Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery

4. Wednesday

43 4 Wednes­ day Cu­ biak drove with the front win­ dows down, hop­ ing the cool night air would keep him alert and blow away the rem­ nants of ­ Cate’s per­ fume. He was glad he’d an­ noyed her. He ­ didn’t want to think of her be­ cause she made him think of La­ uren, and he ­ missed his wife to the point of pain. More sober than drunk, he ­ rolled into the park en­ trance. It was well past mid­ night and a wall of ­ clouds had blot­ ted out the moon. He­ stopped along­ side the main­ te­ nance shed and ­ fished a pack of cig­ ar­ ettes from his ­ pocket. He was half­ way to the sta­ tion door when a ve­ hi­ cle­ peeled off the road and tore up the drive, mo­ men­ tar­ ily blind­ ing him with its head­ lights be­ fore the yard went black once more. “Who’s there?” Cu­ biak ­ called out. A door ­ slammed. “Get out of the truck.” Otto ­ Johnson’s ­ brusque voice cut ­ through the dark. Cu­ biak ­ flipped a ­ switch on the yard pole and a cone of light fell over the ­ gravel lot. From the shad­ ows, the park super­ in­ ten­ dent ­ pulled Barry Beck from the pas­ sen­ ger seat of the ­ pickup and ­ dragged him cen­ ter 44 stage. The boy was pasty white and wob­ bly. A thick trail of some­ thing that ­ looked like vomit ran down his shirt. His hands were ­ streaked with some­ thing that ­ looked like blood. “I found him like this near Tur­ tle Bay. I think he’s in shock,” John­ son said. Barry stank of piss and fear. The two men ma­ neu­ vered the boy­ through the back door, into the ­ kitchen, and onto a chair. Cu­ biak ­ handed him a glass of water. “What hap­ pened?” he said. Barry ­ choked on the water and began to cough and cry at the same time. Cu­ biak ­ waited for him to re­ cover. “Were you alone?” he said fi­ nally. The boy’s eyes ­ glazed over. “You were with a girl?” Barry nod­ ded. His breath­ ing was rapid and shal­ low. “What were you doing, mess­ ing ­ around?” Barry nod­ ded again. “Yeah.” The story came out in ­ spurts. He’d taken a girl named Alice to the hill­ top clear­ ing be­ hind Tur­ tle Bay Camp­ ground. After about an hour or so, they ran out of beer. Alice said she was cold so Barry gave her his­ jacket and the flash­ light and left to get an­ other ­ six-pack from the car. Com­ ing back he got lost, and when he fi­ nally lo­ cated the spot where­ they’d been hang­ ing out, he found her. He ­ looked at them in panic as if they ­ should know the rest with­ out his hav­ ing to spell out the de­ tails. “What hap­ pened?” John­ son ­ shouted. He tried to shake the boy but Barry swat­ ted at his hand. “Is she okay? Is Alice all right?” Cu­ biak said ­ quietly, tamp­ ing down his own fear. What could harm some­ one in the woods? A hun­ gry bear?­ Wolves? Barry shud­ dered and dou­ bled over. “She . . . she . . .” The rest dis­ solved into sobs as he ­ rocked back and forth, sput­ ter­ ing sa­ liva at the floor. Cu­ biak ­ snatched a coat from the hall and ­ dropped it over the boy’s shoul­ ders. “You bet­ ter call Beck and Hal­ ver­ son,” he told John­ son. “I’ll go and check. Maybe she’s hurt.” 45 In the black­ ened for­ est, Cu­ biak felt the same cold dread he’d ex­ pe­ ri­ enced as a cop an­ swer­ ing a call in the most vi­ o­ lent urban neigh­ bor­ hood. No mat­ ter how much in­ for­ ma­ tion the po­ lice had going into a sit­ u­ a­ tion, there was al­ ways the un­ known fac­ tor: the door knob wired to a bomb, the guy at the bot­ tom of the base­ ment ­ stairs wait­ ing to slam a ­ nailstudded board into the face of the first per­ son down. Maybe Alice had­ passed out from drink­ ing. Then how to ex­ plain the blood on ­ Barry’s hands? A nose­ bleed, an­ i...