Chapter 35
The area around Leo Merritt's house was filled with chaotic activity. What looked to Jonah like every available deputy had arrived as was either putting up yellow crime scene tape or taking pictures. Leo himself was standing on his back porch in jeans and a pajama top. A deputy stood with him, either to keep him from entering the taped off area or to keep him from falling down, Jonah wasn't sure which.
Denby walked over as soon as Jonah climbed out of his truck.
"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this," he said, a tortured look in his eyes. "It's a real devil beast all right. Come on."
The creature lay where it had fallen, an abomination unlike anything Jonah had ever seen before. It had the hind legs and hind quarters of a deer, the hair body of a coyote overlaid over a thin scaly surface, a wide mouth from which protruded two inch long fangs, and eyes that bulged even in death. Its front claws, long, razor-sharp talons, were half-constricted in the rictus of death.