Shadows of Death by David Sundstrand

Author:David Sundstrand
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312537586
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

23

•

The Sierra loomed up out of the valley close enough to touch, made huge by the lingering moisture in the air. Frank leaned forward, squinting into the late morning light at a truck pulled off on the opposite side of the road. An eddy of vultures wheeled overhead. He brought the BLM Expedition to a slow stop, so he could approach on foot. The desert lay in front of him washed and clean from the rains. The morning air was crisp and tangy with wet creosote bush. Frank wanted to keep going.

“Why are we stopping?” Eddie wanted to know. He leaned forward to get a better look.

He glanced over at his seemingly indestructible companion; Eddie’s obsidian eyes glinted out over high, dark brown cheeks. Wovoka ready to lead the Ghost Dance, Frank thought.

“Hey, what happened to your bell?” Frank said.

Eddie reached a hand into very grubby jeans. “Took it off when I was down in the hole. Didn’t want to lose it.” He extended a small brown hand, thick with dirt, and wiggled the bell back and forth, the sound bright and clear in the desert stillness.

Frank had met Dave Meecham, Jesse Sierra, and Greg Wilson at the Hazlitt talc mine. They had backed a tow truck up to the edge and lowered a cable and sling down to bring up Eddie Laguna. When Eddie told them about leaving Cece behind, Frank shifted his priorities from locating the dead man’s body to rescuing Cece Flowers. Eddie had insisted on going along because, as he explained, he knew where she was. Now they were headed back with a chastened Eddie in the backseat and a peeved and grumpy Cece riding up front alongside Frank.

Frank pulled himself reluctantly from the SUV, not wanting to find what he suspected would be decaying in the truck. “Stay there, okay?” he said, not looking back at Eddie, who was already climbing out. Frank’s steps made a soft crunching in the crushed rock surface of the road as he approached the pickup. He leaned forward, peering into the truck’s cab, and was relieved to find it empty. Frank looked up at the wheeling vultures. Now there were more of them, a silent vortex, pointing to something dead or dying in the desert west of the truck.

“They found something,” Eddie said, shading his eyes with his hand.

Frank nodded. “I better take a look.” He turned to Eddie. “You didn’t see anyone along this part of the road, did you?”

“Nope.” Eddie scrunched up his face. “Say, did anyone check on Prowler?” Prowler was Eddie’s black and white cat.

“We’ll get you back as soon as we can.” Frank looked out over the desert and headed through the rabbitbrush in the direction of the birds, followed by Eddie, hurrying along to catch up.

The dead man lay slumped to one side, as if he’d been sitting on the ground and then fallen over, which was what had happened after Parker shot him the second time. However, that wasn’t immediately apparent because the vultures had been at his face, so most of the damage to his eye inflicted by the .

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.