Mask of Flies by Eric Leitten Read Free Book Online Page B

have an auditor hot on our heels
here. We can’t just dump this all on Kaja. We need to show that we
are being proactive, immediately.
    “Tell me about it,
the auditor is coming back at noon and, I’m assuming, is completely
unaware of the situation?” Tony said.
    Jim nodded. “You
assume correctly. That crap Rick pulled yesterday didn’t exactly
get us off on the good foot with Thornbush. I think it’s best to
relay this to her with some tact. Rick is fired by the way. I don’t
want to hear any excuses—from you or him.”
    “I don’t think you
will be seeing him around here anymore,” Tony said. “He didn’t
show up to work today. We should have a nurse in Summer Hall taking
up for him, I’ll see that she gets in there to check on the Jane’s
bandages and make sure she is stable . . . It just doesn’t make
sense that a woman in a catatonic state wakes up in the middle of the
night and attempts to tear off her face.”
    “I know—just make
sure everyone has their story straight when the auditor gets back.
All in all, Steve handled the situation, but I don’t want any room
for speculation regarding the cause of her wounds. Before I forget,
did you find out anything from the Silver Creek facility?” Jim
asked Tony.
    “I talked to the
office manager a few minutes ago. She received a follow up to her
report with the local sheriff’s office. They identified an 86
Cutlass Supreme entering the Silver Creek home at 2am, on the morning
The Jane arrived. They pulled video from a ATM machine from outside
the gas station across from the facility.”
    “Who would’ve
thought there was a smart cop in Silver Creek,” Steve said. “Did
they get anything besides a make?”
    Tony turned a page in
his notes. “The car blew a red light, heading eastbound on Highway
93. And the intersection had one of those new motion triggered
cameras that snaps photos of cars behaving badly. The sheriff’s
office got a hit on the photographed license plate. It came up
registered to an Elias Kingbird in Salamanca, the town that’s built
on the Seneca reservation.”
    “Did they find him?”
Jim asked
    “A deputy visited the
address on Kingbird’s registration, but the house was abandoned. He
inquired around the neighborhood, but all he heard was Kingbird was a
recluse and nobody has seen him, or the car, in years. A clerk at the
corner gas station mentioned the Kingbirds owned a sizeable piece of
land on the outskirts of the reservation, but he didn’t know the
address. The parcel existed before the implementation of the
reservations directory.”
    “Salamanca to Silver
Creek is about an hour apart. I know there are closer retirement
homes, why drive that far? Jim paused and ran his fingers through his
mustache. “I’ve little faith that the Silver Creek deputies will
make any headway in Salamanca. Tony, I want you to go out there and
ask around.”
    “You’re serious?”
    “Yes, I’m serious.
I can handle things here while you go. We are going to show the
auditor we are taking action.”
    Tony hadn’t had much
experience in cases that required such outward intervention, but he
knew the situation would most likely worsen if he wasn’t proactive
in finding more details about the new patient. “It would be nice if
we could find out some insight on her condition, looks like I don’t
have a choice in the matter.”

Chapter 6: Russell
    Phosphorescent neon
light glowed through the doorway of room 369 of the Niagara Villas
Motel. The charnel stench of the rotten man in the doorway combined
with the dead woman’s expelled bowel content saturated the air with
virulence. Russell uncloaked himself and resumed his legless form:
black teeth, black eyes, and tarry skin. He couldn’t believe Morrow
was able to maintain control of the corpse he inhabited for so long,
over such a distance. Not long ago, his focus could only manipulate
animal carcasses within the confines of the Allegheny forest, for a
day at most
    “Morrow, sir,