29
The river swirled black and cold. Rocks stuck up like the teeth of giants. The bank behind me was steep, thick with trees. The snow between the trees was trampled and slicked away to show the leaves underneath. The opposite bank was a bluff that jutted out over the river. No way down from there unless you were willing to jump. The water was less than five feet deep in the center of the river. Jumping from thirty feet wasn't a good idea.
I stood carefully on the crumbling bank. The black water rushed just inches from my feet. Tree roots stuck out of the bank, tearing at the earth. The combination of snow, leaves, and nearly vertical bank seemed destined to send me into the water, but I'd fight it as long as I could.
The rocks formed a low, broken wall into the river. Some of the stones were barely above the swirling water, but one near the center of the river stuck up about waist high. Draped over that rock was the skin. Dolph was still the master of understatement. Shouldn't a skin be smaller than a breadbox, not bigger than a Toyota? The head hung on the large rock, draped perfectly as if placed. That was one of the reasons the thing was still in the middle of the river. Dolph had wanted me to see it in case there was some ritual significance to the placement.
There was a dive team waiting on the shore in dry suits, which are bulkier than wet suits and better at keeping you warm in cold water. A tall diver with a hood already pulled up over his hair stood by Dolph. He'd been introduced as MacAdam. "Can we go in after the skin now?"
"Anita?" Dolph asked.
"Better them in the water than me," I said.
"Is it safe?" Dolph asked.
That was a different question. Truth. "I'm not sure."
MacAdam looked at me. "What could be out there? It's just a skin, right?"
I shrugged. "I'm not sure what kind of skin it is."
"So?" he asked.
"So, remember the Mad Magician back in the seventies?"
"I'd think you wouldn't remember it," MacAdam said.
"I studied it in college. Magical Terrorism, senior year. The Magician specialized in leaving magical booby traps in out-of-the-way places. One of his favorite traps was an animal skin that would attach itself to whomever touched it first. Took a witch to remove it."
"Was it dangerous?" MacAdam asked.
"One man suffocated when it attached itself to his face."
"How the hell did his face touch it first?"
"Hard to ask a dead man. Animating wasn't a profession in the seventies."
MacAdam stared off across the water. "Okay, how do you find out if it's dangerous?"
"Has anyone been in the water yet?"
He jerked a thumb at Dolph. "He wouldn't let us, and Sheriff Titus said to leave everything for some hotshot monster expert." He looked me up and down. "That you?"
"That's me."
"Well, make like an expert so my people and I can get in there."
"You want the spotlight now?" Dolph asked. They'd had the place lit up like an opening night at Mann's Chinese Theatre. I'd made them turn off the lights after I'd gotten the first glance. There were some things that you needed light to see, other things only showed themselves in the dark.
"No light yet. Let me see it in the dark first."
"Why no light?" Dolph asked.
"Some things hide from light, Dolph, and they might still take a chunk out of one of the divers."
"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" MacAdam asked.
"Yeah, aren't you glad?"
He looked at me for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah. How are you going to get a closer look? I know the weather just got cold the last few days, so the water should be about forty degrees, but that's still cold without a suit."
"I'll stay on the rocks. I might dip a hand in to see if anything rises to bait, but I'll stay as dry as I can."
"You take the monsters serious," he said, "I take the water serious. You'll get hypothermia in about five minutes in water this cold. Try not to fall in."
"Thanks for the advice."
"You're going to get wet," Aikensen said. He stood just above me, leaning against a tree. His Smokey Bear hat was pulled low over his head, thick woolly collar pulled up near his chin. His ears and most of his face were still bare to the cold. I hoped he got frostbite.
He put his flashlight under his chin like a Halloween gag. He was smiling. "Didn't move a thing, Miss Blake. Left it just where we found it."
I didn't correct him on the "miss." He'd done it just to irritate me. Ignoring it irritated him. Great.
The Halloween smile faded, leaving him frowning in the light.
"What's the matter, Aikensen? Didn't want to get your delicate toes wet?"
He pushed away from the tree. The movement was too abrupt. He slid down the bank, arms windmilling, trying to slow his fall. He fell to his butt and kept scooting. He was coming straight for me.
I took a step to one side and the bank crumbled underfoot. I gave a hop and ended up on the nearest stone in the river. I huddled on it, nearly on all fours to keep from falling into the water. The stone was wet, slick, and bone-deep cold.
Aikensen landed in the river with a yell. He sat on his butt, freezing water swirling to nearly the middle of his chest. He beat at the water with his gloved hands, as if punishing it. All he was doing was getting wetter.
The skin didn't slide off the rock and cover him. Nothing grabbed him. I couldn't feel any magic on the air. Nothing but the cold and the sound of water.
"Guess nothing's going to eat him," MacAdam said.
"Guess not," I said. I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice.
"God's sake, Aikensen, get out of the water," Titus's voice boomed from the top of the hill. The sheriff, along with most of the other policemen, were at the top of the bank, along the gravel road that led back to the place. Two ambulances were sitting up there, too. Since Gaia's law went into effect three years ago, an ambulance had to be on the scene if there was any chance the remains were humanoid. There were ambulances being called to take away coyote carcasses, as if they were dead werewolves. The law had gone into effect, but no extra money had been put into the emergency systems across the country. Washington did like to complicate things.
We were in the backyard of someone's summer house. Some of the houses had landings or even small boathouses, if they had deep enough water at the base of their land. The only boat you were taking off through this rocky channel was a canoe, so no landing, no boathouse, just the cold black water and a very wet deputy.
"Aikensen, get your butt up on one of those rocks. Help Ms. Blake out, since you're already wet."
"I don't need his help," I called back to Titus.
"Well, now, Ms. Blake, this is our county. Wouldn't want you getting eaten by some beastie while we stayed nice and safe on shore."
Aikensen stood, nearly falling again when his boots slid on the sandy bottom. He turned to glare at me as if it were all my fault, but he scrambled up on the rock on the side opposite the skin. He'd lost his flashlight. He was dripping wet in the dark, except for his Smokey Bear hat which he'd managed to keep above water. He looked as sullen as a wet hen.
"Notice you're not offering to climb out on this particular limb," I said.
Titus started down the bank. He seemed to be a lot better at it than I had been. I'd staggered like a drunk from tree to tree. Titus kept his hands out ready to catch himself, but he pretty much walked down. He stopped beside Dolph.
"Delegation, Ms. Blake. What made the country great."
"What do you think of that, Aikensen?" I said more softly.
He glared at me. "He's the boss." He didn't sound like he was happy with it, but he believed it.
"Get on with it, Anita," Dolph said.
Translation, stop yanking everybody's chain. Everybody wanted out of the cold. Couldn't blame them. Me, too.
I stood ever so carefully on the slick rock. My flashlight reflected off the choppy water like a black mirror, opaque and solid.
I shone the flashlight on the first stone. It was pale and shining with water, and probably ice. I stepped onto it carefully. The next stone, still okay. Who knew Nike Airs were good for icy rocks?
MacAdam's warning about hypothermia ran through my head. Just what I'd need, to be hospitalized from exposure. Didn't I have enough problems without having to fight the elements?