Blood and Rain by Glenn Rolfe

followed by his consciousness.

Chapter Eleven
    Joe Fischer’s evening at work went pretty much like his first sexual encounter—too fast and too confusing. There was a throbbing behind his temples that he knew he’d better get used to.
    With my luck, it’s probably the beginning of an ulcer.
    He chewed on aspirin between sips of Jameson. The whiskey felt good, but the pills, like this whole day, left a bitter taste in his mouth. He had two dead bodies and a shitload of questions that he wasn’t sure he wanted the answers to.
    After sitting at his desk for an hour, waiting on Seth Kimball’s call about his three victims, he was ready to say to hell with it. He would just go talk to Nick Bruce first. The phone rang before he reached his office door.
    â€œHello, Seth. Help me out here. What did you find?”
    â€œHi, Joe. Okay, so let’s start with the body from Christie Road. The damage is most definitely from an animal attack. Judging by the severity of the mutilation, it was something pretty big. Now, you said the driver-side window had been smashed and the victim’s face was found outside of the vehicle, right?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œWell, we’re talking about something powerful and violent. In order for it to have punched through the window and come away with the side of the guy’s face and most of the jaw, hell, I don’t know, it’s surreal. I’ve thought about that all day, and to tell you the truth, I don’t have the slightest guess as to what kind of animal would be capable of something this aggressive, let alone one that would even attempt this sort of calculated move.”
    â€œWhat are telling me, Seth? It was an animal, but it wasn’t an animal? I’m confused.”
    â€œSo am I. Animals just don’t think or act this way. The encounter seems, somehow, more human. Hypothetically, even if a person was strong enough to carry out the assault, he would need to have used a weapon of some sort, but the wounds on the victim were clean. No traces of a blade or tool of any kind. That brings it back to having been perpetrated by an animal. The wounds are more congruent with those caused by that of a large mammal with claws.”
    â€œWhat does that leave us with? A bear, a mountain lion?” Joe said.
    â€œA bear, a mountain lion, or maybe even a wolf, would be capable, though the beast does seem larger than the last two. But to go at a person who was sitting inside of a vehicle, in the kind of weather we had last night, it doesn’t add up. The behavior itself is abnormal. Usually, the type of mammals capable of this sort of damage only attack humans to protect their babies. Sometimes, though rarely, they may attack for food.”
    â€œAnd in this case, there was neither. So, how about the second victim, is there anything more there?”
    â€œThe second victim’s death was caused by the car crushing down upon him. The leg you found on the workbench, however, was definitely torn from him before he stopped breathing. Physically, it certainly matches what I found with the first victim.
    â€œThe body I picked up today, like the first, also suffered severe facial trauma. His arm was torn from his body. Again, the strength and savagery in these attacks is perplexing. The mutilated chest cavity looks as though something nuzzled right into it. We’re definitely looking at an animal, where this one is concerned, more than likely the same one that attacked the first.”
    â€œThank you for your diligence, Seth. Call me if you find anything else.”
    â€œWill do, Sheriff,” he said.
    Joe did not want to sit alone with the information, any longer than he had to. He got up and headed out of the station.
    Ted McKinney resided in a small apartment over Ken Jenks’s garage.
    He opened the door and welcomed Joe in.
    â€œEvening, Ted.”
    â€œSheriff.” Ted pulled out a fresh pack of smokes and tapped