Deadly Storm by Skye Knizley

Author:Skye Knizley [Knizley, Skye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vamptasy Publishing
Published: 2017-11-30T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Harm’s Woods, Niles, IL 5:00 p.m. Dec 23rd

Lieutenant Mauser hadn’t been happy about the FBI taking over one of his safe houses, but he’d given in with the minimum of fuss. Raven had escorted Davidson to the small house near Evanston herself and left him in the tender care of two of Chicago’s finest and a Section Thirteen agent named Justice that Raven had never met before.

Davidson had liked the set up, it was on the opposite side of town, a little two story house in the middle of a block. It was surrounded with life and people celebrating the holidays. That seemed to make him feel better, he was almost smiling when he closed the door behind him.

On the way, Davidson had coughed up the address where he’d found the house. It was an old mansion a few miles outside of Chicago at the edge of Harm’s Woods, a nature preserve off-limits to everyone not a member of the Harm Family Foundation, a wealthy group of investors who’d bought most of the area in the late 1800s.

The house sat at the end of an empty street, a white Victorian monstrosity with three floors, two towers and a wide porch surrounded by pillars. The lot was encircled by a sagging wrought iron fence and the windows were boarded shut to protect the glass from vandals and passerby.

Raven parked the Jaguar on the street and looked around. It was obvious the plows hadn’t made a pass in some time, the snow was almost up to the bottom of the SUV, and the street felt abandoned. Not just disused, it was worse than that. Living creatures left energy behind, a sort of mental aroma that lingered long after they’d left. It’s why people shopping for houses liked the ones that felt ‘lived in’ and realtors made a special effort to make long-empty houses feel welcoming with the scent of cookies or baking pie. Abandoned places felt empty, as cold and lifeless as the vacuum of space.

“Not exactly getting into the holiday spirit, are they?” Levac asked.

“If what Harley said is true, no one lives here,” Raven replied.

She loosened her pistol in its holster and started up the path. The gate left furrows in the snow as she pushed it aside, and the creaking noise was enough to wake the dead, yet there was no movement or signs of life from the house.

“I don’t like this,” Levac said behind her.

Raven glanced at him. “Me either. The closer I get, the deader it feels.”

The front porch, once sweeping and grand, now sagged and was broken through in places, a casualty of time and neglect. The wide porch swing hung from one chain and swayed back and forth in the wind, the planters were cracked and empty and the welcome mat was anything but. It may as well have said ‘go away.’

Out of habit she checked the knob and, to her surprise, found it unlocked. She twisted it and pushed the door open with her fingertips.

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