What Happened in the Forest

Too Close

Mara couldn't help but yawn as she walked into the police station the next morning around 8 am. She had spent nearly the entire night going back through everything she had on the case, determined to find out whatever she was missing.

She had found nothing, unfortunately, but at least had an idea of where to start with the day's work ahead of her.

She pushed her sunglasses up on her head as she walked in, a large coffee in her other hand. Walking past the receptionist, she headed straight for the chief's office but stopped, seeing Embry already seated there and Chief Swan writing something down as he spoke.

"You look a bit how I feel," Mike said, walking up to her.

Mara whipped her head around to look at him, blinking slightly. She glanced down, taking in the jeans and hoodie she had thrown on without thinking. She was in a rush to get to the station and had just grabbed whatever was close, forgoing makeup and hastily redoing her bun. Besides, she knew she'd be out in the woods most of the day anyway, so what did it matter how she looked?

"It's cloudy and you've got sunglasses on," Mike said, his eyes drifting up to the pair perched on her head.

"Spent most of the night going back through everything I have so far," she replied. "How late were you guys out there?"

"About 4 am, I think," he said with a sigh. "Think the guys from La Push were out pretty late as well. Group of them was searching the woods for whatever it was that did the attack. We had to clear the scene before we could leave. Some of the guys went back out this morning to see if we missed anything."

Mike shuffled on his feet slightly, glancing towards the chief's office nervously, before grabbing Mara's arm and pulling her over out of Chief Swan's sight.

"What's going on, Mike?" she asked, glancing around the office.

It was mostly empty, but she assumed most of the officers were back out in the woods hunting or sleeping in.

"Look, I've been trying to get you out so we could talk without the chief nearby," he hissed, glancing over towards his office again. Mara's eyes widened. "I think the chief is trying to cover something up too and I'm tired of going with it."

"What?" Mara whispered.

"I don't know how long we have, but what I can tell you now is that those wounds – they aren't anything I've ever seen from an animal attack," he said quickly. "If you can meet for lunch, I'll try and bring stuff to you."

Mara nodded, too stunned to speak.

"What is it about the wounds?" she asked finally.

Mike looked back over, seeing Embry start to stand through the window.

"It's just the bites were weird and... the bodies were completely drained of blood," he said. "I can't think of a single animal that does that."

He then quickly walked off and sat at his desk just as Embry opened the chief's door. After a few moments of staring at Mike, perplexed, Mara walked over to Embry.

"You look like you didn't sleep last night," he said, concern clearly written on his face.

"Yea, got caught up looking over stuff again," she said, a tense smile on her face as she hoped he couldn't see that she was keeping things from him.

"Well, I'll wait and when you're done, we can head out," he said. "Swan said the guys should be done by the time we get there."

Mara nodded and walked past him into the chief's office.

"Mara," Chief Swan said with a sigh as he sat back in his chair.

Mara sat across from him and placed her coffee on his desk.