Skin Walker: A Bunko Club Mystery

By Gerald Goble

The community Bunko Club ladies suspect someone is stalking them, then prominent men in a country club begin die to of mysterious circumstances. The county sheriff suspects a serial killer. Suspects abound! The Bunko Club ladies circle to protect their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gerald Goble
• Release date: Aug 3, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370442065

Gerald Goble

Gerald Goble has PhD in Theoretical Physics and has been a research scientist, teacher, federal employee, businessman, manager, and martial arts instructor. He is author of several scientific publications, U.S. Army Publications on Ammunition and Explosives, non fiction books "The Way of Two as One“, "The Bear Slayer – Women’s Self-Defense“; the fiction books, the Bunko Club Murder series, and the Jack Wellington UN Attaché Series, Westerns “Jacob’s Coat”, "Strays" and "Warrior Woman" and Science Fiction, "The Majestic Committee."

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Skin Walker

A Bunko Club Mystery

Gerald Goble

Skinwalker

A Bunko Club Mystery

Copyright © 2011 Gerald Goble

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical including photocopying, recording, taping by or by information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author with exception of brief quotations.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either, the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

For Joan,

my love, my friend

Chapter 1

In early March, the nights in south Texas at the Nogolito Narrows Development were quiet not even the sound of crickets. For this time of year, it was warm. A gentle breeze flowed from the gulf to the north across the valley and rose up the escarpment to the hill country. Texas and much of the central plains are like that this time of year, cold one day, and warm the next. The breeze came along the road between hills and into the development causing the leaves of the live oaks to touch each other in faint clicking sound summing into an underlying rustling sound. It had rained recently so the grass did not crackle under foot. A rider on a motorcycle turned into the development road. The time was almost midnight. Passing the park the rider reached the Y in the road and took the left fork. Between the first house and second house, the rider pulled off the road on the grassy shoulder turned off the motorcycle light and motor. For a long time the rider sat not moving, watched, and listened.

The houses in the development were dark with the occasional nightlight providing a faint illumination of a window. The fifty or so houses were all medium to high-priced construction on five to ten-acre lots in an area chosen for a sense of community and family atmosphere. Well trimmed lawns around houses were interspersed with areas of natural growth. The white-tailed deer, bob white quail, wild turkeys, and raccoons passed between wild areas through the well trimmed lawns in the quiet night. The rider pushed the black button causing a whirring sound to start the engine. The motorcycle made little noise as the driver moved down the road to the next pair of houses to repeat the procedure.

In the house on the corner to the right of the road coming into the development, Bastie the cat sat on the rug in the dining room where the moon light came streaming in the windows. She raised her rear leg up and ran her tongue along its length to smooth the irritating loose hair. She turned her head as if she heard something and lowered her leg. Bastie scanned the room. It entered under the back door and ran across the tile kitchen floor. The delicate little feet hardly made a noise, but Bastie knew it was there. She stopped and lowered her body to the floor and froze. They stood there watching each other. Then it made a dash for the bedroom door and squeezed under it. Bastie backed away behind a chair leg hiding her presence. She waited there swishing her tail back and forth. A cloud slowly moved to cover the bright moon. The light coming in the window dimmed. Then its head made a tentative incursion into the hallway under the bedroom door. Her tail switched back and forth. It squeezed under the door into the hallway. She charged growling. It ran across a short space of rug and up the wall. She jumped and lunged at the wall but her claws just missed it. It ran a couple of steps on the wall and jumped for a lampshade on a small end table. The shade swung with its weight, which caused it to grasp to hold on. That split second was enough for Bastie. She vaulted to the arm of an overstuffed chair and launched her body in the air at the thing with her front legs out, the pads on the feet open wide, and claws extended.

A few seconds earlier, Claudia laid in the bedroom her eyes moving rapidly back and forth in REM sleep. In her mind, the man was standing facing away. He appeared half in the shadows. The light came from above and cast a shadow from his head downward on the left shoulder of his suit. He looked upward for a second then walked away. He was approaching a dark place almost as if entering a cave. There was something lying down in front of him. He went to one end and knelt down on both knees. In front of him was the tail of a large green creature. There was a chain on one of the creature’s leg with a lock. The man inserted a key into the lock, and it popped open. The large yellow eyes of the creature opened as the lock opened. The man dropped the key, stood, and turned around. His face tilted downward covered in shadows. The creature stood up behind him with its head was above that of the man’s. The creature lifted its face up with its mouth open dripping saliva and its yellow eyes with their vertical black iris’ glaring. The creature opened its wings to a mantel position around and above the man as if to protect him. She could hear its feet stepping in behind the man. Then the creature faded away leaving the man standing alone. The man was looking downward. He raised his head with the shadow was still covering his face. The man opened his eyes. They were yellow with vertical black centers the same as those of the creature.

A loud noise came from the other room and Claudia Squeaky Eberly sat up in bed with a high-pitched squeaking gasp her heart was beating rapidly. Bill jumped at the sound and rolled over, Mercy Claudia, what’s the matter?

Squeaky reached over and turned on the light next to the bed.

There was a noise out in the other room, go look, Squeaky gasped pointing at the closed door.

Bill got up and walked out into the dining room. She heard him say, Give me that. The front door opened and closed. Bill came back into the bedroom, Kitty caught a Gecko and knocked over a lamp in the process. I threw the remains outside. It was a big one. I hope she doesn’t get sick from the thing like she did the last time.

Squeaky watched as Bill got back in bed, she said, The noise woke me up. I was having a nightmare.

Bill opened his left arm across her pillow, It’s over now, but damn, I wish you would give me a warning if you are going to bring me out of a sound sleep with a noise like that. Come on over.

She turned off the light and snuggled into Bill laying her head on his chest. His arm closed around her. When she felt safe she said, It was the same dream I had last week. It was scary,

Bill said, It’s over with now. She concentrated on something happy. She thought about the parade and party she was going to at the end of the week, and after a moment, in warm security, she returned to sleep.

The moon came out from the clouds. Bastie made a slow circuit around the dining room, kitchen, laundry room, living room, and den. She took a position on the back of a recliner where she could look out of the window. Her tail swished back and forth. The moonlight illuminated another one on the stone pillar on the porch. She watched and waited.

Outside on the road the rider on the motorcycle watched the light come on at the Eberly house, the door open. The man throw something out on to the grass, and the lights go off again. This was the last house at which the rider had stopped in the circuit around the development. Again, the rider pushed the button on the handle bar started the engine and rolled out of the development to the access road with little noise. Down the road, the light on the cycle came on and the engine roared up to speed.

Chapter 2

Brandt City is the quintessential small Texas town. In the center of town is a square shaded with large oaks with a state of the original German founder and a fountain. The main street is lined with stores and storefronts often identified by the owners name, Heuermann’s Hardware, Lucille’s Fabrics and others. The city council and chamber of commerce have enforced common wooden signs and very little neon and other gaudy looking or eye-catching identifiers. The city and business owners decorate light poles and store windows with banners, lights, and special sales on holidays.

This is Rodeo week and parade night. The warm southern breeze of a week ago was back for a day just in time. In small-town Texas, parades are events where the town’s people either watch or participate. Every pickup, horse wagon, horse and rider, clown, dressed-up dog, Boy Scout troop, and goat cart lines up and marches through town. If you are in the parade, you throw candy or other small gifts to the crowd on the sidewalk. For the people watching the parade, it is an opportunity to encourage your friends and relatives in the parade, and meet people in town you have not seen in a while. Children run up and down the length of the parade to catch the candy and gifts thrown by those in the parade. Teenage girls walk in groups of two and three along the sidewalk behind those watching the parade meeting each other with giggles and gossip. Teenage boys strut and try to look adult while still flirting with the passing girls. The men sit in fenced in areas eating sausages, drinking beer, and talking of the weather and parades past. The women sample the many stands selling sweets and pastries. The city council sits in the center of the block judging the floats in the parade to choose whom to give the plastic trophies for best in this or that.

The horse-drawn wagon turned on to a quiet residential street just off the main street just past Laca Creek it was the end of the parade. People were walking next to the wagon returning to their cars parked along the side street. Del from the Sheriff’s office, the driver, held the horses steady as the six women each dismounted from the back of the wooden wagon. The sign on the old wagon read Concord County Sheriff’s Office. As the women got off the wagon, they had to thread through a line of cars and trucks containing happy parade watchers to reach the curb. Each of the six women wore a brown sheriff’s department shirt. Except for Brenda, the shirts had a gold embroidered star above the pocket labeled Reserve Deputy. On the left, arm was a Texas flag and on the right an American flag. Brenda had her regular sheriff’s department shirt. Each of the women wore a white cowboy hat with a yellow brim band.

Brenda turned and threw a small bag to Deputy Delbert Dooley, Here’s some candy we didn’t give out to the crowd. She turned and followed the others toward the house.

Winny Seaver had her Reserve Deputy shirt tucked tightly in blue jeans. She wore a leather belt that went across the middle of her apple-like shape held with a gold and silver buckle that was about three inches by two inches. Winny had her brown hair done so that it stuck out from under her cowboy hat around the sides and back. Her half frame glasses slipped down her nose.

Walking beside Winny was Iris Isabel. Iris reached to her back with her hand and leaned backward, I definitely couldn’t be a pioneer. I ride that wagon just a mile, and I’ll be sore for a week. Iris was Mexican but always spoke slowly to make sure her sentence construction was correct.

Winny reached over and patted Iris’ backside causing her to jump. She said in a husky voice, If you had a little meat on that backside it wouldn’t hurt so much.

Iris Isabel wore black slacks accentuating her slim legs ending in shiny black boots with light brown trim. She had a black and tan scarf around her neck. She was carrying her hat and had done so for most of the night to keep her hair neat and in place.

Tecla Marie Russo was skipping along the sidewalk humming a tune. Her pants were kaki. A red stripe down the legs augmented the pants as her personal touch to the Uniform of the Day. Tonight she gave up her characteristic tennis shoes for boots that gave her a height she normally did not enjoy. Teki turned to Hester Nesbit, Did you see the little cute blonde girl from the Country Chicken Shack. Bubba Baecker was following her around as if he had a ring in his nose.

Hester shrugged the comment off, Yeah they have been an item around the school for some time.

Darn Hester, You’ve got to tell us these things. How can we keep up, Teki complained?

Of course, Hester Nesbit would never pass along anything she learned at the school as a teacher. Such a casual relay of information was not in her nature. She was precise about her actions. This precision resulted in neat pleats that ran down the legs of her pants and the Reserve Deputy shirt giving her a drill instructor look. Her hair was up inside the cowboy hat, and she was wearing sunglasses even if it was nighttime.

Teki turned to Iris, What a great parade. Did you see the little girls from the dance school in front of us? They were so cute in their little poodle skirts.

Iris nodded, Just about all the children in town must have been either in the parade or watchin it. The trailer with the parade queen must have had a thousand lights. The bad thing was the generator for the float made too much noise.

Dr Fredrik Find lived in a ranch-style house on Voca Creek perpendicular to Main Street and two blocks from the center of town. As they reached the door of the house, it opened. Dr Find greeted them holding a cocktail in his hand and dressed as Roy Rogers in a sequined shirt with his pants tucked in gaudy red, white, and blue cowboy boots. Come on in ladies, you’re just in time. Martha has just finished putting out the goodies.

The front door opened into a vestibule, which led into the living room or to the left into a combination dining room and library. Dr. Find led them to the left where they found their husbands and several others standing around a large table with dishes of dips, chips, cookies, cake, cut vegetables, small sausages, and other delectables. There were greetings all around as the group fanned out among the guests. Every wall of the room had bookcases to the ceiling. Each section was labeled with little white printed labels of the types of books of that section, and it was clear to see which sections belonged to the good doctor and which to his wife. The books on one wall had romance novels, cookbooks, gardening books, and coffee-table books. The other three walls had technical books, medical books, Texas history, and culture. Chairs that were allways around the dining table had been taken to other rooms for the guests to sit and talk. The chandelier over the table had glass light covers with red and yellow flowers that shined colored beams around the room that made it cheery.

After gathering plates filled to the edge with goodies of all sorts, the group found their way into either the large living room or the dining room. As is normal, the men gathered in the dining room and the women in the living room. In this way, the men could talk about football while the women talked about what interested them. The living room went the length of the house from the foyer at front door to a small deck, which looked out over the Vaca Creek.