The Awakening by Rain Oxford Read Free Book Online Page B

took a
first drag from his dying cigarette. “No, it isn’t Ann. It’s Doctor Hillard.”
    “Doctor Hillard? How?”
    “I don’t know how, but he’s dead. And the boy’s body
is gone. Found the Doc’s body an hour ago.”

Chapter 3
    Sheriff Mike Dunns sat behind his desk with a thermos of coffee and
blood-shot eyes, working over a thin pile of papers and reports. Three hours of
restless sleep had done little good; his stomach burned, his eyes hurt from
cigarette smoke, and the back of his neck was stiff with knots.
    He stood, stretching his aching body.
    The main part of town was visible from his office
windows. Usually it was a sleepy, good-natured scene, a little too warm and a
little too dusty, but not today. The drizzling rain had not stopped with
morning and showed no signs of breaking up. It was depressing, but it wouldn’t
have mattered much anyway. When he’s been out the night before to tell a man
that his son was dead, and had to stand there and watch that man curl up and
die inside without being able to do anything about it, he just didn’t need much
more of an excuse to be depressed.
    And then he had to go back the next morning to tell
that same man that somehow or other, his son’s body had disappeared during the
night… that made him want to throw up.
    He glanced at his watch and frowned; he couldn’t
decide if he wanted it to speed up or slow down. In a couple of hours, men from
the homicide division of the head department were going to show up to take over
the investigation. That would be a mixed blessing; at last it would relieve
some of the responsibility in this shitty situation.
    Oddly, that didn’t make him feel much better.
    Mike sighed, poured himself another mug of coffee,
and prepared to attack the reports with grim determination. He had a lot to do
before the press arrived.
     
    *          *          *
     
    Derek had just finished breakfast and was savoring
his coffee when Parker stomped into the diner. The old man shook some of the
water off of his raincoat and hung it on the coat rack, then joined Derek at
his table.
    “Weather sure turned bad in a hurry,” Derek said.
Parker sat down and ordered coffee.
    “Yup, sure did. I figure we’re in for some heavy rain
pretty quick. Gonna play hell with the roads.”
    “Isn’t it kind of strange to get rain here this time
of year?”
    “Yup.” Parker paused while the waitress brought his
coffee. When she had gone, he gave Derek a slightly uncomfortable look. “I pointed
out your place to Mike last night, hope it’s alright.”
    “Sure. He woke me up to ask some questions is all.
All he told me was that the doctor was killed last night, wanted to know if I
knew anything. I don’t. How would I?”
    “You being a stranger and all, I guess he had to ask.
I talked to Mike and a few other folks this morning, and it sure is a nasty
mess. Got some people really spooked, too.”
    “How so?”
    “Have you heard anything about it?”
    “No. Just what the sheriff told me, which wasn’t
much.”
    “Well, one of the farm hands was leaving Sam’s bar
last night, and he stepped into the alley behind the Doc’s place to… call of
nature, you might say. He said he saw a light on, and he noticed there was a
window was all busted out. There’s glass all over the ground in the alley, too.
Anyway, he went to look in the window, and that’s when he saw the Doc, all tore
up and bloody.”
    “He got the sheriff?” Derek asked.
    Parker grinned. “Yup. Mike said it was almost funny
at first, when this kid comes bursting into his office with his eyes bugging
out and waving his arms, with his doodle hanging out in front of god and
everybody. The poor kid was scared shitless. Mike couldn’t understand nothing
he said until he got him calmed down some, and that took a while.”
    “Then what?”
    “Well, Mike let the kid in his office and went over
to the Doc’s place, and boy, what a mess. I saw it this morning. Papers