Husk (2 page)

“
No. Not really.”

“
You don’t have
anything
at all, not even a ball?”

“
Well . . . is this a toy?”

Shoulders slump. “No, Matt. That’s an empty water bottle with a dead bug in it.”

“
Oh.”

Hours roll by. Slowly. Painfully. Matt’s friend says, “I’m so bored, I can’t take it anymore! I wish you had some toys.”

Matt looks across the empty room, scratches his head and shrugs. “Sorry. I don’t have anything. Unless . . . I just remembered; I
do
have
one
thing. Is this a toy?”

Then, out of nowhere, he pulls out a full-sized ROLLERCOASTER, which is connected to the world’s greatest AMUSEMENT PARK.

This is Matt Hults.

And Matt’s first novel––Husk––is Matt’s amusement park.

So strap in, the rollercoaster is about to leave the station.

Turns out he has more toys than he realizes.

~James Roy Daley

* * *

MATT HULTS’

HUSK

STILLWATER, MINNESOTA

Five Years Ago…

Black.

The suspect had painted every inch of his house black.

Obscured by snowfall, it looked like nothing more than an apparition in the storm, but through the binoculars its sinister presence loomed as large and solid as a monolithic tombstone.

Homicide detective Frank Atkins lowered the binoculars and handed them to his squad partner as the remaining S.W.A.T. officers took up positions to their left and right.

“
This is it,” Frank said. He unslung the HK sub-machinegun from his shoulder and flicked off the safety. “We’re going to need to move fast to cross that field without being spotted. This psycho is a slippery son of a bitch. We can’t give him the slightest opportunity to get past us.”

Martin DeAngelo peered into the binoculars. “You do your thing, Detective. We’ll do ours.”

“
I mean it,” Frank replied. “I want this bastard taken down once and for all.”

The officer smirked. “Just because you’re qualified for this shit doesn’t make you my commander. Follow my lead and leave the noble quest for vengeance up to the prosecutors, okay?”

Frank looked to the house with the word on the forefront of his mind.
Vengeance.
That’s exactly what it came to. Vengeance for Christine Mitchell. For Katie Hart. For Sean Edwards. Vengeance for the adolescent boy they still couldn’t identify. Vengeance for all of them.

“
Jesus,” DeAngelo commented, still gazing through the binoculars. “I can already hear the insanity plea.”

Frank racked the first round into the breach of his weapon. “If I find him first, he won’t be going to court.”

Maybe it was the hiss of contempt on Frank’s tongue, or the soft squeak of rubber as his hands wrung the handle grip of is weapon, but DeAngelo’s stare broke from the house and regarded him with a creased look of uncertainty.

“
You don’t really mean that, do you?”

Frank held his gaze. “Like you said, lieutenant: You do your job, I’ll do mine.”

The man opened his mouth to reply when the voice of the taskforce commander came to life on their radio headsets.

“
Move in! Everyone, move in!”

The tactical team plunged out of their cover of evergreens and charged toward the farmhouse, plowing through snowdrifts to the war-drum beat of the twin air-units approaching fast from the south.

The black house loomed ahead. No lights, no sign of movement.

They’d closed within yards of the target when a cataclysmic blast of thunder exploded overhead, shaking the air with the concussive force of a bomb. Three serpents of lightning slithered earthward through the flurries, striking a canted weathervane atop the killer’s rooftop. Sparks showered in every direction.

Several of the men stopped in mid-stride, dropping into defensive postures.

“
Jesus!” someone yelled over the radio.

“
What the hell was that?”

“
Everyone in formation,” Frank roared.

Praying they hadn’t lost the element of surprise, he crouched behind DeAngelo, staying close when the man hefted his riot-shield and rushed up the front steps to the porch. Another officer, Sergeant Rice, heaved a battering ram against the front door, pulverizing it in a hail of splinters and paint chips.

“
Police! Search warrant,” Rice shouted as a second officer tossed a stun grenade into the farmhouse’s foyer.

Inside, the decoy device exploded, sending out a mild concussion to disorient anyone in the immediate area. The tac team rushed through the smoke in a stacked, two-by-two formation, spurred on by Rice shouting, “Go, go, go, go!”

Frank followed in line behind DeAngelo, moving fast and low. He kept one hand on the S.W.A.T. officer’s shoulder and held his breath when they crossed over the threshold.

Smoke swirled in the air.

Combat boots hammered the floor.

Three groups of officers, all entering the house from separate locations at once, began calling off cleared areas of the home. Frank and his squad entered a brightly lit foyer flanked by open doorways. Ahead lay a staircase and a long hall that extended toward the back of the house.

Contrary to the exterior paintjob, the walls and floors inside the home appeared immaculately clean. The walls looked smooth and unblemished by age, dotted by dozens of pictures in decorative frames. Ornate woodwork made up the baseboards and trim. Hardwood floors gleamed, exuding the scent of fresh polish.

From the hallway, Frank glanced into the living room on his right. He spotted a host of nick-knack covered end tables, chairs with white doilies draped over the armrests, and a plastic-sealed couch with an eye-sizzling floral print.

“
That room’s clear,” DeAngelo said. “Stay with me, Detective.”

Frank’s hand had come away from the officer’s shoulder while he contemplated the dichotomy of their suspect’s strange dwelling, and he rushed to catch up. The forward half of their twelve man team raced up to the second level, leaving Frank and DeAngelo to lead the remaining squad members deeper into the house.

A third of the way down the hall, they came upon a half closed door yet to be checked.

“
Basement,” DeAngelo said. He kicked the door open, and the stairwell beyond expelled a hot breath of putrescence. The stench of decay invaded Frank’s lungs, causing his chest to heave with a reflexive cough.

“
Police,” he yelled. “We’re armed.”

He followed DeAngelo down the stairs, passing between mortar-caked stonework that brought to mind the crumbling tunnels of a subterranean tomb. A bare light bulb over the lower landing cast a fiery glow on the walls, and combined with the smell of death assaulting his nostrils, Frank imagined he’d not only trod into the domain of a killer but had descended into Hell itself.

Four steps from the bottom Kale Kane lunged into view. Their suspect sprung from an open doorway to the right of the landing, brandishing an automatic weapon that exploded to life in a blaze of fire and noise.

“
Look out!” Frank cried, but it was already too late.

The first barrage of gunfire hit DeAngelo’s shield center-mass then trailed up the stairs toward the other officers behind them. Bullets cut a dusty trail of destruction along the walls and risers as stray shots whined off the house’s cave-like foundation.

Hot lead cut the sleeve of Frank’s uniform. More screamed past his helmet.

DeAngelo fired two rounds from his sidearm. It was all he had time for. Following the second shot, sparks leapt from the stone on his left and a ricochet tore ear-to-ear through his head. Blood and brains sprayed Frank in the face.

He fired a burst from the MP-5, but the shots went wild as DeAngelo’s body collapsed backward against him.

The other officers higher up the steps erupted into a fury of shouts and hollers, everyone struggling to flee the cramped stairwell and retreat toward safety. Return fire sputtered overhead, amplifying the chaos and adding to the cries of several men shrieking in pain.

Half-blinded by the rain of debris coming off the walls, Frank shoved DeAngelo’s corpse toward Kane with all of his might, slamming the killer back into the room he’d emerged from.

The gunfire ceased.

Frank charged after Kane before he could regain the advantage. He rounded the corner in time to see the madman slap a fresh clip into his weapon.

Frank rammed him in the chest, tackling him to the ground.

Kane’s weapon roared, spitting fire inches from Frank’s face.

The two struck the floor and rolled apart, each coming up into a half-crouch with only a few feet between them.

Both snapped up their weapons. Their gazes locked over the gun sights.

“
Drop it,” Frank shouted.

The killer’s eyes reflected the ugly orange light of the basement like twin flames set in the sockets of a half-rotten skull. They flashed with undeniable glee as he retracted his upper lip in genuine smile of delight.

“
Fraaaaaaank!”

Frank shuddered at the sound of his name. It gusted from the killer’s mouth in an elongated breath of mixed wonder and jubilation.

“
I said drop it!”

Kane’s smile only broadened. “You’re early, Detective Atkins. Not that it will do you any good. I’m finished.”

Frank’s heart thundered in his chest. Sweat slipped from under his Kevlar helmet and cut trails down his cheeks. Behind him, the stairwell rumbled and creaked as the SWAT team reassembled.

“
Don’t come any closer!” Kane shouted to the officers without taking his eyes from Frank. “I’ve got your man Atkins. I’ll blow his head off!”

Frank’s grip tightened on his weapon. “How do you know my name?”

Kane’s laugher sounded like snakes slithering through dry grass. “I’ve been told all about you. Who you are. Where you live. I’ve stood over you while you’ve slept. You didn’t know that, did you? The veins in your neck have beat against my blade more than once, but each time I let you live. Do you know why? Because you pose no threat to me, Detective. No more than those dead men on the stairs.”

“
There are fifty officers surrounding this place,” Frank growled. “You’ve got nowhere to go. Now drop the fucking weapon!”

Kane laughed again. “I’m counting on those fifty officers, Detective. Don’t you get it? You’re here because I want you here. This is where it starts!”

Frank’s trigger finger tensed when amber light suddenly flared to life on the other side of the room. For a split second his mind screamed
BOMB!
He flinched hard, but then recovered. Kane’s silhouette stood amid the blaze in stark relief. He could’ve cut Frank in half.

“
You see?” Kane said within the light. “It’s begun.”

Frank squinted, trying to keep Kane in his sights.

Over the madman’s shoulder the blinding amber light seeped through the frame of a closed door set into the far wall, casting blazing slivers across the room that illuminated the basement. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the light vanished. Kane’s spittle-slick grin snapped back into focus.

“
The bible got it wrong,” the killer said in an oily whisper. “The meek won’t inherit the Earth, Frank. They’ll
take it BACK
.”

And with that, the smiling devil pulled the trigger of his weapon.

Each round punched into Frank’s chest with the ruthless power of a sledgehammer, their lethal progress stopped short of entering his flesh by his vest’s protective plating. Pain sunk its teeth into his nerves. Somehow he held the MP-5 steady, gripping it in both hands. He fired back even as he fell, his shots opening a dozen dark holes in the killer’s gaunt torso. Red geysers sprayed from exit wounds in the madman’s back. Unbelievably, Kane continued to grin, firing his gun empty as Frank’s 9mm rounds sliced through him.

The remaining officers poured down the steps and flooded into the basement, filling the room with the explosive roar of additional gunfire. Muzzle flashes lit up the room, creating a crowd of black shadows that danced on the walls like a cheering crowd of demonic spectators.

Frank collapsed to the floor, jaw clenched in a rigor of pain.

The final shot rang in his ears, followed by the shouts of the officers entering the room.

“
Cease fire!”

“
Officers down!”

“
Get the medics in here!”

Frank caught a momentary glimpse of Kale Kane’s blood-splattered face staring back at him from the ground, eyes open. Then fellow officers crowded into the area, blocking the view.

Two of the men helped Frank to his feet. “I’m okay,” he said. “I’ll live.”

He pushed away and edged through the crowd until he stood over Kane’s corpse. The killer lay in an ocean of blood, one cheek peeled aside by a bullet to reveal those shiny white teeth, as if he was still smiling.