Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (dark books to read TXT) 📗

chat, David pulled into the Sunset Diner. He swooped the car into the closest parking spot and screeched to a stop.

"Play it!" he shouted again as Terry fumbled his thumb with a look of concern aimed at David.

David took a huge breath and held it to listen. Crackling background noise sounded. Vance's voice was barely audible in the first garbled words. Terry held the phone between them as they both leaned an ear to it in the car.

A horn honked from behind them, startling David. He turned to see the driver of a large black pickup truck waving and shouting at a couple walking into the diner. Roy Perkins and the rest of the Big Buck Hunting Club.

"Shit!" David said, rolling his window up in frustration. "Play it again."

The loud static sounded again from the recording. "-got a message from Tony-" More indiscernible words were finally followed by "-is the werewolf! For sure!" Then more inaudible chatter followed. "Meet at my place tonight." Vance's recording stopped there as Terry and David looked at one another.

"Who?" Terry asked.

"I was hoping you heard it," David said.

Terry shook his head, deflating his belly as he hung his head in defeat. David knew he had slept much more recently than Terry. "Listen, Terry. I'm going to give you a ride home. Get some rest."

"I'm sorry, David." Terry's worn eyes looked across at him.

"It's okay, man."

After dropping Terry off, David's thoughts swarmed with possibilities. "Are you alive, Tony?" he asked aloud in his empty car as he passed Vance's trailer park. His truck was nowhere to be seen. If so, why didn't you contact me? So many scenarios played out in his head. I wouldn't put it past Vance to lay the blame on a convenient scapegoat if he were the werewolf. David hit the steering wheel with frustration. For once, he hoped that the monster wasn't Vance. That the calm, carefree voice would be there to call him "little bro," again soon.

The crumbling gravel of Sarah's driveway did little to welcome him as the suspense continued to tie knots in his stomach. His tires skidded to a stop just beside Sarah's car. David bounced out from the driver seat with a slam of the door. He jogged up to her front door just in time for it to swing open. Sarah extended her arms out to him.

Why is she trying to hug me? He gave a half embrace before gently shrugging her off. "What is it?" David paced into her living room. "Did they find him?"

"I don't know," Sarah said, her wide, round eyes staring across at him. "Are you alright, David?" she asked slowly.

"Of course I am. What do you mean?"

"Nothing," she said softly before slowly lowering her eyes. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

David paced around the living room, playing the recording over and over while Sarah sat silently on the couch.

"Got message from Tony. Something. Someone is the werewolf." David repeated the few words they could understand.

Sarah offered her hand as she quietly spoke. "I guess we need to meet him at his place tonight like he said."

David wrestled with the idea that Vance might have heard from Tony. It boiled inside his chest until the steam had to release. He turned and slammed his hand onto the dining area table, beside the heavily marked map and stack of books that remained from their first meeting. "Of course Vance wants to pin this on Tony! He was right here when I had the idea about the camera trap at the Perkins farm. Right here!" David swiped his palm to where Vance had previously stood. "He's the only one who didn't need any convincing at all. Just paraded in here making light of it all."

Sarah stretched her arm out to interrupt. "David, that's because he already saw the thing at the barn."

"Oh yeah,” he said sarcastically. “That's right." David raised his hand out. "The barn he was burning down in the middle of the night?" David shook his head up and down with purpose. "Seems legit to me."

He watched Sarah's head slump as she took a loud breath. No doubt, she didn't find the losing end of an argument a very fun place to be. But this time David had enough. "Why the hell are you always against me anyway?" he shouted. He raised his voice higher with each step as he paced toward where she sat on the couch. Her face remained hidden from view as she stared at her lap. "You've never wanted to just be there for me until you're standing by to cut me down when life sucks. If you hate me so damn much, why didn't you just leave me the hell alone a long time ago?"

David’s heart jolted as Sarah raised her wet face. Bloodshot eyes glared angrily at him above flushed cheeks that shined with streams of tears that ran from her blue eyes. Her pressed lips opened as she screamed at him.

"Hate you so much?! Are you fucking serious?!" Her voice rippled in pitch as she cried out across the living room, shoving her finger in the air at him. "Never there?! I get front row seats the entire time you're following Janice around like a blind puppy! You have your head shoved so far up your ass that you can't even see what you have right in front of you!" Her voice began to break as her arm dropped into dead weight against her side and she raised her palms to her face, sniffling. “Just leave,” she said softly in a defeated tone between light gasps and a sniffle. “I don’t want you to see.”

A heavy weight of realization crashed from David's head into his chest. David slowly stepped closer to Sarah as she was about to sit back down. He swept his arm behind her lower back, stopping her as he pulled her weeping face into his chest. "I’m not going anywhere,” he said calmly. “You’re right, Sarah.”

They stood against one another in front of her couch. David caressed