Sticks and Bones: A Meredeth Connelly Mind Hunt Thriller (Meredeth Connelly Mind Hunt Thrillers Book 4) by E.H. Vick

Author:E.H. Vick [Vick, E.H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Meredeth Connelly Mind Hunt Thrillers
Publisher: Dark Triad Publishing
Published: 2022-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Liar

Ukiah, CA

Bobby and Meredeth left the hotel before seven the next morning, grabbing coffee from the hotel’s breakfast spread, and made their way around the Ukiah Municipal Airport with its single runway

Rosemary Lane was a short little residential street at the edge of mountains on the west side of Ukiah. A ton of cars were parked at the edge of the tree-shaded lane, but most of the homes were well-kept, though small and on small lots. The neighborhood may not have been dotted with high-dollar properties, but the people who lived there cared.

Most of them. But not the people who lived in the second house from the end; the mess that was 1408 Rosemary Lane. Bobby pulled up in front of the house and killed the Jeep’s engine, then leaned forward to take a look at the age-yellowed white paint and the peeling black trim. “Well, ain’t that pretty.”

“Not really, no.”

“Check out the front door.”

“I saw. Let’s go see if anyone’s awake.”

“What’s all the crap on the door?”

“We’ll see when we get up there.”

They got out and were immediately assaulted by the stench of ammonia and decay and mold. The scent overpowered Meredeth’s olfactory nerve, seeming to burn all the way down to her lungs, and her stomach roiled with the urge to evacuate her coffee into the overgrown grass and weeds next to the front walk.

“I can’t wait to smell the inside,” said Bobby.

“Yeah,” Meredeth all but gasped. “Whew. I wish I had some VapoRub.”

“You always say that.”

“Yeah, and I mean it every time. I have four jars. Want to know where?”

“Back at the hotel?”

“Worse. Back in Virginia. I always remember to buy some when I get home after a trip, and I always lay it out so I’ll remember to pack it.”

“Yet you never do.”

“Yet I never do. It’s some kind of mental block.”

“You look a little green. Headache?”

“Not until I smelled this place.”

“Hop back in. There’s a Walmart back by the hotel.”

“They won’t be open yet.”

“Then we’ll find that CVS I saw last night on the way to the hotel. Or maybe a RiteAid or something.”

“Nah. We’re due to talk to the Investigative Bureau at the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department at nine. Let’s just go ring the bell and muscle through the nausea.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She turned and climbed the three steps up from the street level to the front walk and then went on to the black front door. “Oh, this is cute.” The door was layered in thick black paint with a skull affixed to the top left corner, overrun with black plastic Halloween spiders. In the upper right hung a “BEWARE OF DOG” sign like those that could be purchased at any hardware store. Below the sign, someone had used white stick-on letters to spell out “ARE YOU THREATENING ME?” Meredeth scoffed. “Do you believe this guy?”

“What a nutcase.”

Above the peephole was an upended crucifix, and below it, someone had taped pirate flags to either side of a handmade sign stuck in the center that read “Evil will always triumph over good.

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