Prologue : A Walk in the Woods

Prologue

The hunter really just wanted a quiet place all to himself. Somewhere new. He didn’t like it when the other men laughed, joked and drank in the hunt stand. It scared the deer away.   He didn’t mind being social sometimes but other deer hunters made fun of the small digital camera Delbert Beech kept hanging from his neck.   He was a longshoreman; he was burly.  He would hunt, dammit. But sometimes, in the silence, a deer just seemed so beautiful that he only wanted to take a picture.

Delbert was up before dawn this morning, packing gear and moving out.  He had come for bow season. It was so much more silent. He had a bow.  He might even release an arrow.  Having it hit anything was a bit of a long shot.  Delbert had scouted the area and was going out alone. He had the cramp on devices to get up a tree.

He found his tree, not in a clearing but an overgrown area. He pulled out a short machete and began clearing just enough brush to get to what he considered his tree.  The autumn sun was coming up slowly, striking the thick leaves with its light. Red gold orange yellow the ubiquitous brown. As he swung the machete, Del thought he saw a glint of silver.   Silver birches he thought and because he was already in a holiday mood- silver bells.  That did not really make sense he thought.  He stopped and looked around. Why had he seen silver? It could not be a rifle or a muzzle loader.  This was bow season. 

Still unsure, Del looked around again. He did not see any other humans. He could hear bird song.  Smell the wet leaves.  He wasn’t sure what silver thing had caught the light. Now he was worried.  He would only have good use of his camera if no one else was around.  Was this spot not isolated, not remote enough?  Had other hunters found his spot?

He stopped slashing brush and inhaled the morning air.  He closed his eyes, opened them again, breathed out and looked around.  Where had he seen that flash of silver?  Just then the rising sun struck something in the brush again. It was over to his right, about twenty feet away.  Del waded slowly through the brush hacking with regret at the lush growth. He knew it would grow back, he just hoped what he found would be worth it.

His machete clinked against something hard.  He felt a crunching sensation beneath his work boots.  Were there nut shells this far from any tree?  Del bent forward and cleared the space further with his gloved hands.  He was rewarded with the solid feel of metal.  His hand brought up a hefty, rectangular piece of silver tone metal, well-formed and with curling edges.  He brushed it off and looked at it.  This was not a part of nature.  He turned the item in his hand as he pushed dirt and moss away with his thumb.  It was a belt buckle.

Delbert Beech laughed hard enough to shake the trees. Birds flew up and away at the sound of his amusement.  It was a belt buckle, an outrageous one. It bore the raised image of a naked lady floating out from a bicycle.  As Del laughed in relief that no other hunter had found his new spot, he looked down.

He saw something else he had never seen before. The crunching sound had been made by very old, possibly human bones.  He didn’t reach for his camera.   Instead, he pulled his cell phone out of his orange safety vest side pocket and pressed the speed dial for local police.  This was no emergency.