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- Herausgeber: Paraquel Press
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
A chance discovery. An insidious evil.
Dr. Luka Sims holds a dangerous secret in her head, the last one alive to protect it. Alone and in danger, she runs for her life, targeted by a team of determined hunters.
Drawing upon her memories and her skills as a chemist, Luka evades her pursuers. But it’s only a matter of time before the devil blows his trumpet and all hell breaks loose.
Fans of Dean Koontz, Thomas Perry, and CJ Box will find a new favorite, so don’t miss this suspense-packed thrill ride.
The hunt is on!
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Praise for Steadman's Blind
"Just like Nocturne In Ashes, I found Steadman's Blind a one session page-turner and gave it five Amazon stars."
~ Ron Keeler, Read 4 Fun
"Ms. Chase's second novel is just as unputdownable as the first one was. I got lost in the book and the world the author created, transported to another place and time."
~ Gabi Rosetti (reader, Amazon.com)
"Author Joslyn Chase has now confirmed my first impressions of her being a formidable suspense writer bound to make readers sit up and take notice."
~ Manie Kilian (reader, Amazon.com)
"As always in her writing, the settings and action scenes are vividly portrayed and the relationships between the characters are seamless and authentic. Ms Chase has a talent for bringing characters to life."
~ ReadnGrow (Amazon.com)
The Devil's Trumpet
Joslyn Chase
Contents
The Devil's Trumpet
The moon was past its zenith, waning in the sky. Darkness, inky black and almost thick enough to slice, spread over the yard, clinging to the fringe of woodland, dispelled only by a single streetlamp casting a small yellow globe of light speckled by flying insects.
Dr. Luka Sims pressed the door gently closed behind her, wincing at the tiny clink of the latch catching hold. She’d bring a scolding down on her head if anyone caught her sneaking out, but she hadn’t been able to sleep, couldn’t bear the suffocating, cloistered feel of the safe house another moment.
She needed to breathe, to feel normal again.
She judged at least an hour until dawn. She’d be back before anyone missed her. Luka drew in a lungful of air and crept onto the lawn, straining her eyes against trip hazards while making for the line of Norway spruce and sycamore maples separating the safe house from its neighbor, thirty yards further along the block.
A pair of headlights rounded the corner, piercing the dark like blue-white lasers then blinking out abruptly. Luka heard the quiet purr of an engine cut out and the creak of a car door opening. She slipped noiselessly into the trees, feeling caught in a time warp as she remembered her favorite childhood game.
Six brick colonials with expansive lawns had stood between her house and her best friend Cesily’s. Their assignment— should they choose to accept it—had been to move unseen between their two houses. The butterfly heartbeat in her chest, the thrill that tugged at her gut on those long-ago forays came back to her now. Except tonight’s game was the adult version.
With adult consequences should she be caught.
Luka shivered. Wisdom dictated a return to the safe house, so-called for a reason. But surely half an hour of freedom couldn’t hurt, wouldn’t even be noticed by anyone else yet counted precious to her.
Here, among the spruce and maple, the air held a resinous, almost spicy scent. She peered from behind a thick trunk, eyes adjusted to the dark, and watched two men climb from a white panel van with a plumber’s logo on the side—a coiled red cobra and white lettering on a dark background. They wore uniforms with the same crimson cobra across the back.
They moved to the back of the van and opened the rear doors. Strange hour for a plumbing appointment, but didn’t emergencies always strike at odd moments? The unfortunate homeowner who’d called them would be paying a premium.
With the plumbers busy removing equipment, Luka stole across the neighbor’s yard, keeping behind a well-trimmed hedge, grateful they didn’t have a dog. She continued her secret progress to a park on the next block and let out a sigh of relief as she sank onto a dew-moistened bench.
Slouching, legs splayed, arms slack at her sides, head lolling against the back of the bench, Luka breathed deep through her nose and felt the muscles in her chest loosen. She stared upward at the stars, watching them fade and wink out as the sky lightened by slow degrees.
The tension, held so tightly in her shoulders and around her gut for the past two weeks, melted and diminished. Not completely, but maybe enough to make it through the rest of this mess. She simply sat, unmoving, enjoying her taste of freedom. Not until she heard the first bird twitter did Luka think about returning to the safe house.
To captivity and a life turned upside down.
As she rose and brushed at the damp seat of her pants, a distant siren broke the peace of the morning. It was joined by another and they shrieked in raucous harmony, getting closer and louder with each second.
Dismay stabbed at Luka’s chest. They’d wake the whole neighborhood. Her keepers would check her room and find her gone and next would come a stern lecture and a guilt trip for wasting taxpayer money and putting lives at risk. Including her own.
She hurried back to the safe house, arriving at the same time as the fire truck and ambulance, but unable to take in what her eyes showed her by the plain light of day.
The house was gone.
Not a blackened shell, flaming and smoking, crumbling upon its foundation. Just gone. Completely obliterated, with only a litter of rubble and restless ash to show there’d ever been anything there.
Dumbstruck, Luka stared around her at the faces of strangers, their expressions ranging from fear to fascination. Neighbors in robes and pajamas, policemen and firefighters as mystified as she was.
And not a familiar face in the crowd.
Nausea stirred in her gut. Everyone she knew in this little town was gone with the house. Incinerated while they slept or sat up on watch. Burned because they guarded her.
