Continued part 3 of 4 - I know it keeps getting longer. Begin here.
I drove straight into town, to the Sheriff’s. I set the pack on the Sheriffs desk. “Whats that?” he said, not looking up from a large map spread out in front of him. “Its the head of rabid wolf that attacked me,” I said. He took off his glasses and sized me up. He looked at the pack and said flatly, “Ok, Lets see it.” I unfolded it and took out the head. The sheriff let out a low whistle. “Thats either the biggest goddamn wolf I’ve ever seen or some kinda movie prop joke. Where’d ya find it?” “Shoot it, out by the house in the woods on the other side of the lake,” I said. The sheriff eyed me silently, finally he took a deep breathe and picked up the phone. “Hi Mary, is the Doc in? Yes, thank you. Hey Doc, say the Paulson boy just brought in the biggest goddamn wolf head I’ve ever seen. Think it might be the culprit in the Jenkins girl death. No, shot it in self defense, more than likely rabid. OK, see ya in a bit.” He hung up the phone and looked at the wolf head again shaking his head.
“Sheriff,” I said, “I uh, the house, on the other side of the lake, whats the story.” “Whatya mean,” he said. “Well, It looked just like my old house, you know the one that burned down.” He was quiet and then got up and opened a file drawer and took out a bottle of Wild Turkey and poured a large shot in two coffee cups. He handed me one, “To dead wolves,” he said, and knocked it back. I did likewise and the sherrif picked up the phone again. “Hey Mike, Sherrif Anderson. Yeah, say you might wanna come over here and take a look at a Wolf’s head someone just brought in, probably rabid. Well, its bigger than any wolf I’ve ever seen and looks a bit… thicker in the snout and jaw, maybe a wild dog or something. Yeah, over by the Paulson house,” I almost dropped my coffee cup. The Sheriff glanced over and lowered his eyes. “might be the culprit in the Jenkins girls death,” He continued. “OK, I’ll be here all night. See ya in a bit.”
“Paulson house?” I said, before he’d hung up the phone. The sheriff exhaled and reached in his pocket. “Yeah, the folks that used to live there had the same last name as you. They weren’t related to you though.” he said placing a large silver coin in my hand. “I need to get some things together round here for the Doc and the game warden, why don’t you go across the street to Jolly’s and have a drink maybe shoot some pool.” “Sheriff, you know I aint old enough to drink,” I said. “I know,” he said, “but you just give that coin to Al and tell him I said it was ok.” I looked at the coin, It was worn and old, I could barely make out a two faced man on it, the other side was completely smooth. ”I’ll come get you when I finish with the Doc and let you know whats going on.”
I walked into the street in a daze, the Paulson house. It was our old house. I knew it the moment he said it.
to be continued
