Cedar Creek, Nevada - July 13, 1995 9 Days After . . .

Cedar Creek, Nevada

July 13, 1995 9 Days After . . .

ABLACK TAILED COOPER’S HAWK WITNESSED THE DEATH OF SHERIFF Sanford Stamos.

The majestic bird glided down from the heavens and landed on the front of the police cruiser, perching like an ornate hood ornament. It squawked once during the battle that took place inside the vehicle, fanning its wings as the car rocked. When the scuffle ended, the hawk folded its wings into its body as Sheriff Sanford Stamos sat in the driver’s seat and looked his killer in the eye. The sheriff’s icy glare came not from an intense determination to lock eyes with the man who was about to kill him, but rather from the paralytic drug that coursed through his body and prevented even his eyes from moving.

He wanted to do a thousand things other than gawk at the man next to him. His training told him to either engage his attacker or put distance between them. He wanted to escape his vehicle, to draw his gun, to call for backup. But the needle hanging from his neck had robbed him of the ability to move and brought on a profound weakness that infected every fiber of his body. The drug finally stole the function from his eyelids and they fell shut. Sitting behind the wheel of his squad car, Sandy’s chin slumped to his chest. The odd angle brought on a raspy snore when he breathed. Sandy had no doubt he was about to die. The things he had discovered during the last few days of his investigation into the missing Margolis family guaranteed it.

He heard the passenger-side door open and close as his killer exited the vehicle. Sandy’s door opened next, and he felt the shirtsleeve of his left arm being tugged upward. A tight band cinched the skin of his bicep before a sharp pinprick on the inside of his elbow jolted his eyelids open. There wasn’t much there besides brightness. His vision was blurry, like someone had smeared Vaseline into his eyes.

A localized burning assaulted his arm as the syringe was emptied into the vein. A moment later he felt something else entirely. Something foreign and exotic and more sensational than he’d ever felt before. A cloud of euphoria descended over him, or perhaps he rose up into it. Either way, Sheriff Stamos forgot about the confinement of his vehicle. He forgot about his inability to move or talk. He worried not about his killer, but instead relaxed into the bliss that filled his body and mind. His soul, too? Was his soul being touched?

“You’re just another Harrison County junkie now.”

Sandy couldn’t tell if the voice was his own or someone else’s. If it originated from inside his head or was spoken to him. But he didn’t really care. A second syringe was emptied into his arm before the door to his squad car slammed shut and another level of ecstasy took control of his faculties. So powerful was the pull of the drug coursing through his system that it disengaged Sandy from his body. He floated above the scene in a way that allowed him to see where he was and what was happening. Seated in his squad car with the seatbelt tight across his chest, he watched from his elevated perch as his vehicle rolled down a shallow hill toward Cedar Creek. Just before the patrol car speared into the water, the Cooper’s hawk that was balanced on the hood took flight. Two strokes from its powerful wings lifted the bird into the air until the creek breeze allowed the hawk to hover overhead, wings outstretched. The car continued until the hood sunk beneath the water. The slow creep persisted and Cedar Creek eventually swallowed the automobile, ingesting it fully until only the taillights peeked from the surface.

A foggy comprehension told Sandy he was submerged under the surface of Cedar Creek, but the feeling of euphoria and exhilaration that ran warm through his veins brought with it a weighty apathy that was impossible to overcome. He cared little about the water rising up his chest and lapping at his chin, threatening to crawl up his face and over his head. Instead, he was anxious to fly into the stupor that waited somewhere off in the by-and-by. He was mesmerized by the brightness he saw in the distance. He ignored the scene of his body trapped beneath the surface of Cedar Creek, and instead followed the black-tailed Cooper’s hawk as it soared toward the light. He flew and flew and flew, until the brightness absorbed him and ushered him away.