Free With Silent Screams by Steve McHugh Page B

the verge,” Bill said. “The snow should have completely buried her, but her hand remained free.”
    I jumped down the embankment, using air magic to keep myself upright, and skidded along the top of the snow until I reached the bottom.
    “We can’t all show off with magic,” Bill shouted as he made his way farther along the road to where the drop was more manageable .
    I left the detective to his own devices and stepped into the forest. “Were the other three bodies found here?” I asked as I heard Bill arrive.
    “The other three were found about a mile north of here. There was nothing done to hide the bodies. They were just dumped in the woods.”
    “Do you have a lot of predators around here?
    “We’ve got some lynx and the occasional black bear, maybe a few wolves; people say there’re cougars here, but I’ve never seen one.”
    “Maybe they hoped the wildlife would do the job for them.”
    We walked deeper into the woods until we could no longer see, nor hear, the cars on the road.
    “You fancy telling me where we’re going?”
    “I need to see someone,” I said. “According to Galahad I can find him and his colony around this area of Mount Bigalow.”
    “A colony of what, exactly?”
    I didn’t answer as as we carried on walking for a few hundred yards until we reached an opening with a stream. It was maybe ten feet wide and looked deep enough to swim in when it was warm. Twigs and branches were piled up against some of the larger rocks that had been there for a lot longer than I’d been alive, deposited by the gentle current of the water as they’d been swept from farther up in the forest.
    A few feet away there were two huge boulders and then a third smaller one. Someone had placed a sizeable branch between the two boulders to serve as a makeshift bridge, then piled stones and rocks beside it to make steps.
    “Stay here a second,” I said and climbed up onto the first boulder and walked across the branch, which as it turned out was actually a tree trunk. Someone had torn it from the ground and placed it in exactly the right spot. The roots had been ripped away—bite marks said someone had probably eaten them.
    When I got to the second boulder, I saw what I was looking for. Fur. Dark brown in color and coarse to the touch, it had been snagged on a smaller branch.
    “Bill, this way,” I said and dropped down onto the third rock before jumping over onto the other side of the stream.
    I waited for Bill to make his way across, as he was considerably more nervous than I was, although he still made the way without complaint.
    “What is that, bear fur?” His eyes darted around us and his hand dropped to his gun.
    “No, no bears here, this belongs to something else.” I noticed movement out the corner of my eye. “I’d take your hand off your gun. And I’d do it really slowly.”
    Bill did as he was asked, but never stopped glancing around to see what was going on. “Are we in danger?”
    “Not yet, but you’ll know if we are.”
    “How?”
    “We’ll be dead.” I walked into the forest once more and after a few hundred feet stopped and sat on an fallen tree.
    Bill sat beside me. “We’re still being watched.”
    I nodded. “They’re trying to figure out what we’re here for. Take your holster off and put it on the grass beside you. I’m going to try and get them to trust us.”
    “You want me to remove my gun? Are you mad?”
    “Okay, you can keep your gun, I’m almost certain there’s not a bullet you own that will hurt one of these. So unless you’re planning on using it to shoot yourself, it’s sort of useless here. Hunting is illegal, yeah?”
    He nodded. “Had a few hunters out here about three years ago. Never found the bodies.”
    “Still think your gun is going to help?”
    Bill sighed and unbuckled his holster, dropping it on the ground by his feet.
    I stood up and took a deep breath. “My name is Nathan Garrett ,” I said, using my air magic to carry my voice