BooksBarbecue
Back The Nest Save as PDF
Chapters (82)
  1. Cover
  2. Copyright page
  3. Introduction by Will Errickson
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. TREMORS
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. SUSPICIONS
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. DREAD
  19. 1
  20. 2
  21. 3
  22. 4
  23. 5
  24. 6
  25. WITNESS
  26. 1
  27. 2
  28. 3
  29. ALERT
  30. 1
  31. 2
  32. 3
  33. 4
  34. 5
  35. ENCOUNTER
  36. 1
  37. 2
  38. 3
  39. 4
  40. 5
  41. 6
  42. HAVOC
  43. 1
  44. 2
  45. 3
  46. 4
  47. 5
  48. 6
  49. SEARCH
  50. 1
  51. 2
  52. 3
  53. 4
  54. 5
  55. CLASH
  56. 1
  57. 2
  58. 3
  59. 4
  60. 5
  61. 6
  62. 7
  63. COUNTERATTACK
  64. 1
  65. 2
  66. 3
  67. 4
  68. 5
  69. 6
  70. 7
  71. VICTORY
  72. 1
  73. 2
  74. 3
  75. 4
  76. 5
  77. 6
  78. 7
  79. 8
  80. 9
  81. EPILOGUE
  82. About the Author

Long minutes passed. Ben Dorset stamped his foot. “Cramp, damn it!” He stamped harder and harder.

“For crying out loud, Ben,” the sheriff laughed, “you’ll start an earthquake!”

Silence again. From his tree, Russell Homer said disgustedly, “This criminal doesn’t return to the scene of the crime . . .”

“Quiet!” Amos Tarbell ordered abruptly. He thought he had detected a movement. Slight. But out there some way in front of the rabbit in the trap, the way he sensed the first touch of a small fish exploring a baited hook.

The men tensed. Dorset leveled his revolver. No rat was going to live a split second unless he went into the trap.

Russell Homer had the camera aimed.

The sheriff was leaning forward, with his own gun cocked.

They did not see the leaves move, but they heard the sound distinctly. It was a soft skittering, as if fingers were playing in the piles of leaves, the way children sift sand.

Suddenly there was a flutter of the leafy surface. A rat was coming!

But the next instant the men were guffawing to each other, with guns lowered and sheepish looks on their faces. The ferocious rat pack turned out to be a few lousy cockroaches! Big bastards, to be sure, but just overgrown bugs, fat from the dump.

“Big sons of bitches!” Ben Dorset observed.

Russell Homer said, “I’ve been seeing them the last week or so. Damn water bugs, eaten too much for their own good.”

“Ugly suckers!” the deputy sheriff commented.

The sheriff quieted the men with a finger to his lips. It occurred to him that the harmless roaches might be useful in attracting the rats. There certainly was an unusual scent around, musky-­acid, sort of set your teeth on edge. If it was from the bugs, any rats in the vicinity would get it and hopefully come to where they’d see the rabbit.

The men watched indifferently as the three roaches moved slowly around the old lobster trap. The lingering odor of fish and bait undoubtedly had drawn them. Everyone knew roaches loved the stinky stuff, the more rotten the better.

The sheriff felt a chill up his spine, though he didn’t know why. He sure as hell wasn’t squeamish about the cockroaches, enormous as these might be. But he muttered a curse to himself as he saw the largest one—it must be a full five inches and damn near an inch around! —halt in front of the trap and vibrate its antennae toward the rabbit as if the damn wiry extensions were actual fingers reaching out to touch the animal. The miserable insect looked for all the world as if it were deliberately prowling around the trap, the way a hunting animal might do.