Mortal Shells by V K Pasanen

Author:V K Pasanen [Pasanen, V K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-12T22:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

7:08 am, Friday, October 5

Northside Lodge, Packer City, Colorado

D oug tossed and turned most of the night after staying up late watching and re-watching Joshua Stone’s interrogation. He had dealt with many mentally deranged suspects over the years, but there was something different and unsettling about the former Army Ranger Colonel gone insane. Up until joining the Black Berets in late July, the decorated soldier had no history of mental instability. Maybe something was missed. He knew war could change a man, and there was no way of knowing everything he had experienced. If he was crazy, what made him choose a distant cousin of Adolf Hitler as his alternate personality? Based on his experience and Joshua’s mannerisms, he suspected he would’ve flatlined a polygraph when asked questions about his imaginary murdered Jewish wife, his job as a gas chamber attendant at Birkenau, and his time working for Dr. Josef Mengele. The same would’ve been true concerning Joshua’s visions of the Grim Reaper after his first suicide, and of hell and of striking a deal with a devil he called the Curator. Though it was far outside his jurisdiction, he felt that understanding the Colonel was an important key to understanding the people who took Mary and Leonard. He planned to dig deeper and find Joshua’s dark side if one existed. Based on his record, he had been, both figuratively and literally, a Boy Scout.

No, he thought, something else has to be going on. But demon possession? Doug shook his head and scoffed to himself. I can’t believe that. But if not, what happened to you, Joshua Stone? Like many thoughts he had since yesterday, he would’ve once dismissed such a notion. That was before he watched Colonel Stone tell his story of the possession of ex-Navy SEAL Martin Rice by Dr. Morgan Bell, the Cannibal Surgeon of Packer City, and how the long-dead psychopath used Martin’s hands to kill the Fitzgeralds. Yet, the copycat killing of the Fitzgeralds was perpetrated by someone who had a record almost as impeccable as Colonel Stone’s. In fact, all the dead Black Berets identified so far had similarly spotless records before they contracted with Helix Eternal Laboratories. None of this made sense unless Doug considered irrational and supernatural explanations.

He finally quit waiting on the sandman’s arrival, got up, and quietly dressed without waking Bob. He threw on a coat and stepped outside the motel room. He looked out over the small town, an island among forgotten settlements that died when the gold and silver dried up. The fact that this town survived was a testament to those who stayed and kept the town alive against all odds during the lean years. While it never returned to its former glory days, it still had a rich history Doug planned to delve into when he had the time. He looked west and east at the lower snowcapped mountains, which in reality were taller than Mount St. Helens in Washington State once was. He looked south

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