The Winter Creek Beast by CP Bialois Page B

deputy prepared to catalogue everything they found. It was a thankless job but somebody had to be stuck with it. “Looks like it. It’s my guess, depending on what the DNA people say.”
    Doc Fredericks stared at the sheriff for a few seconds before shaking his head. He knew the game. It was standard procedure despite what common sense told them. “C’mon, Nate. May as well get this done while there’s still light.”
    Jay turned to see if he couldn’t find something to occupy his time with besides supervising a glorified cleanup. He just wished he knew what about this whole thing made his skin crawl.
     
    *****
     
    It was well past dark by the time Jay and company were finished. After coming to a stop in the space marked “SHERIFF” in bold letters to the right of the sheriff’s office door, Jay slid out of the driver’s seat of his Jeep. He’d sent Melvin home for the night as there was nothing more he could do. Why torture the boy needlessly when he was capable of filling out the reports?
    Jay hated having to catalogue a case like the one they just finished with. If it was fresh, then it wasn’t too bad, but the remains sat there for a week or longer. And not more than a stone’s throw from the hiking trail. Had the hiker not decided to answer his own call of nature there, they probably never would’ve found the body. Such were the mysteries of the forest. It could break a healthy man in no time if he wasn’t prepared.
    Maybe that’s what bothered him about the whole situation. While photographing the area, Melvin stumbled across the lower half of the body. It’d been separated from the rest above the navel and was hidden under a bush. Aside from being badly decomposed, it looked like whatever animal did it didn’t care to eat the legs. That didn’t make sense since a wild animal wouldn’t pass on the available food source. Bears were known to forget where they buried their food from time to time, and the scene looked like a bear attack. The only issue he saw was bears rarely leave their food half buried unless they’re disturbed.
    Then there was the wallet they found. Somehow it managed to survive mostly intact like the jeans the man had been wearing. The man was Mitch Rhodes. If Rhodes had been the town drunk, it would’ve been easier to accept his fate, but he was a local celebrity after winning numerous shooting crowns and becoming a renowned Big Game hunter. He knew those woods better than anybody. As much as he tried to tell himself it could happen, Jay couldn’t see him having an accident. At least they had a name to go with the body.
    As far as Jay knew, Rhodes didn’t have any family. He preferred to live like a rock star and was believed to be the cause of many divorces in the surrounding area. The idea of a jealous lover or irate husband wasn’t anything new, but the problem was finding anyone willing to point the finger. While he was famous, few could stand Rhodes and his arrogant ways.
    Not liking the direction his investigation looked to want to turn, Jay unlocked the door to the Sheriff’s Office and went inside. He hadn’t eaten for most of the day, but paperwork waited for no man. If he was lucky, Melvin left something in the small refrigerator for him to scavenge. Anything to counter the coffee he would be drinking in a matter of minutes. The last thing he wanted was to have the shakes while typing his report. There weren’t enough “damns” in all of creation to cover the looming mistakes he was bound to make.
    Once inside, he locked the door once more and hung his hat on the coat rack off to the side before making his way into the small kitchen. He smiled at seeing the note attached to a bag of fast food waiting for him.
    Jay,
    We both know you’re coming back to work tonight so here’s something to hold you over.
    Edith
    He pulled a cheeseburger out of bag and poured himself a cup of coffee before putting both in the microwave to heat them up. While he waited for the