While the Savage Sleeps by Andrew E. Kaufman Read Free Book Online

least that’s what she appeared to be doing—then said, “My husband had one, but that was a long time ago.”
    “ Any idea where it is now?”
    “ Haven’t got a clue.” Bobbi shrugged. “Wouldn’t even know where’ta start lookin’.”
    “ Think harder, Ms. Kimmons.” Cameron took a step closer toward her.
    Bobbi stepped back, shot him a look, then reflected. A moment later, she pointed toward the bedroom. “The trunk under my bed—that’s where I saw it last.
    “ Can we check?”
    She sighed, then gestured toward her bedroom.
    Cameron went through. He knelt down by the bed, pulled out the trunk, and opened it.
    No knife. Not anywhere.
    Cameron looked up at Bobbi.
    She said nothing; she didn’t have to, but her eyes revealed plenty: a combination of surprise, edged by uncertainty. Bobbi shifted her weight nervously from side to side.
    Cameron closed the trunk.
    “ Sheriff,” she said, shaking her head. “I got a strange feeling this is gonna end up bad … Real bad.”
    Cameron had the same feeling.

Chapter Ten
    Old Route 15
    Faith, New Mexico

    Eleven-year-old Ben Foley sat straight up in bed. His pores flared open. His breathing accelerated. His heart began to pound.
    Then thoughts began flooding his mind, violent ones that grew more volatile, more deadly with each passing second.
    A feverish rage—or something like it—burned deep within his gut. The sensation began to rise and swell; it coursed through his veins, gathering intensity, spreading like wildfire. The feeling was now feeding upon itself, wheeling toward the desire to kill.
    His energy was changing; he knew it. He felt different now: cool, enormously powerful, and dangerously bent on causing harm. The effect was wild and intoxicating. Eyes cold and vapid, movements robotic, he barely looked human.
    He ran out into the hallway and snatched the rifle from a storage closet.
    Staring vacantly ahead, the boy moved through the shadows and toward the other bedrooms, each step becoming more determined, more urgent. He dragged the gun behind him, its rusted barrel scraping against the hardwood and producing a high-pitched squeal; it sounded eerie, menacing.
    Ben Foley went calmly from bedroom to bedroom. Each time he got to one, he stood in the doorway, raised the rifle, and took aim, gazing with indifference into the pleading eyes of those who loved him. Then, with the pinpoint accuracy of an expert marksman, he fired, extinguishing each life as if it meant nothing.
    Nothing at all.
    Earsplitting shots slapped at the air and traveled swiftly through the house, bouncing off walls, then moving outside where they evaporated into the evening air.
    In a matter of just a few minutes, Ben had done the unthinkable, wiping out his entire family, the ones who had nurtured and loved him all his young life.
    Effortlessly.
    When he was done, he walked back down the hallway toward his bedroom, calm, detached, as if nothing had ever happened. Then, almost dutifully, he stepped into his closet, closed the door, and sat against the rear wall. Inserting the rigid metal barrel up into the roof of his mouth, he used his toe to engage the trigger. A muffled bang sounded off from inside the closet. And then there was silence.
    Complete silence.
    Unnatural stillness lingered afterward. The house, once filled with life, joy, and vitality had been transformed into something different—a place of violence, of death.
    There was blood—lots of it—spattered in all directions and in every corner; it covered the walls like chaotic graffiti. Bodies lay on the floor in freakish and unnatural positions, as if posed.
    But that wasn’t all that was left behind. Along with the carnage, the mess, the utter disarray, was also a question: Why?
    Why would an eleven-year-old boy gun down his whole family, then kill himself?
    Only one person knew.
    Unfortunately, Ben Foley took that answer with him to his grave.

Chapter Eleven
    Old Route 15
    Faith, New Mexico

    The neighborhood,