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“Then keep it close, my brother, ’cause Halloween’s come to town early this year. ”
“What d’you mean?”
“There are monsters out there tonight,” Terry said, but despite his flippant words, there was little humor in his voice.
Crow switched off the phone and frowned into the shadows for a few moments; then he hit speed-?dial for Val’s cell phone, but it rang through to her voice mail. He left a message for a callback, ended the call, walked back to the car, got in, and sat behind the wheel staring out at the night for a long time. Beside him, Mike sat patiently, waiting in silence. Finally, Crow turned to him and said, “I just spoke with the mayor. He’s going to call your mom and, uh, Vic, and have them pick you up out at the Haunted Hayride. ”
“At the hayride? How come?”
“Well, it’s complicated,” Crow began, “and I’m trusting you to keep your mouth shut about this. Okay?” Mike nodded and Crow gave him an abridged version of the facts. By the time he was done, Mike’s eyes were very large and for the moment he looked more like a kid than ever. He licked his lips nervously.
“Jeez-?us!”
“My feelings exactly. ”
“In Pine Deep?” Mike said wonderingly. “Did the mayor really make you a cop again?”
“Seems so. ”
“Wow. ”
“Mm. ”
“Well,” said Mike.
“Well,” agreed Crow.
They looked at each other for a dark minute, and then Mike said, “Crow…there’s something else I have to tell you. But…I don’t want you to think I’m whacked or something. ”
“Too late,” Crow said with a grin; then he caught the look on Mike’s face. The kid was serious. “Um, sure, Mike…fire away. ”
So, Mike told him about his encounter with the white stag. He described the animal and how it moved, what it looked like—and how it had growled at him. The only part he forgot to mention were the skid marks, which was unfortunate.
Crow leaned against the car door and looked at him. A variety of thoughts ran through his head, chief among them a concern on whether Mike had hit his head hard enough to have caused some kind of hallucinations. The kid seemed pretty lucid, though, and even with his youth coloring the description it had been a pretty straightforward and orderly account.
Mike asked, “Have you ever seen anything like that? I mean…isn’t that pretty weird?”
This whole flipping night is pretty weird , thought Crow. He said, “Yeah, Mike, that’s off the hook. ”
Mike winced and touched Crow’s arm. “Crow—the whole slang thing? Grown-?ups never get that kind of thing right. ”
Crow gave him a look. “Do you know what ‘precocious’ means?”
“No. ”
“It’s Gaelic for ‘pain in the ass. ’”
Mike grinned. “So, what do you think?”
“I think I haven’t a clue about that whole deer thing. I mean, if we were in the Middle Ages I’d say, okay, white stag or white hart—sign of impending doom. But we’re not in the Middle Ages and this is Pine Deep and I think you just saw an albino deer who was acting pretty funky. ”
“Are deer supposed to act like that?”
“What am I, Animal Planet? I don’t know from deer. I sell rubber rats and fright masks. What I’ll do, though, is tomorrow I’ll call Nate Holland, he’s a park ranger, and I’ll ask him. Who knows? Maybe the deer is sick or something and that’s why it was acting so funny. ”
“Maybe,” Mike said, but it was clear he didn’t agree.
Crow looked at his watch. “I really have to get out to the hayride, kiddo. You game to go with me, Iron Mike?” he said with a grin.
