On June 15, I noticed the two dogs at 11 Elroy Road were missing. The younger son was out and about, calling for them, obviously distressed at their absence. Three days later, at 7 North Road, half a mile from Elroy, all four of the dogs there had vanished.
The process was repeated three more times until a total of twenty-one dogs in all were missing. As with the initial two incidents, there were three days between each. The rhythm struck a chord within me and sent me down into my library to research. When I found what I was looking for, it was already too late for a young man named Eli Watts. He had lived alone at 22 Elroy Road, and there were no more dogs in the area.
I found his remains, and those of all the dogs, in the root cellar of a home last used in 1824. There were two living occupants in the cellar, a cat and a young woman I had recently seen about town. She had gone in and had her portrait done with her cat. A strange thing, to be sure, but Cross is well familiar with the strange and the odd.
The lore I had read told me what she was and why she was dangerous. She was a Panther, and she would sleep for three days, awaken, and call out for her food to come to her.
It always did.
I killed her and her cat, and I locked the door behind me. There was no reason to bring Eli’s half-eaten body home.
The root cellar was as good a grave as any.
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