Coop reached for his camera and took some more pictures of this awful looking beast. He was still taking pictures when Don and James rolled the limp body out of the truck onto the body bag. It hit the ground with a heavy thud and one of its arms moved.

“Damn, I thought it was still alive for a second,” Gene Rash said, as they all jumped back.

“I did too, and I was ready to leave here,” James said, and they all had a quick laugh as they tried to get the bag slid out of the way and zipped up. When they’d gotten it moved back far enough to get the man’s body out, James finally got the zipper started.

After getting the young man’s body in a body bag and secured, they put the head inside the body bag with the body. James zipped this one up and they decided to load it last.

The four men scuffled and scooted and pulled on the heavy bag containing the creature until they had it beside the wildlife officer’s boat. They stood to gather their strength and take a deep breath away from the stench that still filled the air.

All together, they lifted the body bag and managed to roll it over the side of the boat and down into the bottom between the seats.

When they loaded the body bag with the man inside, they laid it right over the top of the beast.

“James, we need to get this winch retrieved and leave the truck just like this with the doors opened. Whoever discovers this will think the driver fell into the river,” Don told him.

“It will be reported sooner or later and you’ll have to start a recovery effort for the man’s body,” Coop told James.

“I’ll deal with that when the time comes ... let’s get these bodies to the dock and into my vehicle. We’ll have to dispose of them somehow.

“Gene, when we get back to the dock, pull your boat in at the north end of the ramp and I’ll bring my vehicle over. The three of us can load the body bags. Don will have to keep the manager busy or he’ll be right out here in the middle of this,” James told him.

“We’ll make that work. I’ll see you back at the dock,” he said. Coop rode with Gene in his boat as they left for the boat dock in the two boats.

They were out in the main current with Gene’s boat in the lead. Don and James were off to the right out of his wake and slightly behind them. Coop was in the front of the boat and looked back toward Gene as he gunned the motor. They both had a smile on their faces. This had gone better than they’d hoped it would. Now to get the bodies of the man and the creature disposed of until all this mess was taken care of.

Suddenly, the body bag with the creature in it began to move, nearly throwing the other bag off the side of the boat.

“Coop, it’s still alive. I saw the bag move!” Gene yelled.

Coop grabbed his camera and watched through the screen as the bag began to move and roll as the beast began to revive. He snapped pictures as fast as he could.

The creature broke free from the body bag by ripping it open with its razor sharp claws. When it came up, the other bag was cast overboard and sank quickly.

James and Don saw what was happening and slowed their boat to come up close to Coop and Gene.

Coop pulled his big revolver and aimed it at the head of the beast when it turned to look at him. He was only a few feet from it and knew he’d only have time for one shot, then hit the water if it made the slightest move toward him.

The young beast turned back toward Gene, then it looked all around at the lake and the water. Its left paw was dangling in the water as if the arm was broken. Almost as if in fear, the beast pulled its paw back from the water and moved as if trying to get out of the boat.

“Shoot that damned thing, Coop,” Gene yelled, and the animal looked toward him. With a sudden leap, the creature went overboard and Gene throttled back as Don and James came alongside.

They all watched, stunned at what was happening as the creature thrashed and fought against the water. It couldn’t swim - it was fighting the water with its good arm and thrashing around with its broken arm. With a look around at all the men, the creature opened and closed its mouth repeatedly and tried in vain to pull itself toward the boats.

They looked on, stunned at the sudden actions of the creature that made it go overboard. It was drowning and there was nothing they could do - or wanted to do - to stop it.

“Damn. I hope that thing doesn’t come to the surface. Someone will find it and we’ll start this all over again,” James said, after they’d watched it slowly sink.

They’d lost both body bags, but at least the problem of disposal was taken care of for the time being, anyway.

“Coop, if you and your dad have time, I’d like to drive around and come out on that county road up there, where the truck went off ... we may find something we can use.”