Encounter by J. Hunter Holly

Author:J. Hunter Holly [Holly, J. Hunter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi, Science Fiction
Publisher: Monarch Books
Published: 1962-02-11T00:00:00+00:00

The town wasn’t really a town at all, living up to its name of The Corners. It had one general store and three weather-beaten houses. Will and Ray wangled a guide, in the person of a small boy, to lead them to Luke Betts’s house and resigned themselves to the long hike up the mountain.

As the sun stood high, they came in sight of the cabin. The boy pointed it out, took his money, and left them to go up alone.

“Boy,” Will whistled, “what a place. Could anyone really enjoy living here?”

Ray smiled. “Be it ever so humble —”

They crossed a clearing where the wind blew cold, and they pounded on a rough-hewn door. It opened a crack and a woman’s face peered at them. It was a smooth face, and clean, touching on prettiness.

“Are you Mrs. Luke Betts?” Will asked.

“Yup,” came the reply.

“We’d like to talk to you. It’s about your people.”

“What people?” Her voice was cold.

“Elisa and Joshua Betts. Could we come in?”

The door drew wide and the whole woman appeared, a bit ungainly in old-fashioned clothes. “I figure it’s near time somebody come to talk about thet.”

They followed her into the warmth of the cabin, adjusting their eyes to the dim light. Another figure rose from before the fire — a tall man with a messy shock of black hair and a jutting face. “This here’s my husband, Luke,” the woman said. “I’m Min Betts.”

Luke thrust his hand forward. “Glad to meet you.” He didn’t offer them chairs because there weren’t enough to go around. “Where you folks from?” Min asked.

“We’re from Michigan.”

“And you come all thet way to talk about Luke’s folks?”

“We’d like to ask you some questions, if you don’t mind.” “Thet’s all right. I’ll tell you anythin’ you want to know.”

Will asked for her version of the whole murder story.

She led them to a window and pointed down the mountain to a place where a chimney poked through the trees.

“Thet’s where they lived. And thet’s where they was found. Luke found ’em — their heads split wide open. The first we’d know’d anythin’ was wrong was when their dog there” — she pointed to a limp bunch of spotted hair in the corner — “come up and wouldn’t go home. Luke went down and he found ’em. They’re buried down there in the clearin’.”

“Do you have any idea how it happened?”

“They had a man stayin’ with ’em. Luke went close by there one day and saw him out with Joshua. We figured he’s the one who done it.”

“Then you saw him?” Will asked Luke.

“Jist from a distance,” he answered. “I saw Josha helpin’ him around a bit and heard him talkin’. The man was hurt, I know’d that. He couldn’t walk by hisself.”

“Can you remember how he looked?”

“He was tall as me, and broader — more filled out. He had black hair and, like I say, he couldn’t walk. Josha called him Ezekiel — I heard that. But the man, he didn’t answer.”

Ray clapped Will on the shoulder.

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