King, King, Goose? by Mandy M. Roth

Author:Mandy M. Roth [Roth, Mandy M.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: The Raven Books
Published: 2012-05-30T04:00:00+00:00

Misfit in Middle America

Chapter One Extended Excerpt

North Maple Ridge—a tiny town, tucked safely away in the middle of nowhere America. Bad things didn’t happen here. I’d know. I’d been the chief of police for ten years. I’d brought my son here with the knowledge hateful, ugly crimes didn’t reach this far into oblivion. The carnage around me provided how very wrong I’d been. This was worse than anything I’d seen being a big city detective.

I’d known Jonathon Williams since I’d come to town. Never did I dream that accepting the job of chief of police in a tiny, rural Midwest community would amount to this. If Jonathon’s brother, Robert, hadn’t been a witness to the crime, I’m not sure I’d have believed the body was Jonathon’s. It was mutilated, torn to shreds. We’d need to wait for official word from testing, but I knew in my gut the remains were human and they belonged to Jonathon.

The boy had grown into a man before my eyes. It seemed like only yesterday he was coming over to build a fort with my son, Justin. I could still hear the two of them smacking sticks together, pretending to be defending the universe from evil invaders. Now only silence filled the air. I’d have given anything to hear the echoes of past play, of excited children, innocent of all evil.

Jonathon, two weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday, was now dead. His life senselessly cut short, and it was my job to figure out who or what did it and why.

“It’s days like this that I hate my fucking job,” I whispered as I walked back to my SUV. Jonathon wasn’t the first victim. At the rate things were going, he wouldn’t be the last, and I was no closer to an answer than I had been weeks ago when the first killing occurred.

“Chief, do you need to see anything else, or can we bag ’em up?” asked Officer Braun. His light brown hair was cut close, as was often the case with new officers. Many thought it gave them a certain look, an extra edge of authority. Others just wanted to be sure that their hair was regulation so they went overboard. Braun struck me as the latter. He was a pleaser—the type of guy who always wanted to make someone else happy but always fearful of taking the lead.

He was new to police work. He’d only been in it a year now. The pay here was decent but he could have done much better in the city. His father had been an officer with our department and that meant something. These people tended to keep things local. Bringing me in as chief had been a big deal. For nearly a year it was all anyone seemed to talk about. Thankfully, those days had passed. Now, the only topic on anyone’s mind was the murders.

Braun looked a little green. I couldn’t say I blamed him. The prospect of bagging up a body that’s in pieces will make the best of men fall to their knees.

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