Tover's Mystery.

Tarka:

Olivia Otter looked over at Lorry Mouse with a smirk. She pointed into the holo. "I think that that wall should go over here, so that you can have a larger bathroom. I'd hate to have one that small!"

Lorry looked at the holo for the design of her new home. "Oh! You are very right, Olivia." She reached into the holo and moved the wall over a little. "There! It fits in nicely with the kitchen as well." She grinned and then looked up fast as the outerdoor beeped. Quickly she hit the 'hide holo' button and the project she was working on vanished.

Calway Badger walked into his office and grinned happily. Lorry and Olivia were pretending to work again. He had expanded the outer office when Olivia had joined the team. He looked over at her desk. Along with the normal stacks of office supplies, there was a large bookshelf filled with books. "Hello, you two. Do I have any calls in?"

Lorry shook her head. "No, Mr. Badger, there were no calls for you while you were gone." She looked over at Olivia and lifted an eye. They had been talking about that very thing before. :) Payday was coming up and it was still up in the air if they would get it on time. Pay was good... just sometimes was slow in getting to you.

Calway nodded. "Thanks, Lorry." He entered his office and went to his desk. 'Damn, I have not had any good cases in a month,' he thought to himself. 'Not since that Fox-o-Lot business.' He sat down and sighed, then picked up the paper and started to look for anything that might be of interest.

By Twohart

Lorry went back to working on her new home, when the outer door beeped again soon after Calway went into his office. She hit the 'holo kill' button again and looked up. A young looking raccoon walked into the office. "Hello, is this Calway Badger's Detective Agency...?"

Olivia nodded. "Yes sir, it is. Is there any way that we can help you?" She had taken over the greetings as she seemed to do them better then Lorry, who was now hard at work on her computer calling up info on the raccoon that just came in the door, and sending it to Calway's terminal.

The raccoon nodded. "Yes, I would like an appointment with Mr. Badger if you would be so kind."

Lorry nodded. "If you would like you can see him now, as he is free for an hour." The raccoon nodded. Lorry grinned and got up from her desk and went to the door. "What is your name sir?"

"Tover," he said. "My name is Tover Raccoon."

Calway looked up as Lorry tapped on the door. He put away his paper. She opened the door a moment later. "There is a Tover Raccoon here to see you, Calway." She opened the door all the way and shoved Tover in to the chair on the other side of the desk. Calway got up and held out his paw to the raccoon.

"Hello Mr. Raccoon. What can I do for you?"

The raccoon gulped and looked uncertain for a moment. "Well, it is not a very long story, but it has me puzzled." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bit of paper and handed it to Calway. "This is a letter that I receved. I need your help to find out what is happening with it. I don't have a clue about what it really means."

Calway looked at the letter in his paws and read it. 'Run to the ocean for the time that your wife lost her life vest.' He blinked and read it again.

Tover nodded. "It just seems like nonsense to me."

Crazyheart:

Calway carefully examined the letter with his famous deductive skills. "Run to the ocean for the time that your wife lost her life vest."

Calway stroked his fuzzy chin while he examined the exact wording, and started playin' with the words a bit... "....life vest....life raft?......life force.... ....life support..... Mr. Tover, is your wife on any kind of machinery to keep her alive? Like respirators, heart monitors, and the like?" Tover shook his head.....

Calway looked at the whole letter again. He then copied the letter onto his desktop computer, an Apple Granny-Smith, and looked at the letter from there on the screen. Calway then suddenly got a hint of inspiration. "Why didn't I see this before?!" He started looking at the letter, and started deleting words... "Run ... ... ..... for ... .... .... your .... .... ... life ....."

Tover watched as Calway hacked the letter, and gasped in horror as he saw the final message. "I..... I don't understand," exclaimed Tover in a shocked voice. "Who would want to kill me?"

Tarka:

Calway looked up at Tover and shrugged. "I guess that is what we will have to find out, Tover. I will take the case and see what I can turn up. You can talk with Olivia about payment for my service.

Tover nodded and reached out his paw to shake Calway's. "I really don't know how I can ever thank you, Mr Badger, this was really the last place that I could turn."

Calway nodded and led Mr Tover out of his office and handed him off to Olivia, asking Lorry to join him in his office. "Lorry, I need you to dive into the net and find out everything that you can about Mr Tover. For myself I am going to join him and go to his home, and talk with him and the rest of his family. Can you do that?"

Lorry grinned. "It is as good as done, short-tail... errr... Calway."

Calway cocked his head and grinned... leaving the office and joining Tover again. Olivia was done making arangements for the payment. "Tover? I would like to go with you to your home, so that I can get a better idea of what is going on..."

Lillieth:

Tover looked up and nodded "Certainly. Anything I can do to help I will do gladly. Just let me finish up with this." The raccoon finished writing his check and turned to Calway and smiled.

Calway nodded and started toward the door, opened it and waved the raccoon through first "I'll follow right behind you. Where did you park your vehicle? Mine is in the lot around back."

Tover smiled "I'm parked at a meter on the street about half a block east of here. If you want to pull around, I'll wait for you. You can't miss me... I'm driving a bright green florist's truck. It has 'Petal Pushers' written in yellow on both sides with a brighly colored bouquet of flowers."

Calway grinned "Well, you're right. I guess I shouldn't have any trouble spotting that vehicle. Watch for a small black MG Spider. I'll slow down to let you in traffic."

With that, the two separated, Calway heading for the back exit and Tover going out the front door. Shortly afterwards Calway rounded the corner and pulled up behind the florist's truck and tooted his horn. The truck pulled out and Calway began to follow it.

Twohart:

Calway had watched as Tover made his way into the van, the raccoon's stance obviously betraying uncertainty.

Normally the badger was very calm, really he was.

But, you see...this was the first, the FIRST case in months--ever since that Fox-o-Lot ritual, that he'd had.

He glowered at the expresso spills on his tie and shirt, 'What the heck.' and followed Tover's move into his car.

He threw the old cup across into the wastebasket. With a sort of harumph (he HAD started to gain wait), he heaved into the driver's side---Tover had already started to pull out.

Calway winced, rubbing his back as he maneuvered pulling out, as Tover had said, and began to follow down the avenue.

Tover glanced in his rearview mirror, watching as the detective--the old coot--began to follow. So much like a puppy dog. *blip* "Hello? Hello? This is Olivia...?" (He'd stolen the Detective's radio, too. They had taught him SOMETHING, at least.) His mind turned to the past few months, as his mother sat there before him, her long, coonish fur still old but glistening in the firelight in his, -their- home. Hers too, since several years ago..., and..."Hello? Calway? Sir? I think you should..."

Tover cleared his throat, "Aye--er, yes, Olivia?" He left off the last name. He figured that was the proper thing to do--why was SHE calling, anyway...? Wasn't it supposed to be the other one? He glowered at the red light, its color reflecting in his soul, if at least not in his demeanor at the moment. "Yes? What have you found, Olivia?"

Olivia chittered nervously..."Sir...we can't find anything on Mr. Tover's file."

He was pleased beyond belief. "What?"

"We couldn't find anything."

Silence. Tover glanced back, to see if Calway was still following. "I..think that's all, Olivia...things are pretty much under wraps. I've gotten back-up, and we're heading over to his house."

He received acknowledgement from the other end.

Tarka:

Calway followed Tover in his car. He had been driving now for an hour without stopping.

They finally arrived at an old home out just beyond the city in an upscale area. He lifted his eyebrows a little. The clothes Tover wore didn't seem to speak of this kind of neighborhood. He followed Tover to the front and parked the car and got out and walked over to Tover. "Mr. Tover, shall we get started? I would like to see the rest of the family while I am here."

Tover grinned and nodded. "As you wish, Mr Calway. Come this way will you?" Tover headed for the front door. His grin was getting wider and wider as he moved to open the door, carefully stepping over the rug right at the entrance.

Calway looked around the yard as he walked to the house. Then he went through the door, getting only a peek at the inside before the rug just on the inside of the door fell thought the trapdoor underneath! "Hey!" He yelled and tried to grab the edges of the floor, but too late as he fell into darkness. He hit the bottom of the shaft hard and with a thump. There was a dim red light in the room and, 'My god.' he thought... something else was there with him. It turned to him and grinned.

Lillieth:

Calway blinked and reached beneath his jacket for his shoulder holster His fingers closed over emptiness and he shivered involuntarily as he watched the red eyes grow closer to him in the dark. The badger shuffled backwards very slowly and after a few steps, found himself backed against a cold, slimy stone wall.

The creature before him opened its maw and sharp teeth glistened in the little light that shone down from the trapdoor. Calway heard an evil laugh and looked up for just an instant. That instant was too much though and he jerked his head back down as he felt the hot, rancid breath of his foe brush his cheek. Calway moved quickly to his left and spun around, his foot reaching out and catching the thing squarely in the side. A great whuff of air whooshed into the dark and Calway pressed his advantage, hitting out low to keep his hands away from those sharp teeth. He saw the red eyes blink repeatedly and spun again to move further away but crashed into another wall in the darkness. Calway saw stars and blinked his eyes rapidly to clear them. The red eyed creature advanced upon him again.

Twohart:

Calway could have no idea of knowing what chaos was going on above him... His two secretaries still thought they had contacted him, and that he was safe. Tover...was something else.

Tover cursed quietly to himself--until this point he had never said a bad word in his life. Yet it was a paradox--his hand never slipped, his fingers never trembled sliding the next cartridge into the gun. He was MADE for this kind of work! Mother would never recognize him--that was the only thought that sobered him. She was probably still in the living room, waiting for him. As soon as they made the last morgage payment...the plan was, actually, not that bad. He was a cousin, thrice removed, from Olivia's intended...he'd heard so much from the fellow, and also that Olivia hadn't been doing well, financially. So, supply her boss with some cases, inherit the money. That's what his last wife had said..."It's all about the money, isn't it? ISN'T it???" Her voice had cut coldly into him, like a knife into cold fish. Yet, in his heart, he knew that she was right.

Calway muttered prayers, wishing at the time he'd remembered to keep a rosary that HIS mother had given him... The eyes held his attention, demanding he-didn't-know-what-by-their-presence. "Calway?" it knew his name. It knew his name. He trembled. He couldn't get over that. It knew his name.

Shadow:

Calway stammered in Shock. "Y-y-y-you *ulp* know me??"

The red eyes nodded, or seemed to anyway, and a chill voice like the arctic wind washed over his face. "Yes. I do."

"B-b-ut... how? Why?"

Again with the voice, that voice, like the frozen tundra's wind. "Well, you see, it's quite simple. I've been waiting for you, you see."

Calway blinked, stupefied. "Waiting? For *me*??"

A third time, the voice. A voice Calway would not, could not ever forget for the remainder of his life. The creature's response was lost before the sheer *presence* of it's voice, the cold chill of delivery. "...and so, my dear Calway Badger, I've been here since my inception waiting. For you. For now."

Calway blinked, realizing he had not heard a word the great beast had said, lost in the hypnotic spell of the voice, made stronger by the glowing red of the eyes. "Um.. so... *why* was that again, exactly?"

The creature seemed taken aback from this lack of attention on the part of its audience "Why, I'm here to keep you from fufilling your eventual destiny. That's what I said."

Calway assimilated this new information slowly, fighting the overwhelming presence of the beast's voice. "Um, how are you going to do that?"

The beast chuckled. "The simple way. I will eat you, you see."

Calway nodded slowly. "Yes, I see indeed." He looked around. There seemed to be a darker patch off to the beast's left... a tunnel? 'Only one way to find out, and it beats getting eaten,' he thought.

WalksFar:

Olivia stopped her work suddenly and leaned on the file cabinet, lost in an odd quirk of thought. "Now, why would he do that?"

Lorry tossed a paperclip into a cup on her desk and swiveled around in her chair to face Olivia. She chewed on her gum, popping it now and then. Her ears lifted in curiosity. "What are you talking about?"

Olivia glanced at the ceiling and bit her upper lip apprehensively. "He never does that.!

"What?" Lorry got to her feet. "Olivia! Get a hold of yourself!"

Olivia blinked and gazed at Lorry, surprised. She shook her head. "Nothing important." She picked up the files on top the cabinet and opened one of the drawers. "It just seemed funny to me that Cal would sign off like he did."

Lorry considered it for a moment. Her eyes widened. "Now that you mention it, he sounded different, too!"

Olivia dropped the files into the drawer in mass. "It wasn't him! It wasn't CAL!" She ran to the phone, jerked up the receiver and dialed . . . .

Tarka:

Calway eyed the darker part of the wall then looked back at the evil glowing eyes... shivers running up and down his back, as he tried to look right at them. He needed time now. What could he do. "Don't you think that you might, well... get sick trying to eat me? Anyways, I am just a simple detective. I don't have any grand destiny to speak of! I am a loser most of the time!"

There was a viscious hisss from the thing in front of him and it lashed out with a claw. Calway was just able to duck the claw. "YOU IDIOT. You don't even know what you are. Time to die now." Calway kept rolling after he ducked past the glowing eyes and came to his feet in a run, going for the darkness in the wall!

Tover moved the gun behind his back and put a soft grin on his face as he entered his mothers room. "Hello Mother." He looked her over. 'Where would be the best place to shoot the bitch,' he thought to himself.

Twohart:

Calway bolted.

Calway shivered, trying to sort out facts as he scurried along...and it WAS a tunnel. But it led nowhere he would know...until he at least sorted the last ten minutes out in his head... For one, he had tried to arrive with Tover, who was 'Great-One-knew-Where,' and he also had no radio and no gun. His holster was empty where it had been resting up against his side, under his jacket. He must have lost it when he fell, which was after following Tover into his home. (again, it was Tover!) 'He surely had to know there was a big hole in the middle of his floor!!!' The tunnel poundpounded in his mind. Along the wall, if he slowed, he was sure he could see the stone of an old building. It would have to be... the resemblence was uncanny... and the shot that followed nearly knocked him off his feet and out of what sensibility he had remaining.

Tover crept into the room, listening to her shallow breathing... she should have long been dead. But he knew that she would always, always, be there, here in his heart. He heard the shot, even saw the silver gleam in his forepaw, rising like the sun did, its reflection and power, like that great golden ball, in.. the.. palm.. of.. his.. hand. The shot never registered. He hadn't killed her--he couldn't believe that. She was still alive, in his heart, right there beside him when he needed her. But he knew this would all appear a misunderstanding, but nothing had happened. Had it?

Shadow:

Calway patpatted himself frantically. "Oh, God, I'm not *dead*, am I?" Stopped. No, obviously not dead. 'Good. The shots must have been fired at someone else, and nearby...'

Calway realized as the sound of heavy breathing got louder and the air became chilly, that lack of death was considered an oversight someone was about to remedy for him! He got back up, scrambling forward again quickly.

Calway went barreling along the corridor in fear of his life, and met a wall with great surprise. His surprise was even more total when the wall gave way before his weight, and he staggerred out into a large room. Tover was there.. and.. "A ha!!!"

Tover squeaked in surprise as the battered badger detective burst into the room with that cry and headed straight for him. He flung his hands up in guilty surrender, the gun flying through the air.

Calway didn't much care right now as to why Tover had his gun, or what he was so guilty-looking about, as the demaonic creature burst into the room behind him, a great black mass, sucking all light into itself save those two red eyes. Calway caught the gun, the familiar grip of the worn old Ruger Magnum 45 Express falling into his paw like the warm embrace of a long-forgotten lover. He jacked a fresh clip in from his holster (why didn't the idiot take the ammo?) and spun, arm and gun snapping in line with what he supposed was the head. "Eat this, you vile, disgusting, *creepy* bastard!" *BLAM!BLAM!BLAM!* The gun's thunderous report rattled the windowpanes, and the steel-jacketed, highly illegal 'widowmaker' rounds ripped through the thing's flesh with a disgusting, wet tearing sound. The infuriated badger emptied an entire clip into the thing, and it kept coming. He reloaded, ran through another clip as the thing advanced, and backed away as he went through another, and another, the same creepy, wet tearing sound echoing through the room over an over, a gruesome counterpoint to the gun's blaring reports. His final clip all but gone, Calway shifted aim to one of the eyes. It imploded with a sickening sucking sound, and the demon screamed. "Ah HA! That hurt, did it? Have another!" He put out the other eye! The demon reared back with an inhuman (unfurry, too) scream, and fell forward, slamming into the ground and dying with a chilly hiss. Cal checked the magazine. One left. O.O

WalksFar:

Cal whirled, aiming the weapon at arm's length at Tover; aimed directly between his eyes. "Only one bullet. Wanna bet it finds you before you can escape?

Tover held his hands high. His body quivered.

For the first time, Cal noticed the earthy odor of the room . . . not earthy in the sense of a farm or garden, or fresh turned soil . . . a different kind of earthy odor . . . an open grave. He slid away from the remains of the demonic black beast and glided toward the bed where Tover stood, never taking his gaze off Tover.

"Those shots I heard . . . You were shooting at whoever is in this bed. . . Cal took stock of the bed. The covers were powder burned around blackened craters, sooty shafts descending into the bed.

Tover trembled. "It's all her fault!"

Cal held the gun on Tover and pulled back the blankets. What he saw made him falter and lower the gun. Before him, beneath the blankets and sheets was the wizen, mummified corpse of an elder Raccoon. He looked up. Although he had taken his gaze from Tover for only a split second, Tover was gone!

A sizzling sound filled the room. The air became thick and acrid. The heap that had once been a midnight beast sagged and bubbled and ran across the floor in greenish slime that reeked.

Calway bolted from the room, hand over mouth and nose. Once in the hall, he slammed the door behind him and gasped for air. Tover had vanished. . . .

Tarka:

Olivia tried Calway's number again. It would connect and she would try again. "Calway? Are you there Calway? Do answer if you are there Calway..." She gurrrred low in her throat looked at the useless two-way.

Lorry came in from the back office and frowned. "I can't find anything on that Tover guy. Not a thing."

Calway moved around the house carefully... peeking around the corners, one by one, trying to track down Tover. 'Gee this place is weird.' He looked at the table in front of him with the satanic-looking pot on it. "What were these people into?"

Tover sat in his chair and thought very hard. He listened to Calway's radio squeek with Olivia's voice. "I will be with you soon Olivia, like my father always wanted. We will kill Calway for you so you don't have to worry anymore." He made sure not to hit the send button...

Calway grinned. He found a phone and pounced on it with a yell... "Yes!"

The phone next to Olivia started to ring and she picked it up. "Calway! Where are you?"

Twohart:

Calway didn't know a thing more than he had before, just 17 minutes ago. It had only been that long since he'd arrived at Tover's. Tover had now disappeared--or, at least turned into a pile of goo like that kid on Gikalodeon, Mak Alex. This... the phone came off the receiver easily and he --what did he expect? "Hehmmm...Hello? Olivia? Mrs..." Calway growled impatiently, and hardly noticed when the receiver picked up on the other end.

"Calway? Calway sir! It's him!" He heard them speaking to each other...blabbing back and forth--then, another voice blared in the background, "I'm all right...just a little winded..."

The two of them...? Where was Tover?? His radio--his radio was gone. He remembered... quietly...

"Olivia. Listen to me. Pretend you believe him. Agree with him, whatever it takes, get him to--" (screaming and cussing breaking in)--

"Too late sir, she already told him off..."

Calway stood there, holding the receiver in a limp paw..."Sir? Sir...?"

Calway let the phone drop. Tover was around here somewhere...already he could feel the sickness building up, circulating in his lungs. It blinked out all concious thought, and he found his previous mindset returning. He had an extra clip. :) The detective glowered, seeing the red just as before that Tover had, in the car earlier that evening.

Tover sat up, sniffing the air...? "What was that?" He could feel the detective's heartbeat. It beat with his own, but against his purpose, of what he had done. He was confused, first, they had been so polite...so polite... then, without warning, they had yelled at him. He began to be queasy, and felt like crying. Mother was there.

Calway couldn't move, but he was standing. He couldn't move, and struggled to his feet... and he, he had to leave. He struggled toward the door, leaving a trail of webs and wet blood in his wake, or, out into the open door. Or, nearly...he had forgotten about that hole.

Calway looked up, breathing hard, his badger frame shuddering, wanting OUT of this house, out of this district...and Tover's head... Tover's head torn into... wait, that wasn't right...

He stood, unstable on his feet, and put the gun onto the dresser, which landed with a loud *thunk*. 'What next...?' He wanted OUT...

Tarka:

The images danced and played at the edges of Tover's mind. He tried to shove them away. "Get out of here, Mother. I don't want you here anymore. Stop bugging me!"

Calway leaned into the wall and shook his head. He started to stagger down the hallway. Looking for a way out of the house. "I have to get out of here!"

--

Lorry was at the wheel of her little bug with Olivia sitting next to her. They both had the spare guns. "You sure that you traced the call out to here Lorry?"

Lorry nodded. "Sure shootin'. It was from out here in this place."

Olivia nodded and started to check her gun again, for the hundredth time. "I hope that Calway is alright. He didn't sound good on the phone at all."

Lorry nodded as she turned down a driveway and made their way toward the building. "You better have that gun ready. We are here. Lorry parked next to Calway's Spider and got out, her own pistol at the ready, and made her way to the front door; Olivia was a step behind her...

Olivia looked in the door, and at the hole in the floor just inside the door. "This does not speak well at all, Lorry."

Lorry nodded and hopped over the hole and scanned the entry room. "No one in sight, Olivia."

Olivia jumped over the hole, then shivered intensly and looked down into it. She had felt things like that before. Dark, evil, something not right. "Oh boy..." It didn't feel fresh though. "Lorry, watch yourself."

Lorry nodded and headed for the first hall she saw. When she got a look around the corner she stopped... then crouched and waved for Olivia to join her. "Calway's on the floor over there. Careful though. It might be a trap." She headed down the hallway carefully.

Olivia got to Calway's side and checked his pulse.... "Still alive, Lorry."

Twohart:

Lorry looked down at Calway's sleeping form...he looked as he had just fallen asleep... His paw twitched in her hand, gripping it like a lifeboat. In all her years on the undernet she had seen things like this only in digital. When she looked up...Olivia was gone, opening the door and reentering... "I don't see anything...there's ooze everywhere. Cobwebs...even....(she did not add the animal slobber and teeth marks that...) C'mon, Lorry...the police are here..."

Blue light to match his red light, the red light that pulsed inside of his head... it cooled it, and he found he had a headache.

"Detective? Boss?? "Mr. Calway? I have a few--" 'Tell them to shut-up, Lorry, Olivia,' he thought. 'I'm so friggin tired. But, red light... Groggily...' "Where is he?" it was a half croak, befitting his state he thought.

He was getting depressed. His voice grew stronger. "We.. we don't.."

"He's awake!" that last from the side..."Sir...if we could ask you what you were doing in that house? It's supposed to be closed."

Calway took a deep breath, and looked at his two best friends in the world. "Sorry, there might not be a payday this time." But he had learned something of himself, and that counted for more. But--where to begin...?

WalksFar:

"Closed?" Cal sat up groggily. He shook his head and began to separate himself from that which was not him. The two entities within parted in struggle; Cal was the victor and reclaimed his own sanity. "I don't understand, officer."

"This house has been boarded up for years, Sir."

Cal shook his head and looked around again. A chill ran up his spine. Where bright carpets and furniture once stood, decrepit walls dull with decay festooned with a deep patina of dust and cobwebs replaced them. The air smelled dank and musty.

"But . . . ." Cal pointed about weakly. "What about Tover Raccoon?"

The officer helped Cal to his feet. "Who, Sir?"

Cal limped out of the house between the officer and his two friends. "Tover Raccoon, Sir?

The officer chuckled. "We know no one by that name. The house was the site of a bizarre murder case some years back . . . long before you and I were kits . . . something about Satanic Ritual sacrifice. He turned to the other officer near the squad car. "Hank, who owned this place?"

The other officer shrugged. "Some family . . . Tolveridge, I think. Weird bunch . . . Brrrr!"

"Tolveridge?" Olivia blinked. "I have relatives by that name!"

Calway managed to stand on his own. His mind cleared. "Tolveridge . . . Tolver . . . Olivia, any Raccoons on your side of that Tolveridge family?"

Olivia frowned. "Not that I know of."

The older officer smiled. "This whole thing was done in by a detective on the force way back then. He cracked the case and brought the whole bunch to light. Name was Backridge!" He nodded. "That was him . . . Caught them in ritual and had to shoot to stop them from killing a little raccoon kit on an altar. Got the whole slough of them!"

Cal felt his hackles rise. "Backridge? Wh-what was his name?"

"They cursed him on their dying breaths . . . Said they would destroy his line forever . . .

Cal shook his head. "His name . . . What was it?"

"Backridge of course, Stu Backridge. . . ." The officer stared at Cal. "You all right now?"

"Wh-what happened to the raccoon kit?"

"Vanished about a year later. No one ever saw it again . . . It went crazy. Like possessed . . . They had it in a mental recovery home, but he disappeared."

Cal felt weak. His knees buckled.

"Did you find a raccoon in the house?" he asked weakly.

"Yes . . . If you want to call it that. Something mummified, with its head blown off . . . Some thirty-five spent rounds in it. . . . Looks years old."

Cal shuddered.

Olivia dropped to Cal's side. "You all right? What is it?"

"Backridge . . . Backridge . . . my grampa. . . ."

Olivia hugged her boss tightly. "Cal, 'tis all right, ...long ago."

One of the officers helped Cal to his feet again. "Maybe you oughta go home and get cleaned up. Looks like you have an eon's age of dust on you."

Cal brushed himself off and stopped . . . His brain screamed . . . Clothes . . . . They were of a bygone age . . . a generation old, tattered and falling apart . . . not what he would wear. . . . what his grampa might have worn to work so long ago. Cal staggered toward Lorry's bug, helped by them. Was he here? Or then? What was now? He slipped into the car and closed his eyes. His mind closed on itself mercifully and screamed. . . .

By Twohart