Jeff Rovin - Fatalis

"You said there were guns."

"Two," the ranger replied. "They were different locations. Each one got off a round, but that was-"

"Help!"

The cry was small, thin, and high.

Everyone stopped talking, stopped moving, and listened.

"Daddy?"

The voice was coming from inside the Gulf Stream Conquest. Grand had stayed by his SUV and was the one nearest the trailer. The door was only ten feet away. He ran toward it.

"Grand, wait!" Gearhart shouted.

Grand did not intend to wait. Whoever was inside might be hurt. Seconds could matter.

The door was located in the front of the trailer. There was a large pool of blood to the left of it, large, ugly scratches on the wall beside it. Grand opened the door with the sleeve of his jacket so he wouldn't smudge any fingerprints. He stepped back and listened.

"Grand, dammit!" Gearhart shouted.

Grand didn't hear anything from inside the trailer. He went up the stairs and looked in.

The lights were on and the camper was relatively neat. There was part of a stuffed animal on the floor and uneaten dinner on the dinette. The drapes of the bay window were drawn. He moved down the center of the RV toward a side aisle. There was another room in back.

"Hello!" Grand said as he moved into the master bedroom. He stopped and looked under the queen-size bed. "Is anyone in there?"

"I'm here," said the small voice.

It came from a bath suite in the back. Grand hurried over. The door was shut. He didn't know if it was locked, but he didn't want to open it. Not if the girl was hiding from something. He knocked.

"Are you in there?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Are you okay?"

"Uh-uh."

"May I come in?"

"Where's my dad and mom?"

"We're looking for them," Grand said softly. "But we found you. My name is Jim. Could we talk just a little?"

"It was here," said the voice.

"What was?"

"The lion."

Grand felt his bowels tighten.

Gearhart arrived.

"Where was the lion?" Grand asked.

"It was outside and then it was on the roof."

"Well, it's gone now. Listen," Grand said carefully, "I've told you my name. It's Jim. Remember?"

"Yes."

"What's your name?"

"Eugenie."

"Eugenie? That's a very pretty name."

"And my rabbit's name is Blankie. But he lost his head when I was running."

"He did? Well guess what, Eugenie."

"What?"

"Blankie's head is out here. And if you open the door, there's this very nice man, Sheriff Gearhart, who will be happy to put Blankie's head back on his body."

The girl was silent again.

"Eugenie, are you all right?"

"Yes," she said after a moment. "I was just looking."

Grand felt a chill. "At what?"

She didn't answer.

"I've had enough of this," Gearhart said. He moved close to Grand. "Open the door. Whoever did this is getting farther away and she's our only witness."

"Sheriff, this girl is scared," Grand said. "She says she saw a lion. There's something else in there. You startle her and she may not want to talk at all." Grand took a breath and knocked softly on the door. "Eugenie?"

"Yes?"

"The sheriff would really like to fix Blankie. And maybe there's something you'd like. A snack?"

"I'd like my mom."

"Okay. How about you come out, tell the sheriff a little about what happened. Then maybe we can see where your mom went."

The girl was silent again. A moment later they heard clumping; it sounded as if she was walking in the shower or tub. Then there was a click and the door handle turned. A small, red-haired girl stood in the open door, a headless bunny tucked under her arm.

Grand smiled and crouched in front of her.

"Hi, Eugenie," he said. "I'm Jim Grand."

"Hi."

"And this is Sheriff Gearhart," he said, pointing up.

"Hi," the girl said.

Gearhart half-smiled.

"Now," Grand said, "if you go with the sheriff, he'll take you to Blankie's head. And maybe the three of you can sit down and talk."

Eugenie looked from the sheriff's face to his gun. "Okay," she said. "You go first, Mr. Sheriff."

Gearhart turned and left the bedroom. Eugenie was close behind him. She turned and looked at Grand before leaving the bedroom. She tried to smile but it stopped short of her eyes. They were guarded.

Grand smiled back. When she was gone, the smile faded and he looked into the bathroom. It was a small, brightly lighted room with oak-panel cabinets and a garden tub. There were pieces of cotton in the tub; stuffing from Blankie, he guessed. She must have been huddled there. He couldn't imagine what she was looking at until he looked up.

There was an oblong skydome over the tub. Ordinarily the stars would be visible, but not tonight.

Tonight, the sky was red.

"Professor, you didn't know who or what was in that camper," Gearhart snapped. "You could have caused that girl's death and your own by going inside." The sheriff glanced at Hannah Hughes. " This is why I take control of a site when I get there."

"He helped you," Hannah said.

"He slowed me down," Gearhart said.

Grand and Gearhart were standing beside Grand's SUV, at the foot of a high slope. Hannah and the Wall were standing behind Grand. A helicopter hovered over the light, illuminating the grounds. In front of them, newly arrived deputies sealed off the campgrounds and examined the blood-covered tops of several of the vans. As in the truck crash, blood was all that remained of the victims. To the north, in the picnic area, an emergency medical team and trauma counselor examined Eugenie at a park table.

"I want the three of you out of here, now," Gearhart said.

"She said she saw a lion," Grand said quietly.

Gearhart looked at him. "Man, you know how to push but not to listen. She thinks she saw a lion."

"Sheriff," Grand replied evenly, "something scared that little girl enough to cause her to hide in the smallest place in the smallest room of that camper and to stay there."

"She also thinks her stuffed rabbit is alive," Gearhart said. "She has an imagination."

"Having an imagination doesn't mean the girl was using it," Hannah pointed out.

"She was eating dinner when this happened," Gearhart said sharply. "The drapes are neatly drawn. She wasn't looking outside."

"But she could hear. Maybe she heard something near the door and went to check it out. The door closes by itself. She could have opened it, seen something, and run."

"It was dark," Gearhart said. "And there are no footprints."

"The cat could have been on the tops of the campers," Grand said.

"If there was a cat."

"There was definitely something there," Grand said. "That's where the blood is. The scratch on the wall of the fifth wheeler is pretty high-it could have happened when a big cat reached down."

"Could have," Gearhart said. "That scratch could also be an old one. And there are at least eight people missing. Why would a lion take them all? No, Professor Grand. Only the girl knows what she really saw, if anything, and my people will find out what that was. Even then, until the evidence- evidence -tells us otherwise, there is no lion."

"Barring a lion then," Hannah said, "what do you make of this?"

"It's under investigation," he replied and walked away.

Grand, Hannah, and the Wall stood there silently under the clear, cool sky. A brisk wind was blowing from the southwest and riding up the hill. Grand looked to the north, along the steep slope. He still had a feeling that something was out here, beyond the reach of the lights. Something- the only word that came to mind was unhealthy .

"Do you guys really think there's a lion running around up here?" the Wall asked.