The Die Back: A Female Sleuth Mystery with Elements of Occult and Secret Societies (Detective Dakota Jones Mystery Book 1) by Grayson Steele

Author:Grayson Steele [Steele, Grayson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Millport Press
Published: 2022-03-30T16:00:00+00:00

9 the book

The following day, Macca and Dakota set of toward the farmhouse. It was one mile away from the log cabin of the Grainger. They had been warned it was thick forest terrain that required the knowledge of a local or an experienced hiker. There were small cliffs and embankments, dense shrubs and tall pine trees that were so old they commanded what went in and out of the forest. You needed to be aware of nature’s markers so you didn’t get lost. It was well known that you could walk around in circles and become disorientated. It was always a challenge, but Dakota was up to it, determined to learn more about the mystery that shrouded the village and its people.

The Grainger had opted out of the trip, but he had provided instructions on how to get to the farmhouse and the main road. Having done the trip many times before, he was the most experienced at orienteering through this part of the inlet.

Dakota and Macca would navigate through the forest to a clearing that led to the farmhouse that hugged the main road and was considered an escape route by villagers who were at pains about the die back ceremony. For those who had the knowledge to navigate the pathways and nature’s markers, it was the difference between life and death.

The young children grew up thinking that beyond the lake and the confines of the forest was a man who would steal children and eat them alive. It was a monster not to be messed with for anyone daring enough to try their luck. And it worked. Children never left the confines of the lake.

The Grainger was a thorn in the elders’ sides. A constant threat to their curious ways and customary practices. The difference was that the Grainger believed in co-existence—he accepted their heritage. He acknowledged society beyond the village and the inlet that hugged their town. He never professed to give up his ways, but he understood some of their practices made no sense anymore. As far he was concerned, the more people he saved from the die back ceremony, the better.

Having discovered several escape routes to the farmhouse, he had become a cult figure among the youth looking for a way out. The disaffected ones were more aware of the world around them than their parents.

The elders had tried to get rid of the Grainger by making it look like an accident. They had attempted to burn his cabin down, poison his water, and even injure him with animal traps. It was a constant cat and mouse game between the Grainger and the village elders. He saw himself as a warrior of good, but the village elders regarded him as a curse that threatened their existence.

There were stories told by the local village teacher that translated into poems about the Grainger and recited at school.

Watch out for the Grainger,

A long, grey beard and pointy hands,

Eyes like a cat so green and black,

He’ll whisk you away before you can clap.

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