Locked Doors - Crouch Blake (читаем книги онлайн .TXT) 📗

What a strange and beautiful summer with Vi in these woods.

I haven’t known peace like this before.

The sky had begun to pale toward evening when they started back for the cabin—a quarter mile hike through the woods on a moose run.

Andrew stayed out to split firewood.

Violet went indoors.

She laid her son down in the crib and sat at the kitchen table with a pen and paper.

Not knowing what to say, she spent most of her words describing Max.

She imagined Ebert and Evelyn in the North Carolina countryside, reading this letter about their grandson.  It would be dusk and they’d sit out on the big wraparound porch of their white farmhouse, the pleasant stench of manure present in the mist.

She could smell her father’s pipe, see the long view from the porch—rolling pasture, barns, the soft bluegreen horizon of lush deciduous trees that would not survive one Yukon winter.  For a moment, Violet felt as homesick for those eastern woods as she did for her parents.

I miss your trees, she wrote.

Andrew made dinner while she rocked Max to sleep, the cabin filling with the incense of tomatoes and garlic and boiling pasta.

They dined on the back porch, their sunburned faces lit by a solitary candle, its flame frozen on this windless night.

Though it was after ten light dawdled in the sky.

This far north in late summer, true darkness doesn’t come until after midnight.

There had been a passing shower some time ago and the smell of the wet spruce was sharp and clean.  Firs crowded the porch, their lowest branches draping within reach.

Andrew set down his fork and took a sip of the excellent Chilean wine.

“I finished the epilogue while you were in the shower.”

Violet stared at her plate.

“Vi?”

When she finally looked at him across the rickety card table, he noticed her hands were shaking.

Andrew had converted the loft into a bedroom, managing to fit a mattress where his writing desk had been.

It was very late and dark and quiet.

Moonlight came through the windows and bleached the floorboards.

Violet had calmed down.

They lay awake, Max between them, the infant snoring delicately.

“Is it hard for you?” Violet whispered.

“What?”

“You know.  Lying here with me…doing nothing.”

Andrew smiled.

“Go to sleep.”

He almost said go to sleep angel.

Her head rested in the crook of his arm.

She rubbed her cheek against his.

“What are you doing?”

“Max never had a beard.  I like yours.  I like how it smells.”

“You gonna keep me up all night?”

“I just might.”

10/14/03

Haines Junction, Yukon

Spent last night at the Raven Hotel.  Pricey.  Look for something more reasonable this evening.  Breakfast at Bill’s Diner.  Coffee.  Two delicious bearclaws.  C$11.56.  AT came to the village again in that old CJ-5.  (he went to the library)  I drove out to his cabin.  5.9 miles down Borealis Road.  A one-laner.  Rough.  Beautiful weather.  Cold.  Saw his driveway but didn’t turn in.  Too nervous.  (don’t be such a chickenshit)  Think I’ll return on foot tonight and approach through woods under the cover of  

The intercom broke in: “At this time, we would like to begin boarding Flight 6346 with nonstop service to Whitehorse, Yukon.”

The tattered purple notebook closed.

On its cover, “H. BOONE” had been neatly printed in black magic marker:

The passenger of seat 14C slipped the notebook into a leather satchel, slung it over his shoulder, and strolled toward the gate.

His hair is blond and short now, but if you look closely, the roots are still black.

Read on for an excerpt from DESERT PLACES, the prequel to LOCKED DOORS, also available on Kindle, but first…

Author’s Afterward

So what's up with this ending? And will there ever be a conclusion to the Andrew Thomas/Luther Kite saga?

I'm good friends with thriller author J.A. Konrath, and our writing has covered many of the same themes of good and evil. I love Joe’s Det. Jack Daniels Series, which showcase his own unique, disturbing take on the serial killer genre.

In 2010, we wrote a novella together called SERIAL UNCUT (available on Amazon), combining some of the characters from his work and my work, including Jack Daniels, Taylor (from AFRAID and TRAPPED, written under Joe’s pen name, Jack Kilborn), and Mr. K. It also features Orson Thomas and Luther Kite from DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS.

Joe approached me with a simple, yet unique, idea: Wouldn't it be fun to have Jack and Luther square off in a full length novel? I was all for it. That novel is STIRRED, which we're currently writing.

If you're new to my books, or Joe's books, and want to get caught up on the entire history of these characters before reading STIRRED, here is the order they go in, along with the characters they spotlight:

SHOT OF TEQUILA by JA Konrath (1991, Jack Daniels)

DESERT PLACES by Blake Crouch (1996, Luther Kite)

LOCKED DOORS by Blake Crouch (2003, Luther Kite)

WHISKEY SOUR by JA Konrath (2004, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)

BLOODY MARY by JA Konrath (2005, Jack Daniels)

RUSTY NAIL by JA Konrath (2006, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)

DIRTY MARTINI by JA Konrath (2007, Jack Daniels)

SERIAL UNCUT by Black Crouch, Jack Kilborn, and JA Konrath (1978-2010, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite, Taylor, Mr. K)

AFRAID by Jack Kilborn (2008, Taylor)

JACK DANIELS STORIES by JA Konrath (2004-2010, Jack Daniels)

FUZZY NAVEL by JA Konrath (2008, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)

CHERRY BOMB by JA Konrath (2009, Jack Daniels, Alex Kork)

TRAPPED by Jack Kilborn (2010, Taylor)

SHAKEN by JA Konrath (2010, Jack Daniels, Mr. K, Luther Kite)

STIRRED by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath (2011, Jack Daniels, Luther Kite)

This may seem like a devious effort by us to get you to buy everything we've written. I swear it isn't. If it was, I would have mentioned Joe’s novels ORIGIN, DISTURB, THE LIST, and ENDURANCE, and my novels ABANDON and SNOWBOUND.

Seriously, though. It really isn't necessary for you to read any of these previous novels to enjoy STIRRED.

But we'd love you even more if you did. :)

Blake Crouch, 10/2/10

Durango, CO

DESERT PLACES

Published in January 2004 by Thomas Dunne Books

DESCRIPTION: Andrew Z. Thomas is a successful writer of suspense thrillers, living the dream at his lake house in the piedmont of North Carolina. One afternoon in late spring, he receives a bizarre letter that eventually threatens his career, his sanity, and the lives of everyone he loves. A murderer is designing his future, and for the life of him, Andrew can’t get away.

Harrowing...terrific...a whacked out combination of Stephen King and Cormac McCarthy.

PAT CONROY

[C]arried by rich, image-filled prose. Crouch will handcuff you, blindfold you, throw you in the trunk of a car, and drag you kicking and screaming through a story so intense, so emotionally packed, that you will walk away stunned.