I’d never actually talked to Ben Malloy before, but I’d seen him on television and around Black Wolf County, of course. He was our local celebrity, a native of Random who’d gone on to success in Hollywood. Not that he was Tom Selleck or Richard Chamberlain or anyone like that. He’d had a supporting role on a 1970s sci-fi series as an alien fighter pilot who could replicate himself at will. Ben was funny, and the character was popular, even though the show itself only lasted for a couple of seasons. When it ended, he’d spent a year trying to land a new show, but other than minor guest parts on The Bionic Woman and Charlie’s Angels, he didn’t have much luck.

Then came the murders of Kip and Racer, which brought the legend of the Ursulina to life right in Ben’s hometown. His documentary about the crime and the search for the beast became one of the highest-rated shows of the year on NBC, and shortly thereafter, Ben Malloy Discovers premiered in prime time. For the next three years, he explored crop circles, the Bermuda triangle, Amelia Earhart, UFOs, reincarnation, and a variety of other unsolved mysteries every Tuesday night. The Ursulina had made Ben a rich man.

“What are you doing here?” Darrell asked him.

Ben trotted down the steps of the trailer. He reached into the pocket of his bathrobe and pulled out a pipe, which he stoked with a match. His pipe was his calling card. He’d ended every episode of his television show by smoking a pipe in a dark, cobwebbed library as he offered a final theory on whatever mystery he’d explored that week.

“Are you kidding?” Ben replied, taking a first puff. “Another Ursulina attack! The beast returns! This is big news, Deputy.”

“I meant, what are you doing here? This trailer doesn’t belong to you, or did you somehow forget that?”

“Oh, yes, yes, I know, but Norm won’t mind. He’s a good guy. I would have called him, but I didn’t get into town until after midnight. I figured the whole county was asleep. It was too late to check in at the Fair Day resort, and honestly, I wanted to spend the night out here with the beast. Back where it all started! Back where he made his first kills! Let him smell me, let him know I was in town again. So I did a little nighttime filming here by the trailer with my Super 8.”

Ben had a fast, exaggerated way of talking, as if he was always reading from a script and the camera was never off.

“Filming?” Darrell asked with a sigh.