Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror by Aiden James Read Free Book Online Page B

want to go over the preliminaries on that tomorrow.”
    After Ned returned to his office, David locked his laptop. He glanced at his watch. 12:31 already … Shit! Grabbing his coat, he moved swiftly through the row of cubicles, intent on catching Norm before he could rub it in for being late. Instead of the elevator, he took the stairs down to the main floor of the historic building. The stately Victorian mansion located near the heart of downtown Denver had been completely renovated six years earlier, with ten offices on the main floor and another six upstairs.
    The upper landing overlooked a grand foyer and was graced by an immense stained glass window that dominated the back wall of the building, next to the elevator. An angel blowing a trumpet dominated the window’s foreground, which often made David wonder if the mansion had originally been a church turned into a home as an afterthought. On either side of the landing stood a double oak staircase of exquisite workmanship from the late nineteenth century.
    He ran past a marble fountain directly below the landing’s balcony. At the reception desk, Nancy Geddings, the firm’s chief admin, was busy reviewing invoices from a recently delivered supply shipment. He asked her if she’d seen Norm. She excused herself from her assistant and came over to where he stood. A beautiful woman of Haitian descent, who always dressed conservatively with her hair in a severe bun, she often gave the firm’s clientele the incorrect first impression of a stern, matronly woman.
    “ He was here a moment ago,” she advised, her warm voice sweetened by her strong island accent. “There he is.”
    Peering around a large potted fig tree obstructing her view of the building’s front section, she pointed to where Norm stood on the patio just outside the main entrance. David’s footsteps echoed across the parquet floor as he hurried over to him.
    “ I thought you might’ve forgotten,” said Norm, as soon as he joined him on the patio. He took one last drag from his cigarette and mashed the butt on top of the stone lion closest to him, flicking it out onto the front lawn. “How about Mario’s today?”
    “ I can go for Italian, I guess,” said David, who led the way to his car.
    Along the way to the restaurant, Norm brought David up to date on what he missed since last week, which consisted of several new clients the firm took on and the two corporate audits still in progress. He also included the latest ‘hot little thing’ that fell within range of his radar.
    A dedicated hedonist since college, Norm had just begun detailing his latest sexual conquest when they reached Mario’s parking lot. In most other ways like brothers, David hated the continual reports on his sex life.
    “ So, did you ever find the place Ned told you about?” asked Norm, lighthearted, once seated at a semi-private table in one corner of the restaurant and had ordered lunch and a couple of Heinekens.
    “ Actually, we did,” said David, which brought an immediate look of surprise from Norm. “I guess he’s not as full of bullshit as you’ve thought, huh?”
    “ I guess not,” he agreed, chuckling before taking a long drink from his beer. “I suppose you’re not going to tell me the finer points I’m just dying to hear about. Are you, now?” He smirked.
    “ I never have before,” David replied, his smile coy. He paused to take a quick sip from his beer. “Let’s just say ole Ned Badgett’s ‘Lover’s Lane’ in Cades Cove, hidden away in the Great Smoky Mountain wilderness, was the best damned place to reignite the spark we’ve been missing lately.”
    He took a bigger drink while Norm nodded his head as if even more envious. David knew better, that the matter would disappear from the landscape of Norm’s sullied mind before day’s end, replaced by some other lurid fantasy.
    “ Well…it’s too bad the place is so goddamned far away,” said Norm, his sly grin wide enough to reveal the