Loup Garou

By Michael Daniels

A murder goes unsolved for over twenty years. The victim's body, however was never found neither was the killer. Now, there is a rash of murders at an insurance company the culprit is apparently a type of canine. Detective Dane Miller will embark on a journey that leads him to Shawnee National Forest and the surrounding areas. He puts the pieces together and actually discovers these two crimes two decades apart may be connected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465349439

Michael Daniels

Nicole Daniels and father, Michael Daniels from Louisiana, began this project around their Thanksgiving dinner table during a conversation about the saxophone that Mike plays and has named Maxx. The idea originated to write a book about Mike experience of being in the band as a child in high school through his relationship with music today. Nicole a lover of music came up with the character instruments names and helped create the story about Maxx, Craig and Lian. They have artistically integrated how playing music can be fun, and inspiring during childhood years. It’s a fun read about how to get started with playing musical instruments and how a child can gain a relationship with music that they can nurture the rest of their lives.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Abel stumbled down the hill. He was literally running for his life. The last hill he was on he could see the bridge. It was still several miles away. He thought if he could make it to the bridge he may be able to hitch a ride and get out of this mess.

The last several weeks where he worked seemed to be building up to a boiling point and now he was being hunted.

He did not know where he could go. He longed to see his kids again, but did not dare put them at risk and what would he say if he arrived at his old house? His ex-wife would not want to see him. They barely spoke to each other the last time he picked up the kids for Dad Weekend, although, he had not picked them up for a little over a month now.

He signed up for a lot of voluntary overtime on the weekends recently, which is what probably tipped him off to his employers. Another couple of weeks and he would have been able to walk out without any suspicion on himself. But, that damned security guard had to walk in on him. It was too late for that guard. If only he had not reached the alarm, Abel could have gotten rid of the body. He still would not have had time to clean up all the blood. It was everywhere. He had no time to think. He only had time to run now.

His first thought was the ones chasing him were just toying with him, but there was no sign of anyone, anywhere following him. Maybe, just maybe he lost them.

What was he thinking? Why did he take this job? He should have been suspicious the first day when he was not working at the main site, but out in the middle of a National Forest. What would Tomco Pharmaceuticals want with someone with his background? Sure, he had enough chemistry in college to minor in it, but he enjoyed playing with it instead of using it as a cover for his real purpose at Tomco.

He tripped again. Still no sign of his trackers. Abel has been running so long that his side began to ache. He stopped under a cluster of trees and bent over for a second, trying to catch his breath. He would have liked to have more cover than these few trees, but this is the area where a wild fire spread through Shawnee National Forest three years ago.

He started to run again and reached the peak of the next hill. No one was behind him and ahead of him he could see the bridge of state route 145.

It would have been good if he could have made it to his car, but crashing through an iron gate was really not much of an option with his rusty old Bonneville. He needed to get to his house, but that would not only be difficult to reach on foot, his house would probably be watched constantly. However, he did make many friends in Carrier Mills even though he did not live in the town limits. Abel also knew most of the County Police in Saline County, because he often went to Harrisburg. Would they believe his story? He would not believe his story until he lived it.

He looked back again. Nothing.

There were tracks on the ground he noticed. Yes, the beast went this way. There was no way he could keep up with it or catch it, for it was on the run also and it was quite fast. Abel was hoping the thing would have went deeper into the forest. He knew where it was going. He did not know how he knew where it was going and he did not know why it was going there, but none the less, it would be waiting for him when he arrived home.

A little further through the burned trees and there it was. Maybe 500 yards straight ahead stood the bridge.

He bent over and leaned on a tree and thought just another quarter mile. He made his way down to the stream to stay out of sight from his unseen trackers. He ran along side the stream and finally reached the footings of the bridge. Abel was exhausted, but adrenaline mixed with fear kept him going. He climbed and grabbed the bottom of the railing. He swung his foot up to the pavement on the bridge. He began to lift his leg over the railing when a number of shots rang out. He did not know how many shots were fired, because the first one entered his back and exited out his chest. Abel’s body banged off the outside of the railing then fell backwards fifteen feet down to the water. Abel laid face up in the water. He was dead before he landed.

On the other side of the bridge, much deeper in the forest, was something like a long howl or maybe it could be closer defined as a scream.

ONE

Great!

Paul was livid. When he looked up he noticed Terri was staring directly at him, so he abstained from vulgarities. She had a smile on her face and then he could not resist but to smile back.

She asked Paul in a seemingly innocent, but sarcastic voice, Something wrong?

Paul explained, This is the third time in the last forty-five minutes this PC has locked up.

Well, Paul, PC does stand for piece of crap.

Now he broadened his smile, not because he thought her joke was that funny, but he loved to hear her say his name.

Terri at twenty-seven was half of Paul’s age. She never considered him as a father figure, even though her own father would be forty-nine next month had he not succumbed to a heart condition that took his life at the age of thirty-two. No, Terri never saw Paul as a father figure, nor did she ever view him as dating material. She considered him as what he was, the nice, old guy who worked on the other side of the next desk.

Terri Harris attended Eastern Illinois University to become a school teacher. She seemed to enjoy her student teaching assignment. Then after graduation she taught at Walker High School in Lawrence, Illinois for two years. When she was in high school she did not really care for high school students and when she became a teacher nothing much has changed. She still did not care much for high school students. Two years ago she needed a job to help pay her bills. She spotted an opening in the classified ads for a computer operator at Farnsworth Insurance Company based in Decatur, Illinois. The pay was not all that fantastic, but with a 12% bonus working the shift from 3:00pm to 11:00pm, she was now making better wages than a teacher. She told herself this was only a temporary position and she would leave as soon as something better came along. But, she did like the hours and nothing better came along. The people she worked with were pleasant. Of course, it was very easy to be pleasant with Terri, because she was quite beautiful and she has a wonderful personality. Paul often told himself, if he were thirty years younger… (she would still be out of your league Paul). She also liked her boss Mr. (call me Wayne) Thompson who is now engaged.

Wayne Thompson, could have entered the NBA draft at the end of his sophomore year at Oklahoma, but chose to stay in school and get his business degree. Although he received a full scholarship to play basketball, he was valedictorian of his high school class and each semester at Oklahoma he was on the Dean’s List even after his accident one Summer break.

Wayne was driving in Southern Illinois to see his ex-college roommate and his ex-college teammate, Tim Roberts. It was the Fourth of July weekend and Tim lived in Carbondale, Illinois where he would attend his new college in the Fall, Southern Illinois University. He lost his scholarship at Oklahoma the previous year and his mother made him attend closer to home so she could keep a watchful eye on him. Although he was twenty-one, his mother was not someone to argue with about his education.

Wayne worked for the Illinois Department of Transportation for a summer internship program. Ironically enough, a state truck went through a stop sign and Wayne would never walk again. In St. Mary’s Hospital located, in DuQuoin, Illinois, he never lost his motivation. He could have given up hope, but Wayne was not a quitter and he refused to sit around feeling sorry for himself.

He met Molly Henderson, a Registered Nurse, during his physical therapy. Wayne was not a love sick puppy jumping off the deep end nor did he believe in love at first sight. However, when he met Molly he at once noticed her soft touch, a beautiful smile and those eyes. He felt he saw her soul through those beautiful, brown eyes.

After six months of physical therapy, he returned to Oklahoma and finished his last year of school. The following months were the longest of his life. He wrote to Molly nearly everyday, but he longed to hold her in his arms again. Once the Summer session was over (one year after the accident) he graduated with honors and looked for a job near Molly, who now transferred to Decatur, Illinois. She began work at 5:00pm, so Wayne searched for a job on second shift. He could have written his own ticket in a larger city, but the pay at Farnsworth was not too bad for a second shift administrator nor was the money that important due to the law suit which he easily and deservingly won.

In Decatur, buses ran all night making it more accessible for Molly and Wayne to have a rendezvous now and then. The latest of these clandestine meetings resulted in a proposal of marriage. So, after a three year courtship he finally asked Molly to marry him. No date was set, but both knew it would happen quite soon.

Paul Tolin was five years from retiring. He had spent thirty-three years at Farnsworth and actually knew Oscar Farnsworth himself.

Oscar Farnsworth was financed by his father Lawrence. Lawrence was a successful banker even during the depression. His holdings were not depressing though. Oscar, like his father, loved to spend money as much as making money and he loved to build businesses. Oscar worked as First Vice-President of Loans in his father’s bank and at age thirty-five saw an opportunity to make more money. He purchased several fledgling insurance companies that were going bankrupt, primarily due to his bank threatening foreclosure notices. He merged the companies together and in 1954, Farnsworth Insurance Company was born. He erected a twelve story building in downtown Decatur, surrounded by two banks, a high school, a trade union shop, the Macon County building and a flower boutique. He felt strongly that this environment could be beneficial except for maybe the flower boutique. But, he knew he could easily crush them if they became a hindrance.

Paul was the only employee left from the old building. Well, there was Johnny the Janitor who never seemed to age, but he never seemed to be young either. Paul remembered Johnny looked ready to retire back in 1972 when Paul started at Farnsworth. He suspected Johnny was only in his early forties those many years ago, but he must have had a difficult life. Now he was most likely in his seventies.

Paul would fondly reminisce about the days when his Katie was still alive. They were married twenty-two years when the cancer took her. The next three years Paul crawled into a bottle and nearly lost his job. Paul had a hangover nearly everyday and even when he could make it to work in the morning he was unable to function until about noon. Old Man (Oscar ) Farnsworth, lovingly called by his employees, convinced his son who was now president of the company to place Paul on second shift, so he could sleep longer during the day time. This would also only give Paul a couple hours of drinking instead of his usual seven or eight hours at the bar before staggering home, since all the bars closed at 1:00am. There were no 3:00am bars in Decatur, at that time.

One Christmas Eve, all the employees on all three shifts were let out a half day of work. Paul strolled over to the bar at 7:00pm when he got off work. He figured he could get looped tonight and if he was lucky he would not wake up until the 26th of December. That way he could miss Christmas. God how he hated Christmas without Katie.

Paul and Katie never had children, but they would dress up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus every Christmas season. The mall asked Paul and Katie to be Santa and his helper for the kids. Then, on Christmas Day they would visit the Pediatrics Section at the hospital and give out presents. Paul loved the way Katie fit into that little Santa’s helpers mini-skirt. He always considered her the sexiest Mrs. Claus he had ever seen.

On this Christmas at 1:00am Paul closed down the bar as usual. As he was walking home he noticed a downtown church was still opened. He figured they must have just dismissed the people a few minutes ago from their midnight service. As he approached, he only saw a couple of cars left in the church parking lot. Then it struck him. He never before noticed the most beautiful stained glass windows at night when the lights inside were shining through them. He was drawn toward the doors. He would really like to see those stained glass windows from the inside, but he was not sure he wanted to talk to some Bible Thumper. Maybe just a quick peek and then he could be out of here. He began to sneak up the outside stairs as if someone would hear the concrete steps creak. He softly opened the door which made the sound of an old house in badly need of some oil for the hinges. He peered inside and looked around the door in search of the stained glass windows. A young man stood there staring at him and smiling.

May I be of service to you, sir? the young man asked.

Paul was tongue-tied. He had the look like a deer caught in the headlights or that he had been caught shop-lifting.

I’m Vicar Scott and who might you be?

Paul thought, enough with the questions already and blurted out a response, I like the windows. He needed a drink.

Another man joined them and introduced himself as Pastor Walters.

Paul wanted to run, but his legs would not move and before he realized it, he was spouting the last three years of the Paul Tolin history book. As he began to babble Paul’s eyes started to water, then a tear formed and a minute later he was flat out bawling. He could tell these men were actually listening and were concerned, not like that idiot at the funeral home trying to explain to Paul why his wife died. Pastor Walter gave him a hug. Paul hugged back He could not explain it, but his resentment of Christmas lifted off him that night.

He was never much of a church-goer even though Katie attended every Sunday. She went to a different church than this one. Come Sunday, Paul was at church, Monday he was at Alcoholics Anonymous and three weeks later he was baptized. To this day he has not had a drink.

In 1954, Farnsworth Insurance was in a busy part of downtown Decatur, but as time went on businesses left the area and went North to the mall. After forty-five years of crime, vandalism and weather, it was time to move the company to a more desirable area. The clientele was all ready established, so a strategic location was not as necessary as it was at one time. In a mostly wooded part of Macon County just on an inside edge of Decatur, Oscar Farnsworth II moved his company and footed the bill. Like his father Oscar before him and his grand-father Lawrence, he enjoyed spending money as much as making it. The building was in no way a comparison to the twelve story colossal seven miles away. The scenery was much better and the building had a modern look to it. Not much after the new Farnsworth building opened its doors for the first time in 2001, with a new computer network, Oscar Farnsworth II contacted a viral infection and died two weeks later. Otto, the brother of Oscar II became president of the company. Otto had a completely different philosophy on business than his predecessors. Lawrence, Oscar I and Oscar II loved to spend money: Otto did not. Staff was cut. Pay was frozen and security was lessened. That is why no one saw the small cassette placed on the desk of a now defunct security guard in the Otto Farnsworth world of lax security.

TWO

At 10:45pm, third shift filed in the Info. Tech. Section. This was the only department opened after 5:00pm and this was the time to process all of the days transactions.

Warren Goode appeared a few seconds after his cologne, which usually had undertones of the scent of whiskey. Because Paul was a recovering alcoholic, he would nearly gag after Warren dragged by him. Paul made it a habit to lock his PC and desk, because he did not trust Warren or his good buddy Lance Woody Woods. Terri always referred to third shift as the Warren and Woody Show.

There were five employees on second shift. Aside from Wayne, Paul and Terri there was another operator, Jorge Javier and processor Lily Barton.

Third shift had an equal amount of personnel. Marvin Hutchinson was the supervisor and possibly the only person in the building who could not understand why Lance Woods was nicknamed Woody. He may not have known Lance’s last name, since he was not much in tune after 11:00pm.

There was another operator on third shift named Barry Fite. Barry was about 140 pounds soaking wet and was no taller than 5'-8". However, nobody could keep up with Barry when it came to work performance or drinking beer. Unlike Warren, Barry never came in intoxicated. His drinking was primarily done after work hours. He did not care for the people he worked with except Cal Wakeman who was one of Barry’s drinking buddies. The only thing Barry and Cal could see eye to eye with Warren and Woody was that all of them had a deep resentment for Marvin. This is possibly why Marvin would leave the building during his lunch hour and always eat in his car.

It began as any Thursday night. Barry and Cal were doing their work, while Warren and Woody spent their time bitching about society and stressing their attitude of, By God if I ran this place…

Marvin was staring at the clock waiting for his 2:30am lunch hour. As soon as 2:30am showed on the clock he went out to his car, turned on the radio and started in on his sandwich. The woods had an eerie, but natural beauty in the early morning hours. The employee parking lot in the back of the building had very little light. Marvin often wondered if Otto forgot to pay the electric bill. Usually there is no light in the woods, but for some reason there were two small lights that Marvin barely noticed that showed up only a few yards into the woods. As quick as they appeared, they disappeared. Marvin shook it off as apparent reflection of the lights from his radio which shown through the back window. He saw this through the rear view mirror. He said out loud to himself, Why did you back in tonight, dummy?

After his lunch, Marvin got out of his car and was about ready to return inside when he saw the two lights again. He rubbed his eyes and the lights were gone. He looked a little deeper into the woods to see what caused those lights. He was on the edge of the woods and thought he should press the trunk button to retrieve his flashlight. Then he paused. Marvin would see those lights only one more time. But, this time they were in front of him and belonged to the eyes of a nocturnal beast with lethal fangs and jaws designed to crush bone. Marvin’s throat was ripped open before he could let out a scream. He tried to scream, but no volume in his voice came out. He tried to yell again, but the same result occurred. Marvin would never eat his lunch outside again. The jaws crunched down again as the darkness outside became black and silent for Marvin. He was an awful mess with his lifeless eyes remaining open, seemingly staring at the cloudy Summer sky.

Every employee had a code to enter the secure doors in the building. After regular business hours the front door required a code. The back door always needed an access number to enter the building. Farnsworth had a smoke free environment like all of Illinois and people would have to smoke outside. Those who smoked at Farnsworth would just prop open the door. Marvin had this habit of placing a stick in the door when he ate lunch in his car. The creature was now inside the building.

The security cameras, the ones which actually operated, would not be viewed until morning, but those tapes would be long gone by the time the security guard reported for work.

The breaker box was located in the back room bathroom where Johnny kept cleaners, paper towels and other supplies. There was no sprinkler system in this bathroom. Farnsworth most likely will be sued and fined for this violation if the Fire Marshall finds out. Johnny must have convinced Otto not to put a sprinkler system in there, because he kept all the vacuum cleaners, floor stripper and steam cleaner in the supply room/spare bathroom. None of these things responds well with water.

The lights went out. The computer was in the back of the building and it was not near the security desk or the breaker box. Although, the breaker box was in the back of the building too, a wall separated the computer room and the back bathroom.

When the lights flickered the back-up battery began operating. The battery would only work temporarily. Its design was to give the operators a chance to bring the computer down smoothly or end the jobs still in the queue. After this happened the supervisor on duty was to call the building manager.

Barry looked around. He knew they only had about twenty minutes of power left. He asked, Where the hell is Marvin? He should have been back a half hour ago.

Cal answered, I’m sure he’s out in his car eating or sleeping or doing whatever he does out there. I’ll go get him.

Cal left the computer room. He went down the hall to the security desk to make sure Marvin was not in the building. Marvin would sometime go to the security desk to spy on his employees with the security cameras. When Cal got to the desk: no Marvin. He then noticed the cameras were all blank. He just assumed the power surge knocked them off-line and possibly they are not part of the network which the battery operated. He realized he may have been mistaken about this as soon as he saw one of the cameras ripped off the wall with just a few wires hanging out of it. He suddenly forgot why he was going outside and then his mind wandered. He started to think about what he was going to do after retirement. Would he still go out and drink with Barry? It is very odd what a person will think about when their throat is being crushed by vice-like teeth. Cal made no sound at all.

Woody went to the restroom to have a cigarette. If he went around the corner he would have seen Cal in a pool of blood only about twenty feet down the hall.

He did not see why he should have to go outside just to have a smoke or two. Just as soon as he lit up the battery shut off, so the auxiliary lights went on. The lights were bright, but there were only a few in the entire building. The restroom was not equipped with auxiliary lights. Woody was now in the dark except for the burning ember of his cigarette. Woody knew his cigarette would not set off the sprinkler system, because there were no sensors in the bathroom neither were there any sprinklers, so smoking in the bathroom would not be detected. He just had to flush the butt down the stool. He knew Johnny would not smell the cigarette, since Johnny himself smoked like a chimney.

Woody was never coy about smoking in the restroom. The door opened. Woody was in the stall and asked, Warren is that you?

The response to his question was a low guttural sound. He held his breath as if it would freeze time. Woody relaxed a little bit when he heard soft footsteps, What’s the deal here?

He reached out to latch the lock on the stall. Before he could lock it someone or something was pushing on the other side. Whoever or whatever it was, was much stronger because the door bust open wide. The force of the door knocked him sideways on the stool. Woody’s pants were down passed his knees, so he could not maneuver very well anyway. His cigarette flew out of his hand into the trash can where containers of nearly empty cleaning materials were discarded. All he could see was two fiery eyes. The savagery of the attack was so brutal and lightning fast that Woody was dead before he fell the rest of the way to the floor.

Warren just came out of the office he was in to take his mid-day nap. He started to walk towards the restroom when he saw the shadow of an upright figure. When he heard the growling he knew he should head back towards the office he was sleeping in just a few minutes ago. He was half way in the door when a set of jaws grabbed his leg. As he pulled away his pants and leg were ripped open. He managed to close and lock the door as his blood dripped to the floor. The door handle jiggled on the outside. Then the pounding began. It seemed to go on for an hour, but it was probably about two minutes. Warren thought the door was about to give way and then suddenly the pounding stopped. He quickly took off his shirt and wrapped it around his leg to stop the bleeding and then he tied his belt around it to hold it. He would wait here for awhile until he knew it was safe.

Barry left the computer room to go to the restroom. He was in the hallway and could not understand why there were no auxiliary lights in the john. They were on the walls down the hallway and close to bathroom doors, but the lights practically blinded