Stay Dead: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

the mausoleums at the rear of the cemetery. There were
no recent deaths in town, the last one occurred a month ago;
underage kids in a drunk driving accident. They were leaving a
school football game and hit a pole doing 75 miles an hour. The car
was ripped in half and so were the four kids in the car. Three had
been buried toward the back, the fourth was a Jewish girl buried in
the town over. She and her boyfriend weren’t even drinking.
According to everyone who knew them they were a couple of
upstanding kids. A truer tragedy had never occurred, so whispered
the lips of those who knew of them. Those who really knew them,
though, knew they loved to walk around in a heroin haze and that
they sucked dick for China White–the good shit. After just over an
hour they had checked every inch of ground but the six mausoleums.
The large group gathered near the first one.
    “Keith, Alan, and Henry, get up here, now,”
shouted Sheriff Bruce Davis.
    Alan replied, “sure thing, boss man. But
you’re going in first.”
    “That’s fine with me, you big pussy.
Everybody, listen up. If nothing’s moving we lock it up and get the
fuck out of here” Davis shouted.
     
    At the edge of town near the North roadblock,
the sky grows dim. Fires burn in the distant city and smoke chokes
the light out of the day. There are only three police cruisers and
six officers at the North Roadblock. No one is permitted into town
without clearance from the Sheriff. There hasn’t been any noise on
the ham, and nothing worthwhile on the radio. A car drives up from
behind the roadblock: it’s Susan Kemp. Susan owns the corner deli
on Main Street, appropriately named Main Street Deli. She parked
off to the side of the road and got out, holding three thermoses
full of coffee.
    Officer Dane Kelly walked over to her. They
had been together for the last few years. Both were divorced,
Dane’s was a messy one while Susan’s was mutual. Her husband became
very distant and as a result she looked at their relationship and
came to the conclusion that they should have never been married to
begin with. Susan met Dane, they made each other laugh and that was
that. They weren’t up each other’s asses, and both having gone
through one marriage had no intentions of suffering another. One
thing led to another and now she was bringing him coffee, it was a
love like so many others.
    “Brought you and the boys some coffee. This
one’s French vanilla, the other two are regular. I brought some
powdered creamer and sugar. No milk though,” she said, her brownish
red hair blowing in the wind.
    “You are awesome. The boys will love anything
at this point, but I’m taking the French vanilla for myself,” Dane
said as he put his hand on her hip.
    “When are you getting off?” she asked. They
were staying at her place, and still trying to figure out what to
do. They talked about it every day and made no moves other than
standing still.
    “As soon as I get relieved, Davis took almost
everybody up to the cemetery to inspect it. So once they get back
we’ll be breaking up into shifts.”
    Susan and Dane walked over to the rest of the
guys who looked tired as hell. The scent of coffee gave their eyes
a tiny bright spot, as if a cup of coffee somehow meant that all
was not lost. They opened the thermoses and sipped slowly: this was
the highlight of the last few hours and they were not about to gulp
it down and be left with nothing.
    As if they needed to be reminded that all was
not well, a stench rode in on the wind. It smelled like sulfur, or
sewer steam, it was faint, but in the air all the same. The scent
didn’t go away either: it hung over them, it clung to them. They
wondered where the stench came from.
    The thought was answered as Dane, without
realizing, began spilling his coffee onto his shoes. His mouth was
agape, as was Susan’s. The chubby cop, Sal, jumped up and grabbed
his rifle. His eyes peered through the scope seeing what the rest
could only guess was