“Yeah, everyone was gone. It was weird being up there with all that equipment in the dark, but I had to get it back, so we went through the barricade and started looking. The trouble was that, since it was turned off, we couldn’t call it. I’d hoped that I hadn’t turned it off, and we would be able to hear it or see it in the dark because it would light up when we called, but nah. That didn’t work.”
Pescoli took over questioning. “So then . . . after you couldn’t find the phone, what happened?”
“We looked all around the campfire area and it wasn’t there. I remembered going up the trail a bit, to watch Bianca’s big scene where the Big Foot is chasing her down the mountain, so Alex and I checked there, and that’s when . . . that’s when . . . we could maybe hear it. I thought it would be okay, because Alex was going to call it and it would light up and ring, so really, the dark works best. Well, kinda.”
“But it was turned off.”
“Yeah.” She nodded, the back of her head sliding against her pillow. “That was the problem.”
“So, what happened?”
“Alex started dialing the phone and we didn’t hear anything, see anything, for a while. He used his flashlight app, and we looked for it all around where we were during the filming, but we just couldn’t find it.”
Her eyes were wide, and if she was lying, Pescoli couldn’t see it. Still, a serious niggle of doubt crept through her mind. This was all just too damned bizarre.
Lara, then, went on in minute detail about walking through the woods and searching for the phone. They had been about to give up when, using the flashlight app on Alex’s phone, they’d found it, right where she’d been standing, out of the camera’s sight line by the creek.
“Then Alex took off for a minute to take a leak in the woods.”
“Aren’t there Porta Potties up there for the filming? For the cast and crew?”
“Yeah, yeah. But he’s a guy and it’s their thing, I think, to pee outside. The Porta Potties really aren’t all that great. So anyway, I’m standing there, waiting, wondering how long it can take him when I get this weird feeling that someone’s watching me.”
“Alex?” Pescoli asked.
“No, no . . . I knew it wasn’t him. He was pissing and—”
Pescoli cut in, “How did you know it wasn’t—?”
“I just knew, okay. So I tell myself it’s nothing, when I hear something. A kind of rustling in the dry brush and it freaks me out a little because of what’s been going on, and I didn’t want to run into a cougar or a coyote or whatever, not even a squirrel or a snake . . . so I yell to Alex to hurry up, and this rustling gets louder, kind of a crashing through the trees and then, oh, God, I hear breathing.” Lara was gazing out the window now, into her story. “So I started moving, y’know, trying to get away, but I’m a little mixed up in the darkness, I got a little lost. I don’t know, but I think I went the wrong way. I was scared and confused. But I started running, because I kept thinking about the bears and maybe wolves and Big Foot . . . and I remember thinking about what happened to Bianca . . . and Destiny . . . and then there was this . . . growl. Real low. Real scary. So now I’m running and screaming. Yelling for Alex and then all of a sudden”—she started shaking her head as if denying her own words—“I saw it, whatever it was, a big shadowy thing, coming right at me! I screamed and turned, tried to run back the way I came, but I was scared out of my mind, and I got off the trail and there were berry vines and branches scraping at me and at some point I fell, and I put my hand out to catch myself and pulled some muscles in my arm and . . . oh, God, it came after me. I couldn’t get away. It grabbed me from behind and started choking me and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get away.” She was nearly hyperventilating.
“But you did,” Pescoli encouraged. “You got away.”
“But only because Alex started yelling and it heard him and dropped me. Boom! Right on my ass. Then it took off like a shot, running so fast into the woods and in seconds it disappeared! Just like that. It just vanished!” she said, as if she’d witnessed a magic trick, or more likely, a miracle. Her gaze moved from to Pescoli, then to Alvarez. “It . . . it could have killed me,” she whispered, her good hand to her throat, the IV tubing stretching.
“And you’re sure this was a monster? A . . . Sasquatch?” Pescoli asked.
“Yes! Yes! I mean . . . I think so. I didn’t see it, not its face, but it was huge and fast and strong and hairy and smelled and . . .” She shivered, almost on cue. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.” She started sniffling, but Pescoli didn’t see any tears forming.
“Could you have mistaken the creature for a big man?” Pescoli said. “Maybe one in some kind of ape suit?”
Lara gasped. “You don’t believe me? But . . . you think Bianca saw one?” She glared at Pescoli. Sitting up taller in the bed, she said, “It was there, damn it! Probably that same huge creature that chased Bianca. You’re just lucky we’re both alive!”
On hurried footsteps the nurse returned, her face a mask of quiet rage. “I think you should go now,” she said to the cops. “Ms. Haas needs her rest.”
When Pescoli didn’t immediately head for the door, the nurse said, “I don’t care who you are, Detectives, I want you out. Now.” Her chin jutted, daring them to breach her authority, but Pescoli was done. They’d gotten all they needed from Lara Haas, and if nothing else, the splint on her wrist and the bruising surrounding her neck convinced Pescoli there was a certifiable homicidal maniac on the loose.
Man? Beast? Mythical creature?
Ten to one, the killer was human.
CHAPTER 25
As they walked down the hallway of Northern General, Pescoli cast a look over her shoulder to Lara’s room. “Her injuries seem minor, so why is she spending the night in the hospital?”
“I asked that before you came,” Alvarez said. “She’s slightly concussed and they want to watch her. No broken bones, but some minor contusions and abrasions. I think they might have released her earlier, but she’s a minor and her parents aren’t around. They’re probably being cautious. Don’t want a lawsuit.”
“Is the whole country lawsuit happy?” Pescoli groused as they passed an orderly pushing a rattling cart in the other direction. “Almost every witness we’ve interviewed has asked about lawyering up. As if they’re all in it together.”