Stone Eater (Will Finch Mystery Thriller Series Book 2)
Page 21
All fine and good, Alexei thought as he curled his freezing fingers into the palms of his hands. But now that he stood here alone, stood here watching the white hare struggling in the wire noose, how was he to do it? How to bring this swift and merciful death to the animal twitching in utter exhaustion before him?
But he knew the answer. When enough time had passed, when he understood the terror in the animal’s eyes — and after he realized that if he released this wounded creature from the snare he would condemn it to a horrible death in the teeth of a fox or wolf — then Alexei unbuttoned his parka and from the holster on his belt he drew the Nagant pistol that Ded Vitaly had given him that morning after breakfast. His feet rose and fell through the heavy snowpack as he approached the hare. He counted the eleven steps that carried him within inches of the animal. He pointed the barrel of the pistol at the creature’s soaking head. He saw the thin sheen of ice that coated the whiskers stemming from the hare’s snout. The animal was already half frozen to death. Then Alexei paused, cocked the weapon and murmured a brief prayer.
“You have been given to me and it is right that I should take you.”
He fired the Nagant and the recoil snapped his hand backward. Immediately a second — accidental — round discharged into the gray winter sky. He felt the air compress as the stray bullet passed his cheek. In the hills above the open field behind him he heard both shots echo twice: CRACK-crack, CRACK-crack.
“That could have been you!” He brushed his cheek with his mitten and checked it for blood. Nothing. “Lucky.” He admonished himself and swore to be more careful next time.
Then he drew the game bag from his backpack, leaned over and extracted the hare from the wire snare. He took a few seconds to inspect where the bullet had penetrated the skull and then set the carcass in the hopsack. He took another moment to consider how he felt. His first kill on his own; it should feel special he thought. But since he couldn’t feel much more than the cold in his hands and feet, he reset the trap, set fresh bait on both sides of the wire noose and moved up the trap line to the next snare.
An hour later he’d taken three rabbits from the snares. He moved along the forest edge keeping the snow-covered pasture on his left. The cold had numbed his arms and legs now and he knew enough not to let the chill enter his chest and belly. Another ten minutes, he decided, and he would turn back to the dacha.
As he approached the fourth trap he hesitated. Was someone ahead of him? A poacher pulling something from the snare? He stood at the side of a fir tree and studied the thief from the distance. He could make out someone in a dark coat leaning over his prey, tugging hungrily at the dead creature. Alexei gripped the pistol in his hand and wondered what to do. Rather than shoot first, he should call out to the poacher. Maybe he could explain himself, explain this brazen theft.
“Hey, you! That’s my trap you’re messing with!”
The figure stood, turned to face him with a brief snarl.
A bear.
Alexei felt his heart stop, then beat in double-time as a burst of adrenalin pulsed through his body. He stood his ground and leveled the pistol at the beast. A moment of silence passed between them, a hesitation in which Alexei tried to guess the distance to the bear and wondered if the three shots left in the Nagant could save him if the bear attacked. More important, could he steady his hand and wait for the bear to charge within a meter of his shaking body — and then fire all three shots into the beast’s snarling mouth?
The bear lifted his nose to the wind. His nostrils flared, his long tongue licked a spittle of blood from his snout. He appeared to be considering a decision. After another hesitation he returned his attention to the raw feast laying in the snow at his feet.
Alexei took a backward step. Then another. When he’d retraced his path to the big fir tree near the third trap, he turned and began to plod forward through the snow, setting his feet into the foot holes he’d created during the trek out to the forest. After twenty minutes he felt his body relax and the fear subside. The encounter now seemed more like a dream than a threat. Had it really happened? Yes. If the bear had charged him could he have killed it? Yes, he could do that, he assured himself. He knew how to kill now and could do it whenever the need arose.
One billion dollars. Two killers. Three ways to die.
Will Finch and Eve Noon bait the trap. But could their clever ploy trigger catastrophe when two killers battle for a billion dollar prize? Or can Will and Eve defeat their most cunning adversary yet?
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Read the Complete Will Finch Trilogy
Bone Maker — A death in the wilderness. A woman mourns alone. A reporter works a single lead. Can Will Finch break the story of murder and massive financial fraud? Or will he become the Bone Maker’s next victim?
Stone Eater — A reporter on the rebound. An ex-cop with nothing to lose. A murder they can only solve together. Sparks fly when Will Finch agrees to work with Eve Noon to uncover a murder plot. But can they unmask the Stone Eater before he destroys them both?
Lone Hunter — One billion dollars. Two killers. Three ways to die. Will Finch and Eve Noon bait the trap. But could their clever ploy trigger catastrophe when two killers battle for a billion dollar prize? Or can Will and Eve defeat their most cunning adversary yet?
Enjoy These Other Novels by D. F. Bailey
Fire Eyes — a W.H. Smith First Novel Award finalist
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— Globe and Mail
Healing the Dead
“You start reading Healing the Dead with a gasp and never get a proper chance to exhale.”
— Globe and Mail
The Good Lie
“A tale that looks at a universal theme…that readers are going to love.”
— Boulevard Magazine
Exit from America
“Another great story of moral revelation, despair and redemption by a contemporary master.”
— Lawrence Russell, culturecourt.com
Stone Eater
Copyright © D. F. Bailey 2015: Registration #1125432
ISBN: 978-0-9687283-8-3
Published by CatchwordPublishing.com
Edited by Rick Gibbs
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Stone Eater is a work of fiction. The resemblance of any characters to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Names, characters, places, brands, media, situations, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Acknowledgements — I am extremely grateful to Lawrence Russell and Rick Gibbs for reading the early versions of Stone Eater. Their insights, wisdom and advice were invaluable to me as I worked through the final draft of the novel. — DFB
For more information about D. F. Bailey and to subscribe to his free newsletter, “Digital Words,” visit dfbailey.com.