GRYDER'S COVE TALES: HOWLERS

the lesser of two evils...

As Gail walked in the door, Olivia greeted her with something she hadn't expected to hear.

"Got a text from Joel, chick. Says he can't get a response from you. He wants us to send in all the info we have on the case so far. I told him you had it all on your tablet, but you weren't here right now. I said I'd tell you as soon as you got back,so you may wanna get that thing fired up ASAP. Hooray for free motel wi-fi, I guess."

She checked her phone, and sure enough, there they were, four unread messages from Joel Reed. In her distracted state, she hadn't even heard them come in. Yes, Joel needed to know that they had gone as far as they could with this. Once he saw everything they had seen over the last couple of weeks, he would pull them off the case. It was obvious (living) animals weren't involved, and he did NOT need to know the truth....the theory...whatever the fucking hell it was that had been going on around here. Then Gail heard Olivia say what she had expected to hear when she first arrived.

"So what did you find out from that James guy? Anything interesting at all?"

Gail spent an hour or so telling Olivia what she and Barnett had discussed, how she felt about it, what she thought about all the way back to Crow's Rest.

"Wow,that's...that's fucked up. I mean, can any of that be true? It all sounds so..."

"70'shorror movie, right? I mean, you know me, I've been a dedicated gorehound my whole life. Movies, magazines, comics, whatever. My mom always said that's what causes my nightmares. I never thought so 'cuz all that shit's just fantasy, y'know? I know for a fact that none of that's real. This is different. It's really starting to get to me."

"Yeah,that. I can see why you're so anxious to get this case closed. It has been pretty damned weird, and now it's gotten a violent shove right into unbelievable. Guess we wasted that trip back home. Then again,who knew it was gonna get this crazy, right? Alright then,let's get this thing together and get the hell outta the sticks. I'm so ready for the next case, whatever it is. I don't care if it ends up being chasing baboons across the savanna."

The next couple of hours were spent connecting, compiling, sorting and typing until a complete report on the Gryder's Cove incident was ready to send, right down to the Investigator's Personal Conclusions section. One last tap of the stylus and it was done. A wave of relief washed over Gail's being; there was no way Joel would leave them on this jacked-up case once he reviewed her report. She slipped out of her shoes, changed into her giant Black Label Society T-shirt and black sleep pants, then flopped onto the bed and clicked the TV on.About an hour passed. Gail had become absorbed in a movie while Olivia was sitting on her bed using her laptop to add more fonts to her collection, which had grown to over three thousand over the last few months. One never knows when one will need just the right one fora website or an image, she would always say. The light tapping sound from the laptop keyboard and the weakly passionate love scene playing out on TV were suddenly overpowered by a blaring blast of Zakk Wylde's unmistakable guitar work from Gail's phone.

"Oh but YES!" Gail said with a mixture of glee and relief when she looked at the message she had just received, "Joel says there's no need to hang around if it isn't wildlife related, and we can drop by the center tomorrow and get started on something else. Fuck yeah,bitch!"

She was almost laughing as she put the phone on the nightstand, took her nightly dosage of Pericodin and went into the kitchenette to grab a snack. It was finally over. Now she could start a normal case with normal animals doing normal things animals normally do. Olivia went back to her font hunting and Gail settled back in with the rest of her movie. Before long, Olivia had nodded off a couple of times and decided to put her laptop away for the night, and was sound asleep in no time. Gail, however, was having her nightly battle with her condition. Her meds were slow to kick in sometimes, and it made falling asleep very frustrating. There had been times she had to just lie there and hope she became exhausted enough to more or less pass out. Finally, that dozy feeling washed over her, and she helped it along by breathing slowly and deeply.