The Montauk Monster Read Online Free Page B

how could she do that without making a ton of noise?
    Her hand shook so hard, it took her three tries to slip her key into the lock. She gave it a half turn, slow enough so the tumblers didn’t ring out as the door unlocked. She couldn’t keep her eyes from the dark swath by the bushes.
    The dog, or whatever it was, continued to rumble, almost purr, with its waterlogged warning.
    Kelly opened the door.
    The ticking of the grandfather clock echoed in the foyer.
    She took one step across the threshold.
    Something darted out of the bushes, knocking into her leg. She stifled a cry when she felt a sharp stab of pain in her ankle. Off-balance, she tottered on one leg, her wounded ankle hovering off the ground. The welcome mat inside the door slid and she flopped to the ground.
    Tears burned her eyes.
    It bit me!
    There was nothing outside. Whatever it was had taken off.
    Doing her best to hold her breath and keep her tears from completely blurring her vision, she got up and closed the door with a fluid clack .
    The lancing pain in her ankle was unreal. It felt like she’d been stabbed with a hot knife.
    Kelly limped up the stairs, one at a time, pausing to listen for sounds of anyone moving about upstairs.
    By the grace of God, she made it to her room. She grabbed the pj’s she’d left on her dresser and went into her bathroom. Flicking on the light, she almost laughed at herself.
    It was only a scratch. In fact, what felt like a seeping wound was a three-inch welt that had barely broken the skin. One tiny drop of blood sat poised at the corner of the scratch like an expectant tear. She sat on the edge of the tub, doused it with stinging alcohol, patted it dry and put a bandage on, just in case.
    Slipping into her bed, she couldn’t believe how lucky she was, despite her brush with whatever dumb animal had been outside. She’d made it.
    And she had a date with Joey tomorrow.
    By dawn, she wasn’t sure what was keeping her up more, her happiness at reconnecting with her boyfriend, or the growing pain in her ankle.

CHAPTER 4
    By four a.m., there wasn’t much left for Dalton to do. It was too early to play crowd control. Local PD had created a barrier the two news crews couldn’t cross. More would be on the way. A couple of vans with heavy, white satellite dishes on the roof were parked in the Sand Stone Motel’s lot. The ME was with the bodies. All emergency responders were ordered to steer clear of the remains until they could determine if the weird smell coming from the bodies was toxic or not.
    He sat in his car with the door open, listening to a succession of animal disturbance calls from dispatch. After the fourth call, he went to look for Sergeant Campos. He found him talking to the fire chief.
    “Do we have anyone from Animal Control here?” he asked Campos.
    The sergeant narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. “Someone should be here. I asked them to send Anita over about an hour ago. I’d rather this be some kind of animal attack than the work of a psychopath. I haven’t seen her, though.”
    Anita Banks had worked for Animal Control on this end of the island for over twenty years. She was so good at her job that other counties, even neighboring states, brought her in for difficult situations. She’d helped remove several bears from New Jersey suburbs, put down a crazed chimp in upstate New York and handled more cases of rabid animals than anyone could count.
    “Why do you ask?” Campos said.
    “We’ve got four complaints about animals going through garbage and knocking things down in the past hour. The last one was at Shorey Road. If we have a rabid animal on the loose, I want to follow up. I was hoping to grab someone from Animal Control for the ride.”
    Dalton looked over the row of parked vehicles, hoping to spot another county car toward the rear. He was relieved to find not one, but two. Now all he had to do was locate Anita.
    The ME shouted from behind the dune for the sergeant. Campos