“Baracheck!” McCoy shouted as he came out of the hallway and into the lobby.
“What?” Amanda and Talbot asked simultaneously. McCoy saw that there were now two other deputies in the room: Deidre Pratt, and a small guy that McCoy didn’t know. The little guy was bleeding from a gash in his abdomen. The wound looked bad.
“Baracheck,” McCoy repeated, turning to Talbot. “Sixteen, seventeen years ago, his girl went missing up on Miller’s Ridge.”
Talbot thought for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah. I remember that. I was a teenager. I helped with the search.”
“I was out of town a lot that year, so I pretty much missed out on it,” McCoy said. “But I remember it being in the papers. Damn! I should have seen this.”
“The Baracheck girl is the one you saw on Drover Mountain,” Amanda guessed.
“I think so. And the girl the demon showed me.”
“Demon?” asked Talbot. “What demon?”
“Never mind. Would you have the girl’s photo on file?”
“It might be in the database,” Deidre said. “I can’t get online because of the lines being down, but if it’s in our local network, I can pull it up.”
“Do it,” McCoy said.
Deidre went to her desk and started typing on the computer keyboard. McCoy walked over to the wounded deputy.
“Looks like you’ve had a rough lick, Deputy…”
“Kenner,” the wounded man said. “I’ll be all right.” He didn’t look like he was going to be all right. His skin was pale, and he was leaning against a wall for support. He looked as if he ought to be dead already.
“Is there a first aid kit here?” McCoy asked.
“Yeah,” Talbot replied. “I’ll get one.” He ducked into a closet and reappeared moments later with a small plastic box. “It isn’t much,” he said by way of an apology. He handed the kit to McCoy.
“McCoy turned to Amanda. “Think you can patch him up?” he asked.
“It won’t be pretty, but I’ll see what I can do. Cover the door?”
McCoy nodded. He saw that they had locked the doors to the main entrance, but seeing as how they were made of glass, they wouldn’t withstand much of an attack.
“These two the only ones you could get a hold of?” he asked Talbot.
“Actually, Deidre was the only one who answered. Kenner came in on his own.”
“No word from Lyle?”
Talbot shook his head. Despite his misgivings concerning Lyle’s handling of recent events, it was apparent he was worried about the sheriff.
“Don’t sweat it too much. Lyle knows what’s going on, and if ever there was a man good at watching his own ass, it’s him. I’m sure he’s okay.”
Talbot nodded, but seemed unconvinced.
“I’ve got it,” Deidre announced. “It’s an old case, so it took a little digging.”
“Does it have a picture of the girl?” McCoy asked.
“Yeah. It’s a little grainy, but you can make it out okay.”
McCoy shot a glance at the front doors, saw nothing amiss, and went to look at the computer screen. Staring at him from the monitor’s soft glow was the girl whose form the demon had taken. Add seventeen years, and he was sure it was the girl from the mountain.
“Please tell me you have a current address for the parents.”
Deidre tapped on the keyboard. “The father, David, is still listed at the same address, 14238 Miller’s Ridge Road. I think the mother was institutionalized, or something.”
“Okay. The phones are out, so I’ve got to go get him.”
“What? Why?” Talbot asked.
“I can’t explain everything. There’s no time. It’ll take me a good twenty minutes to get to Miller’s Ridge. Another twenty back. Assuming I only have to spend five minutes convincing Baracheck to come with me, that’s forty-five minutes. We’ve probably got less than an hour and a half before the town’s overrun.”
“I’m coming with you,” Amanda said.
McCoy looked at Talbot. “Can you three hold the fort down until we get back?”
Talbot shrugged. “What choice do we have? But do me a favor and keep an eye out for Lyle. I’d feel a lot better if he were here. And in charge.”
McCoy slapped the deputy on the shoulder. “You’re doing fine, big guy. But I’ll keep my eyes peeled for the sheriff.”
He set about gathering his things. He left one of the iron-loaded shotguns with Talbot, while Amanda carried the other. They stood at the front entrance and examined the night outside. All had been quiet since the last round of gunfire. McCoy didn’t know if that was good or bad.
“Okay, let’s do this,” he said. “John, lock the doors behind us. Don’t go out unless you absolutely have to. Those things are sly, and they’ll try to lure you out.”
“It just feels wrong,” the deputy said. “Us sitting in here while people out there may need our help.”
“I know it does. But Kenner needs to lie still, and someone needs to watch him. Besides, Lyle could call in or return at any time. Be patient. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
McCoy unlocked the doors, and he and Amanda cautiously hurried to the truck. Before entering the vehicle, they checked the bed and peered through the windows of the cab to make sure nothing was lying in wait.
“Looks clear,” McCoy said. “Hop in.”
They opened the doors and climbed into the cab. McCoy fired Boo up and took off, figuring the noisy, idling truck might draw attention. He made an illegal u-turn in the middle of the street and they headed west toward Miller’s Ridge Road.
The town still showed no signs of being under siege, though McCoy’s senses were going into overdrive. The Sluagh were here, all right, but they were taking pains not to let their presence be known. Possibly, the bulk of the horde had not yet arrived. McCoy hoped this was the case. If he could get back with Baracheck before the main onslaught began, he might stand a chance of diffusing the situation entirely.
They sped through the night, McCoy going as fast as he dared while keeping a lookout for roadblocks or other traps. He wondered what had happened to Lyle. The man was self-serving and egocentric, but he was hardly a coward. McCoy found it hard to believe that the sheriff had either skipped town or was holed up somewhere. The bitter truth was that Lyle might be dead, and if that were the case, McCoy would have to rely on Talbot to help him sell the cover-up story to outside authorities. Assuming, of course, that they lived long enough to tell anything.
“So, how did you figure it out?” Amanda asked when they’d left the lights of the town behind them.
“It suddenly came to me,” McCoy answered.
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yeah. It came to me right after a dryad appeared in the bathroom and spelled it out for me.”
“What? There was a Fey in there with you? Christ, Finn! We left those three alone in there, and you didn’t think to mention that the station was fairy-infested?”
“Relax. It’s gone now, and it won’t be back.”
“And you know this how?”
“It said it wouldn’t. Well, not in so many words, but…”
“And you believed it? After all the stories you’ve told me?”
A large dog bolted out in front of the truck, and McCoy had to swerve to narrowly miss hitting the animal. Whether the dog was chasing something or being chased, he couldn’t tell.
“I’ve brokered a truce,” McCoy said. “As long as we can stop the Sluagh and keep the outside world from finding out about the Fey, they’ve agreed to leave the town alone. And me.”
“Have you totally lost it? Do you think for one minute that they’ll honor those terms?” Amanda asked, unbelieving.
“Maybe not. Hell, probably not. But there’s a chance they might, at least for a while. The Fey are evil and cruel, but they live by a different code than we do.” He turned to her and grinned. “Anyway, it was worth a shot, and I do love tormenting them.”
“Well, if we can’t get this Barachec
k to return to town with us, it’ll all be a moot point.”
“Listen, I know this is going to sound cruel, but we can’t let Baracheck in on the whole story. For one thing, we just don’t have the time. For another, it will be too much for him to comprehend on such short notice.”
“So what do we do?” Amanda asked. “Knock him over the head and drag him back?”
“Nothing that drastic. I hope. We simply tell him that we’ve found his daughter.”
“And get his hopes up, only to see them dashed when he discovers she’s now the leader of a pack of maniacal fairies? How can we do that? That poor man has been suffering for seventeen years.”
“I told you it was going to sound bad,” McCoy said. “And I guess maybe it is bad, but what else can we do? We have to look at the big picture. If we don’t get Baracheck back into Shallow Springs before all hell breaks loose, a lot of people are going to die.”
“I’d still rather knock him over the head,” Amanda sulked.
“I guess it’s an option,” McCoy conceded, and went back to concentrating on the road.