Detective Stacy stared at the fabric he enclosed in a plastic baggie and leaned back against the vintage booth at the diner where we decided to meet at. I didn’t tell him about the tapes, I knew he’d take them, and I’d never get to find out what’s on those tapes. A part of me felt guilty for not handing them over, then another part of me told me, I was doing the right thing. Adam was my best friend the least I could do is find out who killed him or took him. as far as Detective Stacy had said, there was no body, which means either he’s still alive or the killer had hidden his body so well, the police couldn’t find it.
I sipped on my coffee, “are you going to have a search party for Adam in the forest?”
Detective Stacy is an older man in his late fifties, his hair now a salt and pepper. The bags under his hazel eyes indicate that he’s seen some things and it kept him up at night. he wore a brown suit that seemed to tailer to him, for an older man he seemed to be in fit, which was surprising since this town was either your fat or too skinny. But it was the edginess in his voice that caught me off guard, most locals are scared of the forest, some say its cursed others say its haunted. But the moment I had mentioned about a search party for Adam in the forest, he shifted uncomfortably.
“For now, we’ll keep investigating, talking to folks,” he said. “So, this is the only thing you found? There wasn’t anything else, we’ve searched his dorm room but found nothing. did you happen to find anything of interesting that could help with the investigation?”
I leaned back and folded my arms. I wasn’t sure if he was testing me or not about finding anything. Three days after I had reported him missing to the campus, they ignored me that is until his parents filed a missing report with the police. The local police department aren’t all that bright, a squirrel could get away with murder if it cried self defense and the police would believe it. so, when they came and searched his dorm room, they just opened drawers to his dresser looked under his bed, didn’t do much searching. Although Detective Stacy was smarter than most of the local cops, he seemed to know what he was doing. And that terrified and relieved me in a sense. So, I know, he wasn’t stupid when I called him from the business card he left with me, if I remember or found something and wanted to talk to him. he seemed disappointed when I handed him the fabric.
“Adam isn’t the only person who’s gone missing lately,” I said.
“I know, there is a whole list of missing people, we are doing our best to find any connections to their disappearance’s. some had been missing for six months the longest missing person had been reported up to two years ago,” Detective Stacy picked up his mug of coffee and took a sip from it and glanced out the window, right behind the diner was the hiking trail—the entrance to the forest. This used to be the hottest tourist spot, that and those who liked to hike, or camp used to stop in. now, there are warning signs at the entrance. And the diner’s parking lot looked like a ghost town.
I frowned. “What about the radio tower DJ’s?”
“Radio tower DJ’s?” he frowned as he stared at me. “I don’t know what that is about, but I did hear a rumor about a Radio Tower that was shut down nearby, but there are no reports of DJ’s missing, or any mishaps. Why would you bring that up?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Adam and I did a mini documentary on the radio tower, its kind of a local legend. Even when I was a kid, everyone was warned against the radio tower in the forest. That DJ’s would go missing or their bodies found a bloody mess. That was what we worked on for our film class, we had done a little digging on the place, there had been at least eight murders and ten missing DJ’s. you’re not a local, are you? And what do you mean there is no reports on the incidents? Have you talked to the owner of the radio tower?”
“Interesting,” Detective Stacy said as he was writing down what I’d said. “And no, I am not local. I was transferred here from New Orleans. The previous homicide detective was relieved of his duties due to a mental break down of sorts. I’ll look into this radio tower, if what you say is true, Adam missing and several others could be the source of it.” he continued to write in his notebook, he sipped at his coffee again, both of our plates of food were half eaten and I can see the server nearby eyeballing us, either to give us the check or take our dirty dishes away.
“Adam had the same thought when we were doing our project.” I spoke.
Detective Stacy slid the baggie the fabric was in, into his inside coat pocket and flipped his notebook closed. “If what you say is true, there should be reports on the missing DJs, and the ones who had been murdered. although I’ve heard rumors that there is something in the forest, like monsters. But I don’t believe in monsters, the real monsters are our neighbors, our friends, family. and that’s why you wanting to be part of this investigation, worries me.”
“I’m trying to help. I want to find Adam as much as you do, but it seems like you’re not doing anything.” I said leaning forward and narrowed my eyes on him. he thinks I’m a suspect, and that alone hurts my pride, I would never hurt my best friend. Never.
Shrugging, “I’m only following leads.” He spoke.
He scooted out of the booth. He pulled out some cash and threw it on the table and told me if I find anything else to call him. as I watched him leave, he walked to an old beat-up sedan, and stopped before opening his door, he stared at the forest and looked a bit spooked. Then got in his car and drove off. typical, he left me with the bill. The server descended on me. as I was leaving the diner myself, I felt like was being watched, when I scanned the diner lobby, there was only a few of the local elder couples and then I spotted a man in the far corner. I didn’t recognize him, but he wore a hoodie and sunglasses like he was trying to be invisible.
* * * *
Mac one of my other close friends was leaning against my mustang when I left the diner. I watched as she pulled out a pack of cigarettes and slid one of them out and placed it between her red lips and lit it up and blew out bloom of smoke into the air. Mac had been trying to quit smoking, but whenever she tried, she got too frustrated and went back to her old habits. She even tried vaping and said it tasted like sucking on balloon air. I almost never saw her without a cigarette in her mouth. she said the nicotine calms her down when she’s stressed.
I walked over and joined her by my car. “So, what did Detective Asshat say?”
I smirked at her nickname for Detective Stacy, she wasn’t fond of cops, a lot of us were the same way. nobody liked the cops around here. “Well, he took the piece of shirt, and all basically accused me of either being a suspect or that I’m just playing detective and might throw the investigation off. apparently, he’s not local, and he never heard about the radio tower, so he might go see my film teacher to see that mini documentary that our teacher gave us a D on. I don’t think he believes me about the radio tower, he probably thinks I’m hiding some kind of evidence.”
“Sounds like he’s just a cranky old man who needs a little company,” she said with a shit eating grin. “But you are hiding something, you found those tapes, didn’t you show him what you found in his dorm room or that horrific scream you told me that came from the forest?”
I did tell Mac about the tapes and the screams, although I didn’t tell her about the shimmering cat, I wasn’t sure if she’d believe me on that. but I did let her listen to Adam’s tape, and she believed that something or someone from the Radio took had killed Adam because he saw something he wasn’t supposed to see. She thinks the owner of the radio tower was responsible for Adam going missing.
I noticed how she was watching the diner’s doors, when I turned my head to see what she was watching. I saw that guy in a hoodie and sunglasses standing at the entrance watching us. although I couldn’t see where his eyes were, but I felt like he was staring at me again. he then shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets and strode off down the sidewalk. His shoes were coated in thick layers of dry mud, and the parts of his pants were covered in something dark red. I glanced over at Mac who was watching him as closely as I was.
“If anyone screamed murder suspect, it would be that guy.” Mac said. “Never seen him before, what do you think?”
“I don’t know…. but he definitely creeps me out.” I said, I craned my neck, but the man in the white hoodie was gone. “I’ll watch my back, something is going on, I am not sure if he’s just some creep or something else. I’ll carry my pepper spray and switch blade.”
Mac gnawed on the tip of her cigarette for a pensive second. “Let me know if you need me to stick around a bit longer if you don’t feel safe.” She spoke. “I’ll feel better knowing your safe then feeling guilty later for not going with you.”
Mac put her cigarette out on the bottom of her shoe as she stuck the half-smoked cigarette back into the pack. she gave me a hug, before she pulled her jacket off revealing her server uniform and name tag on her right breast. I stood back as she walked past me and went inside the diner for her night shift. Before I got into my mustang, I had received a text from Mac that read: see you back at the dorm later. Then I revved my mustang’s engine and rolled backwards out of the parking lot.
* * * *
I was at our new local Radio station that was located in town, I was going to talk to the owner of the radio tower in the forest. After all he was the one who did give us permission to go to that radio tower, and that he knew more about the incidences that had occurred at the time. The Radio Tower was passed down his family, it was his great grand father who built the tower in the first place, and it was just handed down the family. When Adam and I did some research on Luca Cull, there was something strange about his family tree. There was a huge gape where his mother came from, it was like she was created out of thin air and then disappeared again. Luca Cull wouldn’t let us interview him for our documentary said it infringed on his privacy, says the man who owns a radio station.
When I had gotten to the radio station none of the DJ’s there had seen him, in fact they all said that he hadn’t been in work for a few weeks. all were worried something had happened, but they all said the same thing. They received their paychecks on time, so they know he’s still alive, but not sure where he’d taken off too. that had gotten me a bit more curious about Mr. Cull. He had warned Adam and I about the Radio Tower, he was almost not going to give us permission that is until Adam showed him something on his camera and I don’t know what that was exactly. Mr. Cull changed his mind and gave us full access to the radio tower, even gave us both a set of keys, which still hang from my keychain. I knew at that moment it was weird, but it never got me thinking that Adam knew more about the Radio Tower then I did and got footage of something to either black mail or convince Mr. Cull to let us do our mini documentary.
Defeated on not being able to talk to Mr. Cull. I got into my car and pulled out the box of cassette tapes and grabbed the one that was barely legible that said One. I popped it into the cassette player Adam had and I slide the headphones into my ears and let the tape go. this is what I heard.
“Its January 9th, 2015. My name is Chase, and I’m a DJ working for Mr. Cull. I was told by a friend of mine to record what was going on. cameras don’t exactly work great up here, so I decided to use a recorder. I found this online for cheap. I’ve been working here at the Radio Tower for about four months, and I didn’t know what exactly I was signing up until now. look I didn’t believe half of the rumors that milled about this place back at my college. You know? but I now understand why the position for a DJ up here is always open. I feel like my life is in danger.”
The tape kept rolling he went quiet; I could hear something like a pulsation sound. At first it was slow and methodical— thump . . . thump . . . thump! then it got faster. Chase’s breathing got ragged. As if he just ran a marathon, and I could hear what sounded like the music he was playing in the background, it started to glitch or skip as if he was getting a bad signal all of a sudden.
“It’s here,” he whispered. He swallowed loudly. “I don’t know what it is, I think it can see me if I move. Every time it comes, I figured out if I stood or sat so still it usually goes away. I don’t think this Radio Tower is a radio station. I did some research about forest ranger posts, and this tower has the exact blueprints of an old-World War II ranger outpost. I can’t describe what this thing is, its not like any other creature I have ever seen. its like an undiscovered animal, it’s about a hundred or so feet tall maybe bigger. It walks on all six legs; I think it uses its antennas to scout its area like a centipede or something.”
I heard what sounded like a dog sniffing the microphone, it was loud and then I heard crackling sound as if someone was eating at the microphone as well. then the thundering boom slowly methodically got further and further away until it was silent few a second. I heard a creaking sound as if someone was leaning in their old chair or floorboard.
I jumped when I heard loud glass shattering and then Chase screaming and begging. “Oh my God! My leg! Aaaahhhh— then his screams were cut off with a loud crunching sound. The crunching sounds went on for a quite some time. I heard Chase crying and begging for his life to end, and the recording stopped.
I just stared at the cassette player in utter shock, when I heard knocking on my window I nearly jumped out of my seat. I pulled my headphones out of my ears and realized I was crying, hurriedly I wiped my tears away with my shaking hands. I rolled my window down to look up at one of the DJ’s that were leaving, the concern in his eyes caused me to feel guilty.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I sniffled, clearly, I wasn’t fine.
He glanced over his shoulder and looked a bit uncomfortable and slid a piece of paper to me. “Mr. Cull has a police scanner in his office, he didn’t turn it off. I heard they found a body at the edge of the forest near your college campus. You didn’t hear that from me.”
I took the piece of paper, my emotions were every where at this moment, and I had a bad gut-wrenching feeling. I thanked him. I turned my key in the ignition and the only thing that went through my head was that they found Adam’s body. What if they found it the state of Chase’s on the recording he said his leg, possible his leg got ripped off or something? I wondered if Adam’s body was a mangle mess. There was no point in ignoring it. I backed out of the parking lot and drove towards my campus, which indeed I saw the familiar red and blue lights lit up the darkened sky.
When I got out of my car, I could hear officers scrambling around, I had heard it was a man’s body they had found. All I heard from officers all around me it was a man, and it was gruesome, and they had to make sure no one can see the body. It wasn’t exactly on my campus, it was three blocks away from my campus where a park connected to the forest, the trees at this lining weren’t as thick, and teenagers were known to go into the forest this way to go smoke or do whatever. I heard there’s a tunnel entrance to the sewer system through this way, and that the tunnel was spray painted, or tagged by local wannabe gangsters. Most were just troubled teens and wanted to seem like their bad.
I managed to sneak passed the police, and almost walked right passed a lot of them, the park reeked of rotten body smell, and I had to hold a hand over my mouth and nose before I encouraged myself to go any closer. I saw a white sheet over a mangled body, the sheet was already being soaked in blood, I saw a hand that peeked out of the sheet. I stopped dead in my tracks, I thought I could do it. I thought I could identify Adam’s body. But that bloody tape kept replaying in my head, how horrific his screams were, the crunching sounds. My eyes weld up with more tears. Then I thought I would kick myself later if I didn’t lift that sheet up and see if it was Adam or not.
I knelt down next to the body; my hand shook as I reached for the sheet. Slowly I peeled it back, the entire left side of the body was missing, it was like half of him was eaten. One brown eye blankly stared up into the sky, the look of terror was forever molded into his face, what was left of his black hair was tussled, brain matter stuck to some of the edges of his hair. I felt so much relief it wasn’t Adam. It wasn’t him. but I know who it was, I felt all that fear and worry just melted away, I nearly cried happily knowing it wasn’t Adams body they found.
When I looked up, Detective Stacy was walking towards me in a very determined and angry stride. His eyes narrowed on mine, he was obviously pissed at me, I was mucking up a crime scene and honestly, I didn’t care.
“I heard that a man’s body was found so I rushed over here,” I said as he reached me. “And it’s not Adam. Thank God it’s not, I’m sorry. I just had to see if it was. This is Luca Cull.”
“I know,” he said. “If it was Adam, I would have let you know.”
It didn’t sound like he was going to offer anything more, so I stood up and began to turn away. but he surprised me when he continued. “Were you aware Luca Cull had been missing for three weeks? he’s the owner of the Radio Tower. I interviewed his employees at the local radio station. He apparently had paid them, so everyone thought he left town for a bit. Apparently, Mr. Cull was deathly frightened of the radio tower, he had put it up for sale, and right before his employees were paid, he had sold the tower to a new owner. Some teenagers found the body while they were walking pass, they didn’t see the entire body and called us said it could be the missing Adam, so we rushed over here and found its not.”
I nodded. “Do you know who the new owner of the Radio Tower is?”
“Not much. We’re going to search Mr. Cull’s house for any documents on selling the radio tower, or a realtor who might have helped him sell it. but the last person who saw him was one of the DJ’s. said that he’d been acting weird ever since Adam went missing, and all of sudden a CD came for him in the mail and heard Mr. Cull watching it and then the next thing he knew. Mr. Cull ran out of his office with the CD in hand and peeled out of the parking lot and no one saw him since. The DJ said Mr. Cull seemed normal enough that no one would ever want to hurt the man, despite the Radio Tower rumors.”
“It’s like the radio tower killings all over again,” I said quietly. I must have showed up after Detective Stacy left the radio station. He had the same idea I did, to talk to Mr. Cull.
Detective Stacy cast a glance at the body. “If this is even a murder,” he said. and I knew what he’d meant. Again, that tape replayed in my mind. How Chase had said his leg, and then the crunching sounds. Could that thing in the forest ate half of Mr. Cull while he was out there at, he Radio Tower? Why would he go out there if it frightened him? what was on that CD? Did that CD prompt him to go to the radio tower? There was no doubt in my mind that Luca Cull was attacked by that creature in the forest. Half of his body was missing, imagine if someone took a bite out of a twinkie, that’s how Mr. Cull’s body looked. There was no blood splatter anywhere it was as if his body was either deliberately dragged at this spot or dumped and that the real site of murder was probably at that Radio Tower. This was not the kill zone.
“What the hell is going on here?” I muttered
Detective Stacy leaned down and that was when I noticed it too, fur. It was black and a bit shimmery, like that black cat. I frowned as he used tweezers to pick it up and put it in a baggy I turned away from the sight of the body and that’s when I saw him. the guy in the white hoodie standing off in the distance near my mustang. Now the front of his hoodie was covered in what looked like a blood splatter. I raced forward and by the time I got back to my car, the guy in the white hoodie was gone but I found a note tucked underneath my windshield wipers.
The note read: stop while your ahead.
Detective Stacy yanked the note from my hands, “what do you know about the man in the white hoodie?” he asked as he glared at the note as if he was wishing it would go up in flames.
“Not much, he’s been following me around.” I spoke. “Do you know who he is?”
“No, he’s been doing the same thing with me,” he replied and slipped the paper in another zip lock baggie. “This is a threat; your life is in danger.” He handed both the shimmery fur and the note off to some crime scene tech and told them where he got them.
My head throbbed, and the insistent sirens wasn’t doing much to help. I rubbed my aching temple. It had been a long day, and when I glanced into my car, the tapes were still there. this guy in the hoodie didn’t take them, did he not know? or was he just warning me? either way, I felt a chill run down my spine, and fear twisted my gut. Part 3