The Silver Scream by Ed Gorman

Author:Ed Gorman [Gorman, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The woods around the Carmichael cabin were damp and dark, the only illumination being the beam of Amy’s flashlight. Amy remembered these woods because this was where, her first year as a cop serving underneath her father, she saw her first-ever corpse, an old man who’d suffered a heart attack while looking for mushrooms. The medical examiner said that he’d lived a while before dying. Amy and another rookie had been searching the woods for a missing girl — later found at a friend’s house — and had inadvertently discovered the old man. A number of animals had had their way with the corpse, making it a sight Amy would never forget.

“I don’t know why they ever made him a member of The Committee,” Cindy was saying, still angry with Reverend Selden.

“Because at the time, he was new in town and they didn’t know what he was really like.” Amy could remember how Selden had become an almost instant celebrity. He was well-read, handsome, and eager for the spotlight. In addition to stirring sermons on Sunday, he could be counted on to introduce the symphony orchestra, greet VIPs when they came to town, and even to performing dramatic readings of Dylan Thomas at library events. To middle-aged women he was a matinee idol; and he knew enough about hunting and fishing to pass himself off as a regular guy.

“He must’ve looked awfully good on paper.”

“He did,” Amy said. “At least, that’s what my Dad told me. But he said that as soon as they found out that Selden was sampling all the ladies, they wanted to get rid of him.”

“How could they?”

“That was the problem,” Amy said. “They couldn’t. He knew everything they knew and so they couldn’t have him just floating around.”

“This is probably a wild-goose chase,” Cindy said. “He probably just imagined he saw somebody. He’s such a twit.”

“I wouldn’t disagree with you there,” Amy said.

They came to a clearing on a hill overlooking the cabin. They’d been out here maybe fifteen minutes now. The full moon was just starting to appear between ragged drifting rain clouds. It was a nice night to sit in front of a cozy fire.

They crossed a section of grassland that had two large glacial erratics — field stones left from the time eons ago when ice had covered all this land — bold and jagged rocks that looked like alien symbols.

Empty beer cans, crumpled cigarette packs and red Trojan wrappers were evidence of civilization even out here in the boonies. This was prime country for summer keggers. Amy’d had to break up any number of out-of-control underage beer parties out here during the warm months. One night, the damned thing had turned into a near-riot, with one of her officers getting decked by a football player. The cop got his jaw broken; a smart lawyer managed to get the punk off with probation.

“Wait,” Amy whispered, and held her arm out to stop Cindy behind her.

“What is it?” Cindy whispered back.

“Sssh.”

The wind

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.