Wolves of Manchester (part 3)

e to be brothers, and decided that it was too risky to kill another deer for a while.
Chapter 9



A working vacation
After five days of taking photos, and conducting interviews, I returned from the White Mountain lodges. I found my daughter and wife in a state of delirious enthusiasm. The kitchen counters were covered with Smile Cookies, mixing bowls, baking sheets, and the Kitchen Aid mixer was whipping out another batch of dough. My return was definitely of secondary importance. Hoping to gain attention I went over and kissed my wife and daughter, and announced.
“I am home girls, and boy did I have a great time. I met the most interesting and sexy snow bunny.
We spent hours getting to know each other, while we dined on Maine lobster and drank pink champagne.” They both stopped for a brief moment to finally look at me.
Then Beverly said.”That’s nice dear, would you please give me the vanilla extract and then stay out of our way. Misses Gustavo has just ordered eight dozen cookies for this Saturday and as we have finished our supper, you will have to fix something for yourself. I think there may be some bread, bologna, cheese, and beer in the fridge, and stay away from these cookies.”


I scraped the morning frost from the windshield as I waited for my car to warm up. Then I drove to MacDonald’s and ordered two egg Mac muffins and coffee to go.
As soon as I sat down to my desk, Ralph Shoemaker walked in. He looked at my Mac muffins, picked one up and took a bite, and then he said. “Thanks Bill, this is very good. How was your trip, did you meet any interesting people, and did you get some interesting photos?” I picked up my remaining breakfast and placed it out of Ralph´s reach before I answered him.
“Hi boss, the trip was cold, II am coming down with the flue, but I have taken some excellent photos.” I handed him one of a group of skiers suspended on a chair lift that had broken down.
“Here´s some more I am sure you will like, how about this one of a young man with a broken collar bone on a stretcher? If these are not what you are looking for, then I have ones of pink faced children tobogganing, a couple of excellent figure skaters on Lake Winnipesaukee. Here is a bunch I took of the lodges interiors and a hundred or so of the snow covered mountains some with bright cobalt blue skies and others barely visible in a blizzard like snow storm. I think that is when I caught the flue.
And I think these might be my masterpieces. They are of me, sitting next to a roaring fire, wrapped in beautifully Pendleton wool blanket, woven with a snowflake and ski design. And, isn’t that a large, magnificent granite fireplace with the stuffed moose heads on each side for decoration? Notice the double shot of single malt whiskey in my shivering, frost bitten hands. I will leave you to decide which one is the most artistic. If you decide to publish one, I think it should be captioned.”
To tell you the truth, Ralph´s answer took me by surprise when he said. “Bill you need a well deserved break. I think that it is time that I found younger blood to take you place on winter expeditions to snow country next year. You take two weeks off with pay, and then when you return, you can begin writing a series on New Hampshire´s stone walls.”
The only answer I could come up with was.” Have another egg and bacon sandwich boss.”
I was home relaxing and watching the Boston Patriots on TV, Beverly and Sylvia were busy in the kitchen baking more cookies for Rosebuds, and it was still snowing. I was pleased to see that my daughter’s cookie idea had become a great success for her.
When my review and photos appeared in the Sunday edition, I was even more surprised to see that the first one featured was captioned. After a day of fun at the lodges.
I took the article into to show them and I said.” Look at these girls, you are now in the company of a very famous person, they stopped for a minute to look,” and then Sylvia said.
“But daddy, I can’t tell if that´s you. Your face is covered up by the blanket.”
Chapter 10
Chris and Clarence Callahan


Chris and Clarence Callahan were two cousins who enjoyed each another’s company. Twice a month on Sunday after mass with their wives and children at Saint Anthony Catholic Church, the two families would get together for a late lunch. Then in the afternoon they would put a six pack of beer in the refrigerator, clear the dining room table. Covered it with a blanket, and the whole family would spend the afternoon playing penny anti poker as they told jokes and stories.
Naturally a major part of the conversation concerned the harassment that Marsha had experienced.
When she told her uncle Chris what had happened. How the Gustavo twins had followed her in the park and then frightened her with their grotesque wolf masks.
That was the second; the alarm bell went off in his mind. He said to Clarence.
“ I stopped the same pair early one morning on the suspicion that they were spotlighting deer; someone in my district has been killing deer with one shot into the brain with a 22 caliber rifle, then cutting off the tail, slicing them open and leaving the intestines and carcass.
They work for the highway department and had a valid excuse for using a spotlight but there was something that did not ring true in their answers. I even checked in the truck´s bed, I was so sure they were lieing, but it was clean so I let them go on their way.
Clarence, I know in my gut that this pair is the deer killers I have been trying for weeks to catch. But I have absolutely no proof, only my instincts.”
After hearing this, Clarence Callahan sat in silence, while he thought of what could have happened to his daughter if he had not been home that night.
Then he replied, “I think that you and I need to do some serious police work and find a way to put some pressure on these creeps before they kill another deer, or worse yet hurt my daughter. Let’s first find out if they own a twenty two rifle, then we can proceed from there. “
It took one call from Chris to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Concord to find out that two Mossberg twenty two caliber single shot rifles had been purchased on December seventh by Bud Gustavo from Reilly’s Sporting Goods in Hudson New Hampshire five years earlier. Chris wrote down the make, model, and serial numbers and handed them to his cousin and said. “They must have gotten them as birthday presents from their father, but this doesn’t prove anything, we still need more information.”
From the kitchen they heard Cathleen say. “OK guys, time to clear the table and help set it for supper. We women have fixed Roasted chicken with leeks, baked yams, green beans, and baking powder biscuits, and it will be ready in ten minutes.”
After the meal was over Chris, his wife Julia and their two children said goodnight as they left to return home. Clarence took the information and wrote into his notebook and said, “Let me work on this for a few days and see what I can do. I will stay in touch and keep you informed.”
The weather over the Easter holidays was beautiful. The sun shone, the snow began to melt, and the frozen body of Eliza Sanchez was found and devoured by the ravens, magpies and crows, foxes and coyotes.
A young couple hiking around Lake Massabesic in September found what little of her remained. The police were called in to investigate.
The twins had been right. So little remained that after two weeks of trying to determine who she had been, and how she died, the case was filed as an open investigation, and she was interned as Jane Doe at the State of New Hampshire´s expense.
Clarence Callahan wanted to know if the twins were expert enough with a rifle to be able to kill a deer with a single round from twenty two caliber rifle. He decided that someone had to have trained them. And logic told him that it must be their father. When he was off duty he began visiting the entire local gun clubs and talking to the members. But no one could remember the Gustavo twins, or their father. Frustrated, but determined, he expanded his search to Merrimac County.
At the Chester Rod and Gun club he found Kenny Nelson. He was someone who vaguely remembered the Gustavo´s and he told Callahan that he had not seen them in several years.
“Sergeant, I keep the records and targets for the shooting events. Let me see if I can find theirs.”
They went into the clubhouse where after a long search through piles of targets he found Kevin and Karl’s for the fifty yard running deer event. When he handed them to Sergeant Callahan he said.” Now I remember them. They both won a trophy with these. They had single shot twenty two rifles and they put a bullet in the same spot, right into where the brain would be. If they are important to you, keep them, just remember not to give me a ticket if you ever stop me for speeding.”
As he took the targets he shook Kenny´s hand and said. “We have a deal Kenny