Prowlers: Wild Things Read Online Free PDF Page A

were seen was in a book store just off Route 87, a couple of hours south of the Falls, where Doug used his credit card."
    Molly frowned. "That could be anything."
    "True." Courtney pointed to another piece of paper. "Jared Wilkes, fifteen year old runaway, found in the woods at a rest stop on Route 87. All torn up. You don't need the details, but they'd sound familiar."
    "All right," Molly said. "We know the signs. It was probably a Prowler, but sad to say, one killing doesn't give us enough to go on. It could be a drifter, or an isolated incident. No way to track the monster just on that."
    When Courtney smiled, Molly shivered. The older woman used the wall to steady herself and then indicated a magazine article that looked to have been pulled from Time or Newsweek . There were several pages taped to the wall. The piece was about the safety record of the long-distance trucking industry.
    "What am I missing?" Molly asked.
    "Truckers fall asleep at the wheel enough to make people concerned, but not as often as the media wants us to think. Still, it happens. They crash, people die, shipments are destroyed. But there's a thirty mile stretch of Route 87 in upstate New York that completely throws off the statistical curve. Incidences of trucking accidents are more than double the national average. But here's the kicker. Percentage of fatalities resulting from those accidents? Eighty-seven. Eighty-seven percent, Molly. Many of the bodies burned or crushed beyond recognition. What are the chances of that?"
    The dread had spread all through Molly now. Images of mauled bodies and trucks ablaze with fire flashed through her mind.
    Courtney sat back at the computer and pulled the new article out of the printer. She handed it to Molly.
    "Chester Aaron Douglas. Independent trucker. Apparently crashed his rig on a hard curve south of Albany. Dumped it in a ditch and the engine caught fire. Two bodies found inside, the authorities assume one of them was a hitchhiker. But Douglas's ex insists he would never have picked up a hitchhiker. And guess what else? His body was thrown from the cab during the crash. He didn't burn. His body was torn up, mauled, mutilated. New York State investigators believe it was bears who got to the body after the crash."
    Molly stared at the piece of paper in her hand, but the words all blurred. A prickle of heat like spiders' legs scurried across the back of her neck.
    "I guess Jack and I are going to New York."
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Jasmine ran along the paved paths of Central Park, the steel-and-glass towers of Manhattan dark silhouettes in the distance. The breeze carried the scent of decay, as the autumn leaves fell and plants withered. This time of year, when the shadows seemed most ominous, was joyous for Prowlers. So many humans carried the scent of fear on them. Jasmine's blood sang as she ran along the curving path, still wearing a human façade, a masque of weakness. A pretty one it was though, she knew, with her milk chocolate skin and copper-red hair, her eyes bright Halloween orange, mistaken every day for contact lenses.
    She raised her face to the stars and breathed in the scents of the wild. Central Park was a most cherished gift to her, a kind of paradise. It was a bit of nature torn out of the heart of the most extraordinary urban forest in the world. An undercurrent of danger ran through the entire city, so that Manhattan was a sort of wilderness unto itself. Now that she had spent time here, the idea of building her new pack anywhere else seemed ridiculous.
    Off in the bushes she caught the scent of a raccoon, fat and lazy, nature's little thief. Her stomach rumbled, but Jasmine would never soil herself with such simple, easy prey. She wanted to see terror in the eyes of her prey, wanted to hear it scream. The only animal that would satisfy her walked on two legs, not four.
    Once upon a time, the park would have been empty this late at night, the province of vagrants and gangbangers. But