Shallow Graves by Elise Noble

Author:Elise Noble [Noble, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910954782
Publisher: Undercover Publishing Limited
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

I STUMBLED BACKWARDS away from the hole and tripped over a tree root. My arms windmilled as I tried to stay upright, but I couldn’t stop myself from falling. Bear leapt after me and began licking my face.

“Urgh! Get off!” I shoved at him because I knew where that tongue had been.

Zander ambled over, laughing. “Easy, Dee. It’s just mud.”

“It’s not! It’s not just mud! Look in the hole.”

“What are you on about?”

“Look in the damned hole!”

I closed my eyes and fought back vomit as the horrible image of what I’d just seen filled my mind. Matted brown hair. Greyish-cream bone. And worst of all—a sightless eye socket staring up at me.

“Fuck me! Vince, get over here.”

Heavy footsteps clomped past then stopped. “Fuck me.”

“It’s human, isn’t it?” I asked.

“We need to call the police,” Vince muttered, bending to take a closer look.

“Isn’t it?” I shrieked.

An arm wrapped around my shoulders, and I recognised the smell of Zander’s aftershave.

“Open your eyes, Dee.”

“I don’t want to. Not again.”

“Vince, I’m taking her back to the cottage. I’ll call out the cavalry, but do me a favour and catch the damn dog.”

Zander cradled me against his chest as he walked along the path, his steps soft on the humus in the woods then louder as he crunched over the gravel. He held me on my feet as he fumbled with the door lock and alarm, and I felt as if my knees were going to give way.

“Easy, Dee. I’ve got you.”

He pulled my boots off, helped me over to the sofa, and pulled me into his lap, wrapping one arm around me as he held his phone to his ear with the other.

“Janelle? I need to speak to Nye… Then get him out of the meeting. It’s urgent.”

Zander crushed me tighter as he waited, and I burrowed into his chest, desperate to get away from the horror lurking in the woods. If only I hadn’t looked into that bloody hole. Now I’d never unsee that…that… I didn’t even know if it was a man or a woman.

“Nye, it’s Zander. There’s a body in the woods. We just found it…. No, it’s been buried a while, I reckon… No, I’m in the cottage with Dove. She saw it first… Can you call them?… Okay, see you soon.”

Zander tossed the phone onto the coffee table and put his other arm around me too. A tremor started in my belly, and soon I was shivering from head to toe. I could still smell it. The body. The rich soil was tinged with a rotten undertone—the stench of death—and it crept down my throat and made me gag.

“Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

I shook my head, willing myself not to throw up. Not in front of Zander, anyway, especially when he was so damned calm.

“Can you open your eyes yet?”

“Do I have to?”

“Eating lunch might be tricky otherwise.”

Lunch? The mere thought of food turned my stomach, and I scrambled off his lap and ran for the stairs.

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.