Come Get Me Read online

  “At first they thought it was a joke or that they might’ve drunk a little too much while they were out since they could’ve sworn he was floating in the air when they first saw him. Course that’s not what it was but that’s what it looked like, to them, at first. They said Tommy was just stuck to the tree and blood was splashed all over the place. Now they were overreacting a little bit. There wasn’t blood all over the place, it just looks that way.” Rob glanced at Jim to make sure he was following everything he was being told. Jim reassured him he understood that the old men were just a little drunk so anything they said had to be taken with a grain of salt. But that didn’t really matter too much. They were still right about Tommy being dead.

  Rob kept looking around as if somebody was watching them. He was still worried someone would somehow find out about everything he was telling Jim. Rob didn’t come out and say he was uncomfortable but then he didn’t have to. Jim knew his friend even if they hadn’t hung out together in years. He didn’t want to push him into saying anything he would regret so he just stood silently waiting to see if Rob would continue.

  “I really lost it when I saw who it was,” Rob began again after a few minutes. “I try not to think about it too much but I can’t help it. I keep seeing him there on that tree every time I close my eyes.” Rob seemed to be on the edge of tear but he pushed on like he wanted to get it all out at once. “Hell, listen to me. I can’t even say the damn word. I never thought about it before now but it’s a disgusting word. Whoever thought of it should have it done to them and see how they like it. Impaled. Gives me the willies just thinking about it. What’s worse is that’s probably how I’ll think of Tom for the rest of my life. Every time I hear someone say it or see it in a movie I’ll think of Tommy with that damn stick coming out his chest. I don’t want that.”

  “I know you don’t think you did very well out there Rob but its ok,” Jim said gently trying to console him. “Heck, I don’t know what I would have done if I had seen it but from what you’ve told me you did just what Tommy would’ve expected you to do. You did your job. Tommy would’ve understood. Don’t beat yourself up about losing it. Tommy would’ve teased you sure, but you did what you had to. Just because you’re a policeman doesn’t mean you aren’t human. You probably never thought you’d have to see something like that when you signed on for this job anyway. Don’t think about how Tommy looked out there. Think about all the fun we had when we were kids and the things we did back then. Tommy might not be here anymore but he’s still with us on the inside for as long as we live.” Jim didn’t know what else to say. He grabbed Rob and hugged him and was relieved when he felt Rob return the hug. They stood there like that for a few minutes in the middle of the sidewalk, neither of them caring what anyone might think or say if they saw them.

  Jim didn’t even want to think about what he might’ve done coming up on a horrific scene like that. “What did you mean there was blood all over the place?” he asked as they stepped back from each other.

  “That’s not what I said,” Rob quickly replied, “I just told you what the guys hunting out there said it looked like when they first got there. I mean, from the way they tell it the place was a slaughter house. It wasn’t like that though. There was some blood on the bushes around the tree where Tommy fell and a few other places but the sheriff, along with the doc, figured it was just from him struggling to get off the thing jammed in his back. They said he finally just lost too much blood and fainted. A little while after that he died and that’s how we found him.” Rob looked a little greener than he had when he’d started his story but it couldn’t be helped. Jim didn’t like making him talk about stuff like this but unfortunately he needed to know and Rob seemed to understand.

  They’d slowed their pace while they were talking but now resumed a more normal step. Jim was having a hard time believing everything he’d been told. Everything pointed to some kind of accident but he was still having a hard time believing that. Tommy just wasn’t the type who would fall out of a tree. It just didn’t sound like him. Jim had seen him climb one when he was half drunk one time without a problem so he just couldn’t understand how it could happen to the same guy when he was stone sober.

  “Was there anything else that you saw out there that you haven’t told me about?” he asked hoping Rob would remember something that would make it all easier to accept.

  Rob didn’t answer right away. He looked as if he’d recovered somewhat from his earlier description of the grizzly scene he’d witnessed but there was something else going on in his head. Jim didn’t know what it was but he had a feeling it was important especially since Rob was having a hard time looking him in the eye. He looked almost as if he was trying to decide whether to tell Jim anything else or not. Seeming to come to a decision he shrugged his shoulders slightly then began adding more to his story.

  “Alright, there were other things out there,” he said almost too quiet for Jim to hear. “But you can’t tell anyone, and I mean anyone, you know about this stuff. Not even your mom. I mean it. This is stuff nobody else is supposed to know. Before I say anything else I want your word you won’t go spouting off to anyone who will listen and getting all excited about what I tell you. Don’t make any of it any bigger than what it is.” Jim made the promise and hoped he didn’t regret it later.

  “Ok,” Rob said after being satisfied, “remember how I said the tree looked like it’d been cut? Well we found what was left of it a little ways off from Tommy’s stand. It was sorta buried under some bushes and fallen trees, kinda like someone hid it or something. You definitely wouldn’t have seen it when you walked up. The only reason we found it at all was because we were looking for stuff like that. You know, things that were out of place.” Rob watched Jim as he spoke as if at the first time Jim had a reaction he would quit speaking. When he saw Jim was about to ask a question he quickly continued before his first word could be uttered.

  “I said it looked like it was hidden that doesn’t mean that it was. The sheriff said that it might have just fallen where we found it. It was close enough to the tree that it could’ve happened like that. It was just a little suspicious.” He said pausing to let what little he’d revealed sink in.

  “Anything else?” Jim asked after a few minutes of waiting.

  “Boy, you sure are in a hurry,” Rob said slowly almost like he was reluctant to continue. “I really didn’t want to bring this up but it doesn’t look like I have any choice now. Like I said I don’t you want getting all excited about anything but while we were looking around we found two other things that everybody thought were just a little out of place.”

  “Well, what was it?” Jim asked impatiently.

  “We found some hair and some prints,” he said quickly looking away.

  “Is that it?” Jim asked. “Why were you afraid that I would get excited over something like that?” He didn’t understand what the big deal was. It was the woods. There was bound to be other types of prints out there and probably a lot of other types of hair as well what with all the animals running around back there. There were things like that in the woods last time he’d checked so it wasn’t very surprising to find hair and tracks. Humans weren’t the only things that walked the woods. Maybe that actually was what happened to Tommy. He’d been attacked by animal or something. Maybe a bear or some other big animal. It could’ve scared him which in turn caused him to fall out of his stand and onto the tree.

  “You’re right,” Rob said, “Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal finding stuff like that out there but the things we found aren’t what you would usually find in.” He stopped talking again and took a deep breath. These dramatic pauses were really getting on Jim’s nerves. He wished Rob would just come out and say what he had to say. “We think the tracks belong to a goat. A big one. Since the tracks look like goats we’re guessing the hair belongs to one too. We aren’t sure yet but that’s what we’re looking at.”

  Goat hair? Jim thought. What the hell would goat hai
r be doing out in the woods. He didn’t even think there were any goats anywhere near town much less out in the woods the only goat he could think of wasn’t even a real one. With that one thought he began to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. Looking at Rob he saw that he had thought the same thing when he’d first seen the tracks. The greenish color had returned to his face.

  “Now Jim, you’re thinking the same thing I did. But you and I both know it can’t be. That thing isn’t real. There’s no way it was the Goatman.” Rob didn’t really sound like he believed what he was saying. He sounded like he wanted Jim to agree with him and tell him he was right. But deep inside, they both knew.

  “You’re right,” he heard himself say as he looked at Rob. “It can’t be him. That all happened a long time ago. It was all our imagination. Plus like you just said, it isn’t real. There is no such thing as the Goatman.” The creature’s name flew off his tongue like a curse. Denying its existence did nothing to make his stomach feel any better. He could say it until he was blue in the face and he wouldn’t feel any better. If he didn’t even believe himself how could Rob?

  There was no way Tommy could have been killed by something that didn’t exist. It simply couldn’t have happened. There had to be some other explanation for why the hair and tracks were out there. Maybe a goat had somehow gotten away from a farm and was now roaming the woods looking for food and whatever else goats looked for. That scenario didn’t make much sense but the only other option made even less. He quickly asked Rob about his theory and was shaken by his answer. No one in the area had any goats. They seemed to be far and few between out here. They’d checked, or at least Rob had.

  “Well, like I said before,” Rob began after a few shaky minutes, “don’t tell anyone else. Everyone around here grew up hearing the stories about that damn thing and the sheriff doesn’t want the town to getting fired up thinking there’s some creature on the loose killing people. That’s all we need right now is a bunch of the good ol’ boys going out hunting for the thing and shooting everything between here and the next town up. The only thing they’d probably manage killing is each other and some poor animals. Tommy’s death is being reported as an accident. End of story. I don’t like it but that’s what the law says it was so that’s what it is.”

  Jim knew Rob didn’t believe it but that was the way the sheriff was going to tell it so he guessed he had to go along with it. Nothing would be accomplished by trying to get him to say otherwise except getting Rob in trouble. It definitely wouldn’t bring Tommy back.

  They slowly walked down the street for a few more minutes trying to talk about other things to take their minds off the Goatman. It didn’t work very well until Pete’s name came up. Rob told him that after he left, Pete started getting a little strange. First he’d moved into one of the old houses that sat on the edge of the woods all by himself. Anyone other than Rob got chased off whenever they went around including his own parents. Then a few weeks after Pete had moved in he started doing a lot of strange things. One night Rob happened to be driving by on his normal rounds when he saw a glow in the sky near the area of Pete’s house. Wanting to make sure his friend was ok he’d decided to investigate. He didn’t know what he expected to find but what he found sure wasn’t it.

  There were fires burning all around the house with Pete right smack dab in the middle of it all striding back and forth poking at them making them like he was one of hell’s own demons tending the pits of the damned. Rob had gone out a few times and tried talking some sense into Pete but to no avail. All he did was watch the flames burn and mumble strange things about stuff from the woods coming to get him and how he had to, no needed to, keep the fires burning so he would be safe. Jim agreed that it was strange but confessed he had no idea what to do about it. He’d been gone a long time. If Pete was really as far gone as he sounded he might not even remember who Jim was. Plus he wasn’t even going to be there that long. There was nothing he would be able to do for Pete in the short time he had.

  Rob ignored Jim’s excuses, saying that the only time anyone saw Pete anymore was when he came to town to get food. Pete’s parents were worried about him but they continued paying for everything he needed. The house he lived, the food he ate, even the gasoline he used in his fires. They paid for it all. They wanted him to get help but knew they couldn’t force him. He had refused when they suggested it and they couldn’t make themselves send him away. They’d gone to the sheriff and asked if he could do anything but he’d told them that Pete wasn’t hurting anyone and as long as he didn’t set the woods on fire there wasn’t anything he could do. Rob finished up by telling Jim that he should visit Pete and see if he could talk some sense into him. Even though he wasn’t going to be there long seeing him might do Pete some good. Jim said he’d try to make it over there but knew he probably wouldn’t. He had one friend dead already. He didn’t know if he could take seeing another going crazy right before his eyes.

  “I really do need to get back to work now,” Rob said after finishing the story of Pete’s plight. He looked at his watch and winced. “Yup, I’m real late for my rounds. So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at the funeral then.”

  “Yeah,” Jim mumbled as Rob turned to go. “We’ll have to get together before I leave.”

  “We can do that,” Rob said turning around and walking backwards. “Next time we won’t talk about so much of this bad stuff. We can talk about other things.”

  “Like what?” Jim asked giving him the opening he was looking for.

  “I know, you can tell me all about your date,” Rob said with a mischievous grin.

  “Hey, you know what?” Jim asked blowing off his comment. “You’re such a great police officer and all that now so why don’t you see if you can find a life or something. Quit living through me.”

  “Why? Yours is so much more entertaining,” Rob quickly fired back.

  “You know me; I’m here for your entertainment,” Jim shot back just as fast.

  Rob waved over his shoulder and walked down the street. Jim watched him go then looked up at the sky and saw it was later in the day than he’d thought. He still needed to get back to his mother’s house so he could grab a shower and be ready for his date later on. He had no clue what there was to do around here but no matter what it was he wanted to be clean and smelling good so he made a good impression. Jill might’ve just been being nice when she’d said she would go out with him but then again she’d come up with the idea herself, so she must be at least a little bit interested. At least, he could always hope, he thought.

  5

  Jill was just closing the store when Jim came running up hoping he wasn’t late for their date. He’d only had a few minutes once he got to his mother’s house to take a quick shower put on some clean clothes then run back out the door. He’d cut it close but he’d made it. True to her word Jill was ready to go.

  “Hi!” she said looking at him a little funny.

  “Hi yourself,” he answered while catching his breath. After taking a few minutes to calm down he asked, “So, what are we going to do tonight?”

  “Well,” she began nervously, “Gran came by a little while after you left to say hi and we got to talking about what all had been going on today. You know, gossiping. Well, I told her you’d come back for a short visit and that you’d been talking to Rob about Tommy’s death and how the two of you thought something a little strange was going on. She pretty much agreed but I cut her off before she could get started by telling her you and I were going to be seeing each other later. She quieted down for a minute then said if we didn’t have anything else to do then we should stop by and visit with her for a while. She said she’d missed seeing you after all these years. She also said she wanted to talk to you about something too. You know, since you were here and all.”

  “Any idea about what?” Jim asked after trying to figure out what Gran might want. True, he’d known her when he was little but that was a long time ago. He couldn’t imagine an
ything she might want to tell him after all this time.