Dunston Falls Read Online Free PDF Page B

window with the butt. Carefully, Peck climbed through the broken glass and entered the trailer.
    Inside the dark, small, living room, Peck used his flashlight to guide him through the debris and rubble to the bedroom. The brunt of the tree had hit the roof directly over the bedroom, making it impossible to pass around it and enter.
    Peck crouched down on the floor and shinned the flashlight under a slab of collapsed wall toward the bed. At first, he wasn’t sure. Then it became clear. A woman’s leg dangled from the bed. The exposed toes of her left foot touched the floor.
    “My God,” Peck whispered to himself..
    Peck returned to the snowmobile where he tried for twenty minutes before reaching Bender on the walkie-talkie.
    “Get back to the office and try to reach the paper company on the short wave. Tell them we need a logging rig at a mobile home on Fire Road 99. A tree came down last night. Over.”
    “Dave, was anybody hurt? Over,” Bender said.
    Peck hesitated for a moment, lowering the radio.
    “Was anybody hurt? Over,” Bender said.
    Peck raised the radio to his lips. “Yes.”
     
    Peck, Bender, McCoy, Kranston and Father Regan stood under the safety of a large Pine Tree and watched the logging crew prepare a rig to remove the tree from the mobile home.
    Peck lit a cigarette and watched a crew supervisor give orders to his men. “Does anybody know this woman? Peck said.
    Kranston said, “Tax records show a Doris White. I can’t say I know or remember the woman.” He added a fresh stick of gum to the piece he was already chewing.
    “Hospital records indicate she had a flu shot last November,” McCoy said. “But I administered so many shots that month; I can’t say I specifically remember a Doris White”
    Peck looked at Regan. “Father?”
    The priest nodded. “She was a standard at Sunday mass.” Regan turned to make eye contact with Peck. “Her husband died several years ago before you arrived. A logging accident. She was a good woman.”
    Peck stared at the trailer as he puffed on the cigarette. The rig was in place and the supervisor approached him. “Sheriff, we’re ready. It will only take a minute.”
    Peck nodded and the supervisor gave the order. The rig lifted the massive, Pine Tree and slowly set it on the bay of a logging truck. The supervisor looked at Peck and gave him the all clear sign. Peck tugged at Bender’s jacket.
    Peck and Bender approached what was left of the front door. Cautiously, they entered the home with flashlights drawn. Peck entered the bedroom first and was completely unprepared for the horrific sight, which greeted him.
    Tied spread eagle to the bed with rope, the plump, nude body of Doris White had at least a dozen knife wounds in her chest. Deep, red impressions were on both sides of her neck. Her lifeless eyes were open and stared blankly at the wall.
    Peck staggered backward until he hit the wall. “Bender,” he shouted. “Jay, get in here.”
    Bender rushed in and stood next to Peck. He looked at the body of Doris White and shook his head. “She never felt a thing when that tree fell on her.”
    “Go get the doctor.”
    Bender nodded and turned away.
    “And only the doctor,” Peck added.
    While Bender went for McCoy, Peck lit a cigarette. He heard McCoy enter the trailer and he called out. “In here.”
    McCoy entered the bedroom and stood next to Peck. The doctor sighed loudly to himself. “My God, this poor woman.”
    Peck inhaled on the cigarette and blew out smoke, looking at McCoy. “Examine her, and then tell me was she strangled first, or stabbed?” Peck said.
     
    Peck, Bender, Kranston and Father Regan sat in the van provided by the logging company and waited for McCoy to finish his examination. It was four thirty in the afternoon and already dark when McCoy exited the trailer and slowly made his way to the van.
    In the back seat, Bender slid the door open to allow McCoy to enter. The doctor shook ice from his hat before speaking. “I