The Devil of Pinesville by Hank Edwards

Author:Hank Edwards [Edwards, Hank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hank Edwards

Chapter Twelve

Cody felt surprisingly well-rested for sleeping in the loft of a barn and going without sex the night before. After a quick breakfast that morning, he'd driven the four of them out to a trail that led to a campground where people had spotted the Devil. And so they had started hiking. With his longer strides, Cody had gotten pretty far ahead of the others, and he stopped to look back the way he had come. Demmy, Ollie, and Eileen approached a few yards back, trampling the bracken, fallen leaves, and sucker saplings that had sprouted up along the narrow footpath.

None of them would ever be called subtle.

The woods stretched out in all directions, and Cody appreciated the beauty of it, with the colored leaves and the dappled sunlight and the birds singing and flitting around. Nothing bad could ever live here among the trees, unless Henry knew where it was.

Although, if pressed to give an honest answer, Cody really didn't feel like Henry could have given a coherent response to any question, at least not in the condition he'd been in last night on the road. And the police had had no better luck with Henry than they had.

"Break time?" Demmy asked as he came up beside him.

Cody grinned. "I just finished my break."

"Okay, Grizzly Adams. How about letting us city folk catch our breath a minute, huh?"

"Fine," Cody said with mock exasperation, then muttered, "City folk," just loud enough for Demmy to hear.

"We stopping?" Eileen stood looking around with her hands on her hips. "Guess I could use a cigarette."

"Don't start a forest fire, Grandma," Oliver said.

"Now why the hell would I want to do something like that?" Eileen asked after taking a long drag of her smoke.

"I didn't say you'd want to. Just warned you not to."

Demmy took a swig of water and asked, "What's the possibility of us finding anything out here?"

"Honest answer?" Cody asked.

"Of course."

"I'm afraid we're going to find everything we're looking for out here."

Demmy raised his eyebrows. "Big, strong Cody Bower is afraid?"

Cody raised his eyebrows as well. "Big, strong Cody Bower has learned what happens when we go off into the woods looking for something unusual."

"We're just checking out a campground," Demmy said. "That's all. What can be so dangerous about a campground?"

"Well, first of all, we're walking through the woods to get there," Cody said. "Why isn't there a damn road that would have let us drive right up to it?"

"Is he griping again about there not being a road to this place?" Eileen asked, smoke drifting all around her face.

"It doesn't make any sense," Cody said.

"It's for camping!" Eileen practically shouted. "It's setup for people to hike through the woods and then pitch a tent. There's no road because you're not supposed to take a car to get there. You're supposed to hike with your tent rolled up in a back pack and your pots and pans hanging from the straps and clanging around. Have you never been camping?"

"I've camped before," Cody said with a growl.

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