Death Secrets: An Anna Hale, PI Thriller by January Bain

Author:January Bain [Bain, January]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rough Edges Press
Published: 2024-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

“I dare you! Jump in or be forever known as a dirty coward,” Jason Stubbs, a.k.a. Dirty Boy, said with a practiced leer. He pointed at the prospect, Mikey Duffy. Jason grinned, enjoying himself immensely. Any dweeb thinking of joining their crew needed to step it up, even if he was the mayor’s son. He liked the challenge he’d chosen for the guy, daring the skinny bastard to jump into the open grave. It was already prepared to receive a body in the morning. The graveyard was no stranger to them, him, Moose and Cutter all being aficionados of isolated locations to enjoy their homebrew and fat doobies.

“If you want to hang with us, gotta prove you got balls, Mikey.”

“I’d rather take a pot shot at someone,” Mikey whined, his face paler than a ghost in the light from the flashlight Jason held pointed at the gravesite. “You can have all my money.” Mikey held out a few bills and a fistful of coins. What a pathetic piece of shit.

“I’ll take that. But you still got to do it if you want to hang with us.” Ever since they’d binge-watched the Netflix series about zombies, Jason had known this moment was coming. Mikey had made the mistake of shuddering during certain scenes, giving away his aversion. Jason was good at reading people, judging their weaknesses, waiting for the right moment to unleash horror on them. He lived for it. Loved the sense of control he got from watching others squirm.

Mikey backed up a few steps, knocking into Cutter, who shoved at him. The action knocked the prospect off balance and he stumbled a couple of steps, teetering on the edge of the graveside.

A slight push from Jason and the petrified idiot fell face first, landing hard on his yellow belly seven or eight feet below.

“And don’t come out until we say. You got that, Mikey?”

The stupid idiot starting screaming just then, his arms pinwheeling like he was trying to swim out of the grave or create a snow angel.

“Shut up! Or we’ll shut you up,” Jason threatened.

“He’s going to draw heat. We need to leave. Now!” Cutter said, his voice tight with anger. “I don’t want to spend the night in juvie.”

“Get me out! There’s somebody else down here! I beg you, please! Don’t leave me!”

“What are you talking about, Mikey? There’s no one else down there.” Jason peered over the edge, wanting to slug the guy for being such a pill. The flashlight picked up the white gleam of a slender limb and part of a feminine face. He nearly dropped the flashlight in shock.

“Holy crap! Look at that. Mikey’s right. What’s a body doing buried in the dirt?” Cutter said.

“We need to go,” Moose said, crossing himself. “This is wrong. Something’s going on and I don’t want any part of it.”

“You suddenly religious?” Jason scoffed, trying to slow down his jacked-up heart rate and pretend he was fine with what was going on. He studied the corpse. Damn, it was a woman, judging by the boobs pushing out the dingy white dress.

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