The Mystery of Cedar County 1

October 2009:

Dane Cole Newman was a reporter, well maybe not a reporter more like an investigator, nope that wasn’t it either, maybe a Reporter/Investigator/Photographer, yeah that was more like what he was. Dane wrote a little column for the Tidewell Tide, a small newspaper printed in the little town of Tidewell, fifty miles northeast of Houston, Texas.. Two hundred subscribers in a town of five hundred. Not bad circulation for a small town. He was paid one hundred dollars each month for a column on the back page called “Strange Tales”, a little horror piece that the kids and young adults of the town seemed to love.

Dane hadn’t always been a reporter ( wasn’t really one now) he’d taken up doing odd jobs, fixing computers, construction work and the like after loosing his factory job due to a layoff five years ago. He’d been writing for the “Tide” for two years and enjoyed the extra money it brought in to put gas in his car or be able to eat at the local fast-food joints.

“Swamp Ghost in Sarasota” and “Aliens Land in Whitefield” were two of the stories he’d put out in his last couple of columns. Course it had all been through investigative work, he did go out into the field to make sure what was being printed had some truth to it. Only thing, Dane had never really found any ghost or space aliens either. That hadn’t kept him from embellishing a little on his stories though. Embellishing? Dane COULD write a good story, maybe stretch the truth a bit but it was all within the limits of good journalism right? It was kinda funny but he had been dubbed “Colechak, The Night Stalker” by the locals and he was humored by the title.

He sat in his crabby little room now, a little cubical in a room he and his partner shared in a house they rented for business while waiting on construction work, or repairing folks computers that were on the fritz. The room and his cubical were littered with junk. Papers, old computers and computer parts and anything else the two had collected during their two year business partnership.

“Mornin Night Stalker!”

Dane looked up to see his partner walking past his cubical, steamy cup of coffee in his hand.

“ Shoot any zombies lately?”

“First of all you don’t shoot zombies Darrel. That won’t kill’em they’re already dead. Secondly, nope I haven’t got any leads to investigate, so this months column may be on the shabby side.” He told his buddy.

“ Shabby side? When are they ever on the un-shabby side?” His partner laughed.

Darrel stopped and looked at him.

“Well here’s a lead for you………Burkeville. There’s a story up there about some hairy man stalking the lovers lanes and scaring the ba-geez outta the kids up there.”

“ I’ll look into it. Thanks buddy.” Dane told him. There always had been a little competition between them, all be it a friendly one. They really were good friends.

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Burkeville, a town two hundred miles due north of Houston. Dane called the number of the only local government office he could find up there.

“ Yep there has been some reports of strange things happening outside of town.” The sheriff department’s office clerk told him. “Started last November, month or so after the hurricane. Just kids though, ain’t no adults seen the “Beast Man”.” She laughed. “Come on up and take a look. We’d love getting a write up in the Tidewell Tide.”

8:30am Dane left for Burkeville to get his story for that months “Strange Tales” column. Strange and funny , a wolfman showing up to frighten a town after a hurricane? Seems it should be more like a lake monster, some sea beast brought in to shore by the flood waters to end up in some local lake. That would make a better story. Oh well, he’d see what he could do once he got there and figured it all out.

Once in the small town of Burkeville Dane found the official offices and met up with the nice lady he’d talked to over the phone. Seems the local authorities weren’t taking the “wolfman” reports to serious and the talk around town was more like it was a joke. Most folk wouldn’t talk on the subject and weren’t interested. A waste of their time it seemed. Dane went back to the government building, a nice, little brick looking business in the middle of town. He talked to the clerk and hung around town a bit.

It was early afternoon when he decided is was about time to head back. He would have liked to have gotten more information about the woodland creature but he really hadn’t found anyone that knew anything. Seems like another stretching of a tall tale would be in order. He would have one last talk with the clerk before leaving town.

“Oh, while you were out Mr. Newman I did talk to someone over the phone said she knew a girl that had had contact with the beast. I got a name and an address for you.”

“Thanks Mabel.” he said. Dane headed out to the address.

End Part1