Free The Hum by D.W. Brown Page A

Black’s file to the video and confirm that he was the perpetrator, but it didn’t do any good if they couldn’t find the man.
    Before he knew it, daylight turned to dark, and everything from the crime scene was bagged up and taken back to the lab. After placing the Do Not Cross tape all around the station, Russell decided to take a walk in the woods himself. He’d spent a lot of his youth hunting deer and various fowl, and had become a pretty good tracker. If Mr. Black was out there, he’d find him.
    Popping the trunk, Russell grabbed his flashlight and police baton for the late night investigative hike.

CHAPTER 10

    It wasn’t more than fifteen minutes before the perpetrator came stumbling forward, causing Russell to make a split second decision on his next move. He could shoot the man, but then he might never figure out what this mess was really all about, or he could tackle him and take him in. Since he didn’t see a weapon or anything else for that matter in the perpetrator’s hands, he chose the latter. When the man came within arm’s reach, he dived towards his mid-section, sending them both flying through the air and eventually landed hard on the cold ground.
    Russell somehow managed to get on top of the perpetrator, while the man thrashed about madly. He appeared not to be struggling to free himself, but to look at the area behind him.
    “If you don’t calm down Mr. Black, I will be forced to shoot you right here and now!”
    Surprised at being called by his name, the man suddenly stopped, and said, “How did you get down here? Can you help me get out of this place?”
    “What do you mean by down here ? We’re about two miles to the east of the Shell Service Station that you robbed last night.” Russell was surprised at the perpetrator’s reaction when he pointed to the direction of the station. It was obvious he hadn’t a clue what Russell was talking about. The bewildered man asked, “How did you get the concrete cover off of the entrance?”
    “What concrete cover? What are you talking about, Mr. Black? Have you been taking some of the cocaine that you stole back there?”
    Scanning a full 360, realization began to dawn on Kevin that he was no longer inside the tunnel and the policeman in front of him obviously thought him mad. “I’m telling you, officer, I was locked inside some cavern with a concrete cover. See my right hand? Look at this? Do you think I did this to myself?”
    “I’m not sure I know or care what you’re talking about Mr. Black, but I do know you’re under arrest for the murders of those four clerks at the station back there.”
    “I’ll gladly be under arrest, if you’ll just get me out of here. Oh, and for the record, you and I both know that they weren’t store clerks.”
    Russell could see the fear in the perpetrator’s eyes, as he continued to look back in the direction he’d just come.
    “What are you so afraid of, Mr. Black? Who was after you back there?”
    “It’s that place. It knows what I’ve done. It knows everyone I’ve killed in the past. I don’t know how it knows, but it even has the dead bodies to prove it. It wants me to go back home, to Taos. The voice said the humming would stop if I go back.”
    Thinking the perpetrator had lost his marbles, but curious about the other murders he’d alluded to, Russell decided to delve deeper into the subject. He rolled Kevin into a sitting position and took a seat directly across from him, careful to keep a watchful eye on his every move.
    “Mr. Black, you mentioned everyone that you’ve killed . Were there others before tonight?”
    “It started with my brother Wayne, and then my wife and kids. I knew I wasn’t cut out to be a family man, but she really had me. We weren’t married any time before we had kids. She had to have two, said the ideal American family consisted of a husband, wife, and two children.”
    “We’ll have time for all of that later, Mr. Black. For now, I want to know if you