Erik had a restless night filled with bad dreams, then his wife woke him up early.
“Wake up, Honey,” she said. “Sheriff Collins is downstairs. He wants to speak with you.”
“Ok. Tell him I’ll be right down. Maybe you can offer him some coffee.”
“I already have, and I’ll fix you a cup too.”
“Thanks, Vic.”
He threw on a pair of jeans and a T shirt and went downstairs. It was a little after nine o’clock and Collins was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for him.
“Hey, Sheriff,” Erik said. “What brings you out so early?”
Collins stood up and shook Erik’s hand.
“I just wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“Ok. About what? Did you find the missing girl?”
The sheriff looked down at his feet for a moment. “I’m afraid we did. We found her stabbed to death by the side of the road. Route 102. She’d been tortured and abused.”
“Oh, God. I am so sorry.”
“Yeah. We all are. We also found a man’s body a few feet away. He’d been shot.”
“Was he the killer?”
“I don’t think so. But I need to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did you see Johnny Dovecrest last night?”
“Dovecrest? What does he have to do with this?”
“We think he may be the involved. The bullet taken from the man’s body was shot from the type of gun that he owns. We’ll have to do ballistic tests to be sure. There aren’t many.45 caliber Beretta’s around here. And I know Johnny Dovecrest has one. I’ve seen him with it at the range.”
Erik swallowed hard. He didn’t know what to say. He supposed the truth was best-at least as much of it as the sheriff would believe.
“Well, actually Pastor Mark and I saw him at about nine o’clock, I’d guess. Where is Dovecrest? Have you spoken with him?”
“We can’t find him,” the sheriff said. “Tell me about last night.”
“Well, I was talking to Pastor Mark about some photos I’d found in the library. About an altar stone in the woods. A stone where they used to do human sacrifices, so it is claimed, anyway. We decided to go see Dovecrest and ask him if he knew anything about it.”
“Go on.”
“When we got to his house, he was gone. We heard gunshots in the woods, so we went to find him. He was coming back to his cabin when we found him. But I don’t think he killed the girl, sheriff. He may have shot that man, but if he did I’d say he was trying to help the girl. I think something is going on in those woods, something you should investigate.”
“Something is going on in those woods, Mr. Hunter. A teenage girl was tortured stabbed to death and a man was shot in the head with Dovecrest’s gun. And we definitely plan to investigate. We’re looking for Dovecrest right now. I know he knows something he’s not telling us. And I want to find out what it is. Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“No, Sheriff. I don’t. But I’d like you to look at something. Just wait here a second.”
Erik went into his study and retrieved the pictures of the altar stone. He passed them across the table to Roy Collins.
The sheriff looked at them and snorted.
“I’ve heard about this kind of thing before, Mr. Hunter. I even believed it for awhile. But I’m telling you there’s no such thing as an altar stone in these woods. I’ve looked myself. And so haven’t the people from the university. This is just an urban legend. It doesn’t exist.”
“So you’re saying that there couldn’t be a cult group out there in those woods?”
“I didn’t say that. I have no proof one way or another about a cult group. I’m just saying there isn’t an altar stone. If it were there, I would have found it. Now as for a cult group-anything’s possible in this crazy world.”
“The pastor and I saw Dovecrest last night and he claims a cult group had the missing girl and killed her. He shot one of the members. They must have moved the bodies later.”
The sheriff made some hasty notes on a notepad. “Then why isn’t Dovecrest around? Why didn’t he call the police?”
“Because he knew no one would believe him. Sheriff, my son saw something in those woods a few nights ago. And my friend at the radio station told me there may be a Satanic cult in the area, a cult that’s been killing people. I think that needs to be checked out.”
“Thanks, Mr. Hunter. I will check it out. I’m on my way to see Pastor Mark right now. Then I may go back out into those woods one more time in daylight and see what I can find.”
“Thank you, Sheriff. If there’s anything I can do….”
“Just one thing. If you see Dovecrest, ask him to turn himself in.”