Buck Fever Read Online Free PDF

contains an emblem and the words: Lumberjack Worker’s Union. The double reference is interesting, though.”
    “Is the sheriff around? Could you set up a meeting for us?”
    “Not this weekend. He’s out of town—actually out hunting. A deputy is taking over for him, and he knows nothing about this. I suppose you could try to talk to Lickshill’s wife, but I must warn you, she’s a Russian immigrant and speaks little English. I swear; when we talked to her she was more upset over the missing goat than her dead husband.”
    “Maybe she did it. They always say, family first when it comes to murder,” Kottle said.
    “The sheriff had the same suspicion. Turns out, though, the woman has arthritis and couldn’t use her hands to kill a mouse. Who knows, maybe some local found him and scrawled the note as a sick joke. Lots of ex-cons and war vets out there squatting off the back roads. Speaking of sick people, your paper had an article in it this morning about a man in Port Huron suspected of catching some deer-related virus. Did you know his friend who dragged him out of the woods said they were hunting about fifty yards from where they found this guy’s body? Might be worth pursuing as a possible link.”
    “Yes, I read about it this morning. Supposedly, he was gutting a deer. They had to leave without it. The diseased carcass is probably still in the woods. Not a pleasant thought,” Porter said.
    Sanguini’s desk phone rang. He signaled to Porter and Kottle to wait while he took the call.
    “Yup, I’m working. What’s up? You are bullshitting me, right?” Sanguini looked concerned as he listened intently for several minutes. “Now, don’t do anything rash. I’d call in the State Police. Okay, I’ll be out there in ten minutes.” He hung up the phone while standing up.
    The two reporters stood up, waiting for direction.
    “Okay, you two, it looks like we’ve got another breaking news story to cover. Let’s go. We can take my car. I’ll explain on the way.”
    The three headed out of the house toward an aging silver Cadillac.
    ~ ~ ~
    “This is absolutely nuts,” Sanguini said, backing out the driveway. Kottle and Porter sat patiently in the back seat. “Well, there’s a new twist to the Lickshill story. His daughter and son-in-law came to visit for the funeral along with their one-year-old son. Apparently, last evening at twilight they watched a doe and fawn trample through a makeshift flower-and-wreath shrine in the front yard of their trailer home. The son-in-law tried to remedy the situation by firing a few shots to scare them. He hit the fawn and it fell down kicking. This is where it gets interesting. The doe bit the fawn’s neck and dragged it into the woods. The next morning, they looked for the fawn, but couldn’t find it.”
    “Shouldn’t we be writing this down?” Kottle asked. Porter held up a notebook. “Oh.” Her face flushed as she opened her notebook.
    Sanguini turned off on a dirt road and stopped briefly. A blue vehicle with flashing red and blue lights approached, passing from behind at high speed.
    “What’s this all about? A dead fawn?” Porter asked.
    “Well, maybe. The daughter and son-in-law were outside straightening the wreath and flowers while the mother stood nearby holding their child. The old woman apparently decided to take one last look into the woods. So, she walked over to the trees, still carrying the child and peered in.”
    An ambulance suddenly appeared behind them. Sanguini slowed to let it pass.
    “We must be getting close. Hey, there’s a trailer, and…and a wreath out front,” Kottle said. “Where’s the police car and ambulance?”
    “They turned up the road where the hunters go. As I was saying, the grandmother and grandson entered the woods. Several minutes later, she came out screaming. The son-in-law ran to help. When he got to the woods, he could see a doe standing about twenty feet away. The child dangled in its mouth, held by a coat