David Baldacci
Hour Game
The second book in the Sean King and Michelle Maxwell series
This novel is dedicated to
Harry L. Carrico
Jane Giles
And to the memory of Mary Rose Tatum
Three of the finest people I have ever known
CHAPTER 1
THE MAN IN THE RAIN SLICKER WALKED slightly bent over, his breathing labored and his body sweaty. The extra weight he was bearing, though not all that substantial, was awkwardly placed, and the terrain was uneven. It was never an easy thing to tote a dead body through the woods in the middle of the night. He shifted the corpse to his left shoulder and trudged on. The soles of his shoes bore no distinguishing marks; not that it would have mattered, since the rain quickly washed away any traces of footprints. He’d checked the forecast; the rain was why he was here. The inclement weather was the best friend he could ask for.
Aside from the dead body draped over his sturdy shoulder, the man was also remarkable for the black hood he wore, on which was stitched an esoteric symbol that ran down the length of the cloth. It was a circle with a crosshairs through its middle. Probably instantly recognizable to anyone over the age of fifty, the logo once inspired a dread that had significantly eroded with time. It didn’t matter that no one “alive” would see him wearing the hood; he took grim satisfaction in its lethal symbolism.
Within ten minutes he’d reached the location he’d carefully selected on an earlier visit, and laid the body down with a reverence that belied the violent manner in which the person had died. He took a deep breath and held it as he undid the telephone wire holding the bundle closed, and unwrapped the plastic. She was young with features that had been attractive two days prior; the woman was not much to look at now. The soft blond hair fell away from the greenish-tinged skin, revealing closed eyes and bloated cheeks. Had the
eyes been open, they might have still held the startled gaze of the deceased as she endured her own murder, an experience replicated roughly thirty thousand times each year in America.
He slid the plastic all the way free and laid the woman on her back. Then he let out his breath, fought the urge to retch caused by the stench of the body, and sucked in another lungful of air. Using one of his gloved hands and his light, he searched for and found the small, forked branch that he’d earlier placed in the bramble nearby. He used this to support the woman’s forearm, which he’d positioned such that it was pointing to the sky. The body’s rigor mortis, though rapidly fading, had made the task difficult, but he was strong and had finally levered the stiffened limb to the correct angle. He took the watch out of his pocket, checked with his flashlight to make sure it was set properly, and placed it around the dead woman’s wrist.
Though far from a religious man, he knelt over the body and muttered a brief prayer, cupping his hand over his mouth and nose as he did so.
“You weren’t directly responsible, but you were all I had. You didn’t die in vain. And I believe you’re actually better off.” Did he really believe what he had just said? Maybe not. Maybe it didn’t matter.
He looked at the dead woman’s face, studying her features scrupulously as though a scientist observing a particularly fascinating experiment. He had never killed another person before. He’d made it quick and, he hoped, painless. In the dull, misty night the woman seemed surrounded by a yellowish glow, as though she’d already become a spirit.
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