The Newskah Elk Murders
Someone is killing elk. They’re shot at night from the highway with a sniper’s precision and left where they fall. The state shrugs it off. Jacob Whitley, a grounds manager and a former Army sniper scarred in Afghanistan, knows better. This shooter isn’t after meat or trophies. He’s after the kill.
When Sarah Aikens arrives, a new wildlife agent and fellow veteran, the two set out to stop him before his sights shift from elk to people.
Quietly suspenseful and full of compassion for the wild, The Newskah Elk Murders is a story of grief, redemption, and an unlikely partnership.
Part 1: The Scene of the Crime
He looked south across the field to the highway and frowned. He doubted if the shooter had even bothered with a second look. The slap of impact followed by boneless collapse would have shifted his priority from fantasy to flight and he was likely in motion before the last breath steamed into the night. He was certainly miles away before the blood stiffened into brown paste in the grass. Jacob’s eyes shifted from the highway to the body, then back to the highway, measuring distance and angle. He sighed again and pulled the phone from his jacket pocket.
“911. What is the nature of your emergency?”
“Yeah, this is Jacob Whitley, grounds manager out at the Cardinal Sports Complex. I’ve got another dead elk. I’ll need a patrol officer and a call to local wildlife enforcement. I’ll stay with it until someone gets here.”
Part 2: An Unlikely Partnership
The first thing he noticed was her eyes. Nice eyes, pretty eyes. Then he saw them widen and he knew what she was seeing: the ragged stump where his right ear used to be and the ripple of seared flesh cascading down the side of his face. Her eyes met his and he saw her struggle to turn the shock into a smile.
“Jacob Whitley?” Her smile was still tentative but she was gaining control. “I’m Wildlife Agent Sarah Aikens. Have you got a few minutes?”
The click of his office door had given him no chance to react, no time to pull up the hoodie. In that split second he had instinctively turned to see who had ignored the ‘please knock’ sign outside his door and the movement had given her the full impact of his scarred face. He stared at her coldly.
“I’m Whitley,” he said. “What do you need?”
“Umm..Hi!” Still in the half-opened door, she tried another smile, this one a little more genuine. “Mind if I come in? Your man outside, the one emptying the garbage barrels, said you were here and told me to just walk in.”
Jacob’s lips tightened. He’d talk to Mikie about his sense of humor later. He nodded and watched as she stepped through the door, closing it carefully behind herself. “Sorry to be abrupt,” he said and waved to the second chair. “Have a seat and tell me what I can do for you, Agent Aikens.”
He watched her look around his tiny shed-office, survey the diesel-stained chair, and elect to remain standing. He smiled grimly as he watched her lick her lips and take a deep breath. She was, he decided, actually nervous. Maybe she deserved a break. His face wasn’t her fault.
“Yes, well,” she looked at the work-worn chair and tried again. “I’m Agent Aikens - Sarah - and I’m taking over from Agent McPherson."
Part 3: The First Step
Sarah smiled at him. “You fire up that B4 brain and start getting inside this guy’s head. I have a hunch that’s going to be our ticket to actually finding him. But we’ll need to connect all the dots to convict him. Then we’ll just need one lucky break. Once we get that, if we have everything else lined out, we can tie it all together.”
He laughed “Luck favors the well-prepared, eh?”
She was laughing too. “Exactly!”
“And in between working on those lists and getting well prepared, you can start working on your study proposal.”
She looked at him, seemed to be studying him carefully. “Does that mean you’re in? On both the investigation and my study?”
He smiled back, eyes crinkling. “It’s means I’m in. On everything. Now what’s the first step?”