VD-49

Chapter 7: The Disappearance of Gavin Smith

Aidan Willson chewed his gum like a cow chewed grass. Slowly, with his mouth open. Jude resisted telling the man to close his bloody mouth because that would just spark up a fight. And with Gavin running around with a gun, Damian uncharacteristically quiet and Jude trying to keep calm while frustration rubbed him raw, a fight would leave them all in tatters.

"It's Nux Vomica, Sheriff," Aidan finally drawled without looking up from his computer where he had pulled up info about the plant Jude had found. "Used in the commercial use for strychnine. Strychnine is an alkaloid, which is used to..."
He trailed off without finishing.

"Aidan?" Damian asked. "Strychnine is used for what?"
He still didn't answer. His eyes were glued to the screen. Then his stare suddenly lifted and he stared at Gavin. Damian and Jude also turned to look at Gavin. Jude's heart began to pound hard. Without waiting for an answer, he marched to the computer to get a look for himself.

"any of a class of nitrogenous organic compounds of plant origin which have pronounced physiological actions on humans. They include many drugs (morphine, quinine) and poisons (atropine, strychnine)."

"You've been growing drugs, Gavin?" Jude asked with an eery quiet voice.

The man was silent. "You better answer that question, Gavin," Damian warned.

Jude turned around to find the almost in tears. His red eyes were even redder than before and the man seemed to try and hold in his sobs. Little good it did as the tremors rocked his body. He wasn't sad.

He was scared.

"Gavin?" Jude asked again, his voice no gentler than it had been earlier.

"It's not for me," Gavin gasped. His inhale was a raspy sob and he blinked. Tears started falling down his cheeks. "It's for them. IT'S FOR THEM!" He shouted the last words, his voice cracking halfway through.

"Who's them?" Damon asked, a deep crease between his brows.

"I don't know," the man cried. "I don't know. But they walk through the woods, and they threatened to tear my throat out and they took my lovely, lovely wife and Bronwyn-"
"Took them how?" Jude demanded sharply. "You're saying that whoever 'they' are caused the accident that killed your wife and daughter?"

"Yes! It was no one accident," Gavin screamed. "It was middle o' winter and the roads were slippery and they jumped the car and pushed it into the river!"
Damian and Jude glanced at each other. "It was an accident, Mr Gavin. Telling lies won't bring your family back," Damian said gently.
Gavin stared at them as if he couldn't believe what he was wearing. "You saw how scared Rhonnie was, how she found that picture of her bleedin' to death. They warned 'er and they came for 'er. They warned me and I'll be damned if I'm not taken in the next few hours."
Gavin's eyes were rolling around frantically as he spoke like he wanted them to believe him and it was a matter of critical importance that they did.

Jude sighed and shook his head. Turning to Aidan, he said, "Lock him in the cell. We'll figure out what to do tomorrow."
Damian stood closer. "What do we do now?"
"Now, we go clean out that greenhouse."

***

Hopping out his truck, Jude saw that there was something seriously wrong. Windows were smashed and the glass glittered everywhere in the wintery light. Jude unlocked the greenhouse's door and shouldered his way inside.

The flowers were gone.

They weren't neatly cut off-they were savagely ripped out. All that remained was a few roots and the soil that had been flung everywhere. There was something else Jude could sense.

No man did this.

Wood panels enclosing the mini-garden were ripped apart, splinters lying on the ground. There were deep gouges in the walls on the stone floor, there were white scratches, deeper than an inch.

The sight set icy fingers of fear travelling down his spine.

No man did this.

He joined Damian back outside. The young man was looking around uneasily. "This place creeps me out. It feels like someone's watching me. Let's get out of here while we can, mate." He then registered that there was nothing in Jude's hands. "Where are the creepy flowers that are supposed to be in the creepy greenhouse on the creepy farm?"

"They've been taken," Jude muttered. "Every single one."
Damian's eyes went wide and his eyebrows almost disappeared beneath his shaggy bangs. "Do you suspect a drug business going on underground around here?"
Jude slowly shook his head. "No," he whispered. "I'm starting to feel like Gavin's telling the truth. However insane his version of the truth might be."

Damian opened his mouth to speak.

Crack.

Both of the men whirled to the woods where the crack had come from. Nothing, except for the wind whispering across the snow. Jude's heart began pounding again. Though this time, it was like with each beat of his heart, his fear pushed up his throat like bile.

They both jumped as the radio at Jude's hip made a static sound and Aidan's voice called out, "Sheriff?"

"I swear there is something out there that was watching us, Jude," Damian murmured. Jude said nothing and grabbed his friend by the arm, pulling him back to the car.

Once in the car, Jude remembered the radio call. "Yeah?" he barked into the radio.

"Sheriff," Aidan said, his voice weak. They were on the outskirts of town, a few miles away from the office.

"Speak up, Willson," Jude said.

"Sheriff," Aidan said again but this time Jude realized that there was no static. The man's voice was weak from fear.

"Aidan. What is it?"
"G-G-Gavin's gone, sir."
"What?" Jude demanded. "How? He's locked in a bloody cell. How did he get out? You didn't give him the keys accidentally, did you?"
"SHERIFF!" Aidan shouted. "The door's busted down and the cell bars were ripped out of the floor! And then the wall inside the frickin' cell was busted through!" Only Aidan didn't say 'frickin''. And when Aidan swore, you knew it was bad.

"I'm on my way."
Damian's shock echoed Jude's own. Only Jude felt distantly shocked.
Gavin expected it. He saw it coming.

Jude should have seen it coming.