Harsens Island (19 page)

Sam took a moment before she responded.

“Yeah, okay. But I want to see Hunter first.”

The corners of Houle’s mouth dipped, his lips flattened, and his eyes fluxed as he assessed her intent. His face relaxed.

“I have no objection – she’s all yours.”

It was a humid night. The Mercedes was idling, windows up, air-conditioning on.

Sam walked up to the rear, black-tinted passenger window, and wrapped on it once with the tip of her Kalashnikov.

The window descended, exposing Lynn Hunter’s Irish-pale face. Her eyes were dull gray orbs. Any beauty in them had collapsed to pinpoints, cold, black zeroes.

Sam spoke factually, without emotion.

“Hannibal and his man…Snake…Moon…they’re all dead.”

Hunter said nothing.

Sam removed the pistol from the holster that hung on her left shoulder.

“Redsky said I had the aptitude to kill, but not the appetite.”

It was the style of gun James Earl carried:  a .38 Smith and Wesson.

“She was right.”

Sam opened the chamber and knocked out all but one of the bullets. The bullets clattered to the ground, heavy metal raindrops.

“I don’t.”

She snapped it shut, spun the chamber, and threw the gun into the car, over Hunter’s lap, to the opposite seat.

“But you do.”

Hunter remained silent. The window rose.

Sam returned to Rowland and Houle. She handed the Kalashnikov and empty holster to Rowland.

“All set?” Houle said.

“Almost. Can you spare us a minute?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be over here.”

Houle walked toward the road. He stopped just outside the arbor gate, set his briefcase down, and made a phone call.

It took Sam a moment to remember the conversation she and Rowland had earlier that day; it felt like the words had been said days earlier.

“Are you still optimistic?”

Rowland smiled.

“No reason not to be.”

Sam smiled.

“Okay.”

“You?” he said.

“No reason not to be,” she said.

She turned from him and walked toward Houle.

She passed Houle, not looking at him, saying nothing.

A muffled bang came from the Mercedes.

She did not look back.

Houle ended his call, picked up his briefcase, and followed her into the dark.

“Murder’s Sister”

(The Laragia Confession)

With chilling detail, Stephen Laragia accounts for the horrific murder of two men. The murders remain unsolved, and over time, he prospers, marrying the love of his life. But when a new detective comes to the village Stephen immediately falls under his suspicion. Then, in a twist of fate, his wife’s parents are murdered. Their deaths force him out of "retirement" to pursue the killer – and into an intricate plot of arson and perverse revenge. Ultimately, he’s targeted by a German sharpshooter, the detective, the village’s wealthiest man, and his best friend, the captain of the police department, each with a motive, each with an agenda Stephen needs to decipher. Die now. Die later. We all die.

“A Kiss Before I Die”

When Samantha Moretti’s godfather dies he wills her a thirty-million dollar estate. He also bequeaths a graphic, two-hundred page “explanation” of murder, perverse revenge, and arson that scorched the village of Foursquare, New York. In the same manuscript, he reveals her murdered parents were private contractors, hired guns, for family crime syndicates and the FBI. Not that the past matters to her now – the man who tried to kidnap her, the dead man in her driveway, and the lawyer with the gun have her full attention. She will not survive unless she fights….and Samantha knows how to fight. 

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John Calvin Macaulay, M. D.

1924 - 2013

Chi mi ha salvato la vita quando ero basso.

Namaste, Doc.

“Green Grass and High Tides Forever”

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