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  Now he was able to see the house, and he gasped at the sight. The trees in a circle all around leaned to the house at the centre and the wood of the house was the exact same as the bark of the trees. It made no sense to Joe at all. He stopped walking again, but this time it was because he was nervous. This was a new situation for him, a situation he had never even heard about or considered before. His first thought was that Maul had done this but that didn’t seem possible. But then, if Maul hadn’t done this, what in the hell had? Joe looked to the house for some movement but it was hard to see in with all the low trees.

  “Maul?” he called out. No answer. “Maul!” he called again, louder this time. Still only silence. And yet, Joe felt the man was here, or someone was. “Maul, I’m coming into the house to see if you are alright!” If anything would set Maul off it would be the idea of the police coming into his home. But still, there was nothing, not a sound. Joe pulled his gun and looked around again, he felt someone here. Back in the city, he would have radioed for back up, but he never thought such a thing would ever happen here in sleepy Mercy. The urge to leave came for a moment but he knew he couldn't; he would have to go into the house and see if there was anyone in there.

  Gripping his gun in front of him, Joe made his way to the house, having to climb over or go under some limbs that blocked his way. He could see the footprints on the ground beneath him that showed that until recently this area had been clear and Maul had been able to walk through as normal. This only raised more questions that Joe didn’t have time to think about right now. He called again when he was a few feet from the house but was once more greeted only with silence. The very depth of the silence was unnerving, like it was purposeful somehow.

  The front door was ajar and Joe peered in seeing the cold stove with no sign of recent heat from it. He’d never been this close to the house before so would have no idea if things seemed out of place. A single chair stood in the centre of the room but that was all. Joe had always imagined — though this was the first time he consciously knew this — that Maul’s place would be kitted out in furniture made from wood from the forest and decorated with animal hides and elk heads from hunting. As he looked in further, he saw that it was practically barren and a twinge of sorrow for Maul’s life affected him for a moment.

  Something odd then caught his eye. There was a table, large enough to seat six people comfortably, propped up against the back wall of the room. The legs jutted out towards the door as Joe stepped inside. Just to the right of this there was a large hole in the wall where snow had come in and gathered on the floor inside

  “What caused that?” he wondered aloud. Stepping inside he saw a rifle leaning against the wall at the door. He leaned down and picked it up. On seeing it was loaded he opened the barrel and took out the rounds inside before placing the gun back on the ground.

  Joe went through the few rooms of the house slowly, listening carefully outside each room before he went inside. There was no sign of anything and some of the rooms probably hadn’t seen life in many years. Dust and cobwebs covered what little was there, and no footprints disturbed the covering on the floor.

  When he was sure the house was empty, he went back down to the first room and looked again at the hole. It was a strange place for there to be a hole, especially when there was nothing around the room that might have made it — unless it was one of the legs of the table. Or perhaps it was a gunshot, but it didn’t look like one. Joe leaned to the wood and saw that the edges were facing inwards — which meant the hole was made from the outside. All Joe could see through the hole was the trees that lay against the house and he didn’t see how anything could’ve gotten close enough to do this kind of damage from out there.

  Joe felt uneasy here but there had been no sign so far that anything might have happened to Maul. His gun was here, that was perhaps a little odd, but surely he could carry his gun all the time up here? He felt some wood shards under his feet and he crouched down to sift the snow and look at it. It was splinters from the shattered wall and there was no large part at all but only all small pieces of debris. It led him to think that it must have been some blow that did the damage to break the wood up like this.

  Something small caught his eye then and Joe looked carefully before touching near it. Some of the snow he’d disturbed had clumped together in tiny red smudges and Joe thought it was possibly blood. There wasn’t enough of it to make it any kind of a crime scene — Maul had probably cut himself trying to free up a bit of the wall that was flapping loose — but it was enough to raise the sheriff’s suspicions and add to his feeling of unease.

  Joe spent another half hour at the house and then did his best to look around the land for another hour after that but came up with nothing at all. It was as if Maul Thorndean had simply vanished off the earth.

  Chapter 9

  Susan Bloom looked after the sheriff as he walked away from her. She had been coming home from the store when she met him and he asked if she had seen Maul Thorndean lately. The very utterance of the man’s name was enough to make her feel hostile, and she told Joe she’d not seen him for many months and would not be sorry if she never saw him again. Joe didn’t act surprised at this and Susan assumed that someone had filled him in on the fight between her own father and Maul long ago.

  Susan had only been a teenager when it happened but she still recalled it vividly. It had only been a month since her mother had passed away and her father had been hitting the bottle a little heavy. She could not to this day blame him for that, it was his way of coping and Susan could respect that. Clarence Bloom was not the talking kind, and this was his way. Unfortunately, it was this drinking that had led him to yell at Maul as he came through town one day.

  “Why don’t you and the rest of your family curl up and die!” Clarence said as Maul passed the house on his way into town only a few yards further on. Susan had heard him say this from inside and she came out wondering who on earth he could have been talking to like that. She grew terrified when she saw Maul standing there looking at her father with a perplexed look on his face. She knew his reputation for wildness, even unprovoked she’d heard, but she also knew that he lived alone up the mountain and that had no family left at all.

  “He’s confusing you with someone else,” she said nervously trying to smile and take hold of her father’s arm at the same time. “Obviously, as you don’t have family up there,” she added hoping this would convince. Maul stood there saying nothing, he glanced at her once and then looked back at Clarence.

  “I know who I’m talking about!” he said pulling his arm free and stepping down into the street in front of Maul. “You fuckin’ Thorndean’s are all the same!”

  “Dad...” Susan never finished trying to stop him. At what seemed the same moment, Maul’s bag hit the ground and his fist slammed hard as brick into her father’s face. Clarence fell back and tripped on his step, his hand went to his face and Susan could see blood pouring out through his fingers.

  “Oh God, Daddy!” she called out and ran to him. He pushed her hands away and sat up spitting a huge gob of bloody phlegm to the ground and then looked up at Maul who was standing there like nothing had happened.

  “I’ll make you regret that,” Clarence said pointing at Maul, but he did not try to get up.

  Susan had wondered for a long time afterwards why he’d stayed down and it was years later when she understood that he knew he wouldn’t be able to get back up, his legs were probably like jelly. Maul had walked back towards his home, not bothering to go into town now after this and without uttering a word. She had hated him from that day on and had never let him pass without scowling at him — not that it seemed to make any difference to him. Clarence never did get his revenge on Maul and he died himself two years ago now, a peaceful death in his sleep and one Susan was sure he would have wanted.

  Looking after the sheriff Susan found that she was annoyed at him for making her think of that animal. Why did he care if Maul was missing, it wou
ldn’t make any difference to anyone else's life and Maul was no lover of the law either — Joe was as likely as anyone else to fall foul of one his attacks.

  Susan turned her back to the town and walked for home. In her annoyance, she wasn’t careful of her footing and she slipped on the icy layer atop some of the packed snow. She managed to stay up by planting her feet and flailing her arms a moment but it was at the cost of her groceries which spiralled out of the now torn paper bag and clattered to the road.

  “Damn!” she said looking over the goods hoping that nothing was damaged or leaking. The voice came just as she was bending down to pick her things up.

  “Let me help you with that,” it said. Susan looked to the crunching footsteps and saw it was Sam Brainard. He skidded a little on the ice as he came to a stop and almost fell over too.

  “You won’t be much help flat on your back,” she smiled. Sam’s face flashed crimson and in that moment Susan knew he was attracted to her and it came as something of a shock to her. It was so surprising that she felt her own face grow warm.

  “You didn’t hurt yourself, did you?” he asked as he hunkered down and gathered up her things.

  “No, thankfully,” she said joining him in the collecting. She was about to say ‘nothing hurt but my pride,’ but it felt silly and she held her tongue.

  “The sheriff still looking for Maul?” Sam asked nodding back towards the way Joe had gone. Susan knew then that Sam must have been watching them as they spoke and probably saw her getting angry.

  “Yes,” she answered not sure if she should let Sam know too how she felt about Maul. “He’ll turn up,” she said then. “Who knows where he is most of the time, anyway?”

  “I guess so,” Sam agreed, “I see him from time to time in the woods but always at a distance.”

  “How’s the clearing looking?” she asked happy to change the subject

  “It’s looking good; I hope to start building in a few weeks.”

  “Oh, really? How far from town is it?”

  “Only about a mile,” Sam said, looking happy that she was showing an interest. He stood up now with most of her groceries in his arms.

  “The bag’s busted,” Susan said apologetically holding it out.

  “No problem, I’ll carry it to your house, it’s only a few feet away after all.”

  “Thanks.” There was nothing else she could have said really, save taking everything into her own arms and struggling home. In saying yes, however, it suddenly felt somehow like a date and she grew a little nervous around him.

  They walked in silence for a moment and she wished he would say something more — they were going to be at her door in only a minute. She had been so taken by surprise by his feelings and even more so by her own that she didn’t know what to say at all.

  “I could probably do with a woman’s eye on the design of the house before I start building,” he said. “Maybe you’d take a look for me and tell me what you think?”

  “Are you asking me out on a date?” Susan said shocked at her own playfulness. Deeper red infused Sam’s face, and he looked at the ground.

  “Well, I guess you could call it that,” he said in a way that was supposed to be as playful but didn’t come across at all the way he wanted. Susan laughed.

  “Well, I guess it’s a date then!” Sam looked up at her in surprise but smiled at the same time.

  “Tonight?” he asked. Susan looked at him a moment and thought he looked tired.

  “How about tomorrow night?” she suggested. He nodded.

  “Tomorrow it is.”

  They started walking again and got to the steps up to her door.

  “Just dump those things on the board there, and thanks for the help,” Susan said.

  “Think nothing of it,” he said letting the goods down gently onto the stoop.

  “See you tomorrow night at eight?” she said, and he nodded.

  “Eight sounds great,” he said.

  Chapter 10

  Joe had been so mystified by what he’d seen up at the Thorndean place, that on his way back to his office he only stopped to ask Susan Bloom when she had last seen Maul. There was some family history there, which Joe knew about but couldn’t recall the exact details, and she didn’t seem to want to help. Even if she had seen Maul she certainly wasn’t saying. Joe had asked everyone else in town so he secluded himself in the office for the rest of the day catching up on paperwork that had accumulated over the last few months.

  “Why do you do this?” he asked in exasperation. If he did the paperwork as it arose it would only take seconds each day but he always let it build up for months and then grew frustrated with the pile of papers that confronted him when he finally sat down to do it. He grumbled on but got it all done; promising himself that he wouldn’t let it accumulate like this again.

  The sheriff didn’t leave his home for the rest of that day. He wouldn’t be long thinking about something before the sight back up the mountain invaded his thoughts again. It was astounding, really, like nothing he’d ever even heard of. Each time he thought of it he kept ending up back at the same question: how long ago had this happened? He told himself over and again that it couldn’t be recent and yet he thought he’d been up that way not too long ago — he couldn’t recall when exactly, but surely not long enough for a huge chunk of the forest to have died and dried out.

  His constant mental jarring tired him and he went to bed that evening earlier than would be usual for him. He had determined that Maul must have moved out of that house some time ago and the new question he would bring to the townspeople would be, do you know where Maul Thorndean is living now?

  Joe’s night was plagued with bad dreams; not so bad as to be called nightmares, but bad in the sense that he would awaken from each one feeling very strange and wondering for a moment where he was and if, in fact, he was still alone. More than once, he got up and looked around the house checking doors and windows before going back to bed. As a result of all this when morning came he did not feel rested at all.

  Setting out into the cold, he saw that the snow had deepened considerably overnight, and he had a hazy recollection of seeing it coming down heavily during the night. The road was as quiet as ever and he set off up the hill to see who was about.

  The store was open and Joe went in and found it empty.

  “Jeff?” he called out.

  “That you, sheriff?” came the reply.

  “Yeah,” Joe said glancing over some of the goods as he waited for Jeff to appear.

  “What can I do for you, sheriff?” Jeff said coming from the back and extending a hand for Joe to shake. Joe smiled and shook thinking how different this man was when you were in his store when he wanted your money.

  “I’m not here to buy at the minute,” Joe said and he could see the drop in the storekeeper’s smile though he did a decent job of hiding it. “I was up at the Thorndean place yesterday and it looks like the place has been abandoned for a long time.”

  “Really?” Jeff said and there was no mistaking the earnestness of his surprise.

  “Sure looks that way,” Joe nodded.

  “You think he’s gone?” A look of hope dazzled Jeff’s face as he asked this and then seeing Joe’s reaction to this he backtracked. “I don’t mean dead, sheriff,” he laughed nervously, “I meant left the mountain?

  “I don’t think he’s gone; he’s been in town since I guess his place was vacated. I suppose he’d been living somewhere else but I don’t know where that might be.” Jeff nodded at this with a look of concentration on his face.

  “I don’t know where that could be, apart from his own place there’s no other building on the mountain outside Mercy that I know of.”

  “I’m hoping someone does know of such a place,” Joe said seeing that his visit here was wasted.

  “Mouse or that young fella, Sam, would probably be your best bet, although I don’t know if either of them has seen any more of the forest than you have on your hikes since you
got here.”

  “Well, maybe they have, I’m sure there’s a lot I still haven’t seen.”

  When he left the store, he crossed the road to the tavern and took his hat off as he entered. Sally was at the counter as though she’d been expecting him.

  “Morning, Joe. Coffee?”

  “That’d be great Sally,” he said approaching the counter. “Someone been in for breakfast already?” he asked sniffing the hot meat grease air.

  “I got a young couple in one of the rooms; they arrived in last night before the worst of the snow.”

  “I saw them pull up,” Joe recalled, “when I was out bringing in some logs for the fire.”

  “Nice kids; they’re newlyweds heading for California.” Joe nodded disinterestedly at this as his coffee was put in front of him.

  “I don’t suppose they know where Maul is?” he said.

  “I don’t suppose they do,” Sally smiled. “No luck so far?”

  “I went up there but I don’t think he’s been there for a long time, much longer ago than the last time he was in town.”

  “Why do you think that?” Sally asked in surprise.

  “The forest all around the house is dead and even the wood of the house looks like it dried out to hollow. There was no sign of him being there for a long time.”

  “Where else could he be?”

  “That’s what I’m hoping someone will tell me today.” A glimmer in Sally’s eye grabbed his attention. “You know something that might help me?” he asked quickly. Sally was surprised and she looked guilty a moment, but of what he could have no idea.

  “Actually, now that you say that I remember something alright, something I didn’t think of a couple of nights ago when you were in asking.”

  “Which is?”

  “One morning after the last time Maul was in town, I was in the galley here and I chanced to look up the hill and he was standing up by the old mine shaft looking down on the town.” Something in her demeanour told him she was not telling the whole of it and he looked at her thoughtfully