Ravenous by Ray Garton Read Free Book Online Page A

if my deputy caught the naked corpse.”
    â€œGood luck.”
    Back in the waiting room, Garrett had not yet returned.
    Hugh had not moved from his seat and still held his little girl. He stared up at the television, but his eyes did not seem to be focused on it—he seemed lost in thought. The other two children had returned to their seats—the girl was reading a Highlights magazine while the boy read a storybook.
    â€œMy deputy come back through here yet?” Hurley asked.
    Hugh blinked a few times and looked at Hurley. “Uh, no, not yet. At least, I didn’t see him. I haven’t been paying much attention to anything.”
    Hurley went back outside. The rain had receded to a light sprinkle. He went to his truck and got the flashlight again. There was a small umbrella on the floor, but he saw no point in using it now—he was already soaked, his khaki uniform dark with water.
    He turned on the flashlight and walked toward the entrance to the parking lot. The road to the hospital forked, with one side coming to the ER parking lot, the other going to the parking lot in front of the building. He walked all the way to that fork, his shoes crunching over grit on the wet pavement.
    A blue Ford Focus came up the hill and took the left side of the fork. Hurley stepped out of its way as it drove into the Emergency Room parking lot.
    Hurley saw no sign of Garrett. He called his name once, twice, then turned and went back to the parking lot. He turned left and went to the lot’s edge. The pavement ended and rocky earth took over. It sloped down steeply into bushes and a few pines. On the other side of that patch of sloping woods was the road that led up to the hospital.
    He heard something. It was so quiet that, had it been raining any harder, he never would have heard it. It was a distinct, wet, slurping and smacking, accompanied by an occasional low, quiet growl.
    â€œGarrett?” Hurley called. “ Garret !” he shouted, louder this time.
    The sound stopped. It was replaced by a frantic rustling in the bushes, a sound that faded quickly down the slope.
    Hurley started down the slope, stepping carefully, but trying to hurry. The ground was wet and muddy, slippery under his feet. Once, the mud gave way beneath him and he started sliding down, out of control. He took another quick two steps and came out of the slide, continued down. He zigzagged around bushes, ferns, stood against the trunk of a pine tree for a moment, then went farther down.
    He tripped over Garrett and fell flat on his face in the mud. He clutched the flashlight hard as he rolled, until his back slammed against the trunk of a pine tree, sending sharp pain up and down his spine.
    Leaning heavily on the tree, Hurley climbed to his feet, covered with mud. He turned and shone the flashlight back up the slope. It fell on Garrett. Hurley trudged back up the muddy slope and stopped at the prone figure of his deputy.
    Garrett’s leather jacket had been pulled half off, his spread arms almost completely out of the sleeves. The shirt of his uniform had been torn open. The undershirt beneath it had been ripped to shreds. So had Garrett’s abdomen. Ropes of intestines hung out of the great hole that was his torso. Hurley moved the flashlight’s beam up to Garrett’s face and saw that his throat had been torn out. His eyes and mouth were open wide.
    â€œOh, sweet Jesus, Garrett,” Hurley said, his voice broken. His stomach turned over inside and for a moment, he thought he was going to vomit. But he swallowed frantically and held it down.
    Then he stopped moving, stopped breathing, and listened.
    No more rustling bushes, no sounds of movement. Only the gentle whisper of the drizzling rain, the dripping of rainwater from the branches of trees.
    Hurley was alone in the patch of woods with his eviscerated deputy.
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    3
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    An Animal
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    An hour later, three Sheriff’s Department