Rodney parked in the front lot of the Sheriff's Department. He and Heidi had put Listerine Breath Strips on their tongues to mask the smell of alcohol. Before getting out of the car, they checked each other's breath.
The night had grown a little cooler and Heidi folded her arms over her chest as they went to the glass door in front of the building.
Inside, there was a row of chairs up against the wall to the left, a drinking fountain in a small alcove on the right. In front of them, a long counter separated the waiting area from a large room with four desks in it. Sheriff Harker stood talking with a deputy between two of the desks.
"Sheriff?" Rodney said.
Harker turned to them, then came over to the counter. "What can I do for you?"
"We need help," Rodney said. "A friend of ours was attacked by some kind of animal and carried off."
"Some kind of animal?" Harker said, squinting a little.
"We didn't actually see it happen," Rodney said, "but another guy did, a guy who was there with her. We were at Lovers' Lookout, and he said some kind of animal came up from the embankment, grabbed her and carried down the slope."
"What kind of animal around here carries people off?" Harker said.
"I don't know," Rodney said.
"There was blood," Heidi said.
Rodney held up his hand a a streak of blood was drying on it.
Harker frowned, then sighed. "How long ago?"
"About as long as it took us to drive here from Lovers' Lookout," Rodney said.
"Who's this friend of yours that was allegedly carried away?"
"Tiffany Huff," Rodney said.
The sheriff's eyes widened slightly and he tossed a glance over his shoulder at a window in the wall that looked into another room.
Rodney had forgotten that Tiffany's mother worked dispatch in the Sheriff's Department.
"Where is she now?" Harker said.
"I don't know," Rodney said. "Brandon went down the embankment a ways, but he couldn't find anything."
"Brandon? Brandon who?"
"Carr."
"Brandon Carr," Harker said, frowning. He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll head up there right away. You want to meet me there?"
"Sure," Rodney said.
Rodney and Heidi left the building and got back in the car. Rodney pulled out of the parking lot and got back on the road.
"Rodney, I don't think there are any animals around here that could carry someone off," Heidi said.
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that, too. Maybe a bear?"
"Possibly. But I think a bear would just attack, you know? They're not too big on carrying people away. Are there any zoos around here?"
"No."
"He said it had a lot of legs."
"Yeah, but what could that be? I mean, something with a lot of legs that would carry somebody off like that? It was dark. He couldn't have gotten a very good look at it."
"True."
As he turned onto Creasey Hill Road, Rodney noticed a pair of headlights closing in behind them and assumed it was Sheriff Harker. Halfway up the hill, he pulled into the turnout and parked.
Brandon was still pacing along the edge of the embankment, limping slightly, with Alan and Natalie standing nearby.
Dark smoke still rose from the fire down below.
"Have you seen her?" Rodney said as he and Heidi got out of the Mustang.
"No," Alan said.
The sheriff pulled his cruiser in beside Rodney's car, killed the engine, and got out. "Brandon Carr," he said with a cold smile. He held a flashlight in his right hand. He walked over to Brandon, who stopped pacing. "You want to tell me what happened here tonight?"
Brandon took a deep breath. "I was standing right over there a " He pointed to a spot by the edge of the bank. " a with Tiffany. Then this thing, it came up from the embankment and it was on her, just like that. It knocked her down, and it drove these, I don't know, these, like, fangs into her, and it turned around and dragged her back down the embankment."
Harker sniffed a few times. "I do believe that's liquor I smell," he said. "You been drinking?"
Brandon sighed. "A little, yeah."
"Turn around."
"Oh, come on."
"Turn around, Brandon."
Brandon turned around and put his wrists together behind his back. He knew the routine.
Harker took handcuffs from his belt, tucked the flashlight under his arm, and put the cuffs on Brandon's wrists. "You're not under arrest, this is just for a "
"My safety and yours," Brandon said, "yeah, yeah, I know."
Harker casually frisked the boy. "Turn around. Now tell me again what happened, and tell me the truth this time."
"I told you the truth."
"What did this animal look like?"
"I don't know, it was dark, I didn't get a good look at it."
"What would you guess it was?"
Brandon sighed and rolled his eyes. "I know how this sounds, but it ... it ... "
"Come on, let's hear it."
"It had a lot of legs, these big, long legs. Like ... like a spider."
Rodney exchanged a look with Heidi. She looked doubtful. Rodney wondered if Brandon had done anything besides the joint he'd been smoking earlier.
Harker stared at Brandon for a while before saying, "A spider. A spider. You on something, Brandon?"
"No, I'm telling you a "
"I hear what you're telling me, and I'm telling you that if this is some kind of hoax, I'm going to make so much trouble for you, you'll wish you hadn't gotten up this morning, you understand?"
"This is not a hoax."
"You're telling me a spider carried Tiffany Huff down that bank?"
"I'm telling you it looked like a spider."
Harker reached out and touched Brandon's grey shirt. "Is this blood?"
"Yeah. Her blood splattered on me when that thing drove those big spikes into her. It had these four spikes on the front of its head, and all four of them a "
Harker stepped even closer to Brandon and said, "If you've done something to that girl, I'll see you go away for a long time, I don't care how old you are, you understand me?"
"I didn't do anything to her."
Harker waved Alan and Natalie over. They stood next to Rodney and Heidi. He faced the four of them and said, "I want you to tell me what you saw."
Rodney said, "Well ... we didn't see anything. We were in the car, and the, uh, windows were fogged up."
"Yeah," Alan said. "Same here."
"Did you hear anything?" Harker asked.
Rodney and Heidi spoke at the same time a he said, "I heard Tiffany scream," and she said, "She screamed."
Alan and Natalie nodded and Alan said, "Yeah, we heard that, too."
"Anything else?" Harker said.
"There was shouting just before that," Heidi said.
"When we got out of the car," Rodney said, "we didn't see either of them. I heard Brandon calling her, and I went to the edge of the bank. He was down there in the bushes, calling for Tiffany."
"So it sounded like they were fighting?" Harker said.
"Not fighting," Rodney said, "but it sounded ... you know, like a disagreement."
"When was the last time any of you saw Tiffany Huff?" Harker asked.
They all agreed they'd seen her just before they'd gotten back into their cars.
Harker turned to Brandon. "Didn't I tell you I'd better not have anymore trouble with you, Brandon?"
"We weren't fighting," Brandon said, "we were just talking, and it kind of got ... heated, is all. Then that thing came up and a "
"I don't want to hear anymore about some animal carrying her off," Harker said. "You come clean with me right now. Where is she?"
"I don't know!" Brandon shouted.
"Okay, come have a seat in the car," Harker said. He put a hand on Brandon's shoulder and led him to the cruiser, opened up the back door. Brandon sat on the seat in back, legs still outside the car.
Harker got in the front seat and got on the radio, spoke quietly.
"What the hell's going on?" Natalie said.
Rodney said, "I don't think the sheriff believes Brandon's story."
"What do you think happened to her?" Heidi said.
But no one answered.
Eight.
Harker called out two deputies to give him a hand in the search, and in half an hour, he was searching the embankment with deputies Kramer and Hanscom. The beams of their flashlights passed over manzanita bushes, wild grapevines, clumps of tall weeds, and large rocks protruding from the embankment.
Helping them were the two teenage boys who'd been parked at the lookout, Rodney Lepke and Alan Burgess. The girls waited together in one of the cars.
Brandon Carr was still in handcuffs in the backseat of Harker's cruiser.
A mile away, firemen had made some progress with the BioGenTech fire, but flames still raged.
The boys called Tiffany's name repeatedly, but got no response.
Harker's eyes followed his flashlight beam, looking for some sign of the girl, as he struggled to keep his footing on the steep slope. He didn't trust Brandon Carr. The boy had been in trouble before, and Harker had always suspected it was only a matter of time before he did something serious. He had a feeling the boy had done just that. Maybe he'd knocked the girl down the slope, or maybe he'd beaten her until she went over the edge. He'd been drinking, that was obvious, and Harker knew Brandon had a nasty problem with anger. He'd seen the boy fly into a rage more than once. Whatever had happened to Tiffany Huff, he knew Brandon had done it, which is why the boy was still in cuffs in the back seat of the cruiser.
Harker's flashlight beam came across something dark on a rock. He stopped and bent forward to get a better look.