BooksBarbecue
Back Parting Shot Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Dedication
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Copyright

There was a wood door built into the concrete foundation, which rose out of the ground a good five feet before the sideboards soared up toward the roof. Duckworth tried the door and found it unlocked.

He went inside. Where he had entered, the barn was open right to the sagging roof. Some sunlight filtered through the slits between the wallboards, dust mites dazzling in the streams. About halfway across, a lower level, with its own ceiling, had been built into the structure. An open door beckoned him forward.

He got to the door, stepped through the opening. The room was dark, and he looked for a light switch, finding one about a foot to the left of the door. He flicked it up.

It was a workshop. Along one wall, a wood bench and a set of cabinets that looked as though they had been taken from the kitchen of an old house and rehung there. Various tools were scattered across the top of the bench. The floor was dirt that had been packed down over several decades.

The room smelled of hay and mould and dirt and shit.

A few feet away, in the middle of the room, was a single bed.

It was an old, rusted metal bed that could be folded up and rolled away. Lying atop it was what Duckworth was willing to bet was the original mattress. It was uncovered, blue and white striped, with several small rips where the stuffing was attempting to escape. As he got closer, he could see that it was covered in stains that probably ranged from various bodily fluids to oil, varnish, coffee and booze.

Some of the stains looked like blood.

What particularly caught his attention were the four short lengths of rope attached to each corner of the bed.

Next to the bed, at one end, stood a red folding chair made of metal and plastic. Its newness made it stand out.

Every bit as interesting as the four lengths of rope was what Duckworth found sitting on the chair. It was a small item, with an electrical cord at one end. He noticed an extension cord on the floor that led to an outlet above the workbench.

He hadn’t seen a lot of these devices in his lifetime, but he’d seen one at Mike’s in the last day, so he now knew a tattoo gun when he saw one.

Thirty-Four

THIRTY-FOUR

CAL

THE easiest way to get to the Cape from Kingston was to head back north toward Albany until we hit I-90, take it east all the way to 495, about half an hour this side of Boston, then work our way southeast. When I looked it up on my phone, I figured it would take us the better part of four hours.

Jeremy didn’t have much to say, and I didn’t try all that hard to draw him out. He seemed to be doing a lot of thinking.