Taking Sides
Chapter 1
The torn and mutilated body lay face down on the desert floor, its blood soaking into the parched soil. A cloud of flies attracted to the spilled blood swarmed over it. Two men wearing Office of Public Security grays squatted beside the corpse.
“I guess we need to turn him over, Will,” said one of the men. Make sure it’s Hillard.”
“Yeah,” said the other. “Not much question, though, Tony. He’s wearing the same clothes Hillard was, and no one else is missing.”
The two men rolled the body over. The corpse’s face was mangled but recognizable. It was Hillard.
“It’s him. Shit, Will, this makes three dead. The commandant’s going to have a cow. What do you think got him?”
Will felt a surge of anger flow through him as he looked at the body. He had seen his share of bodies during his time with the OPS, but this one was different. Three weeks ago he and some others had been congratulating Hillard on the news that his wife was pregnant.
“Bear. Those tracks around the body are bear.”
“You sure?”
“Do I tell you how to shoe horses, Tony?”
Tony nodded in agreement. “Point taken. You’re the expert tracker, but there’s a lot about this that seems strange.”
“You mean besides the fact the last time there was a bear in this part of the country, my grandfather was wearing diapers. That this is a dead-end canyon and the walls are sheer, so unless the bear is a bungee jumper, the only way it could have gotten in is the way we came in. And there aren’t any bear tracks except here near the body.
“That this is the third instance where one of our folks wanders off and is found dead in an isolated area mauled by a predator? Rosewood by a puma, Axel by a wolf, and now Hillard by a bear”I could buy off on one, maybe two if they were both done by the same animal, but not three. Especially when we haven’t seen any sign of a predator larger than a coyote in this area.”
He rolled the body back onto its face so the lifeless eyes wouldn’t be staring at him, they seemed to be saying ‘Where were you when I needed you?’, then got to his feet waving the cloud of flies away.
“Wait here with the body. I’ll get the horses. We need to bring the body back to the camp. The commandant’s not the only one going to be unhappy to hear about this. His wife will be the one who tells Hillard’s wife she’s now a widow.”
He was three-quarters of the way to the canyon entrance when something on the ground caught his eye. “Tony, I’ve got something over here I want you to look at.”
“What you got?” asked Tony when he arrived.
Will pointed to a footprint in the ground. “This, I must be slipping. We went by it on the way in.”
He crouched down beside the print. “Fresh too. See how it shows about the same amount of wear as the bear tracks do.”
Tony removed his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow. “It’s not Hillard’s. Nor mine. Both our boots have waffle tread soles. This print doesn’t show any sign of that type of tread.”
Will grunted in acknowledgment. “You’re right. Some of my knowledge must be rubbing off on you after all. Not mine either. The print’s smaller than mine.” He pointed at an indentation in the dirt. “Here’s another one. It’s a toe print, but it’s the same boot. You notice something else? Boot prints come in then stop and bear prints begin.”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.””It fits. People wandering off for no good reason then being killed by animals that shouldn’t be here, and now these prints. We need to tell the commandant. We have a big problem on our hands.”