A Crying Shame Read Online Free PDF

shots into the creature’s heart.Good shooting,” Thurman said, his quick annoyance fading.The young woman did this?”
    Yes,” Mike said.
    Joe was taking pictures as fast as the Polaroid could whine them out.It’s the devil’s work!” he said.The mark of the beast.”
    Shit!” Mack said, taking pictures for the LHP with his Polaroid.
    I can do without that from both of you,” the sheriff said.
    Even if what I said was the truth?” Joe defended his statement.
    Mike ignored that, verbally, but he stared at the man until Joe dropped his gaze. He directed a question to the coroner.What is this thing, Henry?”
    I ... ah ... well, I really don’t know, Mike. But I’ll tell you this: you’d better sit on this; you’d better not let the populace find out something like this ... thing is roaming around the parish. God, you’d have panic on your hands. All sorts of people running around shooting at anything that moved in the night. And you’d better consider the real possibility that, if there’s one of them, there is probably another. At least. Mike, if word of this leaks out, we’ll have professional adventurers coming in, bounty hunters, and rank amateurs ... all of them falling over each other. You’d have scientists, professors, archaeologists, tourists, nuts—the entire spectrum. And some of them would get hurt—maybe killed. It would turn into a sideshow—a freak hunt. I mean it, Mike. Panic is what you’d have.”
    Mack’s hand-held walkie-talkie squawked. He stepped out of the room and spoke for a moment. When he returned, he said,You’ve got anger right this minute, Sheriff. Down the road. Blackwell. He’s giving Bradbury a bad time of it.”
    Hell with Blackwell,” Mike said.Let him stew. If he gets too abusive with Brad, I’ll have the son of a bitch arrested for interference with a law officer in the performance of his duty.” He looked at Joe and the trooper.You men all through here?”
    All finished,” they replied.
    Mike turned to the coroner,Henry . . . I’ll be honest. I don’t know what to do, what to release to the press. I do agree with your assessment: we can’t let the public know about this ... thing—not for a while anyway. But we ... rather, I have to go about it very carefully; I don’t want Blackwell calling in a bunch of big-city reporters and having them snoop all over the parish, getting in the way of our investigation, muddying up the waters.”
    I’ve got to file a report, Sheriff,” Mack said.
    I know,” Mike replied.I know. But let’s file similiar statements. What the hell do we call this ... beast?”
    Why not call it what it is?” a man’s voice said calmly from the open doorway.It’s a link to our past.”
    The men in the room spun around, startled.Who the hell are you?” Mike demanded.And what the hell are you doing here?”
    My name is Jon Badon,” the man replied.And I was invited here by Mr. Paul Breaux.”
    Paul Breaux is dead,” Mack told him.
    Yes.” The man’s smile was cold; without emotion.I rather thought something was amiss when I glanced out the shattered front window and saw all the blood and entrails hanging about. Gruesome, what? Did the Links do it?”
    Mike ignored the question, not really understanding theLinks” part of it.How’d you get past my deputies, mister?”
    Quite easily, actually.” The man spoke with a curious combination of British and French accents.I have in my possession, thanks to Paul Breaux, a rather detailed map of Despair Plantation and the swamp. I simply drove until I found the dirt road that would bring me up to the rear of the home. Here I am.”
    Jon Badon?” Mike said, almost as an afterthought.Where have I heard that before?”
    That odd smile, quickly exposing strong, white teeth.I must admit,” Badon