Police Detective Geiger waved the portly cowboy into the tiny room, shutting the door. There was precious little space beyond a small wooden table surrounded by three chairs.
A tall, bushy haired man in a plain black suit was seated in one of the chairs. He had a tape recorder, note paper, and pen in front of him. Geiger and the cowboy each took one of the other chairs.
"This man is Sergeant Edward Mars," explained Geiger to the Cowboy.. "He is here to assure procedures and policies are followed. This is an extremely confidential session, as I promised. Would you state your name for the record?"
"C'mon, Geiger, you know who I am!"
Geiger's tone sharpened. "For the record!"
"Wendigo. Oliver Wendigo."
"Mister Wendigo, would you repeat your story, please?"
"All's I know is he has her. He took her. He came out the back door and grabbed her. I drew it in my sketchbook just as soon as I could."
The Cowboy pulled a small rolled-up pad from his pocket and handed it to Geiger. Geiger and Mars examined it. Mars gave it a curious look.
"I'm no artist, you know," said the Cowboy.
It was just a charcoal sketch on white paper, showing a hand obscured by darkness tugging the ten year old girl forward. It could have been any girl, but this one's hair was wind-tossed, revealing a small red cross on her neck. There was also something odd about the background.
"I also heard her screams," said the Cowboy.
Geiger and Mars perused the sketch, exchanging grim nods.
Mars, who had never met this Cowboy previously, asked, ", "Mister Wendigo, just when did you witness this incident?"
"Last night," the cowboy replied, "In my dream."
"Your dream?"
"Geiger will tell you. Sometimes, well, sometimes I see things."

Geiger turned to Mars and whispered, "Remember the Callahan case. He triggered Joel Cowan for us!"
"But Callahan was found dead!"
"I didn't say he was good," said Geiger, "just that he knows certain things we don't!"
Mars stood, produced a set of handcuffs, and placed it on the Cowboy's wrist. "It's my duty to inform you that you are under arrest, Mister Wendigo. You have the right..."
"I know my rights!" screamed Wendigo. "Why are you doing this to me?"
Mars replied, ", "Because only four people knew of her cross-shaped birthmark- Irene herself, her mom, Geiger, and me!"
As he was led away, Wendigo continued from the hallway, "So a couple of small scratch marks on a piece of paper are enough to brand me a kidnapper, or possibly a murderer?"
When he was gone, Geiger turned to Mars with a quizzical look. "Are you prepared for formal charges?"
"No. Not Wendigo. But I believe he knows something. We can keep him on suspicion for a bit, and, nothing arising, we'll let him go and see what happens next."
Geiger added, "Good. Good. Because there's something odd about that drawing, and I want to find out more about it."
Mars looked puzzled this time and said, "Oh yeah! That strange figure in the background, sort of a triangular background. But what is it? And what's that figure?"
Geiger finally figured it out. "Rather crudely drawn, but it's a...goat...A goat standing on a hill!"


It's been awhile since I posted a chapter. Thus far, there were three chapters posted. However, for some unexplainable reason, Chapter One drifted into another space-time continuum, and could be found nowhere on the site. I located my rough draft and pieced it together to re-post the first chapter.
Chapter Four will come soon.