Andrew Mayne - Murder Theory (The Naturalist Book 3)

PRAISE FOR THE NATURALIST

[A] smoothly written suspense novel from Thriller Award finalist Mayne... The action builds to [an]... exciting confrontation between Cray and his foe, and scientific detail lends verisimilitude.

Publishers Weekly

With a strong sense of place and palpable suspense that builds to a violent confrontation and resolution, Maynes (Angel Killer) series debut will satisfy devotees of outdoors mysteries and intriguing characters.

Library Journal

The Naturalist is a suspenseful, tense, and wholly entertaining story... Compliments to Andrew Mayne for the brilliant first entry in a fascinating new series.

New York Journal of Books

An engrossing mix of science, speculation, and suspense, The Naturalist will suck you in.

Omnivoracious

A tour de force of a thriller.

Gumshoe Review

Mayne is a natural storyteller, and once you start this one, you may find yourself staying up late to finish it... It employs everything that makes good thrillers really good... The creep factor is high, and the killer, once revealed, will make your skin crawl.

Criminal Element

If you enjoy the TV channel Investigation Discovery or shows like Forensic Files, then Andrew Maynes The Naturalist is the perfect read for you!

The Suspense Is Thrilling Me

OTHER TITLES BY ANDREW MAYNE

Looking Glass

The Naturalist

JESSICA BLACKWOOD SERIES

Black Fall

Name of the Devil

Angel Killer

THE CHRONOLOGICAL MAN SERIES

The Monster in the Mist

The Martian Emperor

Station Breaker

Public Enemy Zero

Hollywood Pharaohs

Knight School

The Grendels Shadow

NONFICTION

The Cure for Writers Block

How to Write a Novella in 24 Hours

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Text copyright 2019 by Andrew Mayne

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Published by Thomas & Mercer, Seattle

www.apub.com

Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Thomas & Mercer are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

ISBN-13: 9781503904347

ISBN-10: 1503904342

Cover design by M. S. Corley

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

#FANBOY

The helpless man in the wheelchair thrilled him. It wasnt a physical thrill or something hed describe as deviant but the fact that it was this man who was unconscious and at his mercy that excited him.

He pushed the chair to the edge of the concrete patio and turned the man toward him, then sat on the bench. What thoughts, he wondered, were streaming through the mans unconscious mind at this moment? He had a thousand questions for him, the mystery of human consciousness only one of them. He was even more fascinated by what made this mans own thinking so unique.

And it was unique. He gazed at the stars overhead. Sirius stood out, a glimmering spark among a million suns that didnt shine nearly so bright because they were farther away. He scanned the sky until he found a distant, fuzzy cluster that was actually a galaxy. Yes. This man was like a luminous object from beyondthats how special his mind was.

If only there were time to talk to him, time to interact with that intellect and see how he measured up.

At that moment, he felt sad. For he had seen how theyd measured up. This man had been clever, too clever by far, yet here he was, unconscious, utterly defenseless.

The left carotid artery stood out in the moonlight as his head lay slumped to the side, exposing the vulnerable blood vessel. It almost seemed like an accident of evolution to put such a fragile weak spot right there.

He could take the scalpel from his pocket and end the mans life in seconds, watch him bleed out, drifting further and further into his unconscious until he was gone.

It would be a painless way to die. In a sense, the man was already dead. The sentient part that asked questions, made conclusions, and took actions wasnt really there at this moment. One slice of an artery and it would never return.

He removed the scalpel and slid the plastic sheath off the end. As a test of his own will, he pressed the point to the curve of the arterynot enough pressure to puncture the skin, just enough to crater the flesh.

Yes. He could do it. Itd take only a pound or two of pressureless than a firm handshake the two men might have exchanged. In one moment the diamond-shaped blade could slide into the skin, through the epidermis, and slice the carotid, severing it in two.

All that blood being pumped by the heart to sustain the brainthat brainwould gush out. Itd leave a terrible mess. Nothing short of arson would hide all of the mans DNA if they ever came looking for him.

But that didnt matter. If they came... when they came, it would be too late. Not just for this man. But for all of them.

Plans were already in motion. The deed had been done.

Finding this man was merely an unexpected twist. A delightful end to a... hed never decided precisely what to call it. Although he was certain theyd have a name for it. They could put a name on any tragedy. They could put a face on it, too.

How long before they put his face on it?

He didnt expect them to take forever to find him, but he also assumed that something so peculiar as this could take longer than he expected.

When this man had shown up, hed thought for a moment that theyd discovered him sooner. But no. Only this man showed up. His reasoning had made leaps where others had merely crawled. And that had led him here. Alone. Putting him in his current vulnerable position.

The man capped the scalpel and placed it back in his pocket. He removed the pistol from his waistband. It was an ugly weapon hed used only a few times. It was as far removed from his preferred method of killing as he could imagine.

He cradled the gun in his hands like a prayer book, contemplated it for a moment, then looked back up at the man in the wheelchair as he began to stir.

Hed be alert soon. They say you should never meet your heroes. Killing them only makes things more awkward.

CHAPTER ONE

THE POLONIUM GAMBIT

Im in a basement below the United States embassy in Moscow, sitting across from an outwardly nervous man. His name is Constantine Konovalov. Hes already been questioned by embassy officials and CIA operatives, but thats routine for foreign employees of a US embassy. Im a mystery to him, and his eyes keep darting to the large black aluminum case sitting on the table in front of me. He knows the Americans would never use torture on a Russian citizen in a situation like this. Or rather, thats what hes been told by his Russian handlers, who prepared him for this job and routinely debrief him.