Dead Children's Playground by M. L. Bullock

Author:M. L. Bullock [Bullock, M. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine–Midas

The morning light filtered through the windows of the hotel lobby, casting long shadows across the table where we had gathered. The air was thick with the smell of stale coffee and the lingering tension from the night before.

I could see the exhaustion etched into the faces of my team, but there was something else there too—a steely determination, a resolve to see this through to the end.

We’d all had our fair share of sleepless nights, but this one felt different.

I felt different. I felt tired, burned out actually, but I would not allow myself to consider taking a break. Not when so many people were reaching out for help.

Honestly, the weight of what we were dealing with this case was heavier, more personal. It wasn’t just another case; it was a battle against something that had been festering in the shadows for over a century.

Sierra sat at the head of the table, her laptop open in front of her, the glow from the screen casting an eerie light across her face. She was focused, her eyes scanning the documents she’d pulled up, piecing together the final fragments of the puzzle. Her soggy bowl of cereal sat beside her untouched.

“You’ll never guess,” she said, her voice breaking the silence that had settled over the team. “I mean, even I can’t believe it but it is true. The Harris home is Heinrich Thornton’s old home. I found the deeds online. He was living in that house. That’s where Cherry Adams was found too.”

The room seemed to grow colder as her words sank in. People around us glanced at us and we immediately lowered our voices.

“Now we’ve got Sabra,” I whispered as I drank the dregs of my stale coffee. Why was I drinking coffee again?

I glanced around at the others—Macie, Jericho, Cassidy, and Joshua—and saw the same mix of fear and determination mirrored in their eyes. “That is incredibly bad. Good catch, Little Sister. What you’re saying is that Heinrich whatever his name is—”

“Heinrich Thornton,” she corrected me.

We all knew what this meant. Thornton wasn’t just some random ghost terrorizing the town; he was a malevolent force rooted in a place that had witnessed unspeakable horrors.

“What else did you find?” I asked, my voice low, almost hesitant, as if saying the words out loud would make it all too real.

“Like it was mentioned before, Thornton was a toymaker. He owned a shop not far from his house. He got accused of some nasty crimes involving children back in 1892. Some children went missing, others were found dead. Heinrich denied the accusations, but he was arrested and one night, a mob, a lynch mob managed to get their hands on him. They tortured him—good Lord—but he wouldn’t confess. He wouldn’t tell them where the bodies of the missing children were, so they hung him. Hung him from a tree in the cemetery.”

A chill ran down my spine as I stared at the screen, the realization hitting me like a punch to the gut.

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.