Wellspring (Paskagankee, Book 3) by Allan Leverone Read Free Book Online

over him. He
was convinced the abandoned wagon would be invisible to passersby, and would
not be discovered until a concerted search had been launched.
    “Now,”
the stranger said with a look on his face that was half grimace and half leer,
“let’s us three take a little stroll with a corpse, shall we?”
    “Please,”
Luke said, knowing he was wasting his breath but trying anyway, “allow Sarah to
wait here. She doesn’t need to be exposed to the nighttime disposal of a
murdered man.”
    The
stranger shook his head and turned a glare Luke’s way. “I swear,” he said, “you
can’t possibly be so stupid as to think we’re going to carry a dead man into
the woods and leave your little woman all alone back here, so she can hike into
town and raise the alarm. Please tell me you ain’t that stupid.”
    Sarah
placed a hand on Luke’s arm and shook her head, a tiny smile on her face. Don’t make this volatile man any more
unstable than he already is, she was trying to tell him. I’ll survive.
    Luke
hoped she was right. He wasn’t so sure.
    The
three clambered off the front of the wagon in the suffocating darkness, one
anxiously, two reluctantly. Luke stepped to the ground and then helped Sarah
down with one hand, steadying himself against the wagon with the other. The
thick brush instantly closed in around them, surrounding them from all sides, filling
Luke with a sense of claustrophobia. The moon, two-thirds full tonight, had
disappeared almost immediately after they left the road, lost somewhere high
above the canopy formed by the ancient forest.
    The
silence seemed preternatural, the only sounds being their heavy breathing and
the scratching of branches and brush against clothing. They fought their way to
the rear of the delivery wagon, and the stranger said, “We’re gonna carry the
stiff along the side of the wagon, then deeper into the forest, as deep as we
can manage without wasting too much time. I’m almost out of time.”
    Luke
wondered about the men chasing this homicidal stranger. The thought occurred to
him that maybe he could intentionally delay the disposal progress long enough
for the murderer’s pursuers to catch up with him, but he discarded the idea
almost immediately. If this man—with his cold eyes and amoral personality
and the ability to murder an innocent man as easily as if he were lighting a
cigar—was as worried about his pursuers as he appeared to be, it didn’t
seem likely he would be the only one to suffer the consequences were he to be
caught. Luke guessed he and Sarah would as well.
    The two
men struggled under the dead weight of Matt Fulton’s body, climbing over downed
trees, around boulders and through scrub brush. After maybe ten minutes, during
which time they made little progress, the stranger grunted, “Far enough,” and
dropped Fulton’s upper body to the forest floor. It landed with a thud.
    Luke
eased the distributor’s ankles to the ground and stood hunched over, hands on
his knees, breathing heavily. He knew Matt was beyond caring what happened to
him, but still Luke hated the desecration of the man’s corpse. He hoped it
would be found soon so he could receive a proper burial, in front of family and
friends.
    The
stranger had bent over to catch his breath at the same time Luke did, and now
he straightened and said, “Let’s go,” still breathing heavily. “We’ve got a bit
of a walk ahead of us, and it won’t be long before the boys hunting me stumble
on to your place. If you want to live – and more importantly, if you want
your wife to live – you’ll make damned sure I’m tucked away inside that
secret room with your new black friend before that happens.”
    Luke
nodded and they began retracing their steps. They reached the wagon much more
quickly now that they were not burdened by the weight of the body, and almost
without breaking stride Luke took Sarah by the hand and continued toward the
road. He believed without question the man’s threat