Yesterday, another one-session Chill case, as once again a couple of players were out. Next month, though, we should have a full table once again.
It's March of 2021, and Detective Jackson, the cell's contact in the Boise PD, has assembled envoys at a Panera in the south end of town. Four envoys, specifically: Manny Wall, Blake Wheeler, Melanie Banks, and Jordan Ramsey. Jackson lays out a map of the area south of town with some things written on it, and his concerns:
Two days ago a teenage girl named Annie Temple ran away from home with her boyfriend, Fred Hober. Yesterday Hober was arrested in Mountain View (a ways south of Boise), and first claimed that he'd never taken Annie away from her home, then claimed he'd let her out not far out of town, then he shut up and asked for counsel. Annie's cell phone last pinged on a Rural Route around some farms and a ranch, and so Jackson went out to ask around and see if anyone saw anything.
One of the places he went was Blazing Brush Ranch, a big cattle ranch owned and run by one Larry Billings. Billings didn't know anything, but did mention that over the years he'd lost a suspicious amount of cattle. Jackson just filed that away, but then he talked to the owner of Goswin Farm, a fellow named Peter Goswin. While he was on Goswin's property, he felt unsafe. "They guy just felt off," Jackson tells the envoys. "Maybe it's a cop thing, I don't know, some people just feel off." But what was worse was the noise.
"I can't describe it," he says. "Kind of a rumble, but more like...I don't know, like hearing a squirrel in your chimney. Scrabbling around, but bigger. Scared the hell out of me. Figured maybe this was your kind of weird." But then he drops the other bombshell: there's a history of missing people in there going back a few years. The most recent case (before Annie Temple) was a state trooper named Mike Paulson. He left his house in the morning to go to the Black's Creek Shooting Range before going on duty, and his car was found on the side of the road that afternoon. That was December 2020. Before that, a hiker lost his yellow lab, and claimed to see a black or dark blue van speeding away. He activated the dog's microchip later that day, but it never sent back a signal. That was September 2020.
The month before that, a large animal vet named Tim McCrary disappeared - he was on his way to Blazing Brush, his truck was found later with a snapped fan belt, but he was never seen again. (Blake remembers him; he used to work with him occasionally when he was in Animal Control.) In January 2020, a man named Bud Comey disappeared from the shooting range. Witnesses say he'd had an argument, but no one seemed to remember with whom (Jackson suspects they did know, but didn't think it was important and didn't want to get someone in trouble).
And then back in May 2019, an old man named Cooper Tabbit disappeared. He had dementia and had wandered away from his house before, and this time was just never found.
The envoys have a sinking feeling that this is all connected, though Jordan points out that normally when people go missing from a confined area like this they fit a type. These don't - different genders, different ages ("all white," says Jackson, "but then we're in Boise"). The envoys decide to head out there, introduce themselves around, and claim to be concerned citizens looking for Annie Temple. Jackson gives them permission to drop his name if it'll help, reminds them to respect "No Trespassing" signs (in no small part because they're likely to get shot if they don't), and the envoys head south.
Their first stop is the area where Annie Temple's cell phone last pinged. They bring a metal detector with them and look around, trying to find the phone, but it's not there. They do find a cigarette butt with purple lipstick on it, and stick it in a baggie for Jackson. They spot a wire fence and walk up to it; they figure they must be at the border of Goswin and Billings' properties (some bored-looking cows confirm this).
They drive around to the Rural Route and pull into Goswin Farm. They immediately notice that the place isn't being maintained - it's not exactly falling apart but it's in some disrepair. They see two buildings - a barn and a house - and then Pete Goswin comes out to meet them.
They talk with him and give him their cover story. Goswin isn't exactly helpful, but he's not evasive, either. He claims he's never seen Annie, he talked to Jackson and told him the same thing. When he sees Manny and Peedee (Manny's dog) start to walk over to the barn, he warns them off - there was some weather damage over the winter and he doesn't want anyone getting near there until he's had a chance to have it repair. Manny agrees, but spots something sparkly by the door. He pulls out his phone and zooms in - it's a pair of novelty sunglasses that read "2021." Kind of out of character for this place.
Blake focuses on the barn and Sense the Unknown, and immediately wishes he hadn't. He feels his missing eye start to bleed under his patch, and feels something in the barn, something more powerful than he's ever felt before. He manages to keep himself under control and the envoys ask to walk through Goswin's property to the outer fence, where Annie's phone last pinged. Goswin agrees, and they walk through his property.
They don't find any evidence of Annie, but on their way back, they do find something weird - there's a section of fence where the nodules (the ones the wire's wrapped around) have been modified so they can slot into the fence post like a key. That means that one can "unlock" them and open a section of fence. It's not big enough for a vehicle - but it's certainly big enough for a cow. The envoys head back to their vehicle and get off the property, and Blake finally moves his patch.
Jordan chastises him a bit for not saying something sooner, but he wanted to get off Goswin's land before he reacted. He explains what he felt, and the envoys theorize that Goswin has been feeding cows - and probably people - to something in the barn. But what? And why? They decide to head down to Blazing Brush Ranch and talk with Larry Billings.
They get a much warmer reception there - Billings' secretary, Judy, is happy to talk with them, especially once they explain they're looking for Annie. She calls Billings into the office and he agrees to drive them out to the edge of the property to look around. They also learn that Goswin has sold Billings a lot of his acreage over the last couple of years, but when Billings tried to buy Goswin's livestock, he was told they were all dead of anthrax. The envoys don't really buy this (and neither did Billings); an anthrax outbreak might not have made national news but Blake certainly would have been told about it.
Billings shows them the ranch and they show him the rigged section of fence, which doesn't please him much. They head back to the office and ask about Goswin and his history, and learn that no one's seen his wife, Francesca, in as much as three years. Judy shows them pictures from the Blazing Brush Christmas party from years past where the Goswins attended, and Peter looks happy and healthy, not like the sallow, thin man they met earlier. Something happened to him, but no one knows what. They also learn that when Goswin sold Billings his land, Billings dropped off the paperwork and then came back the next day to pick it up, and it had both Francesca's and Pete's signatures - but Billings never saw Francesca.
The envoys ask Billings if they can come back tomorrow and look around a little more thoroughly; he agrees, he'll just have to make an employee available to them so that someone can supervise (it's an insurance issue). They leave and head to the Shooting Range, the last stop on their little tour.
Blake goes and does a bit of target practice while Melanie, Manny, and Jordan talk to the fellow working the desk (one Doug Burgess). Burgess confirms that Bud Comey was a regular here, and that the person he got into an argument with the day he disappeared was Pete Goswin. He's skeptical that Goswin had anything to do with it, though - Bud was a bigger and younger guy, and he's pretty sure Bud could have won that fight. Another guy there lives near where Tim McCrary's truck was found, and offers an interesting piece of data. He saw that truck early in the day, and the hood was down, but then later when the police found it, the hood was up. Maybe that doesn't mean anything. (Or maybe, the envoys theorize, someone came back and made it look like a breakdown.)
The envoys head back to the ranch and touch base with Jackson. He agrees that it looks bad for Goswin, but he doesn't have enough to get a warrant or even bring Goswin in for questioning. They do a little research and find that neither Pete nor Francesca have living family. They got married in 1990 in a Baptist church on the south end of Boise, but neither have a social media presence. The farm has a web site, but it's not being updated. Jordan also finds something interesting - in May 2018, Goswin got a permit to dig a cistern in his barn.
The theory comes into focus a little more - Goswin dug a pit, and is maybe keeping something there that's killing people? Maybe it's even his wife, somehow, or maybe it ate his wife. In any case, he's clearly willing to abduct people to keep it "fed."
In the morning, the envoys go back to Blazing Brush to do more inspection, and ride around on a cart with a sweet fellow named Chip. Chip doesn't know much (generally) but he's happy to talk to them about the ranch and Billings and so on. It comes out that Billings didn't come in today, which Chip says is unusual.
With a sinking feeling, the envoys go back to the office and have Judy call Billings' house. His wife Tessie confirms - he never came home, and she doesn't know where he is. The envoys tell Judy to report him missing, and they call Jackson.
Jackson agrees to go with them to Goswin's in the morning and distract him so they can check the barn. He tells them that if Billings said to them that he was planning to visit or confront Goswin, that'll get him in the door. The pull into the farm and Goswin lets Jackson into the house, and the envoys beeline to the barn.
Manny notes that the sunglasses are gone. He draws a huge Line of Defense around the barn, figuring that they'd better keep whatever's there contained. At this, the envoys all feel something, like holding a box with a living thing inside it, but the "box" is the ground beneath them. ("I hate this," says Jordan.) Blake touches the barn and uses Schematic, and finds the hole in the barn's floor - but loses the bottom. At some point, it stops being part of the barn.
They enter and see a big, raised barrier in a circle, covered in a tarp - the pit. There's a dark blue van on the other side. Blake checks it and finds bloodstains, and a circular bolt welded to the side of the van (in case you needed to chain something up inside). Jordan draws a Line of Defense to give them somewhere to fall back to, and Blake and Manny pull off the tarp.
They hear something move, but don't see it. They all peek over and Jordan throws a flare down, and they immediately regret it. Their minds rebel at what they're seeing - it has too many legs. It must have a body and a head and sensory organs, but they can't perceive them. They see it move, but not in a way that makes sense. The flare lasts only a few merciful seconds before it's snuffed out, but that's enough. The envoys know that this thing is going to live in their minds forever. They shouldn't have looked.
"Burn it," says Jordan. They start throwing lighter fluid and whatever else they can into the pit and lighting it up, but then the barrier starts to crack. It's climbing out. It destroys the Line and slithers/jumps/crawls out, darting behind the van. Jordan draws another Line, but it pushes the van forward and disrupts that one, too.
Melanie raises a Sphere of Protection and the envoys slowly back out of the barn. Jordan nearly steps on the Line encircling it, but Manny's Quicken discipline saves the day at the last second. Then they hear an anguished scream: "You let it out?"
Pete Goswin is standing on his porch with a shotgun in his hands. They ask after Jackson and he gives them a dismissive wave, and cries that he's tried to keep it contained. They ask why he fed it, and he says "if I didn't, it starts to climb out. I tried to kill it. Tried to shoot it and blow it up. It can't be killed. And now you let it out."
And with that, he sits down, puts the gun under his chin, and pulls the trigger.
Jordan and Manny both break. Manny runs to the van and holds onto Peedee for dear life. Jordan just backs up, unable to face the idea of this thing getting out. But it's still contained by the Line, Blake and Melanie realize, at least until sundown. They find whatever other flammables they can and burn the barn, and somewhere in there, they hear - a scream? A shriek? An explosion? They're not sure.
Jackson is alive; Goswin tazed him and zip-tied him in the kitchen. The envoys find evidence and rambling confessions; Goswin dug the pit while making the cistern and uncovered it. It ate Francesca when she got too close, and Goswin has been keeping it fed so it doesn't try and escape while trying to find a way to kill it ever since. His dining room was converted into a workshop where he looked for solutions - thermite, exorcism, protection spells, nothing seemed to work. But two items stand out to the envoys.
One is an email printout from someone named Alex Martin Prost, saying that he's willing to help Goswin but he needs to know who and where he is. Blake recognizes that name - Prost is a SAVE envoy and researcher.
The other is a slip of paper that fell under the table, notable only for the strange phrase written on it: "druj nasu." The envoys don't know what to make of this, but it worries them.
