Peak Road - A Short Thriller (Jon Stanton Mysteries Book 10) Read Online Free Page B

other passengers. The flight wasn’t packed, and we had a row of three seats to ourselves, so we sat with an empty seat between us. Mickey’s watch beeped; he took out an amber bottle of large pills and asked the flight attendant for some water. She brought a small bottle, and he popped the pills then swallowed them with the water. It looked almost painful.
    “How is everything?”
    “Good as can be. Most doctors didn’t predict I would live as long as I have, and now I’m out parasailing. You ever been parasailing?”
    “No.”
    “It’s quiet up there. You get high enough and come near the boat, you can’t see it anymore, and it looks like you’re flying. All you hear is the wind, the sunshine on your face… I do it at least three or four times a month.”
    He paused for a second, and I could tell he was somewhere else—back home maybe, with his new wife. The case must’ve really pained him to pull him away from that.
    “Tell me how they died,” I said.
    “He came in through the basement window. Basement windows were shattered in both homes, and in the Noels’ home, too. Didn’t bother to slide it open or use a glass cutter. He crashed through.”
    “Were you able to get any blood off the shards?”
    He shook his head. “No. He must’ve been wearing something protective or maybe threw something against the window first. But once he got in, it was quick. He went to the first bedroom he could find. In the Wyatts’ home, that was their children’s room. They had bunk beds. Their throats were ripped out. Mr. Wyatt was killed next, in the same way. He spent most of his time with Mrs. Wyatt. There was evidence that he had attempted to rape her, but there was no evidence he succeeded.
    “The Roths’ murders were nearly identical. They had four children, all killed in the same manner. One of the kids was found in the closet. We think the boy heard something and tried to hide, but the killer found him. Same thing with Mrs. Roth—an attempted rape, but no actual bruising or tears.”
    “He was impotent.”
    Mickey nodded. “That’s what I thought. This was before Viagra. Wasn’t much help a man could get back then. The Noels, I’m told, were the same thing. They found some evidence that he had attempted to rape Mrs. Noel, but no bruising or tears. Doesn’t look like Viagra made much of a difference to him.”
    Now that everyone had boarded, the engines revved, and the captain made an announcement that the plane would be lifting off in two minutes and landing in McCarran Airport in Las Vegas around noon.
    “Did you have anybody you were looking at?” I asked.
    He shook his head, taking another sip of water, then replaced the cap and set the bottle down next to him. “The whole damn town was suspect. Despite being only a few hours away from Las Vegas, it’s actually a backward place. One sheriff for the whole town, one doctor, one school for pre-school through high school. It reminds me of a snapshot from a hundred years ago.” He paused. “There was one guy—Earl Kaiser, the town mechanic. Young kid, maybe twenty at the time. He had a lewdness charge and several assaults on his record. Those charges weren’t alarming, but everyone knew who the judge and sheriff were in that town. For them to actually convict one of their own, I’m guessing, took a lot. For every conviction, there were probably ten other offenses that got warnings.”
    The plane lunged forward, and I felt the tires lift from the ground. My stomach twisted at the unusual sensation of becoming airborne. Mickey was staring out the window. A bruise on his right wrist wasn’t large, but it looked out of place on his tanned skin. I remembered Mickey then as the young, fiery special agent who wouldn’t take no for an answer—not from anybody. He was larger than life, but I’d always seen past that. Deep in his core, in a place that he refused to show anyone, he was lonely. Since his wife’s passing, a deep sense of solitude had