The Grave Singer (Shepard & Gray) by Victor Methos

Author:Victor Methos [Methos, Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2023-04-24T16:00:00+00:00

31

Solomon ate at the Vietnamese café but hardly had anything. A little soup and rice. His stomach was in knots, and he was worried he would vomit anything he got down. The waitress cleared some plates and left his bill.

Gesell texted him and asked if he wanted to meet, and he wasn’t sure what to say. Solomon wanted nothing more than to be with her, but he also knew every second he spent with Gesell was another second he put her in danger. Or maybe she was safer with him around? He didn’t know anymore and was angered that Alonso had his head spinning so much he couldn’t think clearly.

He left a massive tip because he knew the waitress was a new mother and then went outside. The snow fell lightly, and he lifted his face to the moon. When he was a child and his father was in one of his alcoholic rages, he would go outside and stare at the night sky. He would imagine distant planets and ponder the wondrous alien civilizations that he was convinced thrived on them. Now, as an adult, he pondered whether aliens had figured out a secret to lasting or if they followed the same path as human civilizations: founding, aggression against weaker neighbors, ascendency, decline, and eventual fall. He could never decide where in that cycle current civilization was.

He kept a stone knife in his apartment that was crafted somewhere between sixty thousand and eighty thousand years ago. Something he’d picked up at an antique store at a Native American reservation. He’d taken it to the Utah State Crime Lab for analysis by a buddy who worked there. The dating was reasonably accurate, but the craftsmanship didn’t match any known civilizations. After consulting a professor at the University of Utah, he concluded that the knife came from a yet-unknown tribe or culture, perhaps an entire people. A technologically advanced society that lived, loved, warred, discovered, struggled, and overcame, only to be taken down by time. And the only thing left of them was a stone knife on a bookshelf.

Solomon headed toward his building. Behind him, he heard the rumble of a car engine, and it sounded a little too close. He glanced back, expecting to see maybe a distracted teen or a mother yelling at her children in the back seat. Instead, he saw Alonso Hafeez in a Cadillac. Alonso had his cigar lit and his window open, letting out wafts of smoke. His eyes were glued to Solomon, and they held none of the fake delight that he had before. They held only venom. A predator looking at prey.

The car slowed and came to a stop in the lane. Someone behind the Cadillac started honking, but Alonso didn’t notice. Unsure where this would lead, Solomon decided to ignore him and go to his apartment.

Well, if you’re trying to creep me out, mission accomplished.

The apartment was cold, and he realized he’d left a window open. When he went to close it, he looked down at the street.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.