Free A Mass Murderer - Tears for the dead (ADDITIONAL BOOK INCLUDED ) by Sara Wood Page A

sun catching the glittering gold. “The man, who lost this, lost his finger too. Man who looses his finger needs to get to a doctor real fast. That old gun of mine would take away a lot of bone too, so it wouldn’t be a lot of good to try and stop it with a bit of cloth. Have to go to a doctor.”
     
    “Doc Newton!”
     
    “Could be. You ever seen him so damned nervy and spooky like just now?”
     
    “Come on, Roy. He would never….I mean, he’s been a good friend to us. He wouldn’t shelter this man….what’s his name?”
     
    “Nathan. If it’s the one we think.”
     
    “I don’t believe it.”
     
    “Folks said that the train stopped at the station for a few minutes. Just time for a man to get off and hide up somewhere. Find him a doctor when the heat slipped off a bit. Leave a wound like that in hot weather and you give yourself a whole heap of pain and trouble.”
     
    Doctor Newton lived alone in a house on the north side of the small town. Flowers draped themselves up round the door in normal Spring, but this hadn’t been a normal Spring. Blighted by the late frost and crushed by the weight of the snowfall, the flowers lay flattened along the narrow path.
     
    Not looking back and hurrying so much that he kept breaking into a strange little half-skip, half-run the doctor paused at his front door and fumbled for a key, finally disappearing inside.
     
    But by then the two pursuers were so close behind that they heard a very odd thing. They heard Newton call out to someone inside the house. And he lived alone.
    “Who was he calling to?” asked Bates. “Looks to me like you could be right.”
     
    Klyne nodded. “Which way we play it, Bill? I reckon we just walk right on up and knock at the door. If this Nathan man’s there, then he’ll be holed up in the bedroom. He’ll maybe think we’re just paying a social call on the doctor and stay put. If he runs, then he’s going to find there aren’t many places he can run to in this small town.”
     
Friend or Foe
     
    Bates nodded agreement, and they strode up the path, and rapped firmly at the brass knockers, carved in the shape of a lion holding a cat. They heard feet shuffling along towards them, and both stood back a little, hands hovering over thir gun butts, in case they were right about that first of the killers being there and in case he tried to make a break for it.
     
    But the face that peered round the door was Newton’s. his eyes opening wide in shock at the sight of the two grim faced men, his mouth starting to open.
     
    “Well. A good morning to you, Doc,” said Klyne loudly, immediately hissing under his breath: “One wrong move or sound and you’re dead.”
     
    Newton tried to paste a smile of welcome in place, but it immediately slipped off, and the horror and fear oozed back, confirming their suspicions better than anything could have done.
     
    “We were passing by, and we just figured it was time we came in and had us a talk about a few things, Doc. That’s all right with you, I guess?” Bates didn’t wait for an answer, pushing past the doctor, into the living room of the small house.
     
    Klyne took Newton’s arm in a friendly-looking grip that felt like steel bands drawn tight, and propelled him in next, following up and shutting the door behind them.
     
    “There now. You sit down there, Doc, while Bill and I help ourselves to a drink. You got something tucked away somewhere? Maybe in the other room?”
     
    Klyne was deliberately keeping his voice low, so that nobody outside the room could hear clearly what they were talking about. Through the half open doorway he could see into the neat kitchen, and there was only one other room in the house. Presumably Doc’s bedroom, its door shut. Away to the right.
     
    Lips working with panic, the words tumbling over each other, Newton started to gabble out what had happened. He was sweating, constantly mopping at his forehead with a handkerchief.
     
    “Listen, Klyne