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Aaron nodded.
She moved toward the door, took a ring of keys from her pocket, and locked the front door. “What’s up?” he asked, a little surprised.
“Being a fellow stranger in this burg, I’ve got something I want to show you,” she said, moving past him and down the hall. “It’s in the basement.”
Aaron followed her to the door at the end of the hall. There was a sudden tension in the air that hadn’t been there before, and it concerned him. “Does this have anything to do with your old boyfriend?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said with a slight nod. “I think it might.” She opened the door and started down the creaking wooden steps into the darkness. “Kevin contacted me, asking me to come to Blithe to help him with something, but he wasn’t exactly clear as to what the problem was.”
At the foot of the stairs she reached out into the inky darkness and pulled the chain for the light, dispelling the darkness to the far corners of the underground room. “So I show up and I find him missing,” she continued, as she waited for Aaron to join her. “The office is in disarray. He hasn’t been here for appointments for at least four days.” Katie ran a trembling hand across her forehead.
Aaron’s curiosity was piqued, but something was clearly upsetting Katie, and that was cause for concern.
“Yes, he was a bit of a flake, and that’s part of the reason we’re no longer together, but he took his job very seriously. I even went to the police to file a missing person’s report, but Chief Dexter said I should give it some time—how did he put it? ‘Just in case he’s out sowing his wild oats.’ ” The vet laughed with little humor.
“What did you find, Katie?” Aaron asked quietly.
She glanced at him, then turned toward an old freezer in the corner. “First I found his journal, and it mentioned—things he had found in town.”
“What kinds of things?”
Taking a deep breath, Katie crossed the cellar to the freezer. Aaron followed close behind her.
“Wrong things,” she said, pulling open the lid on the unit. “See for yourself.”
Katie reached inside the frosty i
It was the size of an average house cat and bore some resemblance to—of all things—a raccoon, but it wasn’t either. Not really. The body was covered in long, gray fur, but the limbs were scaled, like a fish. Curved talons like that of some bird of prey grew from three of its feet—the fourth ended in a stunted tentacle.
“What is it?” Aaron asked again, unable to pull his eyes from the freakish sight.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Katie replied. She pulled a pen from her lab coat pocket and began to poke at the corpse. “This wouldn’t happen to be what bit your dog, would it?”
Aaron shook his head. It was as ugly as an Orisha, but it had no co
“Looks to be a little bit of everything—a real evolutionary blend.” Katie shrugged and continued. “We’ve got some bird and rodent attributes, as well as fish—and there’s also a little bit of cephalopod thrown in for good measure.” She pulled the pen away and wiped it against her pants leg. “And that’s just this one.”
He looked at her hard. “There’s more?” he asked uneasily.
She nodded, gesturing at the freezer. “There are at least seven others in there—each more grotesque than the last. One, maybe two, could pass as a random Mother Nature having a bad day—but this many?”
“What do you think it means?” Aaron asked, gazing at the monstrosity atop the freezer and imagining with disgust how the ones inside looked.
“What do I think it means?” Katie repeated. She started to put the pen back in her pocket, then seemed to think better of it and tossed it into an old barrel beside the furnace. “I think something in this town is making monsters.”
Aaron and Katie hurried up the cellar steps, as if the disturbing creatures in the freezer had suddenly come to life and were chasing them. Quietly, lost in their own thoughts, they returned to the lobby, where Katie unlocked the front door.
“So you can see why I’m a little freaked,” she said, rubbing her arms with the palms of her hands as if to eliminate a winter’s chill.
“Do you have any idea what’s causing it?” Aaron asked, leaning against the reception desk. The memory of the previous night’s dream and his run-in with the strange raccoon yesterday suddenly flooded his mind and made him flinch. Could this somehow be co
“It appears to be some kind of mutation,” Katie was saying. She had walked around the desk and was pulling open the bottom drawer. She fished around inside for a moment, then removed an unopened package of Oreos. She tore open the bag and stuffed one in her mouth. “Sorry,” she said, her mouth full. She offered him the bag. “I have an incredible craving for these when I’m stressed.”
Aaron took a few cookies as Katie continued with her theory.
“Maybe some kind of illegal chemical dumping or drug manufacturing.” Katie nibbled like a squirrel on an Oreo, eyes gazing off into space. “Something that could change an animal on a genetic level…”
“Here?” Aaron asked, surprised. “Is there even any industry around here big enough to cause that kind of damage?”
Katie finished her cookie and grabbed another one. “Not anymore, but there used to be a business in town that made boats. It was Blithe’s major employer until it closed about fifteen years ago. The abandoned factory is still standing out by the water. Evidently the owners wanted to expand, but the land there is unstable because of underwater caves that honeycomb the coast. So they took the company to California.”
“What, are you an expert on Blithe? I thought you were from Illinois.” Aaron laughed, licking the crumbs from his fingertips.
Katie shrugged. “I was going to move here with Kevin before the split, so I did some research.”
“You think some kind of toxic waste from the boat factory seeped into the soil?” Aaron reached for another Oreo.
“When I first came into town the other night, I got a little lost and found myself on the road that leads to the old factory.” She closed up the bag and returned it to the drawer. “There was an awful lot of activity around there, especially for a place that’s supposedly abandoned. I think there’s something going on in Blithe, and I think my ex figured that out and that’s why he’s disappeared.”
Aaron recalled his run-in with chief of police. Is it paranoia talking now, or does this tiny, seaside town really have a deep, dark secret? he wondered. But there was something—something that seemed to speak to the inhuman side of his nature. It had spoken to Camael as well, and now, like Katie’s former boyfriend, he, too, was missing. “Maybe you should go to the state police,” he suggested. “That would probably be the smartest thing to do, especially if you think that Kevin might have—”
Katie shook her head emphatically. “No, not yet. I’ve got to be sure of the details before I start making crazy accusations.”
Aaron felt a knot begin to form in the pit of his stomach. “And those details are …?”
“I want to check out the factory—tonight.”
The knot in his gut grew uncomfortably tighter. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Katie.”
“It’s the only way I can think of to prove that something’s up here. Don’t worry,” she added with a nervous grin. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just poke around a little, get the evidence I need, and be back here in no time.”
Alarm bells were ringing in Aaron’s head, but he doubted there was anything he could say to sway the woman’s resolve. The voice of reason told him he was going to seriously regret what he was about to say, but he hated the idea of Katie going alone even more. “I’ll go with you,” he said quickly before he could change his mind.