Hairy Man (Zack Tolliver, FBI Book 12) by R Lawson Gamble

Author:R Lawson Gamble [Gamble, R Lawson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"Two of what?" Susan asked. "Two beasts?"

Zack nodded. "That was Louis DeSoto," he said "the Yokut Indian living on the Tule River Reservation I told you about who started me on this whole adventure. He records every Hairy Man sighting reported in the area. He was with me when I investigated the site of the missing hunter, George Packer. We found blood, signs of a struggle, and a huge footprint." Zack took a breath. "He just called to say volunteer searchers finally found Packer's body. And––here's the kicker–– they reported a Hairy Man sighting at the same location."

"Oh! When?"

"That's the problem," Zack said. "It would have been just about the same time Eagle Feather and Isaac were tracking the beast that took the girl."

"Is this new sighting credible?" Susan asked. Her eyes were glowing with excitement.

Zack nodded. "I'm afraid so. All three searchers reported the sighting."

Before he could say more, Zack's phone buzzed. It was Janice.

"Zack, we've got a short string DNA result back from the lab on the hair," she said.

"Which sample?"

"Both, actually. The results were similar. They'll push on with the more advanced process but wanted to let me know their initial finding. " She paused. "So far, they've found no clear match for the hair samples, whether hominid or mammalian."

"Is that finding significant at this point in the testing?" Zack asked.

"I'd say it's puzzling," Janice admitted. "But we can't draw any conclusions just yet."

Zack thought about it as he returned his phone to his pocket.

"The jury is still out on the hair samples," he said to Susan. "If they had planted it for us to find, the perps would likely make it something difficult to analyze, maybe even contaminate it by putting different species of hairs together somehow."

"You didn't say anything to Janice about the second sighting," Susan said.

Zack shrugged. "I don't want to say anything to Janice about it until I'm convinced it's true. We'll continue with plan A. When Eagle Feather returns to where he found the girl, he'll determine if that's a dead end or not. Meanwhile, you and I will go to the Tule River Reservation to investigate this new sighting.

With a brief lunch stop, the long, hot ride to the Tule Indian Reservation took two and a half hours. Susan chatted the entire way, happily describing, for Zack's edification, various ancient hominid discoveries made by anthropologists around the world, hypothesizing which subspecies, thought extinct, might have survived undetected over the eons.

When they reached Porterville, Zack called Louis to announce their arrival, who in turn suggested they meet at the site where the body had been found. They arranged a time.

But first, Zack called the coroner's office in Porterville and received permission to view the body at the morgue.

"Are you good with this?" he asked Susan, as they turned into the white gravel drive of the facility. “He’s been dead for a while."

"Have you already forgotten past times working together?" Susan asked in reply. "Of course I'm ready."

Zack raised a brow but said nothing.

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