Big Three-Thriller Bundle Box Collection

by Gordon Kessler

  “Raptor! Help, raptor attack!” the boy yelled frantically, gasping for air.

  He shoved the chair out of the way with his forearm and scampered out from behind it, opposite the dog.

  Running across the sofa, he leaped between the sofa back and a lamp on a stand beside it. The St. Bernard bolted across the room, barking in the excitement of the chase. It also bounded onto the sofa and brushed by the lamp, knocking it to the floor with a shattering crash.

  *-*-*

  “All right, you two, no more late night horror shows for you,” Tony Parker said sternly.

  He walked through the living room doorway from the kitchen with a newspaper in his hand. After yanking the cord from the wall outlet, he picked the broken lamp up from the floor and wondered if there might still be enough Super Glue left in the kitchen drawer to fix the thing for a third time.

  He set the lamp on a nearby chair then reached to the end table and picked up the phone. His wavy, dark-brown hair and tanned skin contrasted with the white T-shirt he also wore, minus the grape juice. His broad shoulders and muscular biceps stretched the tight knit fabric, and it hung loosely only at the waist, although, a bit of a paunch showed around his middle.

  “Hello, hello—? I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Can you hold on just a minute?”

  Parker tucked the newspaper under his arm and cupped one hand over the phone.

  “Honey, can you do something about all this noise? I’m on the phone!” he yelled out, hoping his wife Julie would come to his rescue.

  With no answer, he quickly set the phone and paper down and took the matter into his own hands as the two primary offenders ran by. He snatched up his son and swung him gently to his knees. Grabbing the collar of the St. Bernard at full locomotion proved a much more difficult task, but he managed with a strained grunt.

  “That’s enough, Nick! Settle down, I’m on the phone!”

  Nicholas glanced up solemnly, head bowed. The dog mimicked him with a similar, but much sadder, look. Parker released the two culprits and scanned the room for the TV remote. As usual, it was nowhere in sight. He picked up the phone, put a finger in one ear and raised the receiver to the other.

  “Come on, Yankee,” Nicholas yelled, escaping through the doorway with the dog close behind. “Now, you can be Alien!”

  “I’m sorry, go ahead.” Parker shook his head.

  “Yeah, Mr. Parker?”

  “Hi Chin.” Parker recognized the voice of Tommy Chin, a twenty-five-year-old Vietnamese immigrant and his second in command. “Excuse the noise. What’s up?”

  “We just received a call from a woman out in Sand Creek. Skunk. I thought you might want to go since it’s closest to your end of town,” Chin said.

  “Yeah sure, I’ll run out there first. I was just getting ready to hit the door. Got a name?”

  “The caller is a Mrs. Bumfield, second house, south end of town.”

  “Since there’re only about a dozen houses in that entire town, she shouldn’t be hard to find. I’ll take care of it and be in soon.” Parker hung up.

  “Julie! Jooolee!” he called, looking up the stairs to the second floor bedrooms.

  He turned to check the kitchen and bumped into her, the baby in her arms. Julie’s beauty showed through her lightly wrinkled face, distressed dishwater-blonde hair, and food-splattered blouse. Laugh lines accentuated her polished-brown eyes.

  “Whoa, I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ve got to go,” he said with his hands on her arms. “Hey, my letter to the editor made this morning’s paper.”

  Julie’s eyes rolled. “Oh boy, are you ready for the flak?”

  “I wouldn’t have sent it in if I wasn’t.”

  “By the way,” Julie said in a reprimanding tone, “you left the seat up on the toilet again this morning.”

  Parker chuckled. “Uh-oh, was the water cold? You didn’t get stuck, did you?”

  Julie frowned. “It’s not funny, Tony Parker. I’ll get even someday.”

  “Oooh, I’m shakin’.” He kissed little Audrey on her baby food-smeared face and then his unprepared wife on the lips with a smack. “Mmm, bananas, my favorite.”

  Parker broke away and scooped up his truck keys along with a seldom-used pager from the kitchen counter. He hated pagers. To him, being tied down with telephones and radios was bad enough. After stepping into the adjoining laundry room, he picked a black name badge off a shelf over the dryer and then grabbed a freshly ironed, light blue uniform shirt from a hanger on a closet rod to the side. He put the shirt on quickly and pinned on the badge as he passed Julie and headed for the front door. The badge read T. PARKER in big white letters.

  “You oughta be shaking,” Julie scolded as he walked by. She kicked him in the butt softly. “Now get out of here.”

  “Tell Nick ‘bye for me, will you?” he said, walking by the stairs.

  “Graaa! I’m going to eat you!” Nicholas yelled, jumping onto his father’s back, his arms wrapping around his neck.

  “Why, you little booger.” Parker pulled his son around to his chest. “Where’d you come from?”

  “I’m not a booger. I’m a ill-a-jitmut alien,” Nicholas exclaimed, “and I’m going to eat you!”

  “Not if I eat you first!” Parker snarled back. He put his lips on his son’s neck and blew, making a loud, flatulent sound.

  Nicholas erupted in ecstatic giggles.

  “Besides, I think you mean an illegal alien, and they don’t eat people, you poor confused child.”

  “Yeah, but ill-a-jitmut aliens do!”

  “We’ll have to discuss this later. I’ve got to go, you vicious alien.” Parker flipped his son upside down and then set him gently on his feet. “I’ll finish eating you tonight.”

  “Okay, Daddy,” Nicholas said cheerfully. “Then we can play a game. I know, Dweebs, Geeks, and Weird-oooos!”

  “I can’t wait.” Tony looked at Julie with a reluctant smile.

  Julie returned an understanding grin. “Have a good day—and be careful, darling. Oh, and remind everyone at work about our anniversary picnic on Sunday. Find out how many might show up.”

  Tony gave her his most charming smile, pursed his lips and then ducked out the door. He hustled out to the white, four-wheel-drive GMC Jimmy truck with a big Sedgwick County Animal Control sign on the side, and he drove off.

  *-*-*

  Julie Parker carried Audrey up the stairs to the master bathroom. She set her daughter on a fluffy, sky-blue bath mat and began drawing water in the tub.

  “Time for your bath, young lady.” She started pulling the little girl’s pajamas off. Audrey gurgled a happy reply.

  Julie’s mind drifted back to the many trying times she and Tony had seen. Things would be better soon. They had to be. They’d been through so much. Now their luck would change. They finally had control of their lives, and they seemed headed in the right direction.

  Tony and Julie had been sweethearts since high school, with a long, four-year intermission when he joined the Marines. They’d decided a commitment during that time wouldn’t be fair to either of them. When he came home, they realized they had been miserable the whole time, and they married two years later. Nicholas came along just after Tony finished college and was working for Sedgwick County as an animal control officer. Julie was teaching third grade at a local public school. When Nick was not quite a year old, Tony went back to school at Kansas State, a hundred and forty miles away, to get his doctor’s degree in veterinary medicine. It was a three-year, post-graduate program, and he could only come home on the weekends. It had been tough on both of them, but they hoped the sacrifice would be worthwhile someday.

  Then, just two years ago, Julie found out she was pregnant, and there were complications. Tony quit school to be with the family and was fortunate enough to hook the Sedgwick County Animal Control Director’s job. He only had a year left of vet school, but they hoped he’d be able to go back within a couple of years.

  They had spent many sleepless nights
watching over little, three-pound Audrey, struggling for life in the terrible contraption that confined her. Julie remembered the many tears they’d shed. A clear-plastic-covered incubator seemed an awful place for an innocent, fragile baby girl.

  Having a preemie, teetering on the edge of life and death, had been a terrible, anxious time. Not having adequate insurance to cover the huge medical expenses only added to the stress. Now, at sixteen months, Audrey grew strong and healthy and had been out of the hospital for nearly a year, but her parents were still overly protective. A sniffle, a cough, a slight fever, and they rushed to the emergency room in a race for life.

  Tony landing the Director’s job was the one lucky break they’d had for some time. Being the chief dogcatcher wasn’t a terribly dangerous job. He’d been bitten a couple of times: once, by an overexcited Chihuahua, and another time by a frightened Siamese cat. Nothing even close to life threatening had happened, but still, Julie worried.

  CHAPTER 2

  “AC One to dispatch,” Tony Parker called over the microphone as he picked up speed and switched on his emergency lights.

  “Dispatcher,” a female voice answered. “Go ahead, Mr. Parker.”

  “Good morning, Janet. Just checking in. I’m proceeding to the call in Sand Creek.”

  “Ten-four, AC One. Be advised AC Four is also proceeding to the scene and has requested you meet at Fifty-third and Meridian to ride together.”

  Sarah! What’s that little vixen going to do to try to fluster me this time?

  Parker grinned. “All right, Janet. Thanks. AC One out.”

  Sarah Hill had become Tony Parker’s right hand over the last year and a half since she’d come on board as one of Sedgwick County’s fourteen animal control officers. Just out of college with a zoology degree, she was sharp and great with animals. She didn’t need to be told what to do. She and Tony worked well together and shared some sort of chemistry.

  He loved Julie deeply and had since high school. He needed her. She was a solid place to go when he needed strength. He depended upon her to be there always to listen to his complaints about the world and to defend him blindly when he found himself against the odds. But the passion seemed to be growing stale, withering. Their sex life had become too predictable, ordinary, expected, like the old weekly bath, taken every Saturday night whether needed or not.

  Sarah was fresh and different, exciting and youthful. She made Parker feel young when she teased and flirted with him. To imagine he could have her at the snap of a finger excited him. Yet, he knew nothing would ever happen. It gave him a sense of security in his married life, a feeling he could never have if he were to have an affair. After all, he spent all of his off time with his family, and the only occasions he was with Sarah, they were busy working.

  *-*-*

  Sarah Hill sat parked and waiting in her baby blue Ford van at the convenience store on the corner of Fifty-third and Meridian Streets. Parker pulled in alongside, and Hill hopped out of her animal-control van, purse in hand, and trotted over to the Jimmy’s passenger side.

  Parker watched as she passed by the front of the Jimmy. He stared at her features: the long, soft, light-blonde hair tucked under the dark-blue Sedgwick County Animal Control cap; the tanned face, pudding smooth with delicate features; the large, vibrant-blue eyes; the generous breasts jiggling under the light-blue blouse as she trotted; the slim but nicely rounded butt poured into dark-blue slacks— the perfect definition of tight ass. She had a body that looked great, even hidden in the two-tone blue uniform that must have been tailor fit—none of the other women officers modeled theirs so well.

  She jumped in.

  “Hi, handsome,” Sarah Hill said in her perky voice. “How about giving a girl a ride?”

  “Morning, Sarah,” he said, as he thought, You’re as unbelievably beautiful as always.

  Parker pulled onto the gravel road and headed north toward Sand Creek.

  “Skunk, huh?” Hill wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather take on a bear. It takes forever to get rid of that nasty smell.”

  “Yeah, and they’ve really been bad this season. Still better than dealing with the average human, though. Ninety-nine percent are assholes. But animals are different. They aren’t naturally corrupt like people. They’re kind of innocent.”

  “Well, you’re in a warm and fuzzy mood this morning. But that’s what I like about you, Tone.” Sarah Hill smiled. “You and I think a lot alike. We have the same passion for animals. Not so much of a passion for our fellow man though.”

  Parker nodded. “It’s the masters who are the problem, not the pets. Most people don’t understand that about us heartless dogcatchers. They think we enjoy chasing and putting down their beloved but neglected pets. They let them run loose only to get run over or poisoned. They abandon them to become a nuisance and eventually starve. They train them to be vicious, causing people to misunderstand and fear them. They don’t get them the proper vaccinations, so their animals get infections and diseases. They don’t spay or neuter them, so their pets give birth to more deprived and unwanted animals. The average animal owner is as irresponsible with their pets as they are with themselves.”

  Hill chuckled. “Wow, we’re getting deep. It’s too early in the morning to think this serious. By the way, I liked your letter to the editor.”

  “Oh, you saw it? Thanks.” At least someone appreciated it.

  Sarah Hill’s attention went to her hands. “Ah man! My hands look like hell.” She opened her purse and took out a tube of lotion. “The damned apartment manager still hasn’t gotten anybody to fix my frickin’ dishwasher.” She popped the lid back, squirted out a generous amount and began rubbing her hands together.

  She glanced over at Parker’s hands on the steering wheel. “Damn, Tone, talk about lobster hands.”

  “What?” Parker said. “They’re not so bad.”

  “Let me see.” Hill pried his right hand from the wheel. “Relax, loosen up. I’m not going to bite you—yet.”

  Parker frowned at her.

  “What you need is some of this organic hand lotion. It has aloe in it. Great stuff.”

  She began rubbing the lotion into his hand. It smelled sweet, like fresh, sliced peaches. It felt nice, sensual somehow. He liked it, but he shouldn’t. He was a married man. Having his hand rubbed by a beautiful young woman seemed a little adulterous—maybe.

  Hill grinned. “Nothing like a good, old fashion hand job, huh Tone?”

  “Sarah!” Parker said in the same tone he used to tell Nicholas not to be naughty.

  She paid no attention. “You have such big, strong hands. Big— long fingers.” Sarah rubbed firmly. She rubbed and massaged his hand. Each finger, one at a time. Rubbing the slick warm lotion into his skin. Each finger, rubbing, massaging, squeezing. Rubbing back and forth, up and down, massaging, squeezing, milking each finger with both hands.

  “Okay, I think that one’s done.” She helped to put his now limp hand back on the wheel as if it had become disabled.

  “Sarah,” Parker started again, “I don’t think you ought to do this.”

  “Sheesh, Tone, lighten up,” Hill said in her playful voice. “Does Julie have that short a leash on you? I mean, it’s not like you’re banging me on the hood of the truck or something.”

  What an idea! Parker thought.

  “Come on, hand it over,” She insisted. “You can’t go around with one soft hand and one like an armadillo paw.”

  That was reasonable. Besides, it did feel very good. Parker frowned but brought his left hand across slowly. Hill squirted out more lotion and massaged it in.

  “Mmmm,” she said. “Now tell the truth. Doesn’t that feel good?”

  Parker shrugged. Admitting it would make him responsible for what was happening.

  “This lotion is all natural, you know. You can use it on other parts of your body, too—anywhere. And it’s edible.” She smiled up at Parker, scooting closer while putting everything into rubbing the slick lotion into his
hand.

  “Sarah, I’m a happily married man,” Parker objected. “A wife and two kids. Hell, I’m old enough to be your father. Well, almost.”

  Massaging, rubbing, squeezing. “Relax, sweetheart. All I’m doing is putting lotion on your hand,” she said softly. “You act like I’m getting to you. Like I’m trying to talk you into something you want to do.”

  Parker sighed, frustrated for words.

  “All right, Tony, I’ll confess. I am after you. But, if you didn’t like it, you could have stopped me a long time ago—months ago, couldn’t you? Come on now, tell the truth.” She grinned again.

  “Why me, Sarah?”

  “Like I said, we have the same passion for the underdog. Besides, I’m attracted to you. You aren’t a bad lookin’ man, Tony Parker. And that little bit of gray sprinkled on your sideburns doesn’t say ‘old man’ to me. It says ‘experienced.’”

  Gray? Is it that noticeable? Old man?

  She massaged, rubbed, squeezed, milked—masturbated every finger. Her touch was firm, yet tender, and she was very good with it.

  “Such big, strong hands.” She smiled up at Parker and then drew her face near his hand with lips parted.

  Parker’s jaw dropped and he stared. No! She’s not going to . . . !

  Hill kissed the end of Parker’s middle finger. She licked it slowly up and down.

  He couldn’t speak.

  She took his finger into her warm, moist mouth, drawing it slowly up past the second knuckle. She began sucking and moving her tongue around it.

  Lord! Can a man have an orgasm from having his finger sucked?

  An air horn blasted.

  Parker looked up to see the front grill of a Mack cement mixer. He’d crossed over into its path.