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Category: Mystery/Crime/Suspense/Thriller
Description: June Johnson seeks excitement as she leaves behind small town Minnesota for San Francisco. But big city life brings along with it blood and terror as she witnesses a gang murder. Under The Witness Protection Program US Marshall Durst leads June through four identities only one step ahead of the deadly gang. She mutates from country girl to chic city model and back to country girl again. Along the way she meets a lover and as they create a home and serenity together in a cabin in Wisconsin, Durst is revealed as a fraud and is murdered. Now embracing small town living June and her lover must escape, using all they have learned to create new identities and a life together.
eBook Publisher: Whiskey Creek Press, 2010
eBookwise Release Date: August 2010

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [300 KB]
Words: 64132
Reading time: 183-256 min.

Chapter 1

A tuft of wool carpet tickled May's nose. The scent of Carpet Fresh and something like flesh filled her nostrils. Everything hurt. Her naked body trembled at the wetness on her skin. Her right eye buried in the rug, she dared not move but opened her left eye. Red--all she could see was blood. Slowly she concentrated on the real pain. She took mental inventory of each body part. Only her left shoulder in pain.

Am I shot shot or just bruised from the fall from the bed?

"What's going on in here?"

A new voice. Strong, kind, and commanding.

May tried to concentrate on the voice. Aldo had taught her to read voices. For hours they would sit in a restaurant or airport, take turns closing their eyes and identifying by voice the type of person talking. Size, stature, even personality traits. They'd honed the voice reading to an art.

This new voice sounded self-assured, not filled with fear like the others.

"U.S. Marshall Charles Durst. Get away from that body; get the coroner in here."

"Yes, sir, but I think this one's alive, sir," the frightened man who smelled like aftershave practically whimpered. "I'll get the--"

"You'll get the coroner, like I said."

The officer's gun belt creaked as he rose beside her.

Brown loafers neared her face. A tan-clothed knee hit the floor.

"Close those eyes and don't move a muscle. Play dead or you will be," the kind voice whispered near her ear.

She winced as his hand checked her pulse. He smeared away blood from her right arm and her left thigh as if checking for wounds.

But the officers were here. He said they were the police..

Her eyelids trembled as she tried not to squeeze them too tightly, tried not to move. Her whole body shuddered under her skin.

Her ears rang with the intensity of listening as he stood and walked to the foot of the bed. "What are you waiting for?" the gentle voice boomed across the room. "Go with your partner; I'll watch the scene."

No, no. It's like the movie Buried Alive. He's going to have me zipped into a body bag.

"But what are you going to do with that blanket?" the other frightened voice protested.

"I said, I'll watch the crime scene, now go."

A blanket, he's going to cover my body so they won't know I'm alive.

"Up, up," he commanded her.

May lay waiting--waiting to die.

"I don't think you're hit. Can you walk? We'll have to wrap you in this blanket. If you can't walk, I'll carry you."

May rolled to a sitting position and tried to stand. A pool of blood on the bed. She caught a glimpse of a tuft of black curly hair sticking out from under the blood-soaked sheet.

"Aldo," she gasped, pulling in a deep breath that hurt to the pit of her stomach.

Before she could get the words out, the blanket wrapped around her body and she felt herself being thrown over his shoulder.

"No, please, please, I'll walk." When he'd said carry, she envisioned being cradled in his arms. Hanging upside down like a sack of potatoes intensified the pain in her head.

"That quilt. We have to take the quilt," May demanded.