Last Trace (Emma Last FBI Mystery Series Book 11) by Mary Stone

Author:Mary Stone [Stone, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mary Stone Publishing
Published: 2024-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

20

Instead of opening the door, Leo felt around the doorknob, searching for traps, and Harley got down on his hands and knees to add his eyes to the effort.

He stood up again, swatting away flies. “Smell’s stronger down there, but I don’t see any wires.”

Bugs, or maybe rodents, could be heard within the shack, now that Emma knew to block out the forest’s natural sounds and listen for them. Buzzing seemed to echo out from under the door along with the odor, demanding witnesses to whatever they’d been feeding on.

Steady, Emma girl. You’d rather have this than a man swinging a machete at you, right?

She bent to peer into the cracks of the door, blocking out the presence of the ghosts surrounding them. She didn’t see a thing, though.

The ghosts, on the other hand, were undeniably visible and demanding her attention.

Many of them were missing limbs, and all of them were bloody.

A man without his left arm and with a hole where his heart should’ve been stood peering over Mia’s shoulder. Off to his side, a woman whose leg looked to have been sawed off just below her pelvis stood with her arms crossed, blood dripping from slashed forearms and a hole in her jaw.

The worst, though, was a man whose intestines leaked out of his gut, bobbing against the ground as if trailing for fish or some rodent that might be interested in the ends. He swayed where he stood, blood dripping from his mouth and coating his long, gray beard.

Tattoos on his bare forearm showed a bald eagle with an American flag flying over the Vietnam flag, with the year 1968 printed in big block letters below. She guessed that meant he’d fought in Vietnam, but in the end, he’d arguably met just as bad an end here as he could’ve found there.

Emma didn’t recognize a single ghost or see the one that had warned her earlier, which didn’t particularly make her feel any better.

Gun raised in one hand and a flashlight in the other, she nodded at Leo, confirmed he was ready, and pointed her light at the door. The scent of rotting flesh hung in the air, and her gut turned at the thought of what they’d find. “On three?”

“Your count.”

She began counting up, and he pulled as she reached “three.”

The door yawned open, and the stench hit them like a tidal wave.

Sickeningly pungent, the sweetness of dead flesh and methane washed over them, removing any hint of pine the forest offered. Mia and Harley both stumbled back, hands to mouths, gagging. Emma clenched her lips shut alongside Leo, willing herself not to breathe even as he choked on the air beside her.

Three seconds, Emma girl. Three seconds to view what’s inside, and then you turn away and breathe.

Fighting the urge to vomit, she stole two steps forward and sent the beam of her flashlight into the shack. The forceful smells of sour blood and bodily gases long held inside were as dense as a brick wall and made her eyes water.

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.