Smoky Mountain Mystery 01 - Out on a Limb (30 page)

BOOK: Smoky Mountain Mystery 01 - Out on a Limb
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He was mistaken about the shadows, they weren’t bears, but he’d have been even more terrified if he’d realized his wild potshots were summoning a 400 pound black bear who happened to be close enough to hear the distinctive pops of the silenced rifle. The bear loped off toward the sound, excited to see what Henry had made for dinner.

Chapter 40
 

 

When Professor Whittington saw the bear up close, he did the worst thing he could possibly do. He ran.

That virtually guaranteed that the bear would chase him, even though the fearsome creature wasn’t at all interested in harming him, but was simply doing what he’d learned, for which he expected to receive a tasty pork treat.

Whittington sprinted along the most passable route he could discern and to his surprise and relief, burst out on the paved road.
Hamilton
’s was just across the way. He continued toward it at his maximum speed. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that the bear was still giving chase, not gaining on him, but following avidly.

Whittington didn’t understand that the bear was looking for a wild hog, expecting Whittington to drop it. He dashed into the parking lot and zigzagged between the cars, jerking on the door handle of each one as he passed. The third one he tried was unlocked. It was Jill’s new Mazda 323. He put one leg into the car, turned, and saw the bear closing in on him.

The sight was terrifying. Whittington threw himself the rest of the way into the car, and tried to slam the door, but the rifle he was carrying prevented it from closing. He dropped the gun on the ground and closed the door just seconds before the bear caught up with him. The bear raked the side of the car with his huge claws as a way of requesting his supper.

Whittington was trapped. The bear had him pinned inside the small car. The creature clawed and snarled ferociously as it climbed onto the hood and then the roof, looking for a way to reach the food it believed was inside.

It took less than a minute for the bear to force its claws through the rubber strip around the top of the driver’s window and pry the glass out. Whittington scrambled across the console into the passenger seat. He opened the passenger door, intending to make a dash for the store, but the bear swatted at him with tremendous strength, unintentionally slamming it closed. Whittington sat inside, nearly paralyzed with fear.

The bear climbed down from the top of the car and set to work on the driver’s door. Now that the glass was gone, the immensely strong and excited creature was able to get leverage with both paws on the window sill and rip the door off. Whittington screamed and clambered over the front seats into the back.

That was a really bad decision. He should have tried again to get out the passenger side. But he didn’t realize his mistake until it was too late. Only after the bear had climbed into the front and was swatting at him between the seats, did he realize he was in the back seat of a two door car.

***

 

Henry lay on the ground with his right arm bleeding heavily. He had no idea what he’d been hit with. He assumed it was a bit of flying debris propelled up by the gale force winds. It was actually a bullet from one of the Professor’s potshots.

It wasn’t difficult for
Leon
to enlarge one of the rips in Henry’s shirt and tear off a strip of fabric to make a tourniquet. He tied the piece of cloth around Henry’s arm above the bulge of his bicep and got the bleeding slowed, but when Henry tried to stand he couldn’t.

A moment later he felt
Leon
’s hands grasp him under the arms. Henry still wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if
Leon
was actually there. But someone lifted him with surprising strength and helped him to his feet. Then, with
Leon
half carrying him, he was able to make his way toward
Hamilton
’s.

***

 

Phoebe looked out the window and a sudden flash of lightning lit the back yard. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was Henry and Leon!
Leon
was soaked and Henry looked a fright. What in the world had happened? And what in blue blazes was he doing out there? Phoebe grabbed a raincoat and ran for the back door. As soon as she went outside, before she could put the coat on, the wind jerked it out of her hand and carried it off into the storm.

She ran toward the two figures. When she got closer she saw that Henry was bleeding and could barely stand
on his own
.
Leon
was holding him upright. God have mercy. She had no idea what had happened, but whatever it was, it looked serious.

She went to Henry’s other side and would have helped support him, but before she could, he pulled the rifle sling off over his head. He handed her the gun, the night vision headset, and the small plastic protective case containing the darts, and gasped, “Shoot!” and pointed out into the maelstrom.

“What?” she shouted, putting on the headgear and slipping a dart into the
chamber.

“Go!” he shouted and shoved her hard toward the road.

She jogged around the side of the store and when she turned the corner, she saw a big bear destroying Jill’s car.

An angry adult bear was a force of nature even more terrifying than the storm had been. Phoebe paused, watching the scene in amazement. The bear tore the driver’s door off the car like he was opening a cardboard box. She made out the shape of someone scrambling over the front seat into the back.

A man’s face suddenly appeared in the back window. He was trying to climb onto the small shelf behind the back seats. His shrieks could be heard over the howling of the wind.

Henry hobbled up behind her while she stared dumbly at the scene. He shouted at Phoebe again, “It’s Whittington. For God’s sake shoot!”

Phoebe lifted the rifle and aimed, “Which one?” she shouted. When Henry didn’t answer her, she turned to find him on the ground with
Leon
kneeling over him.

The bear growled, the Professor let out a long hysterical scream, and Phoebe turned around and fired.

Immediately after making the shot she reloaded the gun.

The Professor’s terrible screams went on for a few more seconds, but the drug quickly took effect and the bear grew sluggish, wobbly, then the big fellow fell out of the driver’s seat through the opening made by the missing door and lay on the ground. When the bear went down, Whittington scrambled into the front seat, presumably to attempt a getaway. The whole side of his body was exposed by the missing door. Phoebe put her next shot into his thigh.

She reloaded the rifle with the last dart and would’ve put another one into his chest just for good measure, but
Leon
ran to the Professor and jerked the dart out of his leg. Whittington’s mouth dropped open, his head rolled back, and he fell sideways out of the car, landing beside the paralyzed bear.

That was an image Phoebe would never forget. But
Leon
dragged the inert Professor away from the bear and whipped his belt off and used it as a tourniquet around the Professor’s upper thigh.

Phoebe stomped over to where
Leon
knelt. “What’re ye
doin
that for?” she shouted.

“Bear
juice’ll
kill him,”
Leon
shouted back. “It’s too much.”

“Like I
said
,” Phoebe repeated, “What ye
doin
that
for?”

Leon
tightened the belt to his satisfaction,
then
ran into the store to get Doc.

Doc was still in the café assembling a deluxe cold dinner for
himself
and the ladies, blissfully unaware of the drama being played out in the parking lot. He’d made elaborate sandwiches and poured
them
glasses of milk, but he was having trouble finding plates and a tray.

Leon
burst through the door looking like the survivor of a shipwreck and called, “Doc, will you come out here and take a look at that Professor fellow? Phoebe’s shot him with Henry’s bear juice. I got the dart out as quick as I could, but I don’t know how much of it he got in him.
Maybe too much.”

“Don’t worry
Leon
,” Doc said calmly, without interrupting his search of the cabinets over the sink, “People like him always make it.”

Phoebe gave the Professor an extremely cursory examination, using the toe of her boot rather more strongly than necessary to move him to and
fro,
and not really caring what she found. She went to tend to Henry.

There was no point in calling 911 or trying to drive Henry to hospital because of all the trees in the road. And there was no way a helicopter could make it in this wind. So she and Doc worked on Henry. Then she took some bandages and tape over to where the Professor lay.

They’d left him lying on the ground with the bear. He started to come around while Phoebe was using gauze and tape to bind his ankles. She kicked him over on to his side and tied his wrists and then she bound his wrists and ankles together behind his back. She was finishing up when Fate arrived on the scene. He’d heard Lester’s emergency transmission and come looking for him.

Fate put the tip of his rifle against the Professor’s chest and used it like a stick to hold him in place. In the other hand he held a chainsaw. He looked at Phoebe and said, “Ya’ll kin go on inside now and get dry. I’ll take care of this for
ye
.”

“Thanks Fate,” Phoebe said. “But I’m not sure if he should go to the hospital first or to the cops.”

“I know right where he needs to go,” said Fate, in a tone that would’ve curdled Whittington’s blood if he hadn’t been doped out of his mind.

Phoebe was torn. Part of her wanted to let Fate dispose of the rascal. She had no doubt he’d do so in a thoroughly professional manner that would never come back on any of them. She was still mulling over Fate’s offer when she was startled to hear Henry’s voice behind her.

“That’s a
mighty
attractive offer, sir.
Mighty
attractive,” Henry said, “But the fool ruined a perfectly good hat of mine, so, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like to turn him over to the law enforcement rangers.”

Fate looked at Henry, smiled slightly, and nodded. He moved the barrel of his gun away from Whittington’s chest and said, “If ye change
yer
mind
… .“

Whittington’s eyes opened, but he still didn’t have much motor coordination. He moaned and thrashed half-heartedly at his restraints. Fate leaned over into the man’s face and gave him a look that silenced him. Then he dangled the chainsaw where Whittington could see it. Whittington’s eye grew wide.

“Aw, Fate there’s no need to waste gas with the saw,”
Leon
teased, “Phoebe’s got some scalpels.”

Whittington screamed like a little girl.

***

 

Leon
half-carried Henry into the store.
He sat him at a table in the café and asked Jill to bring him something hot to drink. Moments later Phoebe plopped down beside Henry.

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