Read The Killers Amongst Us: Chimera Dawn Chronicles for Free Online

answered.
    “Sheriff Shaw, I need your help with Montague,” said an
agitated Mrs. Fisher.
    “What kind of help? What’s he done now?”
    “I’m back at the vets. Montague slipped out of my hands and
he’s sneaked through the grill at the basement window. I can’t reach him to get
him out.”
    “Is the vet back?”
    “Well, if she is back, she isn’t answering. I’ve knocked
loud enough to wake the devil. Something’s not right I tell you. I can see
through a small window that her van is in the garage.”
    “Okay, I’ll have Deputy Morris meet you down there.”
    “Do hurry.”
    The line went dead. Shaw looked up at Frank. He opened his
telephone pad. The number for the vets was listed with the old vet’s name. Shaw
tapped the connection for a dial tone and dialed the number.
    “What’s the new vet’s name?”
    “Maria Hernandez,” Fred replied.
    The answer phone picked up the call. He looked across at
Frank and closed the call.
    “We’ll talk about things later. Go down to the vets. Mrs.
Fisher is down there. Her cat’s gotten trapped in the basement. While you’re
there, have a look around. The vet’s van is there, but she’s not answering. The
vet could be ill. She’s not opened for appointments.”
    “Maybe she’s out on a call and she left in a hurry.”
    “It’s not likely, not with her van in the garage, unless
someone picked her up. She could have returned and walked over to the store.”
He looked at the clock on his wall. It was just gone twelve. “She should have
opened three hours ago. Better get going, then get back here and we’ll finish
our talk.”
    Frank stood, put on his hat and tipped an awkward salute on
the brim. Shaw studied him as he turned, hutching his belt, loaded with
department issue apparatus as if it didn’t belong there. Something else didn’t
belong there. He was carrying a hunting knife on his belt next to his cuffs,
sheathed in an Indian beaded, leather pouch. Shaw knew that Frank didn’t belong
in a uniform. He realized he would have to make a tough decision. There would
be no HR team to do the dirty work for him. Shaw shrugged, then he connected to
the internet, browsing the pages of the Los Angeles Times . He headed
straight for the crime page and lost himself in the stories.
    The radio crackled into life.
    “Brett, get down to the vets... now. We’ve got a body in the
house.”
    Shaw juggled with the microphone in his haste to answer.
    “Fox Two, is it a code one, eight, seven?”
    “Damn the call signs to hell, Brett. There’s blood
everywhere and the vet’s dead.”
    This wasn’t the time to be calling Frank out for lack of
call sign procedure. If it was a homicide, he needed to get there and fast.
    “Stay calm. Don’t touch anything. Wait outside.”

Chapter 5
     
    CAMPED at Breakers Lake, near to where Amy lived, and
nestled in the Pine Mountain area to the North of Los Angeles, she reflected
that Breakers Pass wasn’t the coolest of towns to grow up in California. As
picturesque as the images were in every direction, she couldn’t help but wonder
what life would be like if she still lived in the concrete and neon malaise of central
LA.
    Amy thought that Ted had chosen the spot well. She looked
over her surroundings. The lake, slightly rippled, rolled out before them.
Apart from a valley to the entrance at the beach, the lake was cloaked by steep
mountains, covered in pine trees. The reflection of the landscape on the lake,
sunk into the depths in Monet style. It looked as though nature had used
broad-brush strokes to create the blurred effect.
    All paired up as boyfriend and girlfriend, Ted and Amy’s
usual crew of Oliver, Tania, Johno and Louise, sat on cushions around a small fire
on the pebble beach. Amy breathed deeply through her nose and then sighed. The
slight breeze brought with it an earthy smell that mingled with the wisps of
smoke from the pine logs, burning and crackling in the fire. A makeshift grill
stood over the fire,