by Bob Avey
Elliot staggered into the living room and dropped into a chair. Several uniformed officers had come into the room, including Mendez, who, for all his mouthing off, worked alongside the other cops like they were family.
At some point, the officers brought Cyndi out. Elliot half expected her to scream, to curse his name and denounce any feelings she might have had for him, but she did none of those things.
She remained docile and quiet, and as the officers led her away, her soft gaze held his. “I love you.”
Elliot could no longer hold back, and tears began to leak from his eyes. And even though he knew that it would not be a good idea, that he should let it go, he pulled himself from the chair and went to the door, and watched as they loaded Cyndi into the patrol car. He could not deny his feelings for her, but a sickness ran through his gut for having been drawn into her deception. And his heart ached as he watched her go, though he could not now bring himself to call it love.
Chapter Forty-Three
Elliot pressed his face against the glass of the patio door and watched a neighbor’s cat crawl across the top of the stockade fence. Exactly one month ago today, fate had taken Cyndi from him.
The devastation crumbled the world of George and Evelyn Bannister, causing them to sell their home and become missionaries, living somewhere in Jamaica, last Elliot had heard.
Abraham Saucier’s life proved to be heavily involved with McKenna’s brand of paganism. He’d enticed young Elizabeth Stone with mysticism and dark spiritualism’s condolence of just about anything, their motto of “Do what you will.” She’d most likely come in to the world without a conscience, but her brush with the dark side no doubt acted as a catalyst. Reverend Coronet simply recognized Elizabeth’s potential and encouraged old Abe to council her.
Elliot wiped the glass where his breath had condensed. The way he saw it, there wasn’t much difference between Reverend Coronet and Brian McKenna. They just brainwashed their victims with a different brand of propaganda.
He slid the door open and stepped out onto the patio. Though the frigid air stung his face, he sat in a patio chair and watched one of the remaining leaves let go, relinquishing its hold on the barren oak, and he was reminded not of death but of rebirth, for the leaf would melt into the soil and return in one form or another. But Elliot suspected it wasn’t the molecular basics of life that concerns most people, but rather their worry for their own sentience and self-awareness, whether or not these things would continue after death.
Elliot closed his eyes and uttered a prayer, for without faith what was he, but an animal seeking the pleasures of yet another day’s existence.
She haunted him still, and he found himself fearful, awakening during the night, teetering on the brink of desperation, and always with a whisper of a kiss moving across his lips, and a feeling of a presence in the darkness.
Detective Elliot Mysteries
by Bob Avey
Twisted Perception
Beneath a Buried House
Footprints of a Dancer
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three