The Raven Mocker: Evil Returns to Cades Cove (Cades Cove Series Book 2) by Aiden James

Author:Aiden James [James, Aiden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Manor House Books
Published: 2013-12-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-two

Lying in his cell at the Sevier County Jail, John Running Deer stared at the chipped tiles in the ceiling. All but two other cells on the main floor sat empty. His scheduled arraignment was set for Friday morning, and he remained hopeful it would be moved up to Thursday afternoon, tomorrow.

Someone would surely come to their senses. The charges of first degree murder were completely ludicrous. How in the hell could an old man like him subdue the much younger, athletic professor Walter Pollack, and then butcher and nearly decapitate the man after snapping every bone in the man’s back? Much less scale one of the wooden chalices to reach the second floor of the Pollack’s exclusive castle estate in Knoxville? That was in addition to brutally slaughtering a pair of armed Knoxville policemen a day earlier in the basement of a storage building located across from the McClung Museum on UT’s campus.

The only substantial link to him for either crime came from the desecrated remains removed from Cades Cove five weeks earlier. That, and the fact he’d lost his temper with Elaine Pollack, the professor’s now widowed wife over the phone. Even so, not a single shred of physical evidence connected him to the three deaths. It made him furious about the situation. Meanwhile, precious time had been lost in searching for Hanna. He only allowed himself to think about the unjust charges, not her likely fate. Better to deal with that later, away from here.

Without his old friend, Sheriff Butch Silva, present to vouch for his character and straighten this mess up, all he could do was wait. Helpless. Out of town for Christmas, the sheriff wasn’t due back until Friday. It was the very reason the arraignment had been pushed back until then, according to Deputy Jeremy Brown, Sheriff Silva’s trusted assistant. Brash, arrogant, and hardheaded, Deputy Brown’s worst trait was his open disdain for John’s race and heritage. Even if the man hadn’t said anything, the hurtful thoughts discerned through John’s sentient gifts revealed what the man truly felt toward the Cherokee race and the indigenous peoples who settled America.

Jeremy Brown went home earlier, leaving two other deputies and a dispatcher on duty. The last time anyone came through the jail to check on the occupants happened roughly an hour ago, around midnight. That deputy, a young brunette woman who briefly glanced into John’s cell, finished her walk-through and promptly exited the cellblock. The main overhead lights were turned off after her visit, since almost all of the incarcerated tenants were asleep.

John wasn’t sure if he could sleep at all, due to rampant thoughts and unanswered questions. He laid down on one of the cell’s cots and waited for sleep, or more likely the dawn’s light, to come.

While starting to drift off, he heard the door at the end of the hall open. Unlike the previous instances, when the jail attendant left the door open until their tour of the cells was finished, whoever shuffled into the hallway closed the door.

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