Wildlife - A Dark Thriller Read online

  Deep in the Florida Everglades, a tragic accident has ignited a deadly feud between two families.

  Meanwhile, a young writer, his girlfriend and her family take a boat ride into the isolated wilds of the Everglades for research on a new book, only to become unwitting witnesses to a brutal crime.

  Now, as night falls, forced to travel on foot, they must flee through the treacherous wilderness while desperately avoiding the deadly wildlife—and the far more lethal human predators that are hunting them.

  WILDLIFE

  By

  Jeff Menapace

  2015

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  About the Author

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  South Florida

  Deep in the Everglades

  Travis always stopped to look at Uncle Harlon’s gator farm before he went inside. Today, the boy hurried across the wooden bridge and towards his front door without so much as a pause for the impressive congregation of alligators around back.

  The screen door flew open. Travis Roy appeared, battered and panting. The boy’s grandmother was first to her feet, his mother shortly after, her belly of eight months slowing ascent.

  “And now just what the hell is this?” Ida Roy took hold of her grandson’s face by the jaw. Her hand, wrinkled and twisted by elements of time and labor, was not gentle as it turned the boy’s head left and right to gauge the extent of his injuries. “Who done this to ya?”

  Travis started to cry. His grandmother slapped him. “Who done this to ya?”

  Travis looked over at his mother who now stood at his grandmother’s side. Her face was as unyielding as his grandmother’s. The audacity to cry from pain. There was no sympathy in this room for the boy. He’d been a fool to think otherwise.

  Jolene Roy stepped forward and raised the back of her hand in threat. “You answer your meemaw. And you can go on and knock off that crying ’fore someone sees. Shameful enough we seen.”

  Travis straightened up and sniffed away the last of his tears. “Noah Daigle done it.”

  Ida grabbed her grandson’s right hand and raised it to the thick lenses on the end of her nose. She turned the boy’s hand over, inspecting the knuckles. “Not a bruise, not a scrape. Didn’t get one lick in, did you? And I don’t bother looking at your left; didn’t get no licks in with your right, sure as shit didn’t get none in with your left.”

  “Hit me when I wasn’t looking,” Travis pleaded.

  “And put you clean out, did he?” Jolene Roy asked her son.

  Travis shook his head emphatically with what little pride he had left. “Huh-uh. No, Mama, no. I didn’t go out, I didn’t go out.”

  Jolene made a face as if she meant to spit. “So you was fixed to keep fightin’ then…”

  The boy visibly deflated. He looked away and began fingering the gator tooth hanging from his neck, a pacifying habit during times of stress.

  Ida Roy exchanged looks with her daughter-in-law, clucked her tongue and shook her head in disgust. “A Roy rolling over and taking a beating from a Daigle. Not one damn swipe given back.”

  “Might have done if it’d just been Noah,” the boy muttered, thumb and index finger still working on the tooth.

  Jolene stepped forward. “Say again!?”

  Travis steeled himself for what was to come. Talking back would guarantee a hiding far greater than the likes of Noah Daigle could ever dish out. But no hiding did come. His mother’s eagerness for her son to repeat his mutterings was not rhetorical; was not the typical rumble of thunder before the crack. It was an atypical demand for elaboration, because Jolene Roy’s genuine look of disbelief appeared as if she’d just heard the impossible.

  And Travis suddenly knew why. And all at once he wanted to bonk his own head for not coming up with the lie sooner.

  Louder, and with less shame, Travis said: “Might have done if it’d been just Noah.”

  Yes, the look his mother and grandmother now exchanged meant no hiding was on its way. A wicked little smile itched on the boy’s face, and he dropped his head in case he lost the fight to contain it.

  “You saying Noah Daigle wasn’t the only one that done this?” Jolene asked her son.

  Travis nodded, head still down. Talking into his chest, he said, “Noah and Ethan done it.”

  Ida Roy grabbed her grandson’s face and jerked it upward, her bony fingers digging into his cheeks. The pain erased the itch for a smile. “You saying Ethan Daigle done it too? Wasn’t no fair fight?”

  Travis stared into his grandmother’s eyes, saw the frightening potential staring back, her thick lenses enhancing a simmering rage that was all but spilling over and hissing on the fire…and Travis instantly regretted the lie.

  You don’t disrespect a Roy. Everyone knew that.

  Ida gripped her grandson’s cheeks tighter, brought her face to his. Breath as foul as the tobacco teeth before it shot into Travis’ face. Ida’s oral decay was not something she hid; it was wielded often like a bully’s fist. “You saying Ethan Daigle done it too? Wasn’t no fair fight?” she said again.

  No going back now. Travis had thought himself a dummy for not conjuring the lie sooner, saving himself a hiding, saving himself the shame. He’d then flip-flopped the moment his grandmother latched onto his face, thought himself an even bigger dummy for lacking the foresight to know what would happen to the Daigles once he’d sold his lie. God might be able to forgive stealing a peek at Daddy’s Playboys, or trying a swig of Uncle Harlon’s whiskey, but a lie that would bring what his family would assuredly bring down upon the Daigles? He’d burn for it. Burn good and proper for all eternity.

  He could take it all back, of course.

  Admit that it had been a fair fight.

  Admit that Ethan Daigle hadn’t been involved.

  Admit that he’d lied to his mama and meemaw.

  Travis shuddered. The lie was now truth as far as he was concerned.

  “No, Meemaw—wasn’t no fair fight.”

  Ida let go of her grandson’s face, gave it an apologetic wipe that contradicted the hate etched into the permanent frown lines of her brow. She glanced over at her daughter-in-law. “You go and you make this right, Jolene.”

&n
bsp; Jolene rubbed her full belly with both hands. “Better I don’t wait for Tucker to come home first?”

  Ida ignored her and marched towards the screen door, flinging it open with a bang that made Travis wince. She returned moments later, a rock the size of a softball in both hands. Went to the kitchen and snatched a large towel. Wrapped the rock in the towel until the weighted end hung from her knotted fist. A crude ball and chain.

  She handed the makeshift weapon to Jolene and then gestured towards Travis. “You take your boy and you make it right”—Travis stood gaping, fingers working nervously on the gator tooth again—“you make him the angel that brings the righteous. You make him do it right.”

  Jolene measured the weight of the rock and towel, glanced over at Travis, then back at her mother-in-law. “Suppose they don’t see it eye for an eye? Suppose they see fit to stopping us? Better I wait for Tucker?”

  Ida snorted, her daughter-in-law’s notion seemingly ludicrous. “They don’t dare. Nobody dares touch a Roy when they’re in the wrong—” A sinister little smile creased the corner of her leathery mouth. “Hell, even when they’re in the right.”

  Chapter 2

  Noah Daigle sat on the front porch next to his father, a pile of flat stones between them. They took turns skipping them into the river as they spoke.

  “Put a proper one on him, did you?” Ron Daigle asked his son.

  “Good and proper, Daddy.”

  Ron Daigle went to skip another stone but froze, arm in mid-air as he eyed his son. “And he had it coming? Wasn’t your doing that started it up?”

  “No, Daddy. I didn’t wanna fight. He was the one that kept pushing. It was fair and proper.”

  Ron finally skipped his stone. He didn’t appear relieved. “Yeah…them Roys though, you know how they get. They don’t see fair and proper like others do.”

  Noah frowned and looked up at his father. “You mean they’d cause a fuss over a fair fight? One I wasn’t even fixin’ to start?”

  Ron skipped another stone and sighed. “Ahh…you never can tell. That Harlon and Tucker Roy, they ain’t the type that like losing. Harlon especially.”

  “Harlon Roy let me come along and watch him transport some gators to a watching spot up the river one time. He seemed nice enough.”

  Ron glanced over at his son. “It don’t take much effort to seem, son. Even the devil can seem your friend…’til he gets his hooks in you. I seen Harlon Roy at his worst.”

  “What’d you see, Daddy?”

  Ron shook his head. “Nothing your thirteen-year-old ears need hearing.”

  Noah moaned. And then a thought popped excitement into his eyes. “You seen how he lost his leg?”

  Ron chuckled. “No. Story goes one of his own gators got that.”

  Noah looked disappointed. “Yeah, everyone knows that…”

  Ron chuckled again. “So then why’re you asking?”

  “It’s like you say about seeming. Not everything is like it seems. I reckon maybe he lost it another way, especially he’s like you say he is.”

  “What, you think someone been wronged by Harlon come back one day and cut it off?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  Ron skipped a stone. “Because if someone was able to get through Harlon and Tucker, they sure as heck never getting through Ida Roy.”

  “Travis’ mama?”

  “Travis’ meemaw. Mean old lady. Meaner than Harlon.”

  “I seen her,” Noah said. “She keeps to their porch mostly, but I seen her. Looks like some swamp witch drift in from Louisiana.”

  Ron laughed, palmed his son’s head and shoved it away playfully. “Sounds about right to me.”

  Noah skipped the last stone. It hit the water and jumped three times, settling and sinking a few feet from an approaching paddle boat. Travis Roy was rowing, his head down. His mother Jolene Roy sat at the bow, her head high, fixed on the approaching Daigle place. She did not look pleased.

  Chapter 3

  Ron Daigle made his way down the short dock from his porch. Noah followed his father.

  “Jolene—” Ron said, gesturing towards the boat. “You think that’s wise in your condition? Suppose you tip?”

  Jolene didn’t respond. Ron’s courtesies only incensed her further, a coward’s attempt at deflecting the issue at hand. He knew why she was there.

  Travis Roy, head still down and unable to face the scene he’d created, docked the boat by the side of the river, and then helped his mother onto dry land. The two headed up the short ramp that connected to the Daigle’s bridge, Jolene leading the way. The rock and towel swayed in her fist as she marched forward. Ron Daigle fixed on the swaying weapon, then back up at Jolene. There was fear in his eyes.

  “What’s this about, Jolene?”

  “You know damn well what this is about, Ron Daigle.” She pointed over his shoulder, towards Noah. “And if you don’t, maybe you go and ask that little bastard of yours why we’re here.”

  Ron raised a hand. “Whoa, now calm down, Jolene—you’re outta line talking about my boy like that.”

  Jolene stepped forward, poked Roy hard in the chest. “You’re outta line defending him when you know what he done!”

  Ron took a step back. “This about the fight with him and Travis?”

  “Wasn’t no fight. Lessen you call two against one a fair fight. Needed the help of his big brother to get the job done!”

  Ron turned his head slightly, keeping an eye on Jolene while he called back to his son. “What’s she on about, Noah? You said it was a fair fight.”

  Noah stepped forward. “It was! Ethan wasn’t involved.”

  Jolene gestured back towards Travis. “My boy says otherwise. Look at the state of him. Ain’t no one boy doing that to a Roy.”

  Ron leaned to one side and studied Travis’ beaten face. Travis refused to meet his gaze. “You sayin’ Noah and Ethan done that to you, Travis?” Ron asked.

  Travis nodded, still refusing eye contact, fingers working vigorously on the gator tooth around his neck as if he meant to whittle it down to nothing.

  Noah took an adamant stomp forward, joining his father’s side. “You’re a liar, Travis Roy! It was a fair and proper fight. Ethan wasn’t involved!”

  Jolene shoved Noah back a step. Ron stepped in front of his son to shield him. “Now come on, Jolene...”

  “That little bastard of yours is calling my boy a liar! Wasn’t no fair fight. But we come now to settle things. Take what’s ours.”

  Ron started backing away, reaching behind and nudging his son along with him, eyes shifting back and forth between Jolene’s unyielding gaze and the weapon dangling at her side. “Now, Jolene, you just wait a minute…no one’s calling nobody nuthin. I ain’t seen Ethan all day, and that’s the God’s honest truth. My boy tells me it was a fair and proper fight, and I believe him.”

  Jolene stepped forward. “So now you’re calling my boy a liar too?”

  “I just told you, Jolene; no one’s calling nobody nuthin. I’m just saying I believe my boy.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “And I’m saying I believe mine. We gotta make this right, Ron Daigle, lessen you want Tucker and Harlon coming down here to sort things.”

  The blood drained from Ron’s face. “Now come on, Jolene…”

  “Come on, Jolene nuthin. We’re gonna make this right, Ron Daigle. Here and now.”

  A screen door banged behind Ron and Noah. Jolene Roy cocked her head to one side to get a look. Ron and Noah did not risk taking their eyes off Jolene.

  “Here, what’s this?”

  “Go back inside, Adelyn,” Ron called over his shoulder.

  Adelyn Daigle stayed put. “Jolene Roy, what’re you doing here in your condition? You’re looking fixed to pop, girl.”

  “Here to teach your boy a thing or two about what happens when you cross a Roy. Wouldn’t think you Daigles needed such a lesson, Adelyn.”

  Adelyn frowned. “What’s she on about, Ron? This about the fight between ou
r Noah and her Travis?”

  “It’s about the fight between my Travis, your Noah, and your Ethan.”

  Surprise inverted the v of Adelyn’s frown. “Ethan? Ethan wasn’t involved, Jolene. It was a fair fight.”

  “And you seen this with your own eyes, Adelyn?” Jolene said.

  “Well, no…but Noah said—”

  “‘Noah said!’” Jolene blurted. “Well, my boy said your Ethan was involved. That’s enough for me. Now both of you tell your Noah to come forward so we can make this right. I already told Ron he don’t want Tucker and Harlon coming down here to see to it, Adelyn. And I imagine you agree. Now, you tell your Noah to step forward.”

  Noah wormed around his father, confronted Jolene. “I ain’t done nuthin! Was a fair fight!” Desperate tears filled his eyes. “Your boy’s a damn liar!”

  The sound of Jolene Roy slapping Noah Daigle was like a whip cracking. The boy staggered, fear and anger wiped clean off his face. What remained was a fitting portrait of shock.

  Adelyn Daigle rushed forward. Jolene Roy pointed a finger at her and commanded she stay put. Adelyn froze as if Jolene’s finger were a gun.

  Ron Daigle stayed reluctantly fixed to his spot, anger fighting common sense. He did not

  want a war with the Roys.

  Jolene glanced over her shoulder. “Travis, get over here.”

  Travis approached sheepishly. Jolene presented her son with the rock and towel. “Now you go and take what’s yours, Travis Roy.”

  Travis hesitated.

  “Take it!”

  Adelyn cried out. “Christ almighty, Jolene, can’t you see the boy don’t want it!? He knows this ain’t right! Travis, tell her. Tell your mama my boys ain’t done wrong by you! Please!”

  Travis looked up at his mother. The look she cast back down on her son allowed no chance for salvation should he come clean. His choice was simple. Keep lying and forever carry the weight of what would come to Noah Daigle…or tell the truth and face what would come to him, from his own.

  He chose Noah Daigle.

  Travis took the rock and towel from his mother and started toward Noah.