Page 2 of Shadow of Death
His face was skeletal. His eyes were open. No. He didn’t have eyes. He just had eye sockets. But they seemed to be...
Staring. Staring into her eyes.
She screamed. She forgot her pain as she tried to inch away. And as she did, she saw the dead man wasn’t alone. There were other bodies there and all of them...
Down to bone. Not all were completely decomposed, just...
Down to nothing butmostlybone. Flesh remained on some limbs. Decaying fabric clung to other forms. Some of them had eyes that were still partially there and remained open, just catching the glint of pale light that seeped into the deep hole.
The scent of death rose around her, so she used her hands to push back. As she did so, she touched something small and hard, dark and plastic. She barely registered she had touched something as she started to scream and scream as she cried out for Don.
There was no answer. Her cries grew hoarse. She managed to drag herself to her feet to seek a way out...
There was nothing but dirt; no holds, nothing. No way out of the deep hole in the earth into which she had fallen.
She looked at the thing in her hand and then she looked around at the starved and rotting corpses around her. There were no children, she thought thankfully, not that she could see. She was losing her mind; she could die here, too. She didn’t know what had happened to Don. He wasn’t answering her, so he must have also fallen...
Into a pile of dead.
No, no, no, no, he had to be okay. He had to be out there...going for help, she thought. And then she looked at the thing in her hand at last.
She held...
A horse. A tiny little black plastic horse.
Confused, breathing in death, she felt terror sweeping into her like something liquid and icy cold.
And she started to scream again.
1
The sun was just rising. Amy Larson emerged from the water, dripping, feeling the rays of brilliant heat fall on her. The day was beautiful, perfect and warm. It was wonderful. There were few places on earth she loved as much as she loved the Florida Keys and Key West. In all honesty, the best beaches could be found on the state’s west coast but to her, the Keys were a little bit of heaven. Key Largo was an escape from the massive metropolises of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. And moving southward, the smaller islands were a taste of a purer time. Marathon offered the incredible Dolphin Research Center, and on down to Key West one could look out for the tiny Key deer. Then at the tail end, Key West itself is the island of rich history, bizarre stories, music, and water sports.
It had been good to come here. Hunter had needed to be here after taking a bullet; even with a vest on, he’d needed a bit of convalescence. Yet, while trying to shake off the last two cases they’d worked along with the salt water, memories still plagued them of the murders in the Everglades that had begun the bizarre Four Horsemen case and those that had followed when she’d received the little red plastic horse in the mail.
Because it wasn’t over. Someone wanted to play God, and they were using the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Revelations to do it.
She smiled and slid down on a towel next to Hunter Forrest. He turned to her and ran a finger along her cheek. “This is the life,” he said softly. “I almost feel guilty. Days in the sun, diving this afternoon, nights with the sunset and the music. I could do this forever.”
“No, you couldn’t,” she said, amused. “You became an FBI agent because you were a child stuck in a horrible cult, and an FBI agent saved you and your parents. You need to be out there. You saw how your mom and dad got suckered into it. They saw people needed help, and those with a lot of money liked to keep it and weren’t always generous. Some people—some rich people—are great. But what your mom saw made her want a better way, and she thought she had found it. You saw evil could masquerade in many forms.” Her smile faded slightly. “You grew up and became an FBI agent because you’re determined to slay the evil that man does to his fellow man.”
“Sure. Right. Well, you know, second choice. Wrong era to be a knight in shining armor. And you’ve met my folks. They just wanted the best, and they were young and naive and looking for a better way. Anyway, we are what we are. But Clint Bullard is playing tonight. We’ll have some dinner, listen to him sing and play...maybe one of us will join him on a country music hit. We won’t stay too late, because we have a great room with those windows that open to the sunrise.”
“Sounds good, especially since we only have a few days left before vacation and leave time are up,” Amy said. She sat up pensively. It had been weeks since the showdown that had left Hunter injured, and his bones had healed. And while they worked for two separate agencies—he was FBI and she was Florida Department of Law Enforcement—she was now on loan to the FBI because of the Four Horsemen case. And although they’d taken down some of the players in the deadly enterprise afoot, they knew another shoe would drop.
Someone out there wanted the Apocalypse. Or they were in it for power or money or both and made use of the easily beguiled they could use in their quest. People who believed they would be the chosen when the world came to an end. And if murder was asked of someone, it was simply a means to an end.
“What are you thinking?” Hunter asked, studying her face.
She loved Hunter. Everything about him. Tall, dark, blue-eyed and fit not just because of his chosen vocation, but because he loved doing things. He loved the water, boats, and watching college and pro football games, along with basketball, baseball, and hockey. If he didn’t know about something, that was okay, he was eager to find out.
And he cared about people.
“I can’t help it. I mean, I have relaxed, I swear. But I was thinking of my old partner John Schultz and the first cases. I will miss him, but he will enjoy his retirement. I think back to the first case with the white horse, and finding the woman crucified in the Everglades. I think about putting away a bad guy, and then receiving the little red horse when we were vacationing before. And I think about the crazy lady we put away after that, and how she’s still convinced she’s a warrior and the lives she took don’t matter because she’ll be lifted up at the end. And I think—”
“Hold on,” Hunter said quietly. He had reached for his phone; she hadn’t heard it ring. He’d kept it on vibrate.
She watched his expression change as he listened. “All right. What time did you say? Thanks. Yep, we can do it.”
