Seed of Evil by Greig Beck (smart books to read TXT) 📗

—take the soft, high blood-filled organs like the liver, lungs, and kidneys, and then chow down on the heart muscle.

Mitch had seen bad shit before, but poor Hank’s face was hard to look at; it had been obliterated, as the nose and lips were gone, with both the eyes punctured.

“This has got to be a large carnivore.”

“Maybe,” Kehoe replied. “But no black bear around this time of year.” He shrugged. “Maybe a mountain lion, but haven’t seen one of those in years either, even a few miles out.”

“Wolves?” Mitch asked.

“Nope, not anymore. We may get the occasional grey wandering in from Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Michigan. But they’re too rare to be considered a threat.” Kehoe pointed his chin at Hank. “And I’m damn sure this ain’t a wolf kill anyway.”

“Okay.” Mitch looked around. “Where’s the kid? Alfie?”

“Missing. But I found some bedding up here, plus some excrement. If I had to guess, I’d say the kid had been living up here.”

“And he was just shitting on the floor.” Melnick made a guttural sound of disgust in his throat.

Mitch continued to examine the body. There were scrapes on the bone consistent with teeth and claws, and at the lower end of the sternum something was embedded in the bone.

From his bag, he withdrew a pair of forceps and a small plastic jar and levered the shard free. He held it up.

Kehoe squinted. “Looks like a splinter.”

Mitch continued to stare. It did look like a splinter, he thought. But it was shaped like a long talon, was dark brown, and had a grainy texture like wood rather than keratin that hair, nails, and claws were made of.

He dropped it into the jar, sealed it, but continued to stare at the thing. His mind leaped back to Ben Wainwright’s notes and he was reminded of his descriptions of the kids, the wood-like growths covering them, plus their feral behavior.

“We need to find Alfie.” He rose to his feet.

“Priority,” Kehoe replied.

“You think the kid was carried off by whatever did this?” Melnick asked.

Mitch ignored the question. “And we also need to contact the CDC.”

“What?” Melnick’s mouth dropped open. “Why?”

“This reminds me of something Ben Wainright saw back in 1977—an infection from the mine. Gross deformities, abnormal aggressive behavior in children, and also several mutilations and deaths.”

Melnick scoffed. “You got all that from a freaking splinter?” He frowned as he tilted his head. “Hey, wait a minute—you don’t think the kid was carried off, do you?”

“That year, 1977…you’re talking about Angel Syndrome, right?” Kehoe asked.

Mitch nodded.

“Oh, for fucks sake. I wasn’t mayor back then, but my predecessor gave me a rundown on notable events on his watch in the town and he talked about what happened back then in ‘77. The CDC came in, shut everything down, took a few people away for observation, and ruined the tourist trade for a decade.” He shook his head. “So, excuse me if I don’t break my neck to destroy Eldon’s economy over a single wild animal death.”

Mitch turned to Kehoe. “You said yourself it was unlikely to be a bear, wolf, or mountain lion.”

Kehoe tilted his head. “I said it was unlikely, not impossible.” He lifted his chin. “Doc, are you really saying a ten-year-old kid could do this? To his father?”

Mitch thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I am.”

“Bullshit,” Melnick shot back. He turned to Kehoe. “I want answers, real answers supported by the evidence, and not conjecture based on some old notes from a guy that suffered from depression and was obviously suicidal.”

Melnick turned and headed for the steps but paused at the top. “Sheriff, you run this, but keep it covert, because I do not want a panic. Understood?”

Kehoe nodded. “Of course, Mayor.”

Melnick then faced Mitch. “Mitch, you assist.”

Mitch sighed and watched the mayor disappear down the steps. He turned to Kehoe who just shrugged.

“What now?” Mitch asked.

“Analyse that fragment you found and let me know what you find.” He swung his flashlight around one last time. “I’ll get a team in here to investigate and put out a search on the kid.”

The sheriff turned back and smiled crookedly. “But the mayor is right—we need to be sensible how we approach this. You start yelling deformed kids, contamination, or mutilations, and people get scared. Scared enough to panic and leave. No one wants to see cars packed up and people leaving town at the start of the tourist season. Sometimes they don’t come back, and that’s what kills small towns.”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, I hear you.” He then pointed to the savaged body. “But a few more of these will kill it even quicker.”

“Sure will, Doc. So, let’s get to work.” Kehoe nodded to the steps. “After you.”

They went down the steps and just before Mitch headed to the front door, he held up a hand. “Wait a sec.”

“What?” Kehoe called after him.

Mitch headed down the hall checking each room until he found the one he wanted—the washroom. In a glass on the basin were two toothbrushes, a large frayed one, and a smaller one with Iron Man on the handle. He grabbed both.

When he exited, he held them up to Kehoe. “DNA matching.”

“Good thinking.” The sheriff took one last look over his shoulder, pausing for a moment to let his eyes wander over the house’s silent interior, and then shut the door.

CHAPTER 20

Mitch had sent the fragment he had pulled from Hank’s chest off to a buddy in the military. Greg Samson did his training with Mitch, and like him had a medical background. He was in the Special Forces and he was one of the guys who had pulled what was left of him and his group from the battlefield in Syria. Afterward, Mitch left the service, but Greg went on to be retained in the biomedical section of the armed forces.

He joined a team in a hi-tech laboratory that was used to develop vaccines, antidotes, and prophylactics against a range of potential biological weapons their adversaries may or may