Forest Ghost by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page B

wildlife. Nothing more aggressive than a pissed-off raccoon, and I can tell you
that
from experience. Right now, though, I have to persuade fifty-one tired, grieving and impatient people that they would be better off staying the night at the Holiday Inn in Muskegon rather than their own much more comfortable beds. And
you
need to get yourself out of these clothes.’
    ‘OK. You’re right. Maybe I can catch up with that scout leader again before we leave.’
    ‘What time are you going?’
    Jack checked his watch. ‘We have a flight at seven-twelve. Which means we have to be out of here in less than forty-five minutes.’
    ‘Jack,’ said Sally, as he turned to go. ‘I just want to thank you for coming today, and for everything you’ve done. You and Sparky, both of you. It was over and above the call of duty, and I really appreciate it.’
    Jack said, ‘Thanks, Sal.’ He felt again that there could be something between them, but that was probably because she reminded him so much of Agnieszka, and because he was feeling tired, and it would have been so comforting just to have somebody hold him close. Apart from that, he knew that if they became lovers, their relationship couldn’t possibly last, and then he would lose her as a friend.
    He went along to the storeroom, which was a small, stifling room stacked with Owasippe T-shirts and Owasippe sweatpants and other souvenirs, like Owasippe mugs and Owasippe tote bags, all of them marked with the head of Chief Owasippe, in his full-feathered war bonnet.
    He quickly changed into a baggy green-and-white tracksuit, bundled his wet shirt and pants into a plastic Owasippe shopping sack, and went back outside. As he came out, he almost collided with Undersheriff Porter.
    ‘Oh – I was looking for you, sir,’ said Undersheriff Porter. ‘I wanted to tell you how much we appreciate your help in locating those cadavers. Also to ask you for your contact details. The medical examiner in Lansing will be carrying out autopsies on both of them and she may need to ask you a few additional questions.’
    ‘Jack Wallace,’ said Jack, shaking the undersheriff’s hand. It was dry and horny, as if he spent as much time chopping up firewood as he did undersheriffing.
    ‘Interested to know exactly what it was you saw in those woods,’ he remarked.
    ‘Like I said before, something white, running behind the trees. It could have been anything.’
    ‘Maybe it was a cougar. We do have cougars in the woods around here, but you hardly ever see them. You can go your whole life and never catch sight of one. Ghost cats, they call them. On the other hand, maybe it was the ghosts of Chief Owasippe and his two sons. There’s plenty of people who swear they’ve heard
them
, on a really quiet night.’
    ‘You’re not serious.’
    ‘It’s a local legend. Back in the eighteen-somethings, Chief Owasippe gave his sons a canoe and sent them off into the unknown to prove their manhood. They made it all the way to Chicago, and they made friends with the settlers at Fort Dearborn. But they were away for so long that Chief Owasippe went and sat under a pine and waited for them to come back, and he wouldn’t touch food or drink until they did.’
    ‘And
did
they come back?’
    ‘Nope. They were only two nights short of home when they sheltered their canoe under a riverside bluff, and while they were sleeping the bluff collapsed on them and buried them. And that’s a true story, because years later some trappers found their canoe, and their cooking-pots, and their two skeletons.’
    ‘So what happened to Chief Owasippe?’
    ‘He fasted himself to death. And that’s why you can hear him and his sons walking through the woods here at night, and some say that if you call out to them, they’ll answer you.’
    Jack looked at Undersheriff Porter narrow-eyed. Maybe the undersheriff was shooting him a line, but he didn’t detect the slightest flicker on his face that might have given that