Where the Wicked Tread: A Mason Collins Crime Thriller 5 by John A. Connell

Author:John A. Connell [Connell, John A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nailhead Publishing
Published: 2021-02-10T00:00:00+00:00

I rubbed the tiredness from my eyes, then glanced at my watch: 4:40 a.m. We still weren’t out of the mountains, though the road had descended to around a hundred feet above the valley floor. The prospect of getting into the flatlands would have raised my spirits, but we were proceeding even slower than before because the wind and snow had picked up in intensity, taking the visibility down to yards. The only way I knew we were still with the convoy was the faint red taillights of the truck in front of me.

Erika remained awake despite the tedious journey, either to make sure I didn’t fall asleep or from fear of knowing the wolves were stalking us. Kurt slept through the bumps and jerks of the truck on the rough roads with his head on Erika’s lap. She stroked his hair and sang a German lullaby. Her voice, though just above a whisper, was soothing, which might have put me to sleep if it weren’t for the idea of crashing or getting lost.

“The sun will be up in about three hours,” I said. “We should press on even in daylight.”

“Won’t that be too much of a risk? I noticed the towns and signs are all in Italian. We must be out of South Tyrol.”

“Yeah, it’s a little risky. But at this rate, it could take us another three days to get to Naples.”

“If the Italian police or British Army become interested in us, the chances are we won’t get there at all.”

“At least we’re almost out of the mountains,” I said in hopes of calming her fears. “Things will be smoother after that.”

One minute the snow seemed to be slowing, then we ran right into a heavy curtain of it. The road disappeared. The headlights revealed nothing but snowflakes swirling in the wind. Visibility was now down to feet.

Red taillights came out of nowhere. I hit the brakes and almost ran into the back of Aaron’s truck. He had obviously slowed to a crawl because of the blizzard. I backed off on our speed, then Aaron’s truck seemed to be swallowed up by the snow again.

I rubbed my eyes again and strained to see the road ahead.

Someone pounded on the wall between the cab and the cargo space. At first, I thought it might be that someone had fallen against the wall, or maybe they had had enough of the rough bone-chilling ride and were taking it out on the truck.

The pounding erupted, more frantically this time.

“We have to stop,” Erika said.

I flashed my high beams at the truck ahead and honked the horn several times as I slowed and eased the truck off the road. With one more flash and honk, I shut off the engine. Kurt woke up and fired worried questions at his mother. I secured my overcoat and opened the door.

A blast of frigid air hit me as I climbed down. Henri was already on the ground when I came around.

“We have a man who’s suffering from a heart attack,” he said.

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