Chapter 1

I had just entered the station and sat down to enjoy my cup of coffee and popped in my ear buds when Sergeant Combs came up to my desk, “LaFlamme, look alive.” I sat straight up and my coffee took a dive off my lap and landed square on the Sargent’s perfectly shined boots. I heaved a shaky sigh and slowly looked up to see his grey eyes lower to his shoes. “Shit! Serg, I am so sorry. I didn’t sleep well after the late call I had last night and I was just restin’ my eyes. It won’t happen again, sir.” At this point I was standing directly in front of him with my hands behind my back and the sound of thunder and rain still in my ear buds. I quickly reached up and snatched them out of my ears. I am a total dunce sometimes, I swear. Sergeant Combs eyes scanned me from my boots to my hair. No doubt taking in my exhausted state, “It’s alright Tyler, I was just messin’ with ya, but now I realize I shoulda let you rest a little bit.” His eyes went back to his boots and I cleared my throat, “I will shine those back to the way you had them sir, I apologize. Like I said it won’t happen again. He searched my face to see if I was joking and when he realized I was serious he stepped back a little. “Tyler, seriously, it’s no big deal. You are a hell of a deputy and work yourself beyond belief. I don’t mind if ya get a little shut eye while there ain’t nothing going on. It’s just a little coffee. Sit down for a minute and relax. Ain’t no boot shining going on in here, well, unless Koda messes up again. I’ll make him shine everyone’s boots.” I looked over at my partner and chuckled. Emery snapped up with the mention of his name and came over. Emery Koda had been my best friend since we were 9. We had joined the police force together. He was selected as my partner early on and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. I didn’t have the sense of humor that he did so it made for an interesting duo to say the least. He was my best friend and brother for all intents and purposes, but sometimes he drove me out of my freaking mind. He walked over with a pouty look, “I heard my name and the mention of shining boots and I just want to say that it was all Tyler’s idea and she forced me to do it.” I let out a half snort. This asshole. Sergeant Combs huffed, “Shut the hell up Koda and go back to your desk. We all know you get everyone in trouble.” Sergeant laughed and Emery went and sat down with a dramatic slam into his chair. “Alright now, listen, I got a call this morning and I want you two to go check it out. It’s over on Carver Road about 3 miles north west into the woods. There was a body found by a hiker this morning, the Game Warden wants extra patrol on site and called me for some assistance. An investigation is underway and you two,” he looked between Emery and I, “ are the best I got and can stomach most anything. I got photos of the scene and man, it’s sick.” He hands us both large manila folders. I open mine up and wince. “Daaaaamn. This person was mauled. Is that even a person? Shit, that’s bad. No human could do this.” Emery looked a bit green as he looked at the photos. I scanned every one of them top to bottom. This seemed to be an animal attack so the question nagged at me. Why would the Game Wardens want lowly deputies keeping an eye on his state park? And why was this an investigation? I stared at the photos as I asked him “Umm, sir, this is clearly an animal. I’m not sure what animal, but no human could pull this off. Why is this under investigation?” Sergeant Combs swallowed audibly and cleared his throat, “There was hair on the ground next to the individual that matched both wolf and human. The human DNA is no where in our database and well, deputy, this is Georgia… wolfs don’t tend to attack and we haven’t had an attack from one since the 70s. Ya’ll know that. I don’t want a repeat of history.” He ended with a sharp look at the bulletin board behind him with a large newspaper clipping. It read “WOLF CLAIMS 10.” We had all heard about it growing up but it was more of a scary story to keep us out of the woods. We all knew it had happened, but they never saw the wolf that did it so everyone kind of let it go. “Serg, this isn’t our scene. Why the extra hands? I mean, they have a hunters for this. What gives?” I looked back from the board and looked at Emery. He was nervous, but I couldn’t tell why. I could feel it though. As soon as we got in the squad car I would ask him. After my 16th birthday I had been gifted this sense of knowing or feeling when someone was masking their feelings, lying, sad, mad, and everything in between. I don’t believe in none of that supernatural stuff, but Emery claims it’s ‘cause I’m an empath or a witch. He is insane and watches way too many movies. I just know sometimes it was more of a curse. I pushed people away because I could always feel what they were feeling. It got me into shitty relationships and it got me out of some too. One of my ex’s claimed I was a frigid bitch because I never let him in, both physically and emotionally. I knew he was a little rodent of a person though. He cheated on me with a girl from our high school and lied straight to my face about it. I could smell the deceit coming from him for months, but I held out hope that it was for other reasons and maybe I could make it work and be loved by someone other than my parents, siblings, and Emery. It didn’t last though, that stench of deceit grew and grew. I eventually broke it off and might have broke his nose too. He shouldn’t have tried to put his hands on me. I didn’t play that shit, especially from a lousy person such as himself. My dad taught me better than that. I held myself to a higher standard and I wasn’t gonna be trifled with. My thoughts consumed me as the Serg and Emery were talking. “LaFlamme, did you hear me?” I snapped back up, “Sorry sir, what was that?” My face turning red. “I was telling Koda that the Game warden on duty would give y’all the details when you get there and to go ahead and load up.” I laid the Manila folder down and started to stand up to walk over to Emery. “Oh and LaFlamme?” Serg said with a stern tone, “have an opened mind. I need you in this case. All in. I have every confidence in you and that bullshit detector you got.” He tapped his nose with his index finger and I giggled a little, “Yes, sir.” I nodded to Emery and motioned twards the door with a flick of my wrist. I’m not going to let Sergeant Combs down. I had come this far and if this case can land me a detective position then I will fight tooth and nail to get it.