For Those In Peril (Book 1): For Those In Peril On The Sea Read Online Free Page B

path through the bushes for about half a mile to where it disappeared round a corner.
    ‘I’m going to take a look at the truck.’
    I didn’t know what it would tell us but I followed Jon as he walked over to it. The truck was an ancient pickup, the red paint faded and speckled with rust. There was a large dent in its tailgate and one of the rear lights was broken. Apart from that, it looked in reasonable condition for its age. As we neared, I saw that the driver’s door lay open, the glass from its broken window scattered amongst the stones on the ground. There was something that looked very much like blood smeared across the vinyl seats, as if someone had been dragged out by force, and the keys were still in the ignition.
    Jon’s eyes widened as his eyes shifted from the truck to me and back again. ‘What d’you think happened here?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ As I spoke I felt a sense of unease rising within me.
    ‘What now?’ Jon was staring down the road as if expecting someone to appear suddenly.
    ‘I guess we find somewhere to leave a note.’
    I headed back to the first house with Jon following behind. Once there, we ambled along the veranda that surrounded it, searching for any clues that would tell us where the lighthouse keepers were. On the far side of the building there was another door. I knocked, but again there was no response. I leant on the wooden balustrade that surrounded the veranda and looked out across the landscape, wondering what to do next. The land dropped away immediately below the building and a set of concrete steps led down to an outhouse. Along its roof, little brown lizards scuttled as they displayed to each other. Beyond that, the land disappeared off towards the horizon in a series of low, rolling hills covered with scrubby bushes. The green expanse of land made a pleasant change after weeks of nothing but featureless sea.
    I heard the door creak open behind me and turned to see Jon with his hand on the latch.
    ‘You can’t just go wandering into someone’s home, especially when they’re not there.’
    ‘It wasn’t like it was locked.’ Jon was about to step inside when he hesitated, ‘What the hell?’
    I looked past him into a kitchen that had been turned upside down. Pots and pans were scattered across the floor, interspersed with fragments of broken crockery. A door to a store cupboard lay open, revealing that its contents had been pulled hurriedly from the shelves. A table and chairs were stacked against a second door on the far side of the room and the cooker was pushed up against them as if someone had tried to make a barricade. The walls were covered with red smears, while several pools of what looked like congealing blood lay on the floor. Whatever the people had been trying to keep out must have found another way in.
    ‘Rob, is that what I think it is?’ Jon was nervous.
    ‘Yeah, I think so.’
    ‘Where d’you think it came from?’
    ‘I have no idea.’
    ‘Should we check the rest of the house? See if anyone’s injured?’
    ‘I guess so.’
    Despite this, we remained in the doorway, neither of us wanting to be the first to step inside. Rather than enter, I decided to walk round the outside, pausing at each window to cup my hands against the glass and peer inside. I found no one but I could see the contents of each room were strewn across the floor, and furniture piled up near the doors. The only difference was that in these rooms the makeshift barriers had been pushed away as if someone, or something, had forced its way in. In all of them, there was red spattered on whitewashed walls, and dark pools on the floor. Once back at the kitchen door, I stopped and scanned the surrounding landscape again. Other than the lighthouse buildings, there wasn’t a single trace of human habitation in sight. The solitude that had seemed so appealing when we first arrived now felt oppressive.
    ‘Jesus, Rob, that’s a lot of blood.’
    ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t know what