Primal Obsession by Vaughan Susan

Author:Vaughan, Susan [Vaughan, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Gullwood Press
Published: 2014-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

***

Northern Maine woods

His chest tight, Sam related what he’d found here. No play by play or color commentary, his halting words hit only the essential facts. Finding the body. The smashed radio and guns. The destruction. He left out the blood.

“What the hell.” Carl’s ruddy features darkened to an angry burgundy. “Dead? Murdered? I don’t believe it. There must be a mistake.”

Before Sam could stop him, the man pushed past and into the house.

Captain started after him, but Sam grabbed his collar. “No, boy. Stay.” Seeing his butchered master wouldn’t make the animal feel better.

“Don’t touch anything,” Annie shouted at Carl. She wrapped her arms around Sam’s waist. “The fool.”

He enfolded her, accepting the solace of her soft body against him.

A moment later, Carl popped back out, slamming the door behind him as if to shut in the horror of what he’d seen. He stumbled down the porch steps to hurl in the same bush where Sam had lost it.

No one said a word.

After they set up camp in the yard, Sam showed Nora and her son how to find wild onions for stew. Annie cut up carrots and potatoes. Carl started a fire in the brick barbecue.

“No fish dinner,” Sam announced as he set the stew pot on the building heat. He lifted the lid. “Tonight we have meat. Rabbit stew.”

Frank examined the pot’s contents. “Holy crap! Looks like body parts from a midget slasher movie.”

The kid didn’t realize how close his comment came to reality. But Sam chuckled. Good to have something to laugh about. “Some people say rabbit tastes like chicken. I raided the freezer earlier.” He tipped his head toward the house.

“Oh. I guess Mr. Wolfe wouldn’t care,” Frank said, subdued as he remembered. Fear and grief swirled in his eyes before he turned away.

The evening crept along on tortoise feet. No one seemed to know what to say. In spite of his earlier puppy energy, after supper, Frank collapsed like an exhausted old hound. After he disappeared into his tent, Carl excused himself. Nora kept the fire going and star-gazed with the sky chart.

When Sam could stand it no longer, he invited Annie to walk along the riverbank with him.

One eyebrow arched in question, but she agreed. “Sure, a walk will get the kinks out.”

When they’d strolled out of earshot, she placed a warm hand on his forearm. In the semidarkness of pale moonlight, her eyes looked black and intense. “Finding your friend’s body must have been awful for you. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Let’s sit over there.”

Annie’s mind reeled. Sam must feel as if he’d been punched in the gut. She let him lead her to a log beside the rippling water.

A splash came from their right, and somewhere a bullfrog croaked his displeasure at their intrusion. The cool night air was tinged with the scents of algae and blooming grasses. Black against the night sky, the sight of fir-tops on the far shore, like sharp spearheads, gave her goose bumps. The half moon hung beside a cloud.

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