Free Deep Within The Shadows (The Superstition Series Book 1) by Teresa Reasor Page A

you’ll excuse us a moment, I’ll get him up to speed.”
    The two of them went out into the hall. Garr instructed Underwood to stand guard and not to allow any of the victims to leave. He motioned Chase down the hall to a more private room and shut the door. “There’s something really hinky going on here. As you could see, the women are twins. Both were attacked within a few minutes of each other, but in different parts of town.”
    Garr referred to the small notebook he’d been writing in. “The first victim is Tanner Newton’s brother, Samuel. Newton is being kept for observation for a couple of days. He’s showing bruising over half his body. One of the ER docs said he’d never seen that kind of extreme and widespread bruising from a fall or a beating in his life. One of the Templeton women, Miranda, has a weird bruise on her arm that looks like a lightning bolt. The other twin, Juliet, has a burn around her neck where she said her attacker tried to strangle her.”
    Caleb scrubbed his short hair. “So this whole thing has to have something to do with the Tanner Newton killing. Juliet Templeton was with him when he was attacked and beaten to death. What the hell was she doing with Samuel Newton at one in the morning?”
    “He was walking her home. She refused to get into the car with him.”
    “She’s afraid to get into the car with him, but she walks home at one in the morning?”
    “That’s what she said.”
    “Is Newton conscious?”
    “Not yet. They sedated him so he wouldn’t move around too much. One of the nurses treating him said he was raving about something gray attacking him. He said it screamed at him, then threw him nearly fifteen feet against a building, like he weighed nothing.”
    “Jesus!” Abbott had described the same thing. “This is crazy.”
    Garr frowned, his face as wrinkled as an unmade bed. “Well, when one person describes something crazy, you can ignore it. But when you have four people who haven’t had a chance to compare stories describing the same thing—Something is going on here.”
    “Yeah. And it has something to do with Tanner Newton’s murder.”
    *     *     *
    “I ain’t had nothin’ to eat in two days. Got any food around here?” Gerald whined.
    Deputy Bowhan scowled. “This is a jail, not a hotel, Abbott.”
    Gerald remembered him from a DUI arrest six months before. The guards weren’t friendly, but they were fair to the prisoners. “Some crackers, anything. I’m going to be sick if I don’t get something.”
    “I’ll look around the break room and see if I can find something,” the other deputy said, though he didn’t look happy about it.
    Gerald was quick to say, “Thanks, man.” He stole a quick glance at the deputy’s name tag. Scott.
    They stopped before an open cell. “Step in and turn around,” Scott instructed.
    Gerald cooperated. He was a murderer, and they were taking no chances. He deserved it. The cocaine had made him aggressive. He had killed an innocent man. This is what his life would be like for probably the rest of his days.
    The cuffs off, he rubbed his wrists and turned just as the heavy, barred metal door slid closed with a clang. His stomach clenched. Would the shadows be able to find him here?
    Panic blasted through his system. If the guards left him alone, would the shadows come for him? He gripped the bars and tracked Bowhan and Scott’s path as they ambled away. His neck muscles strained with the need to call them back and beg them not to leave him. Once he could no longer see or hear them he rested his head against the bars. His eyes stung again, the urge to cry almost overwhelming.
    The cell light went out, and he backed away from the door. Light slashed diagonally across one end of the cell to bathe the wall opposite the bunk. He retreated as far away from the hall light as he could. With his back against the wall, he slid down and huddled between the metal sink and commode. The smell of the