Where The Darkness Hides – Sample Chapter

Previously, I released a sneak peak of my forthcoming book Where the Darkness Hides, the follow-up to my debut novella, Within the Dark Places.

As there are six months remaining to the release of Where the Darkness Hides, I wanted to share with you another sample.

Enjoy.

Officer Campbell paused to catch his breath, removing his helmet and wiping his brow with the back of his hand. Although it was mid-October, the day was humid; the air thick and heavy and hiking through the woods in the middle of the afternoon wasn’t helping with the heat. ‘Which way now?’ he asked.
Officer Raimi, looking equally flushed, arched his back to be able to look his colleague in the eye. ‘That way, I think.’ He pointed to a trail that led in a north-easterly direction.
Campbell placed his helmet back on his head and gestured to Raimi to lead the way.
After several hundred yards they came to a wire fence, which ran as far as the eye could see in both directions of the valley.
‘Well, how do we get round this? Campbell asked.
Raimi scanned the fence and shrugged. ‘Forget it — let’s go back.’
‘Wilson will go ape if we return empty-handed. You can wave goodbye to that sergeant’s badge you’ve been chasing if you go back now.’
Raimi muttered to himself then spotted something hanging from the fence a few feet up the embankment. It was a tattered piece of denim. Raimi opened his toolkit and bagged it as evidence. He then noticed that the wires of the fence had been widened enough to allow someone to slip through.
Raimi tossed his kit over the fence and then clambered through the gap. Campbell followed, but his bulkier frame made it difficult to pass through as easily.
‘Now where?’ Campbell asked.
‘I suppose we keep following this path,’ Raimi said, and led on.
Farther ahead, just off the trail, lay a rustic shack. Upon closer inspection, Raimi saw that the surrounding undergrowth was broken and trampled. He pointed out the area to Campbell. ‘Someone passed through here — look.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Look at how the ground has been disturbed.’
Campbell sighed. ‘It could have been an animal.’
Raimi raised his eyebrows. ‘An animal? It would take a pretty big animal to make this much mess.’          He jumped off the trail into the undergrowth. ‘You coming?’ he asked, looking back at Campbell.
A trail of dried blood led the officers to a metal object half-hidden amongst the foliage. They knelt down to find a closed bear trap. Clasped within its jaws, crawling with flies and other bugs, was a severed hand. Its skin was mottled and grey.
Raimi placed a hand over his mouth as he retched as the smell of decay hit him.
Campbell turned away in disgust. ‘You can bag that.’
‘I don’t even know how I’d get it out of the trap without losing my own hand,’ Raimi said, reviewing the scene. ‘We’ll let forensics take care of it.’ He reached in his kit bag and pulled out a plastic marker with the letter ‘A’ printed on it, which he placed next to the trap.
‘Look,’ he said, pointing, ‘the blood is thicker here and leads away from the scene.’
‘Yeah, and deeper into the woods.’
Beyond the blood trail the woods cleared slightly to reveal a man slumped against a tree with his back to the officers.
‘Excuse me, sir!’ Campbell called.
There was no response.
Campbell moved closer to see the man had been impaled by wooden pike, which was suspended from the treetops. The deceased man’s head bobbed lightly as the pike was gently rocked by the breeze.
Campbell turned to Raimi, his head spinning with dizziness and his stomach churning. ‘Get on the radio. Get Wilson to get up here — now!’
And then he threw up.

 

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