Free Dead of Winter by Lee Collins

with you, deputy?"
      "I ain't never seen anything like that before, sir," the deputy said. "You faced down a entire lynch mob all on your own."
      Duggan nodded. "Ain't like I had a deputy on duty to back me up."
      Jack flushed bright red and lowered his head. "Sorry, sir. It just happened so fast."
      "Lots of things do," the marshal said. "You got to act just as fast or you'll end up shot. Worse, somebody else may end up in a box that don't deserve it."
      "Ain't met the man yet that didn't deserve it," Cora said.
      The marshal didn't look at her. "I don't reckon you'll find him at a card table or a bar."
      Cora ignored the remark. "Once met a cowpuncher not a day over eighteen years down in Santa Fe. Told me he ain't done a single sin his whole life on account of his being cooped up on his ma's farm for all of it. I says to him that we're all equal sinners in the eyes of the Lord, but he shook his head and proclaimed his innocence. Said he once saw angels flying about his farm, and how could he have seen them if he wasn't a good boy? The good Lord was watching out for him, he said."
      Duggan rolled his eyes, but Jack was curious. "What happened to him?"
      "Poor fool went and got himself ate by a werewolf, I think," she said, shrugging. "Ben could tell you better than me. He's got the memory for that sort of thing."
      Duggan turned on his heels and started toward his office, intent on the bottle stashed in the top drawer. This woman's nonsense brought out his thirst like nobody else.
      "Hold up a tick," Cora called after him. "I got something for you."
      "What might that be?" Duggan turned and looked at her from his office doorway.
      "My own personal sighting of your monster."
      A spark of anger flashed in the marshal's blue eyes. "This another one of your 'glimpses'?"
      "No, sir," Cora said, shaking her head. "Got all up close and friendly this time around."
      "How close?"
      Cora stepped up to the deputy's desk and looked at him. "About like this. To his head, anyway. Couldn't really tell how close the arms got, seeing as I was busy not getting eaten."
      Duggan took a step toward her, the glimmer of anger replaced with curiosity. "What did it look like?"
      "Like old Jules Bartlett. You remember him? That miner hermit out west of town?" The marshal nodded. "I reckon it's what's left of him after some kind of evil thing took hold. Kept his human shape, at least, though his arms and legs are all spider-like now."
      "Ain't he the one from before?" Duggan asked. "Sheriff Barnes said you dragged in a miner once to prove he wasn't a monster."
      "One and the same."
      "Guess you was wrong about that, then."
      Cora laughed. "Marshal, if I'd been wrong back then, you wouldn't have no Jim Barnes to grump about no more. This here development's new. Probably happened within the last month or so."
      "What makes you so sure?"
      "Too few dead folk," she replied. "Whatever that old miner has turned into, it ain't got no reason left. Thing's like an animal, only looking for food. You said them wolfhounds fled the scene, right?"
      Jack nodded before the marshal had a chance.
      "So I'll warrant this monster only takes to human flesh. Don't know if it remembers anything that old Jules knew, so it's anybody's guess if it knows how to find its way into town. Can't imagine it would take long for it to figure it out, though. You'll have it breathing down your necks before you know it if we don't whip it." Cora paused for a moment as she thought. "Actually, I don't think it breathes, or needs to, anyway. It makes a moaning noise, though, so listen for that."
      Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're expecting this thing to come after us?"
      "Why not?" Cora said. "Like I told your boss a few days ago, monsters don't never get their fill. For all we know, it could have tracked me back here yesterday."
      "Well, if that don't beat all," Duggan said. "We got