The Researchers

Time to add a little more to the story, and again, the formatting and font are annoying me more than I can say.

***

Liam Devereux sat back and rubbed dry eyes, squeezing them shut in his efforts to create moisture in them. Too many hours reading reports, compiling information and sorting it all out on the database had dried his eyes and tightened the muscles across the top of his shoulders.

He let his head fall back and rolled his shoulders to loosen the tension. The patterns that were beginning to emerge were unsettling. He and Eva still hadn’t pinpointed the very first attack, and he was beginning to doubt the connection of the lighthouse to the other attacks. He didn’t konw whether to be relieved or annoyed. It was good to know that whatever the creatures were, they hadn’t flown or swum out to the island, but on the other hand, it took one potential step out of his matrix. That missing locale made the rest seem even more random.

They were no closer to knowing what was behind the attacks. All of the autopsy reports he had been able to get copies of said nothing useful beyond the fact that the victims had all been torn open by claws and teeth, the marks of which matched no animals on any record.

That ruled out wolves, coyotes, packs of feral dogs or cats, big cats, bears, wolverines and all of the weasel family. The only known witness had apparently only spoken enough to let everyone know he absolutely did not want to go outside. Liam could understand that, especially after seeing the crime scene photos. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it must have been like for anyone, let alone a twelve-year-old boy, to witness.

He pushed himself away from the computer and went to the window. He gazed out at the panorama of the city below him. He could see the St. Lawrence river in the distance, ships moored at the harbour. He wondered if the creatures had arrived on one of the big cargo ships, maybe from overseas somewhere. That might explain why none of the coroners had been able to identify the teeth marks. It might not have occurred to them to check for more exotic animals. That opened up yet another avenue of exploration.

He blew out an exasperated sigh. This would mean more hours, more research and more staff, if he could persuade the powers behind the money to invest in his obscure little department.
Behind him, the door opened and Evan came in bearing coffee and Timbits. Liam turned his head toward her. “Coffee from Tim’s? How’d you know?” He went to her and accepted an extra large cardboard cup of coffee and took an appreciative sip. “Oh, I really needed this.” He took one of the small donut balls from the container and popped it into his mouth.

Eva put her own coffee down and dug around in her purse. She drew out a plastic case with a disc in it, which she put into the CD-ROM drive of her computer. “I did some research from home,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep and I got an idea to look further. Guess what? They’re in Australia, too. I was chatting with someone I know from a blog site and she was talking to a rancher she knows who lost a bunch of cows to something that sounds a lot like our critters. Best of all…” She had sat down and opened a file from the disc. “He got a picture. Sort of. It’s kind of smushed. Looks like the cows didn’t go down without a fight.”

The image opened. Liam stared. “What the hell is that?” he asked, not expecting any answer. “The closest it comes to is a Tasmanian devil,” said Eva. “But it’s a little smaller, the teeth are longer and so are the claws. I’m waiting for a report from the vet in Australia that got this specimen to examine. It should be interesting, at the very least.”

She clicked for the next picture. Liam leaned one hand on the desk and bent forward. “Damn! That is a lot of cows…I think. It’s a mess. How many? Did they say?”

"Something between twenty and thirty, they think.” She went on through the pictures. “You gotta love modern technology. Our Aussie rancher happened to have a digital camera with him and documented all this for insurance purposes.” 

“But did he see anything? Any of the living creatures?” Liam studied the background in the pictures, hoping to see tracks of the predators. To take down that many cattle, there must have been hundreds of the little creatures.

“I asked my friend to get in touch with the rancher, if she could, and gave her a bunch of questions to ask him. I don’t suppose our budget allows for a trip Down Under?”

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Liam snorted. “I’m not sure our budget covers the coffee and Timbits.” He straightened up. “I better go talk to the Grand Fromage with what we have. Make me a copy of that CD to take with me. I’ll print up the report we put together. Wish me luck.”

He sat at his computer and pulled up the document he had put together for this occasion. In theory, they were supposed to be looking for signs of alien life on Earth. Other anomalous lifeforms certain came under their purview. And this was about as anomalous as they came.

***

I have fought with the font and spacing until I’m ready to throw the monitor out the window. If it saves with errors, I’ll fix them later. You can see the problems OD is giving me. *sigh*