Escape Route (Murder Off-Screen Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

head.” He slapped Avery’s arm with the envelope. “You worry too much.” He threw the money back and slammed the compartment shut. “Lighten up. It’s a dog. He had a good run. Ate good. Got to travel. Play with kids.”
    Kids.
    King heard them from the basement back at the house, and most days they remembered to bring his food down. He made games out of chasing mice to pass the time, but they were small and if he got too close, he’d smell that fear again. They didn’t understand that he didn’t want to hurt them, so it wasn’t fun after a while.
    “You don’t know where we are, do you? You’ve been driving in circles for an hour. I thought that GPS thing was ready to go. We gotta return this car back tonight to get the rate.” Timmy jabbed a finger toward Avery. “That comes out of your share.”
    “In case you haven’t noticed, the Eastern Shore of Maryland is flat. Get a map. Get an iron. Flat. This GPS is garbage. Conked out as soon as we left the gun shop.”
    He’d been searching for a place close to the tidewater of the Chesapeake that wasn’t privately owned—which wasn’t much. It would be easier to dig in marshy ground, too. Once dead, this dog must absolutely not surface. Avery had plans for his cut of the money, and didn’t want to have to pay it back if the mutt came popping out of the ground like some vampire dog.
    Avery rolled down his window, stuck an arm out, and brought the car to a stop. “How about there?” Totally deserted, no houses, far enough from the shoreline that day-trippers wouldn’t anchor and get their Dockers slopped up with marshy water if they dinghyed ashore. “Over by that tree.”
    “Let’s go.”
    Let’s Go. King pulled his head back into the car and panted. Let’s Go meant chasing a ball or a big stick. This was like it used to be. He missed the Kids, though. Wished his other friends from the fear place could be here.
    “Come on, fella. Go for a run.” Avery held the door open and watched the yellow Lab run flat out to the water. “Look at him. He’s throwing another stick for himself to fetch. Crazy dog.”
    Timmy opened the trunk and pulled out a blue, plastic tarp. “Why don’t you just take him home with you? You can pretend he’s Old Yeller.”
    “Shut up. He can play a while, if he wants.” Avery had tried to think of a way to keep the dog, but his ideas circled back to bite him. He’d texted his sister back in Pennsylvania while Timmy was in the bathroom at the gas station, but she wasn’t having any of it. Got 3 already! No! So that was out. He didn’t have any friends to speak of. His wife didn’t want kids—or dogs—tracking through the house. Bad luck all the way around.
    “Snap out of it and toss me the rope. We’ll tie him up to that tree so I can get a clean shot. One and done.”
    “Where’s the shovel?” There weren’t a lot of places for a shovel to hide in the trunk of a rental car, but he lifted the rug and looked under it, anyway.
    Timmy emptied the gun cartridge in his hand and dropped the bullets into his jacket pocket. “Looks like I’m not the only one who forgets things around here.”
    Avery squatted the rest of the way down and banged his head against the bumper. “It’s in the trunk of my car.”
    “In Pittsburgh.”
    “In Pittsburgh.”
    King stood off to the side of the car, dripping tidewater into the belly-high marsh grass, waiting for the next thing. It was past dinner time, so he hoped the next thing involved food.
    Avery stood and checked his watch. “We’ll have to stay the night. I don’t want to go back to that Bub’s Bullets store so soon. A town this size, those old guys sitting around in there will remember us. Sign said he opens at ten.” He sighed, dreading the call to the wife. “Tie him to the tree, and spread out the tarp. It might get cold.”
    “Suppose somebody takes him?” Where he stood was identical to every other place he’d seen today. Flat, trees, an occasional shot