Discussing ... uh, Plants

We were still pondering this as we returned to the cabin. “No tracks either,” Jeff muttered aloud.

“The ground is pretty dry,” I observed. “Not great for capturing prints.”

“You'd still think there'd be something left behind,” insisted Jeff. “A track, some hair, something.”

“Like a big steaming pile of bear business,” Dave offered.

“Yes, like that.”

“Yet, we have none of that,” I observed. “Just a damaged face and a weird smell.”

“You noticed that as well?” Jeff checked. “ I thought I was imagining it. Or that it was some of the nearby weeds.”

Dave coughed loudly. “It probably was weed,” he muttered. “Tim was a bit of a pothead. I'm pretty sure that's why they were outside; so he could smoke up.”

I shook my head. “That wasn't it.”

“I know he was a pothead,” Dave insisted. “I wasn't happy about it but that's not why we were friends or anything.”

I worked to dismiss his concerns. “No worries, didn't mean to imply that if I did. I'm just trying to say that smell wasn't weed.” Dave gave me a curious look so I added “I've been to concerts before Dave; I am familiar with that smell. And like you had the first pothead friend.” After a moment's consideration, I continued again. “Mike was a friend of a friend but I think that still counts.”

“American potheads are so sad,” Jeff declared. “I tried marijuana last year when I was in Amsterdam. Didn't care for it. Too much spit.”

I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. I considered this for a moment before responding. “So you'd know what it smells like then.”

“I know what good marijuana smells like,” Jeff stated. “That didn't smell like good marijuana. Bad marijuana maybe, mixed with something.”

“Yes. Quite.”

Figuring Things Out (Not)

Thankfully there was a sizable garage to go along with the 'cabin'. While I'm not extremely squeamish, I hadn't wanted the body inside the house with us. I've seen too many weird things in the past to want a corpse that nearby. I've seen the dead walk before. There, I said it. No one ever believes me and it was the strangest of strange occurrences but it happened and I was there. If this fella got up and started wandering, we might have a chance of noticing before he was upon us.

Jeff had accompanied us in an effort to gather information regarding the situation. “Okay, see this makes no sense for a start. See these claw marks?” I wish I could say I didn't but that wasn't the case. “The pattern is all wrong. It looks like the bear was over him, taller than him, but the claws are too close together. The bear's paw should be much larger, two or three times larger than the human hand. This looks like it could have been my hand.” He spread his hand out to demonstrate his point.

“Ah ha!” I declared. “So you did it. Where's your bear costume?”

Jeff gave him a Hard Stare. “I didn't do this; don't be stupid.”

“Clearly I was not being serious,” I noted. “Just a little joke.”

“Very little,” Jeff responded. “Not funny.”

“Pity, we could use a laugh right now. Keep us from crying. Still,” I continued, “your's is a good point. We have an eyewitness, who's evidence might be considered suspect considering her current condition, pointing to a bear. We have the evidence of the damage before us that points to an inhuman attack and yet it doesn't quite match up with the concept of the bear attack. Where does that leave us?”

“Confused,” Dave answered.

“Yes, I'd agree with that,” I responded.