Destroying Angel Read Online Free Page B

of his boots. He grabbed the rope and wrapped it around his forearm and then felt for the knots. He half slid, half climbed to the bottom. His feet slipped on something soft. He reached out to steady himself on the wall and touched something damp and slimy. He disturbed a cloud of flies that soared up toward the opening of the sinkhole.
    The stench at the bottom was like a physical presence. It surrounded him, filled his mouth and lungs. His eyes adjusted tothe gloom. The first thing he saw was a deer carcass, the hide stripped back and hunks of meat cut off its haunches. The rest squirmed with maggots. Tin cans were piled high in one corner. A bucket overflowing with human waste sat in another, together with three five-gallon water jugs, one of which held cloudy water. The other two were filled with urine. A rabbit skull, the bones of birds and rodents. There was a black rag that smelled of urine and blood, blankets so filthy that at first he took them for another dead animal.
    He’d been down for only a few seconds, and already he needed out. He grabbed the rope and scrambled to get his feet on the knots. He made it halfway up and then lost his grip and slid back to the bottom, where he landed in the filth and almost lost his balance.
    “You okay down there, buddy?” Krantz asked.
    “Help me out of here.”
    Krantz grabbed the top of the rope and pulled as Jacob scrambled back up. In a few seconds he was out. He staggered several feet away, then sat and kicked off the plastic bags. He peeled off the surgical mask, took the water bottle Eliza offered from her pack, swished his mouth, and spat. He used the rest of the water to rinse his hands. Krantz removed another garbage sack, placed it on his hand, and picked up the filthy ones that had been on Jacob’s feet. He turned the whole thing inside out and tied it off.
    “Pretty nasty,” Krantz said. “Sorry.”
    “Nothing to be sorry about. You warned me.” Jacob took a second water bottle his sister offered. He rinsed again and poured water over his face. What he needed was to get home, strip, and take a hot shower.
    “Nobody can live like that,” he said.
    Eliza took back the bottle. “Yes, they can.” She looked unsettled, and he wondered again about her time in the desert outside Las Vegas. Had it been like that?
    “And he went down there willingly,” Jacob said. “I can’t get over that part.”
    “He must have been down there for weeks,” Krantz said. “Ran there after last summer’s attack and stayed there until the search fizzled out.”
    “Longer than a few weeks, I’d say. Did you see the dead deer? Maggots are still going to town. If that had been there a year, it would be gone by now, nothing but bones.”
    “You think he stayed through until spring?” Eliza said. “It was a cold winter.”
    Krantz shook his head. “No way. Too wet, too icy. A man couldn’t survive that.”
    Jacob thought it out. “Let’s say he has this place set aside, just in case. Water, food. After we chase him away from the chapel, he climbs inside and hides. Figures he can wait until the FBI gives up the search.”
    “Makes sense,” Krantz said. “The rock would hide him from infrared from the helicopters.”
    “Except he has to stay down there longer than he thought. He never expected the search to go on so long. They sealed the valley for, what, three months?”
    “Longer. Fayer closed the office around Halloween, remember? Biggest terrorist attack since nine-eleven. They’re still looking for him.”
    “Still, I was surprised. Most of the victims were polygamists. People figure we have it coming.”
    “Go back to the deer,” Eliza said. “How did he get that?”
    “Let’s say he runs out of food,” Jacob said. “It was a wet summer, so he’s okay for water. Maybe he comes out when there are no helicopters and refills his jug from these smaller sinkholes. But after a while he needs to eat. He traps a mule deer and hauls it back into his hiding