The Montauk Monster Read Online Free PDF

there any longer than need be, especially since there was little to do at the moment.
    “Bring it back in an hour or you owe me a steak.”
    Mickey was a notorious carnivore. When he said steak , he meant a twenty-ounce porterhouse at a good restaurant. No Sizzler or Outback Steakhouse for him.
    “I will. I don’t make Mickey-steak kind of money.”
    Dalton opened the door for Anita, who commented on his being a gentleman, and made a U-turn out of the park.

    Officers Winn and Henderson pulled up to Randy Jenks’s small cottage. It had powder blue shutters in need of a paint job. Postage-stamp yards with healthy, well-tended lawns were in the front and back of the house. The windows were dark, but that was normal for this time of night. Randy’s curbside mailbox was full.
    “Maybe he’s out of town,” Norman suggested as they walked to the front door. The neighborhood was silent as a tomb. Even the feral cats were tucked away.
    “Let’s hope,” Jake said and pushed the bell.
    The chimes echoed inside the house, but nothing stirred. He tried again and waited ten seconds.
    Norman gave the door a few hard raps. He wanted to roust Randy if he was in a deep sleep, but he didn’t want to knock so hard he woke up everyone on the block.
    “I’ll check the back,” Jake said, using his flashlight to lead the way around the side of the house.
    A cooling breeze made the tops of the trees sway, carrying the scent of salt and pine. Henderson tried the bell again. He shined his flashlight through the front window into the living room. There was an empty couch, easy chair, a stack of magazines scattered across a glass coffee table, wrestling a pizza box for space. He pressed his face to the glass and pointed the light into the kitchen, sweeping it to the doorway of what must be the bedroom.
    Another light pierced the dark from a different angle. Winn had gone to the bedroom window and must have been trying to peer through the gaps in the blinds.
    He came back shaking his head. “He’s not in there.”
    Henderson felt a knot tighten in his stomach, staring down the road leading to the Montauk Highway and ultimately, the beach. “For his mother’s sake, I hope he’s not back there.”

    Dalton’s first stop didn’t yield much intel. An older woman had called in saying her cat had been chased up onto the garage roof by a wild dog with no collar. By the time he got there, the cat was still on the roof, mewling.
    “Priscilla won’t come down, even when I opened a can of food,” the woman said. She wore a white housecoat and a hairnet. She stood by the garage in her bare feet, trying to coax the cat down.
    “Do you have a ladder?” he asked.
    “In the garage. Let me open it so you can get it.”
    Dalton looked back at Anita, who was still in the passenger seat of the squad car. “You want to take this one?”
    She smiled. “It’s just a scared cat. I’ll let you be the hero.”
    He chuckled. Saving cats from trees and rooftops. He couldn’t remember what chapter that had been at the academy.
    The woman came out with the key and pulled the door open. The segmented wooden door made enough noise to wake the dead. “It’s right there,” she said, pointing to the back of the garage. He maneuvered his way around the old Buick that took up most of the space and carried the ladder over his head.
    “What did you say the cat’s name was, ma’am?”
    “Priscilla.”
    He leaned the ladder against the garage and climbed several rungs.
    “Hey, Priscilla. Come on, let me help you get down. Psss, psss, psss. Come on.”
    The cat, a gray-and-black-striped tabby, looked at him with wide, emerald eyes, and hissed. When he reached out to get her, she swatted his hand, raking his fingers with her claws and backing up. Dalton drew his hand back sharply.
    Damn, that hurt! He’d heard that cat scratches burned so much because of the urine under their nails. Another reason to be a dog lover.
    He wanted to say, I don’t like you as