A Stirring of the Dust by Susan Sizemore

Author:Susan Sizemore [Sizemore, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-04-21T18:04:12+00:00

1O

"Where's the blood?"

Natalie sighed, but didn't immediately respond to the question from the policeman who hovered too close to where she knelt.

"Well?" the man demanded nervously.

The corpse had been found in the children's playground at a park. A bank of portable lights had been set up to illuminate the area. One end of the crime scene tape was fastened to a swing set; the other, to the ladder of a slide. The ground was damp from a recent shower.

"The blood has soaked into the sand beneath the body," she answered the man's question.

"There weren't any footprints when we got here. Why no footprints in a soil area like this?" the officer went on. He sounded as if he was blaming her.

"Not my department, officer," Natalie answered. "Could you move back before I trip over your feet?" The man moved away while she made herself stay where she was a few seconds longer. Her impulse was to stand, dust her hands together, and walk away. There was nothing to be

learned from studying the corpse before her, but she forced herself to go through the motions. Not just for Nick's sake, she told herself, as she glanced up to see Detective Knight talking to a couple of teenage males on the other side of the yellow police tape.

In an effort to keep from staring at Nick, Natalie found herself looking into the dead eyes of the head that lay near the corpse's left hand. He had been young and blond; the glassy eyes were blue. They had been full of life not long ago. She imagined she could still detect the remnants of fear in those eyes. She wanted to tell the dead man that he was lucky. That she'd looked into the eyes of many bodies, but had had no fear of death until one of those bodies looked back at her. Better to be a headless corpse than a walking one, she thought. Not that this victim of the diseased vampire was aware that he'd been dealt the better alternative.

"This has got to stop," she murmured. She stood, and rubbed sweaty palms on her suit jacket before balling her hands into fists. Nick was the detective in charge. She had no excuse not to go up to him. She still felt furtive as she approached him.

He turned the questioning of the young men over to Tracy as Natalie came up beside him. "How long?" he asked, brisk and professional.

She decided that he was a much better actor than she was. Of course, he'd had a few hundred years more practice. "Less than an hour," she replied. Then, in a whisper, added, "I hate to nag, but—"

"It has to stop." He nodded. "I know. This is the second one tonight," he added. "We just got the call. The other one is an elderly female, found on the other side of town. He didn't use the sword on that one. Word is that

a crowd gathered at the scene, and a small riot is currently in progress.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.