The Bodies Left Behind Read Online Free PDF Page B

of it, I’ll tell you.”
    Hart squeezed the wound and then stopped paying attention to the pain. It was still there but was lost in the background of sensations. Gripping his black gun, he stepped outside, crouching. No shots. No rustles from the bushes. Lewis joined him. “Bitch’s gone, I’m telling you. She’s halfway to the highway by now.”
    Hart looked over the cars, grimaced. “Look at that.” Both the Feldmans’ Mercedes and the Ford that Hart had stolen earlier in the day had two flats each and the wheel sizes were different; the spares wouldn’t be compatible.
    Lewis said, “Shit. Well, better start hiking, you think?”
    Hart scanned the deep woods surrounding them, shadowy now. He couldn’t imagine a better place in the world to hide. Good goddamn. “See if you can plug one of those.” He nodded at the Ford’s shot-out tires.
    Lewis sneered. “I’m not a fucking mechanic.”
    “I’d do it,” Hart said, trying to be patient, “but I’m a little disadvantaged here.” He nodded at his arm.
    The skinny man tugged at his earring, a green stone, and loped off resentfully toward the car. “What’re you going to be doing?”
    What the hell did he think? With his Glock at his side, he started in the direction he’d seen Michelle flee.

    EIGHT MILES FROM Lake Mondac the landscape ranged from indifferent to hostile. No farms here; the country was forested and hilly, with forbidding sheer cliffs of cracked rocks.
    Brynn McKenzie drove through Clausen, which amounted to a few gas stations, two of the three unbranded, a few stores—convenience, package and auto parts—and a junkyard. A sign pointed to a Subway but it was 3.2 miles away. She noted another sign, for hot sausages in the window of Quik Mart. She was tempted, but it was closed. Across the highway was a Tudor-style building with all the windows broken out and roof collapsed.It bore a prize that had surely tempted many a local teenager but the All Girl Staff sign was just too high or too well bolted to the wall to steal.
    Then this sneeze of civilization was gone and Brynn began a long sweep through tree and rock-filled wilderness, broken only by scruffy clearings. The few residences were set well off the road, trailers or bungalows, from which gray smoke eased skyward. The windows, glowing dimly, were like sleepy eyes. The land was too harsh for farms and the sparse populace would drive their rusted pickups or Datsun-era imports to work elsewhere. If they went to work at all.
    For miles the only oncoming traffic: three cars, one truck. Nobody in her lane, ahead or behind.
    At 6:40 she passed a sign saying that Marquette State Park campground was ten miles up the road. Open May 20. Which meant that Lake Mondac had to be nearby. Then she saw:
    LAKE VIEW DRIVE
    PRIVATE ROAD
    NO TRESPASSING
    NO PUBLIC LAKE ACCESS
    VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSECUTED
    And howdy-do to you too. . . .
    She turned, slowing as the Honda bumbled over the gravel and dirt, thinking she should’ve taken Graham’s pickup. According to the directions that Todd Jackson had given her, the distance was 1.2 miles from the county route to 3 Lake View, the Feldmans’ vacationhouse. Their driveway, he’d added, was “a couple football fields long. Or that’s what it looked like on Yahoo.”
    Making slow progress, Brynn drove through a tunnel of trees and bushes and blankets of leaf refuse. Mostly the landscape was needles and naked branch and bark.
    Then the road widened slightly and the willow, jack pine and hemlock on her right grew sparse; she could see the lake clearly. She’d never spent much time on bodies of water, didn’t care for them. She felt more in control on dry land, for some reason. She and Keith had had a tradition of going to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi, his choice pretty much. Brynn had divided her time there between reading and taking Joey to amusement parks and the beach. Keith spent most of the time in the casino. It wasn’t her favorite locale but