Applewood (Book 2): Fledge

by Myers, Brendan P.

  “So why are you letting it end this way?” he asked. “Why not stop this right now?”

  Richards thought about that a while before turning to Arthur.

  “Let’s just say you weren’t the only one who fouled things up on this one. Plenty of mistakes were made along the way. The final report is gonna say the uncle died in our joint custody. That’s how it’s gonna go down. The kid was MIA. We never found him. He is presumed dead. No blemishes on anybody’s record. Everyone seems happy to just leave it at that.”

  Arthur looked at his watch. He knew Richards hadn’t given him the real motivation for letting it end this way. There was something he wasn’t telling him. But there was no time to ponder that. It was time to make the phone call.

  Turning to Richards, he nodded once before beginning to make his way down to the foot of the hill where he’d left his car. Halfway there, he heard Richards shout from behind.

  “Hey, Arthur?”

  Arthur turned and waited.

  “Just an FYI,” Richards said. “For future reference? Nobody calls him Scott. Unless they want to get his attention, that is. I have it on the best of authority that most folks just call him Dugan.”

  Arthur puzzled over that for a moment before nodding again and turning around.

  14

  The four men and the boy stopped in a local restaurant and had themselves a fine meal. Fred kept them regaled with stories from the cattle business. The boy stayed mostly quiet and had himself three helpings of flan. At one point, Dan remembered to ask Fred about his surgery. His two sons rolled their eyes and waited. With the same showman’s flourish Dan remembered from those many months ago, Fred removed his hat and grinned. The horns were still there. If anything, they had grown a bit in the interim.

  “Just couldn’t bring myself to do it,” Fred laughed. “And it continues to be a bone . . .” he waited for the chorus of groans to subside before going on, “of contention within my family.”

  After the meal, the five walked into the street and saw the festival was winding down. Back at Fred’s car, Dan shook both his son’s hands firmly and thanked them for everything. When he embraced Fred, he could find no words. When he finally drew away, Fred just winked to let him know that words were not necessary. The father and his two sons got into the car. Fred peeled out in a swirl of dust. Dan looked down at his nephew and smiled. The boy smiled back.

  “Well,” Dan asked. “What now?”

  He thought he might have seen a devilish gleam in the boy’s eyes before watching him turn and start walking down the alley. The man followed.

  “First things first,” the boy said when the man caught up. “We’re gonna need a way to get around.” He walked a few more steps before stopping suddenly to turn and face the street. “How ‘bout this one?”

  Dan turned. Although almost on top of it, it still took him a good moment to really see it. Maybe because there were still lots of them on the road. For some reason, ‘64 had been a very good year for Dodge. But right there in front of him was his own car. There was no doubt about it. He turned to his nephew and saw keys dangling from his finger. Dugan flipped them into his palm and then chucked them across to his uncle, who reached out and caught them midair. Dan shook his head and smiled.

  Walking to the driver’s side door, he paused a moment to look across the roof of his car and over to his nephew. “Where to?” he asked. He watched his nephew look up to the evening sky before he answered.

  “Got a few hours left before daylight,” the boy answered. There was a twinkle in his yellow eyes. “What say we shake the dust of this town off our shoes and do some exploring?”

  His uncle smiled and reached for the doorhandle.

  15

  It was early April in the small town of Dutton, Massachusetts, where a teenaged boy named Jimmy Thompson went out to get the mail. While carrying it back to the house, his peripheral vision caught sight of something fluttering to the ground. He turned and walked over to pick it up. Addressed to him, it was a postcard from Mexico City that showed dark skinned dancing girls wearing exotic headgear and very little else. A smile came to his face when he recognized the handwriting. Tears came to his eyes as he read the brief note.

  Thought the pic might help out next time you find yourself arguing with Henry Longfellow. All the best.

  Love,

  D.

  He stood there a while, needing a few minutes for himself before he was ready to go inside. Before he did, he turned his face to the clear blue sky and basked a few moments in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

  About The Author

  Brendan P. Myers is the author of several novels, whose stories have also appeared in the Northern Haunts anthology from Shroud Publishing, Malpractice: An Anthology of Bedside Terror from Necrotic Tissue, and Night Terrors from Blood Bound Books.

  A Note from the Author:

  Thanks so much for taking the time to read Fledge: Applewood Book II. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And don't forget to check out the next volume in the series, The Space of Life Between, in which Scott finds himself in his most precarious position yet.

  If you did enjoy it, I’d be grateful if you’d give the book a rating on your way out (if your e-reader supports that) or better yet, if you could take a moment to leave a review at the online store where you bought it. Even a few sentences can make all the difference, and if I’ve learned anything in my years trying my hand at this, it’s that books without reviews don’t get sales. Your opinion counts!

  Oh, and if you have friends you think might like it, don’t forget to tell them! Word of mouth from my own friends is how I’ve discovered many of my favorite authors.

  And please take a moment to explore my other offerings. From humor to horror, I’ve got the H’s covered. So look out, I! I’m coming for you. . .

  Of course, you can always visit me online at my Facebook page, on Twitter, over at Goodreads, and at my blog. Stop on by! I’m always looking for new friends.

  Once again and most sincerely, thanks for reading. It means a lot.

  Regards,

  Brendan P. Myers

  St. Petersburg, Florida

  Books by Brendan P. Myers

  The Space of Life Between

  It's morning again in America . . . but not for Scott Dugan.

  Three years have passed since young vampire Scott Dugan and his uncle found refuge in Mexico. They thought they had put their troubled pasts behind them, until the day a familiar face shows up to ensnare Dugan in a scheme that will transport him to the killing fields of war torn Central America and beyond.

  And when Dugan learns the truth about their mission, he must decide whether he owes his allegiance to the human race he was once a part of, or to his newfound self.

  The Mound

  Troubled teen Dani Hogan believes she is about to be made queen of a fairy tale kingdom. And you know what? She may just be right . . .

  Levi Hogan, the new police chief in Bixbie, Massachusetts, is trying to stay off the booze and start a new life. Bixbie doesn’t have much in the way of crime anyway, that is, until people start disappearing. While investigating, Hogan learns Bixbie is also home to "New England’s Stonehenge," a mysterious mound thousands of years old. Though its purpose is unknown, it becomes clearer when Hogan’s runaway daughter comes to town.

  Because what Hogan doesn’t know is Dani believes she is to become queen, and local teen Ian Sinclair is to become king, of a fairy kingdom populated by elves and pixies and helpful brownies. Before long, even Hogan starts to believe that maybe, just maybe, the Scots-Irish founders of Bixbie brought something along with them.

  Sincerely Dead

  When a hitman returns to New York City and accidentally unleashes the zombie holocaust, an epic adventure of survival unfolds, as a small band of the still living struggle to escape this new city of the dead. The long awaited follow-up to the seriocomic zombie short Nearly Dead.

  21C and Other Sordid Tales<
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  Her badge says, “I’m a People Person!” Don’t you believe it . . .

  Meet Jill. She’ll be your flight attendant today. A word of caution, though. Do NOT irritate her or make her angry in any way, because if you do, you may find your flight turned into a living hell of abuse and intimidation and humiliation . . . that is, if you survive at all.

  From the author of the acclaimed APPLEWOOD and ADAMSON’S ROCK comes yet another collection of stories that are bound to leave you double-checking your locks and sleeping with the lights on.

  Swash!

  When a late winter storm unearths an ancient shipwreck, the sleepy beach town of Sully’s Rump is turned upside-down, first by the news media, then by the resurrected pirates who come back to reclaim their ship.

  Local historian Arthur Cobb wants the legendary ship for himself, but so does his nemesis, gazillionaire businessman Barney Zimmerman. Caught between the two is Chris Duggan, the boy who found the wreck, who just wants to help the pirates get home.

  He realizes the only way to do that is to rebuild the ship and fulfill the pirate curse, but soon discovers that dislodging the pirates from the Rump may prove more difficult a task than was deciphering the curse that brought them there.

  Applewood

  Twenty-five years ago, a mindless act of teenage vandalism reawakened a long dead nightmare in the small Massachusetts town of Grantham. When Sergeant Lombard finds a mutilated body by the side of the road, he knows the horror of his youth has returned. He calls upon his damaged friend Dugan, who has never forgiven himself for what happened back then, and has lived ever since with the terrible consequences.

  Delighted at first by the disappearance of the town bullies, Dugan and his outcast friends soon realize that as the undead begin to surround their own neighborhood, they must do battle against a growing vampire army led by the town’s long dead Civil War hero. Along the way, they find clues in the diary of a young boy not unlike themselves, and strength in their own unique friendship.

  And as the battle reaches its climax, for some, life will never be the same.

  Fledge (Applewood: Book II)

  The APPLEWOOD saga continues . . . Fourteen-year-old Scott Dugan is both desperate survivor and hunted casualty of a vampire outbreak that decimates his small Massachusetts town. His uncle believes science offers hope and takes the boy on the run from shadowy forces tasked with exterminating those like his nephew.

  But when the two separate, Scott embarks on an epic journey that takes him from cheap carnival sideshow act to comfortable refugee in the home of a wealthy and reclusive man with his own dark tale to tell.

  As the chase moves from the low deserts of Arizona to the high peaks of Colorado and into the White House itself, Scott must avoid becoming a pawn in someone else’s deadly game. And when he learns that self-discovery for those like him is found only by embracing all he has become, he must weigh his longing to remember who he was and where he came from against the certainty that in doing so, he will never see the sun again.

  Adamson’s Rock and Other Stories

  A detective investigating a suicide comes away with more than he bargained for . . . a routine clinical trial goes horribly wrong . . . an avid book collector learns to just what lengths he will go to hold on to a treasure . . . and a close-knit New England family comes to terms with the end of the world. From the author of “Sumner Gardens” come eight spine-tingling tales of terror and wonder.

  Hope Town

  In the sleepy village of Hopeton, at the end of a bad day, Parker nurses his wounds at a local watering hole. There, he meets a woman. Turns out her day was almost as bad as his. Almost. But soon, they find themselves thrown together in a deadly race for survival. From the high-rises of downtown Boston, to the high seas of the Atlantic, events move inexorably toward a pulse-pounding climax.

  A Truck Story

  What would happen if a fanatic Red Sox fan and his two nephews became trapped in the back of the equipment truck as it begins its 1487-mile journey to spring training? Aside from the kidnappings, the car chase, an Elvis impersonator, some hungry alligators, and a few other surprises, the trip itself is relatively uneventful. A charming and hilarious tale sure to delight baseball fans of all ages.

  Sumner Gardens

  It’s October of 1970 and twelve-year-old altar boy Conner O’Neil has a few problems. He’s dodging some oddly personal questions from his parish priest and learns he has to kiss the creepiest girl in class after getting the lead in the school play. But only after his father has another heart attack do his real troubles begin. A heartwarming and life-affirming coming-of-age tale.

  The Dick Londergan Chronicles

  A Very Dick Londergan Christmas

  It’s Christmas Eve, and when the head honcho of the local Building and Loan skips town with $8,000 the very same day an office complex collapses, trapping a family man architect inside, throwback P.I. Dick Londergan smells trouble. His kind of trouble. But while he sniffs around, his beloved city is somehow transformed into a wholesome family town, and soon, he finds himself trapped in a nightmare from which there might be . . . no escape.

  Telegraph Hill

  When old school P.I. Dick Londergan stumbles onto a case that smells of sweet tea and fresh baked cookies, it’s Dateline: Danger! because he’ll soon find its ugly underbelly consists of one part smarm, two parts pain, and a heaping helping of primetime “gotcha!”

  Hell City

  Dick Londergan is a private detective from the old school, the kind who likes his women leggy, his scotch neat, and his coffee black. When summoned to Telegraph Hill to investigate a murder, he finds himself thrust into a mystery so deep, even his old school methods may not be enough to solve it.

  Among the sinister questions confronting him: Why was his town suddenly so popular with racket boys and hoodlums? For what nefarious purpose had the two biggest criminal bosses in town set aside their differences? Who was the blonde English chef berating his cooking skills? And why was Londergan himself constantly being hounded by television cameras?

  These and other questions will (mostly) be answered in this comic novella, an homage to the iconic private detectives of the past, about a guy who finds himself lost in a world where lines of reality and fantasy blur, one in which the greatest mystery of all might be, who is Dick Londergan?

  The Ghost and Mr. Londergan

  When word hits the streets hardnosed P.I. Dick Londergan is spending the night in a haunted house, he finds out the hard way lots of folks in town want that house’s secrets to stay buried forever. He finds out too that uncovering those secrets may come at the cost of his own life.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Part Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part Three

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part Four

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  A Note From the Author

  Books by Brendan P. Myers