Dead Woods Read online

  Table of Contents

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  OTHER BOOKS BY RAYLAN KANE: 99

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR 100

  Griz 2: Dead Woods

  by Raylan Kane

  Copyright 2019. All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  For George Wendt, and his former collaborators on a certain 'Saturday Night Live' sketch...for obvious reasons...

  1

  The last of the sun's light faded and stars emerged from the deep blue canopy pulled across the black spruce forest along Ryback River. Up the center of the waterway, an inflatable raft drifted on the current, its outboard motor dead. Inside the raft, Sheriff's Deputy Jen Marsh laid still, her eyes closed and her breaths shallow. Next to her sat the German Shepherd she'd found wandering the river bank hours before. The dog sat up, alerted to the sound of broken branches somewhere along the shore.

  Three shadowy figures emerged from the trees, their flashlight beams bounced off the dark water. The dog barked at the black silhouettes and the raft floated on its own toward the right hand bank.

  “Over here,” shouted a male voice. He stepped quickly, belying his age of 63, shining the light in front of his feet so as not to trip on an exposed root. The two other men, both in their late 50s, bounded through the brush as best they could to reach their friend.

  “What'd you find, Charlie?” Said one of the men, breathing heavy as he raced to the waterline.

  The lead man, Charlie, grabbed the edge of the raft to pull it ashore, then snapped his hand back when the dog lunged in his direction, his teeth exposed as he growled. The others caught up.

  “He's not friendly, is he?”

  Then their flashlight beams caught sight of the woman laying next to the dog. Their eyes widened, jaws dropped. “Lookie there,” said one of the men.

  “It's a cop,” Charlie said.

  “The uniform's a bit of a giveaway, genius.”

  “Looks like she's been through hell.”

  “Geez, I guess.”

  One of the men held his hands out toward the dog. “Easy there, fella.”

  The German Shepherd barked, but backed away as all three men pulled the raft onto the bank. Charlie reached down and pressed two fingers to Marsh's neck.

  “Whatta ya think?” One of the men said to Charlie.

  “She's out cold,” Charlie said, “but she's alive.”

  “I told ya I saw something.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Help me get her to the truck, will ya?” Charlie said.

  2

  “And now we're entering the final round!” Said the game show host to a blonde female contestant. “How much are you willing to wager? Think about this now, this could be really important.”

  The game show host's voice quieted to where it could barely be heard as a nurse lowered the volume on the TV hanging from the ceiling in the hospital room where Deputy Marsh laid in her recovery bed, asleep. The nurse set her clipboard down on the table next to Marsh's bed and she checked the readings on the machines hooked to her patient. As she noted the numbers, Marsh's eyes opened.

  “Hey,” the nurse said, gently. “I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep, honey.”

  “It's alright,” Marsh said, as she pushed herself up and propped a pillow behind her.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “I've definitely been better.”

  “You're doing better than last night, that's for sure.”

  “Wait a minute,” Marsh caught herself in her bewilderment and laughed a little while she rubbed the back of her head. “This is a hospital.”

  The nurse chuckled. “It is, honey. Something tells me you might need some more sleep.”

  “How did I get here?”

  “You were admitted last night. You didn't look so hot, tell you the truth. But you're looking better already.”

  “Who?” Marsh said. “Who brought me here?”

  “That I couldn't tell you.”

  Something caught Marsh's attention at the door to her room. She saw a man in a dark suit holding the German Shepherd she remembered rescuing along the river by a red leash. The man didn't enter right away.

  “Who is that?” Marsh said.

  The nurse looked behind her and saw the man in the suit with the dog. “Right, meant to say, someone's here to see you, I was going to send him away. Didn't know if you were up to it. Can he come in?”

  “Of course.”

  The nurse waved her hand and the man entered. He let go of the leash and the dog bounded up to the hospital bed with his front paws up on the mattress. Marsh smiled broadly and scratched the dog behind the ears. “Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?” She said.

  The nurse turned to leave and looked at both the man in the suit and Marsh. “Just so you know, we normally have a pretty strict policy about pets in this building, but someone above my pay grade's told us we had to make an exception on your account. So, you're welcome.”

  “Thank you,” Marsh said.

  The nurse nodded and walked out. The man in the suit smiled and sat in a chair next to the bed. He pointed at the dog. “I guess you two know each other, huh?”

  “We do,” Marsh said, petting the dog.

  “He got a name?”

  “Do you?”

  “Oh, right, forgive me. Where are my manners? I'm Special Agent Winters, FBI. You can call me Zack.”

  “The FBI's into the dog catching business now, Special Agent Winters?”

  Winters smiled, but Marsh did not reciprocate, instead she looked at him hard, studied him in the way she might in an interrogation. The FBI agent detected her wariness and broke the awkward silence. “You're looking better than last night. That's good to see.”

  “The nurse said the exact same thing. What, are you guys working some kind of routine?”

  Winters chuckled. He appreciated she didn't suffer fools. “I don't know what they told you-”

  “Nothing.”

  “Well, you took a pretty bad knock out on that river. A downed tree they figure, right across the width of the whole thing. I suppose it was pretty dark out there, huh?”

  Marsh frowned, “I don't remember hitting a tree. You mean on the Ryback? Last night?”

  Winters nodded, “that's the river, yes, no idea when you bumped your head to be honest. I'm just glad you're alright. Pretty understandable you wouldn't remember what happened.”

  “I remember enough, thanks.”

  Winters eyes narrowed at the comment. She thought she read some nervousness creeping over him.

  “Am I in Branson? I don't recognize this room.”

  The FBI agent sighed. “That really was some knock wasn't it? Yes, we're in Branson. My first time here. Fi
rst time in Alaska, actually.”

  “Welcome to the north,” Marsh said, sarcasm in her tone.

  “You know you were out for more than 24 hours?”

  “What? Are you sure about that?”

  Winters nodded. “They're going to keep you here a little while longer.”

  “How much longer?”

  “Enough to make sure you're okay. You must've really been moving when you hit that log. You're lucky those hunters found you when they did. Could've been a lot worse. If you think about it-”

  Marsh could no longer hear Winters as he continued to speak. Her surroundings disappeared as she sat up straighter and stared at the hospital floor, lost in a trance, her thoughts consumed.

  “You could've fallen out of that raft and drowned, quite frankly,” Winters continued, not realizing Marsh was no longer listening. Then he paused as he looked back at her and saw her eyes downcast. “Hey,” he said, his hand outstretched towards her. “You alright, Deputy?”

  Marsh didn't answer. Instead her eyes widened and the blood drained from her face. Her heart beat intensified as she could feel the hospital bed shudder and the floor in the room appeared as though it was about to buckle, shimmering in a wave as though there was an earthquake. The loyal German Shepherd had been laying at Marsh's side, but he was on his feet and he barked as the rumbling drowned everything out. Marsh broke out in a cold sweat, searching the darkness outside her window for what she knew was coming.

  Special Agent Winters jumped from his chair. “Are you alright?”

  The dog whimpered in surrender and slid under the bed to hide. Marsh screamed. Agent Winters grabbed her by the shoulders and the Sheriff's Deputy swatted his arms away. She grit her teeth and brought her knees up towards her chest. She attempted to jump from the hospital bed only then discovering she was tethered to it by leather arm restraints. Marsh kicked out her leg and struck Winters on his hip.

  “Stop!” Winters said.

  A vein popped into view on Marsh's forehead. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes bulged. She saw the thing she feared most coming, it was just outside the window. Her heart raced and she could hear it pumping in her ears. She fought hard against her restraints.

  Special Agent Winters grabbed Marsh's arm and flashed a glance at the door to her room which was open. “Doctor!” He shouted, “anyone? We need some help in here!”

  A few seconds later as Marsh kicked and thrashed, a doctor and the same nurse who'd been in the room before ran in, alarmed to see Marsh fighting hard to get free. Two more nurses rushed through the door. Everyone put their hands on Marsh and attempted to hold her down.

  “We need help!” Marsh screamed. “It's coming! They're coming!”

  “What is?”

  “They're massive!” She hollered. “You can't stop them!”

  A crack of thunder sounded overhead. Everyone jumped back from holding Marsh and a rush of outdoor air swept over them. Then out of the darkness they looked up in horror to see an enormous grizzly bear standing over them on its hind haunches.

  “No!” Marsh yelled, shocked to see she was seated upright in her hospital bed. The room around her was empty. Her newly adopted dog laid on the floor, asleep. She exhaled slow and laid back. Then the same nurse she'd recognized from before entered the room.

  The woman pursed her lips as she observed Marsh's agitated state. “Look at you, you're covered in sweat.”

  Marsh observed her arms were glistening under the bright fluorescent lights.

  “What happened,” said the nurse, “another nightmare?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “I can give you something to help you sleep.”

  “I think I'm done with sleeping.”

  The nurse chuckled and pointed to her dog. “Doesn't look like he is.”

  Marsh relaxed a little more as she looked down to observe the German Shepherd, curled in a ball, his snout rested against his tail.

  “He got a name yet?” The nurse said.

  “Reese.”

  “Interesting name. When'd you come up with that one?”

  “Just now.”

  The nurse smiled just as the dog looked up from his nap. “You take care of her,” she said to the dog, “you hear me, fella?”

  “Reese,” Marsh said, “come here, buddy.”

  The dog rose to his feet and stretched and walked over beside her.

  The nurse placed a clipboard back on its hook and walked to the door. “I'll be back to check on you in a bit.”

  “Alright. Thank you.”

  Reese jumped up with his front paws on the edge of the hospital bed. Marsh scratched him behind his ears. “Did I scare you just then, buddy? I'm sorry.”

  The dog whimpered softly as Marsh continued to scratch behind his ears. “Don't worry,” she said in a loving voice. “It's over, buddy. You and me, we're gonna be alright.”

  3

  A pair of ravens called out to one another. They jumped from tree to tree, one of them carried something small in its beak. They seemed to enjoy the light rainfall as it gently tapped against their feathers on the pine trees around them and down onto the evergreen shrubs below. Deputy Jen Marsh liked the rain as well, she sat enjoying it on a plastic lawn chair behind her townhouse less than a mile outside of Branson. The air was crisp and Marsh's legs grew goosebumps beneath her jeans. She wore a sweater two sizes too big and cradled a warm coffee mug in her hands. She appreciated the tranquility and the opportunity to relax, but then rolled her eyes as the moment was ruined as she could see FBI Special Agent Zack Winters come around the corner of her end unit at the townhouse complex. It was her first time seeing his face since the hospital and she'd thought he'd been a figment of her imagination for a while, or at least she'd hoped, but after days of dealing with his cohorts and after receiving his phone call earlier that morning, he'd suddenly become annoyingly real. Just like the rest of them.

  Winters wore a dark suit, same as before, only this time he carried a leather folder with him. “Sorry,” he said, “I didn't mean to take this long. There's a lot going on. Gotta love this weather, huh?”

  Marsh stood up and set her mug on the ground next to the lawn chair. “Any word about Sheriff Lake?” She said.

  Winters' lips flattened and he looked at her with concern. He pointed to another lawn chair sitting close by. “Mind if I sit?” Marsh nodded, her face dropped in a frown. She sat back down as well.

  Winters studied her for a moment before speaking. “The thing is,” he said, “I think your focus at the moment should be on the inquiry.”

  “The inquiry?”

  “Yes. I had a look at what you'd told my colleagues and I suppose it makes sense.”

  “Thanks, I guess?”

  “Look, you seem to have a story that you're sticking to,” Winters said, “and that's fine, if that's what you want to do. But I'm concerned for you. You have to understand when we get to the inquiry, there's going to be a lot of tough questions. There's going to be some kind of media attention as well, I should mention. Then you've got Feds like me. You've already met the D.A.”

  “Hazard of the job,” Marsh said.

  “Exactly, so you know what they're about. Then you've got the detectives in from Fairbanks. Local politicians are having their say, and of course there's the police pension people.”

  “Pension people?”

  “Of course,” Winters said, “think about it. Then there's the psychologists and they've even brought in their own biologists, can you believe it? To verify that these giant bears you've mentioned are even real. I almost forgot about the insurance people. They're the worst ones as I'm sure you can imagine. I just want you to realize the impact of what you've been saying, and this inquiry is going to be hard. This is going to be a lot for you, understand?”

  “Did you find anything out about Sheriff Lake or not?”

  Winters closed his eyes for a moment to gather himself. “We're getting a bit wet out here,” he said, “why don't we move this conve
rsation inside?”

  Marsh stared at him blankly for a few seconds then turned and walked into her unit through the patio door. Winters followed. He raised his eyebrows at the messy state of Marsh's place. She walked to the sofa and lifted a pile of dirty clothes out of the way to clear a place for the Special Agent to sit. The corners of his mouth turned downward and he grimaced as lowered himself onto the cushion. Then he pulled his leather folder to him and zipped it open. Marsh sat adjacent to him in an armchair. Again he looked at her with concern before opening the folder.

  “My preference, you understand, would have been to wait to do this until after the inquiry,” he said.

  He pulled two documents from the folder.

  “Sheriff Lake's body was found near Hiller Canyon, I'm afraid. Helicopter crash. We're still unsure as to the cause.”

  Marsh gasped and her forehead creased. She looked to the rug on the floor and balled her hands into fists. Tears formed at the edges of her eyelids.

  “I'm sorry to have to tell you this,” Winters said. He then lifted a photo from the folder and handed it to the Deputy. Marsh observed the aerial shot of Tom Lake's body lying on the forest floor. Marsh put her fingertip up to the photograph.

  She gulped as she tried to hold back the tears. “I'm so sorry, Tom. It's my fault.”

  “His wife had him buried at their family plot, I'm told. East side of town. They had his funeral while you were in the hospital.”

  “I wish I'd known,” Marsh said. “I would've gone.” A teardrop fell on her cheek and she was quick to wipe it away. “He was a good man.” She kept staring at the photo of his lifeless body and couldn't help but wonder if it was one of those things that did him in.

  4

  Jen Marsh stood at the front of the court room inside the Branson Courthouse. The courthouse's only court room was large for a town as small as Branson and the gallery was packed with locals, but there were a few reporters among the crowd as well. Ahead of the gallery, between them and the judge's bench was a long U-shaped table. Twenty people in business attire sat on chairs that ringed the table, on full display for the public. Special Agent Winters was among the twenty as were other government officials. Each of those seated had a cardboard sign situated in front of them with their names written in black ink. The table was covered in documents and pitchers of water with slices of lemon dropped into them. The judge's bench sat empty as this was not a regular court proceeding and ahead of the U-shaped table sat a large projector screen, visible to all. Marsh stood between the screen and the table of officials. Photos of Deputy Marsh's former co-workers flashed on-screen. Their images unnerved Marsh, but she kept drawing in smooth breaths and told herself to relax as much as possible.