Hawk led her straight into the Sheriff's office and stood beside Harry, thumbs hooked in his belt. Harry sat at attention at his desk and offered her no welcome as she came in the room. As before, Agent Cooper sat on the edge of Harry's desk, arms crossed, dark suit and expressionless face. G-man-esque, she thought. She took a seat and crossed her legs nervously.
"Casey Earle." Cooper scrutinized her. "You were a little girl last time I saw you."
"Yes." Casey clasped her hands on her lap.
"You've grown into a lovely young woman."
Casey said nothing, and after a beat Cooper continued.
"Being an Earle might make someone in this town want to hurt you."
"I was trying not to let anyone know I'm an Earle. For reasons I'm sure you're all aware of."
"Cut the crap, Casey," Harry barked. Casey was shaken, but she understood why he was so scared. She could think of a few reasons herself.
"Sheriff, I'm a graduate student in the Nonprofit Studies department at Washington State College. I have a valid reason to be in Twin Peaks; I'm here for the summer completing a work-study position at a local nonprofit. If you'd like, I can give you contact information for both my boss and my WSC adviser so you can confirm this for yourself."
Casey began to get her purse, and Cooper held a hand up. "That won't be necessary, Casey. What I would like to know is, are you also in town for the purpose of investigating your uncle's activities of the past few months?"
"Yes. I am." Not very successfully, either, Casey thought.
"Casey, what do you know about the Black Lodge and its whereabouts?"
Casey blinked. "I know my uncle was obsessed with finding it. Seeing as that he disappeared while in Twin Peaks, I have to surmise it can be accessed from here. I've also researched the Black Lodge enough to know that searching for it is a death sentence. I have no interest in finding it, Agent Cooper."
Cooper nodded once. "But you've been digging for information concerning Windom's whereabouts."
That got Casey's back up. "Of course I have. We know nothing of what's happened to him. My family needs closure. *I* need closure, Agent Cooper. Your office has robbed my family of that." Casey was sure her heart had never beaten faster.
"I do not argue with you, Casey. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has treated the Earle family shamefully." Agent Cooper slid into the chair next to hers. "And I'm sure you don't have a good opinion of me, either."
Casey was too surprised to say anything.
"Casey, Windom Earle came to Twin Peaks about a year ago. He began to send me letters in the Twin Peaks Gazette -- moves in a chess game. As you know, he and I played a game every day when we were partners. Every time he captured one of my pieces, he committed a murder. He killed two people in this way, people who had qualities reminiscent of your Aunt Caroline. He also kidnapped and then killed a local resident he found wandering in the woods. You don't need to know the details of how your uncle killed them. I wish I didn't know the details myself."
Casey's eyes filled with tears. She silently covered her mouth.
"He then kidnapped the Miss Twin Peaks pageant winner, who happened to be my girlfriend, Annie. He took her to an area of Glastonberry Grove and disappeared behind the curtain into the Black Lodge. I was allowed to follow him behind the curtain, into the Lodge. In the Lodge, your uncle demanded I trade my soul for Annie's safety. I agreed. BOB then appeared - "
"BOB?"
"BOB is an inhabiting spirit who makes use of human souls for his own parasitic purposes. He preys on human fear. He possessed the soul of Leland Palmer, Laura Palmer's father, who sexually abused Laura from a young age and eventually killed her last spring. If Twin Peaks is his hunting ground, the Black Lodge is where he goes to enjoy his kill. Your uncle encountered BOB in the Lodge, may well have been searching for him long before now. BOB told Windom that he did not have the authority to ask for my soul. In punishment, BOB took your uncle's soul."
"He took my uncle's soul? Does that mean he's dead? Or he's possessed by BOB now?"
"Casey, that's a damn good question. Most certainly he's dead, and we have to assume BOB is possessing him." There was a pregnant pause before Cooper continued. "Whatever happened to the man is a fate worse than death. He's been paid back thrice fold for his psychopathic acts."
Casey could tell she'd be digesting this for the rest of her life. "Well, wait, how did you get out of the Lodge?"
Cooper sighed. "I don't know, exactly. Three days later I woke up on the ground, with Annie lying next to me unconscious. She has yet to wake from her coma." For a moment, Cooper's words were too much for his thoughts; he took a stick of gum out of his pocket and chewed it thoroughly.
"So the devil's name is BOB." She stared at the grimy carpet and then flicked her gaze back at Cooper. "Surely you're not supposed to be sharing this with me."
"The Bureau wouldn't approve of my actions in this case, no."
"Then why would you help me?" Casey asked, eyebrows knitted, perplexed.
Cooper's green eyes were deep and sad. "Because you need to know. I can't let you and your family hurt for this anymore."
Casey let out her breath, exhaling years of inherited tension, misery, failure. She gained color in her cheeks and light in her eyes. She could feel everyone in the small room reacting to the lightened atmosphere, chests untightening, hands relaxing out of fists.
"Casey." Cooper leaned further into her space. "It's very possible that BOB will be looking for you now, trying to hurt you with your uncle, or via your uncle. No more private investigating, no more putting yourself in danger. I don't want to arrest you, nor do I want to attend your funeral. You must stay away from Glastonberry Grove."
Casey smiled wistfully. "I think Margaret taped the map together wrong anyway."
-----------------------
Hawk leaned over as he closed the passenger side door of the cruiser. His eyes were sweetness and sadness and flecks of gold. Casey kept her gaze spacey and far away, and distracted herself with buckling her seat belt. Hawk walked around the front of the cruiser and got in the driver's side.
"What did the FBI do to your family?"
"You don't want to know."
"I don't ask questions I don't want the answers to."
"Special Agent Cooper can tell you all about it when you get back to the station." She smiled sardonically.
Hawk put the cruiser in drive and didn't say another word until they pulled into Casey's driveway. "I thought you were making a fool out of me," he said softly.
"Well, I could’ve been. Us Earles don't usually have good relationships with law enforcement."
Hawk's frustration felt like it was lined permanently into his forehead and upper lip. "Don't make a joke out of it, Casey. BOB is real. Leland Palmer went almost his entire life without realizing BOB was inside him, eroding his soul, his humanity."
"How did Leland get rid of Bob?"
"He didn't. Leland is dead."
"BOB killed him?"
"It's more complicated than that, but yes."
Casey sighed. They all looked tough, but the three men in the Sheriff's office were more scared than she'd been. "I've been run out of town on a rail before. I was trying to keep a low profile."
He nodded. "Humiliating Bobby Briggs in the Double R is very low profile."
"I thought so too." Casey rubbed her hand over her forehead. "I still can't believe I did that."
"Bobby's a punk."
Casey didn't want to talk about Bobby anymore. It was still early enough in the morning that the grass in the courtyard was covered with dew.
"They arrested my father and my grandfather," she said quietly. "For some of the things Windom did."
She could feel Hawk's eyes on her and suddenly she wanted to grab Moogie and go for a long, long walk. Then maybe take a nap, and maybe make brownies for dinner.
"Want to go for a walk with me and Moogie?" She said it casually, but found once the words were out of her mouth that she meant it.
Hawk smiled. "Wish I could. Have to go back to the station. I'll come by later though."
His smile seemed to smooth out something inside of her, uncrumple a page in her secret diary. "Sure," she murmured, getting out of the cruiser and shutting the door.
-------------------------------
Casey was napping on the couch when she felt, rather than heard, someone at the door. She pulled herself up to answer it, and found Dale Cooper standing on her step.
Cooper's eyes were strange. It was as if a different person were looking out of them. Casey couldn't quite figure it out. But then again, she remembered thinking Cooper was odd even as a small child. And she'd slept for a long, long time after she took Moogie for a walk; maybe she was just groggy and seeing things.
Moogie sat up and growled, deep and low in his throat. Cooper glanced at the dog and smiled, showing every one of his bright white teeth. His lips disappeared up behind his gums. Moogie stood up and began to stalk Cooper.
"Moogie! Stop that!" Casey grabbed Moogie's collar, alarmed. She found herself too weak to hold her dog back, however, and she watched helplessly as Moogie launched himself at the FBI agent. Her dismay turned to fear in a bleak, mind-numbing second, as Agent Cooper sank his teeth into her dog's neck.
Casey screamed and woke herself up. She'd twisted her bedsheets all around her legs and torso, and she'd thrown her pillow across the room, into the closet. She fought with the bedclothes viciously for a moment and then collapsed, sweaty and smiling the biggest smile she'd ever smiled. All of it had been a dream and she had never been so happy to be awake.
Someone really was banging on her door, however; Moogie was out there barking at whoever it was. Her energy level plummeted at the idea of actually conversing with another human being. She dragged herself out of bed and searched the floor for her jeans.
At the door was Margaret. She was on a mission. Moogie eagerly nosed her hand and she rubbed his head as an afterthought. "You were dreaming just now."
Casey wanted to apologize to Margaret for her behavior the night before, but now she realized the older woman didn't care and didn't want to hear it. "Yes, I was."
"The planets currently are aligned in such a way with your psychic energy that your dreams have taken on a suggestive effect."
"Uhm. Really? Cause what I was just dreaming was..."
"Violent. Take it as all it's meant to be: a warning." Margaret kneeled to the floor to be at Moogie's height. She held his head with both hands and rubbed behind his ears, all the while staring into his black eyes. Moogie sat perfectly still; and when Margaret let go of him, he sat obediently at her feet and laid his head on his paws.
The conversation seemed to have saddened them both. Margaret stood up, her face drawn shut. "Your dog truly has your best interests in mind. Pay attention to your dreams and listen to him." She nodded to Moogie.
"I will. Thank you, Margaret."
Margaret nodded curtly. "I found your dark chocolate." A small smile curved her lips as she stepped out the door. "It was behind the baking flour."
