Cold Sanctuary (John Decker Series Book 2) (5 page)

6

John Decker stood in the entrance of his home away from home and surveyed his new accommodation. He was alone now; Hayley had left moments before under the guise of letting him settle in, for which he was grateful. The units on the tenth floor were primarily reserved for official visitors, and so he naturally assumed he would be staying in something akin to a hotel room, but instead he found himself in a large suite with a kitchenette, decent sized living room, and an expansive bedroom complete with a king size bed. The unit even had a walk in shower with twin heads, which Decker made the most of within minutes of discovering it. He lingered under the hot jets of water for a long while, basking in self-indulgent heaven, before drying off and pulling on a clean set of clothes. For the first time in days he felt human.

He explored the kitchen, pleased to find it well stocked with a variety of canned and fresh foods. At least he would not starve while he was up here. He opened a loaf of sliced bread and made a ham and cheese sandwich. He cut it in half, grabbed a bag of chips, and was about to sit at the small dining room table and consume his feast when there was a knock at the door.

Decker frowned. The only person he’d met so far was Hayley and he wasn’t due to see her again until the next morning.

He crossed the room and pulled the door open, expecting to find Hayley there, but it wasn’t the town administrator in the corridor. Instead he stood face to face with a girl of perhaps twenty years of age, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. She had long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and light freckled skin. A pair of thin round glasses sat perched on her nose.

“Hi there,” the girl said.

“Can I help you?” Decker noticed her eyes, pale blue with flecks of green. They matched her complexion.

“Can I come in?” She smiled.

“Sure.” Decker stepped out of the way, taken aback. “I guess.”

The girl stepped past him into the room and looked around. “Man, they gave you the shitty apartment. Guess they don’t like you very much. 10C is much nicer. It has a view of the glacier and a hot tub.”

“I’m sorry, but who are you exactly?” Decker stood by the open door, taken aback. He could feel the tiredness creeping around the edges of his consciousness and suddenly wished he hadn’t opened the door.

“I’m Mina. I write for the local newspaper.” She walked to the window and looked out across the parking lot toward the north tower. “God, I hate this place. Everything is so drab and lifeless.” She turned back to Decker. “So you’re the monster hunter, huh?”

“The what?”

“The monster hunter.” Mina walked over to the table and pulled out a chair. She sat down and put her elbows on the table. “I read about you on the Internet. You killed that werewolf.”

“It was a loup garou, not a werewolf.”

“Same difference. Most of these superstitions stem from the same basic myth. Almost every culture on earth has some sort of werewolf in their oral history.”

“You don’t say.” Decker took a seat and picked up his sandwich. If his uninvited guest wasn’t going to leave, he might as well eat. “You write for the newspaper?”

“It’s not really a newspaper anymore. They stopped printing it about five years ago. Now it’s a website. I run it in my spare time.”

“I see.”

“So what was it like?” Mina watched him with wide eyes. “The loup garou.”

“Are you making fun of me?” Decker narrowed his eyes. He’d heard it all before, the laughter, the snide remarks and whispered comments, the odd glances when he entered a room.

“No.” Mina looked hurt. “Why would you think that?”

“Most people do these days.”

“Well not me,” Mina said. “I’m the one that discovered you.”

“Huh?” Decker was confused.

“I’ve been following the news about Wolf Haven for a while. I suggested Hayley contact you.”

“So you’re the person I have to thank for this.” Decker took a bite of the sandwich.

“Pretty much.” Mina grinned. “So?”

“What?”

“The loup garou. Tell me about it.”

“Another time.” Decker was exhausted. All he could think about was crawling into bed. “I’m not in the mood to give an interview.”

“I’m not here to interview you. Well, maybe a little, but mainly because I’m curious.” Mina looked at him with wide, expectant eyes. “Come on. Please?”

“It was big, with lots of teeth.”

“That’s all I get? It was big?” She looked disappointed.

“Pretty much. Yeah.” Decker finished his sandwich and walked over to the refrigerator. There were several cans of soda in there. The caffeine would keep him awake for a little longer - give him a jolt. He got one for himself and held one out to Mina.

She shook her head. “I try to avoid that stuff. Too many chemicals.”

“Very wise.” He popped the lid and drank.

“So they fired you?” Mina leaned back in the chair, putting her hands behind her head.

For a moment Decker was back there, all those months ago, in the State Capitol, answering a board of inquiry. Why didn’t he bring more men in to search for the killer? Why hadn’t he protected the mayor? Why did he shoot a defenseless old woman instead of arresting her? For that matter, what was a naked old hag doing running around the school in the first place, and during a storm too? They hadn’t believed a word that came out of his mouth despite the eyewitness testimony of more than half a dozen people who all swore they saw the beast. None of that mattered. Decker was an embarrassment and had to go. It was a witch-hunt made all the worse by the frenzied media coverage. After all, it wasn’t every day that a mythical monster besieged a town, or that the sheriff of said town dispatched the aforementioned monster, which later turned out to be a woman the town folk had called a witch. Yes, he had resigned, but it wasn’t like he’d been given much choice, especially after his deputy, Chad, testified. The weasel didn’t waste any time stabbing his boss in the back and taking his job. After that, things got worse. Money was tight, and although Nancy stood by him, he could see the incredible strain she was under. Her diner suffered, Taylor suffered, it was a mess all around, and Decker was the catalyst. Worst of all, he was helpless to stop it. Eventually he spoke again, his voice low, measured.

“I wasn’t fired. I resigned.”

“That sucks.” Mina hopped from the chair.

“Tell me about it.”

“You’re better off without them,” Mina said. “Monster hunter is a way cooler job than sheriff anyway.”

“I’m not a monster hunter.”

“Yeah, you kind of are. A badass monster hunter.” She walked to the door, lingering for a moment in the doorway. “That’s why I told Hayley about you, so that you can kill
our
monster.”

“You think that’s what is going on here?” Decker asked. “A monster?”

“Maybe.” Mina shrugged. “Half the town is convinced that the qalupalik killed those folk. They’re scared to death.”

“Qalupalik?”

“A mythical creature that comes to take you if you’re bad,” Mina said. “The bogeyman.”

“So you think I’m going to catch your bogeyman?”

“Pretty much. Yeah.”

“I’m here to stop a killer. I can’t help it if the town thinks it’s some kind of mythical monster on the loose,” Decker said. “Now if you don’t mind, I would love to settle in and get some shut eye.”

“Of course.” Mina nodded. “I didn’t mean to barge in on you. I can be a bit impulsive at times.”

“Forget about it.”

“Thanks.” Mina stepped into the hallway. “See you around, monster man.”

“Would you please stop calling me that.” Decker shouted after her, but it was too late. She was already gone.

7

Adam Hunt stood in the shadows and watched the slim young girl leave apartment 10F. He recognized her immediately. She was one of the town brats who lived on the fifth floor, Mina or Mina or some such thing. He tried to keep his distance from the town’s other occupants most of the time, something which was surprisingly easy. You didn’t live in a place like Shackleton unless you valued your privacy. There were rumors of people who hadn’t left the building in ten years. Living here was like being a hermit surrounded by a whole bunch of other hermits.

Despite his loathing for the town, he felt sorry for Mina. She’d been born here, as had many of the younger generation that inhabited the tower. She had attended school on the third floor, spent years playing with her friends in the lobby, even though kids weren’t supposed to congregate there, and now that she was old enough, she had her pick of a staggering six boys to date. At least the boys had it easy, since there were nine eligible girls in Shackleton. That seemed to be the only perk of growing up in this godforsaken hole, at least if you were male. Even so, he couldn't imagine spending his formative years here. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl. He yearned for the day when he could leave the town, return to California where the sun stayed high in the sky all year around, and the weather only tried to kill you once in a while.

Mina entered the corridor and made her way to the bank of elevators. She paused, glancing down the corridor for a moment, then pressed the call button and waited while the elevator car made its ponderous climb up from the lower floors.

Adam stepped back, his body merging with the shadows in the dimly lit corridor. It wouldn’t be a big deal if she saw him, but even so he preferred that she didn’t. The less that people knew about his comings and goings the better.

The elevator door opened and Mina stepped inside. A moment later it slid closed with a clunk, and then he was alone.

Except for the man in Apartment 10F.

That man was the sole inhabitant of the tenth floor right now. He wasn’t the only out-of-towner in Shackleton; there were at least thirty people working on the tunnel project. But the construction crew and engineers lived in a series of portable buildings brought in by the Navy and placed on the scrubland behind the town. No one had been more surprised than the good folk of Shackleton when the Navy agreed to open the tunnel back up. The land, and everything on it, was on permanent lease, and as such the Navy’s interest in the old base was low. Actually, it was close to non-existent since the place would never be pressed back into service. So when, after more than ten years of lobbying, the Navy gave in and sent a crew out to take care of the job, it came as something of a shock. That was three years ago, and the men living in the huts behind the town were only now close to finishing their task. When they were done he might be able to leave this place, because unknown to the town, the work on the tunnel had nothing to do with their lobbying efforts, and more to do with the reason Hunt was there. He wondered what they would think if they knew the truth, found out what they were sitting on. But they never would, at least if he did his job well.

Adam turned his attention back the apartment.

He watched for a moment longer. Then, satisfied that the occupant of 10F was not going anywhere any time soon, he melted back into the shadows.

8

It didn’t take long for Decker to unpack and settle in. He hung his clothes in the cramped walk-in closet, set up his laptop on a desk in the living room near the window, and then called Nancy. She answered immediately.

“Hello?” The sound of her voice reminded Decker how much he missed her.

“It’s me.” He gazed out of the window, over the expanse of bleak frozen asphalt that stretched all the way to the other tower. “I just thought I’d let you know that I arrived safe and sound.”

“I was just thinking about you.”

“Really?”

“It’s not the same without you here.”

“I’m sure you’re pretty much alone in that opinion,” Decker said, realizing how bitter it sounded as the words came out of his mouth.

“Now John, you know that isn’t true,” Nancy said. “You are too hard on yourself. Most of the town is grateful for what you did. You saved us all.”

“I should have done more.” Even if Nancy wouldn’t admit it, there was no denying that a good number of people, those who had not seen the beast, were pleased when he resigned. He saw the way they looked at him when he entered Cassidy’s Diner, the way they whispered and shook their heads. The only reason most of them didn’t say anything outright was because if they did Nancy would ban them from the diner, and then where would they get hot coffee and pancakes in the morning?

“So what’s it like, Alaska?” Nancy changed tack, steering the conversation away from the events of the previous summer.

“Cold and wet so far,” Decker replied. “At least the accommodation’s not too bad. I’ve stayed in worse.”

“I wish I could have gone with you.” There was a hint of longing in Nancy’s voice.

“Me too,” Decker said. “But you have Taylor to look after. Not to mention the diner.”

“I know.”

“How is Taylor, by the way?”

“Fine.” There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then Nancy spoke again. “Moody, argumentative. I worry about her, John. She hasn’t been the same since…”

”That’s precisely why you need to be there,” Decker said. “Besides, I won’t be up here long.”

“I hope not. But what if it’s like last time?”

“I’m pretty sure it will turn out to be nothing more than a simple animal attack,” Decker said.

“What if it’s not a regular animal, John?” There was a note of concern in Nancy’s voice. “What if it’s something else?”

“Either way, I’ll deal with it,” Decker said. “This isn’t my first trip around the block, remember?”

“I know,” Nancy said. “That doesn’t mean I can’t worry.”

“You just concentrate on looking after yourself and Taylor. I’ll be home in no time.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

“Alright. I have to go. I want to get the receipts to the night safe at the bank before it gets too late. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Decker wished that Nancy would just get a wall safe put into the office at the diner. He knew how much she hated going out at night, especially after all that had happened.

“Call me tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

The line went dead. Decker stood there for a moment, the phone still to his ear, lost in thought, and then turned away from the window. Mina’s words stuck in his head. She’d called him a monster hunter. At one time he would have laughed at that, but now, deep down, he wondered if that was precisely what circumstance had turned him into.