The River Runs Dry
Read The River Runs Dry Online
Authors: L. A. Shorter
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Thrillers, #Romance, #Suspense, #romantic mystery, #romantic thriller, #Romantic Suspense, #Mystery & Suspense, #Crime, #Thriller
The River Runs Dry: A Novel of the Butcher of Burgess
L. A. Shorter
©2014 L. A. Shorter
Table of Contents
Copyright Notice
THE RIVER RUNS DRY
A Novel of the Butcher of Burgess
This book is a work of fiction. Any names, places, events, and incidents that occur are entirely a result of the author's imagination and any resemblance to real people, events, and places is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2014 L.A.Shorter
All right reserved.
First edition: March 2014
No part of this book may be scanned, reproduced, or distributed in any printed or electronic form.
Other Books by the Author:
Logan Brothers Books Series:
Twin Passions (Gemma, Zack, and Cade)
Other Works by the Author:
Only For You (Book 1)
(Free)
To look at all of the books in more details, check out the
authors page here.
Prologue
A hand reached in and pulled a body from the trunk.
It squirmed under the moonlight, its hands bound behind its back and ankles tied fast together, but the man's hands were strong, his grip tight.
He lifted the girl out, tape wound tight around her head and mouth to stop her screaming or calling out.
Out here, they'd be no point anyway.
The man lifted her violently and dropped her to the earth with a thud. The air burst from the girl's lungs, causing her to gasp through her taped mouth. He closed the trunk and turned, gripping the leg of the girl and dragging her through the dirt.
The night was bright, the moon shining down on them as the girl twisted and turned, her body taken further and further from the car. Her eyes were full of fear, deep wells of terror as she continually screamed beneath her muzzled mouth, her cries diluted and turned to nothing but a muffle.
But there was nothing she could do.
The man kept walking forward, his hand gripped around the girl's ankles. He was tall and wiry, but strong, his eyes shrouded by long, dark hair that fell down over his forehead.
The sound of water could be heard ahead, a small river running through the dusty plains. The girl continued to struggle, pulling her legs quickly from the man's grip. He barely reacted, reaching slowly down and clasping her once more as she desperately tried to wiggle away through the mud.
He carried on, pulling her once more towards the sound of the rushing water as it meandered through the barren wasteland. The landscape was flat, the night air cold, but the girl's blood was rushing warm, her heartbeat pounding incessantly in her chest as she struggled to stay conscious.
In the end, it would be better for her to pass out now.
A few old roots and rocks jutted against her as she was pulled on, stabbing at her gut and bound limbs. She grunted between her muffled screams, her eyes now streaming with warm tears.
Suddenly, the man stopped and dropped the girl's legs to the ground. They fell with a thud as he turned on her and casually pulled a knife from the back of his pants.
The girl's eyes grew wider as she frantically twisted her body, pushing with her legs to try to move backwards away from him. He came forward and leaned down into her, straddling over her chest and pulling at her dark brown hair.
She felt her scalp burn as he tugged hard, bringing the knife down and sawing at her long locks, tossing the clumps and strands to the wind. He kept cutting and slashing at her hair until she was left shorn, long strands mingled in with balded patches where he'd cut too deep.
The girl continued to writhe and twist beneath him, but his weight was too heavy on her. All she could do was turn her head and arch her neck to avoid contact with his eyes; his dark, cold eyes.
He gripped her neck and twisted her jaw, bringing her face back up to meet his.
“Look at me,” he growled, his voice breaking and coarse.
She kept her eyes shut tight, tears squeezed out of their corners.
“I said, look at me,” he roared again, his grip tightening around her neck.
She opened her eyes a crack, then wider as she cried beneath her gag. His eyes grew in hatred as he stared into them, blue and beautiful.
His teeth were clenched, his breathing heavy as he once more lifted the knife. She squirmed again and tried to turn away but he held her firm with his grip tight around her jaw.
Then, slowly, callously, he brought the point of the knife down and plunged it deep into her eye, cutting around the socket. Blood poured as she screamed and convulsed in pain, before eventually, silently, going still.
Chapter 1
Detective Jack Slade sat behind the desk in his office in the dusty town of Burgess in eastern California. A fan blew incessantly at him from a small perch in the corner of the room, moving left and right with an endless whirr.
It was hot, the hottest summer in years, and stress levels were at an all time high. Over the past week alone the department had arrested over 16 different men and a couple of women for fighting and public disorders, a record for the town. The heat, it seemed, was making hot heads of everyone.
For Jack, it hadn't always been like this. He'd spent his academy years training on the coast in LA and enjoying the ocean and cool breeze that came with it. The life he'd lived there had been different, walking the beat on the mean streets where gangs and guns were just about everywhere you looked.
But the life of a regular cop wasn't enough for Jack. No, his ambitions lay in becoming a detective, in working homicide cases and catching the real bad guys. When he passed the test he was delighted, ready to step into the homicide office in the city and start cracking cases.
It wasn't as simple as that.
No, Jack wasn't given his choice of what precinct to work at or what division to go into. He was put where the work was, and an opening had just come up in the sleepy town of Burgess in the middle of fucking nowhere.
His chief had told him to “cut his teeth in the desert,” as he'd done himself. For Jack, it was more of a case of being kicked in the teeth, rather than cutting his teeth. Burgess was quiet, remote, and fucking boring. It was a world away from the bright lights and blaring sirens of LA, just about as different a place as you could imagine.
But soon, all that would be about to change.
…
A woman walked through the dirt out in the open plains, her husband walking alongside her. They'd left their car a couple of miles back and were exploring the western edge of Death Valley National Park, slightly off-road and off the tourist map, but that's the way they liked it.
“Don't get too far ahead,” the woman called to her two young children as they ran and played in the sand and bare rock.
There were snakes and scorpions and other poisonous animals out there to be worried about in this death landscape. A bite to an adult could be painful, and potentially dangerous, but to a child, it could be life-threatening.
“Brandon, Sam, come back here and stay closer, like we talked about,” she shouted again, but the kids were full of wonder at this strange new world they found themselves in.
The woman looked to her husband, who gave a consoling look. “They'll be fine, they're sensible kids. Let them play.”
They continued walking, taking in the beauty and starkness of the landscape around them. Red rock and sand dominated their view, with the odd shrub and crack littering the ground at their feet. In the distance were rocky outcrops where they were told you could get some beautiful, unspoilt views of the surrounding area. It was where they were headed.
The earth was parched, more so than it had been in years, according to the local people who lived nearby. They told them it hadn't rained in months, leading to the longest drought in recent history. Streams and rivers were running dry, shrubs usually able to withstand long periods without water were dying, and desert animals were seen curled up, dead, all over the countryside.
“It's dead out there,” they told the family, “nothing lives any more.”
The words gave the mother some solace that snakes and scorpions would be few and far between, but still she worried. That was her job after all.
“Kids, slow down a little, let us catch up,” she called forward again, and this time the children obeyed.
They stood, their heads bowed, staring down over the edge of what looked to be a dried up river. One held a long stick, and was prodding down at something.
“Don't poke at it,” one of the kids was saying.
“Ew, it's gross, look,” said the other as he continued to prod and poke.
The mother and father quickened their pace, moving up to and coming alongside their children.
When she got there, the mother let out a scream and quickly turned her head as her husband grabbed at his children and pulled them back from the edge.
Down below, stuck in the mud of the dried river, was a body. It was half decomposed, the rotting flesh picked at by animals and birds scavenging for food. Bone struck out from torn and blackened flesh, the hair on the half visible skull savagely cut.
The family turned away as the mother continued to hold her fascinated kids back from the sight, the father pulling out his phone.
“No signal,” he said, looking at his wife. “We have to go back to the car. Right now.”
…
Jack Slade stood in the searing heat looking down at the corpse lying at the bottom of the riverbed. He wore light black pants and a white shirt, his tie loosely fastened around his neck.
“Female, can't tell much more than that right now Jack,” said Carla, an officer in Jack's department. “Been out here for a couple of months I'd say, river's dried up and the birds have started to get to her.”
Jack nodded, keeping his eyes on the body.
A dead girl and all I can think of is 'good, finally some action'.
He shook his head slightly before turning to Carla. “Any cause of death?”
Carla shook her head. “Like I say, hard to tell out here. We'll get her back to the coroner for an autopsy.”
“Right, get to it,” Jack said, wiping his brow with a cloth.
He turned and walked over to the family who had discovered the body. The kids sat in the car being pummeled by the aircon as the parents stood next to a cop who was taking their details. They looked in a slight state of shock as Jack approached.
“Mr and Mrs....”
“Paige.”
“Right. I've just got a couple of questions for you.”
The woman spoke quickly, sounding exasperated. “We've already told you everything. We found the body right here, that's it. What else do you need from us?”
“Are you local to the area?” Jack asked passively.
“No, we're from New York. We're here on vacation.”
Jack nodded, noting things down in a pad of paper. “So what brought you out here? Funny place to find tourists; you're a little off the trail Mrs Paige.”
“Yes, well, we were told that Lancer's Point offers a great lookout spot for the region.”
“And who told you that?”
“Some men in town, at the hotel we're staying at.”
“And which hotel is that?”
“The Ridge. Now, there's really nothing else for us to say and, to be honest, we'd rather get out of here and forget about all of this.”
