The Outsiders: Book Two by Brandon Faircloth

Author:Brandon Faircloth [Faircloth, Brandon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-10-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Barber was done with her potatoes, and while Janie was winding down on her fake questionnaire, the older woman seemed more than willing to keep talking about her shelter. She said she’d love to show us the back of the house where she kept the animals. Janie glanced at me and I nodded.

“We’d love to see that Mrs. Barber. If you don’t mind, Janie here will take some photos of the exterior of your property while you give me the grand tour.”

The woman glanced uncertainly between us before nodding slightly. “Very well. Come on back.”

She led me through a comfortably cluttered living room to a hallway that branched off to the left and the right. Turning to the right, she led me back toward the sounds of dogs barking. She glanced back at me as we went.

“I try not to get too attached to them, you know? It’s hard when they’re all so cute and helpless, but it’s better if I try to adopt them out when I can.” She chuckled. “I can’t help nearly as much if I become the crazy dog or cat lady that can’t afford to feed them all.”

I nodded, the flame in my belly flaring as we moved deeper into the house. This was supposed to be purely a recon mission—just investigate her and see if she warranted a closer look. But even though I didn’t have Grandpa’s sense of when an Outsider was near, I still had my intuition. Something was up with her, I just wasn’t sure…

“Here are the babies.”

Barber opened the door and I felt my stomach clench in anticipation of whatever she was about to show me. An animal torture chamber? An empty room with a dog barking played on a loop? But no. It was a large, clean room filled with dog toys and five dogs, including two small puppies that came running up to the pet gate yapping when they saw us at the door.

I started laughing in spite of myself. “They…they all look like they’re doing pretty good.” And it was the truth. Two of the dogs, who looked to be half-grown mixed breeds, were playing a fierce game of tug-of-war with a rope toy while a white-faced golden retriever slept on a large pet bed in one corner. She saw me looking at the older dog and pointed at him.

“That’s Sammy. He’s my baby. Had him twenty years this July. He’s not much for playing, but he likes to hangout with the kids during the day.” Her face lit up as she looked at him. “He’s still got a lot of life left in him.”

I felt my stomach clench. This woman is supposed to have murdered twenty people? She’s supposed to be a monster? Grandpa had verified the initial tip we’d received, and had even gotten close enough to her at a pet store to confirm what she was, but still…I knew it was stupid and reckless, but I wanted this resolved now. Maybe if

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.