Dumping Grounds (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 1) by Lila Beckham Read Free Book Online Page A

was greater than any cats could ever be; she just could not help herself; she had to look.
    She tried to follow them with her eyes and not turn her head. As they reached the bottom of the steps, she lost sight of them, causing her to raise her head to look. When she did, she looked right into the face of one of her captors. He was the one who had come toward her with the gun at the campsite!
    Suddenly, some of her memories returned, flashing through her mind like pictures in one of those slideshow thingamajigs.
    Emma saw him let go of the woman and start walking toward her. Too late, she tried to close her eyes and lay still.
    “Ain’t no use trying to hide now, Girly,” he whispered, leaning in over her.
    She could feel and smell his hot, liquored breath on her cheek. It caused her to gasp and cringe, and he laughed at her for being scared.
    Emma’s eyes popped open and she glared at him. Suddenly, something inside of her snapped, causing her to become furious. No longer able to control her anger, she screamed at him to get out of her freaking face before she bit his nose slap off his head.
    She meant it too, because she wanted to bite him. She wanted to bite him so hard it would take the smirk clean off his face. Emma never remembered being as angry in her life, as she was at that very moment.
    “Looks like we got us a live one,” the one leaning over her said. As she protested, he untied her, and then jerked her off the small metal table.
    “Don’t hurt her yet, Earl,” the other one said.
    “You need a bath, you smell like a whore,” Earl, spat the words at her. His touch disgusted Emma. She wriggled with all her might trying to loosen his grip as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
    The two of them began to drag her up the stairs and as they got several steps high, Emma looked toward the other girl whom they had strapped onto another table against the far wall. The terror in the girl’s brown eyes let Emma know that she was in for an awful experience.
    Emma fought harder but it was no use; she was not strong enough.
    At the top of the stairs, they adjusted their grip on her and turned down a hallway.
    When they drug her through the door into the bathroom, Emma caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the mirror. All of her breath left her body.
    Her once blondish, red hair, now cropped, was just above her shoulders, and dyed jet black. Her face and pale eyes looked like the image on an Egyptian sarcophagus’ picture she remembered seeing in history class.
    Emma was stunned into submission, compliant as he made her get into the bathtub. Once seated in the tub, she sat there in silence as one of them turned on the faucet and began running water for her a bath.
    Emma’s mind was bombarded with images of what they might have done to her and what they may have in store for her. She wondered why they had changed her appearance. Her hair was cut in the same style as the girl they had led down the stairs.
    Did they do all of this to fulfill some sick fantasy of theirs, or was it to keep her from being identified by anyone who might see her, or find her body after they murdered her. Emma’s thoughts were racing though her mind so fast that she felt her brain would explode!

7
The pusherman
    “ You know I smoked a lot of grass, oh Lord, I popped a lot of pills” sung Steppenwolf, and the sheriff was singing right along with him. Joshua sung louder, mashing the gas pedal harder after rounding the 90-degree curve on the Georgetown-Wilmer Road. He was thinking about the overturned eighteen-wheeler from the day before.
    The driver of the vehicle had jumped and run as soon as the truck stilled its overture and the homeless bums who stayed in and around the intersection, that consisted of a creek, a railroad crossing, and a trestle were looting when deputies arrived.
    There is no telling how much merchandise got stolen before they arrived either, he thought to himself. Well, at least they didn’t find the