• Complain

C Box - Back of Beyond

Here you can read online C Box - Back of Beyond full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

No cover

Back of Beyond: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "Back of Beyond" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

The Edgar Awardwinning and New York Times bestselling author delivers a thriller about a troubled cop trying to save his son from a killer in Yellowstone. Cody Hoyt, while a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his mentor and AA sponsor Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like the suicide of a man whos fallen off the wagon, but Cody knows Hank better than that. Sober for fourteen years, Hank took pride in his hard-won sobriety and never hesitated to drop whatever he was doing to talk Cody off a ledge. When Cody takes a closer look at the scene of his friends death, it becomes apparent that foul play is at hand. After years of bad behavior with his department, hes in no position to be investigating a homicide, but this man was a friend and Codys determined to find his killer. When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a multi-day wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park a pack trip that includes his son Justin Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild. Among the tourists is fourteen-year-old Gracie Sullivan, an awkward but intelligent loner who begins to suspect that someone in their party is dangerous. In a fatal cat and mouse game, where it becomes apparent the murderer is somehow aware of Codys every move, Cody treks into the wilderness to stop a killer hell bent on ruining the only thing in his life he cares about.

C Box: author's other books


Who wrote Back of Beyond? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

Back of Beyond — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Back of Beyond" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
C J Box Back of Beyond 2011 For T Jefferson Parker Brian Wiprud and Ken - photo 1

C J Box

Back of Beyond

2011

For T. Jefferson Parker, Brian Wiprud, and Ken Wilson (The Gauntlet) and Laurie, always

Who trusted God was love indeed

And love Creations final law

Tho Nature, red in tooth and claw

With ravine, shriekd against his creed

Canto 56, Alfred Lord Tennysons In Memoriam A. H. H. , 1850

Part One

Montana1 The night before Cody Hoyt shot the county coroner he was driving without - photo 2

1

The night before Cody Hoyt shot the county coroner, he was driving without a purpose in his county Ford Expedition as he often did these days. He was agitated and restless, chain-smoking cigarettes until his throat was raw and sore. He drove right by the rural bars he used to frequent, not going in. Then the call came from dispatch on his cell phone: hikers claimed they found a burned-out cabin in the Big Belt Mountains to the northeast with maybe a dead body inside.

Even though it was the end of June the weather was unseasonably cold and it had rained in the valley for three straight days. That evening, before the clouds finally lifted and the sun died, hed seen a dusting of snow on the tops of the Big Belts to the north and the Elkhorn Mountains to the south. Snow.

Patrol has been sent up there, Edna the dispatcher said. He liked Edna even though shed decided she was his surrogate mother and gave him pies and casseroles and tried to fix him up with Helena divorcees. She said, My list says youre the one on call tonight.

Yeah, he said. Cody was a Lewis and Clark County Sheriffs Department investigator. Detectives were automatically called to investigate any unattended death, meaning accidents, suicides, or in the rare instance, homicides.

Because you have nothing else to do, she said, mock joking.

Not a damned thing, he said, deadly serious.

Are you at home?

Yeah, he lied. Watching the game on TV. Just a second, let me grab something to write on. He knew if Edna wanted to she could fire up the tracking screen in the dispatch center and find the location of his vehicle out in the county because of the GPS unit mounted under the front bumper. Or she could have at one time, before he dismantled it the month before because he didnt want anyone knowing where hed been going or that he spent his other nights driving, driving, driving.

He pulled to the side of the road into the rough parking area in front of the Gem State Bar, the tires popping on the wet gravel. A single mercury vapor light on a pole threw dark shadows across the parking area. Pools of standing water from the recent rain reflected the light and the few stars that had appeared between night thunderheads. There were five other parked vehicles in front of the bar, all pickups. His pen was somewhere in the ashtray, which was spilling over with butts. As he pulled it out he noted the plastic barrel of the pen was rough with burn marks.

Okay, he said.

The cabin is located past Vigilante Campground on Highway 280, eight miles up Trout Creek on County Road 124. The map shows its in the Helena National Forest, but maybe theres a private place up there.

He lowered the phone and sat back and closed his eyes without writing anything down. Outside his drivers side window, two men wearing dirty jeans and hoodies and ball caps pushed their way out the door of the bar. He recognized them as sapphire miners. Sapphire mining was a small industry in the county, and there were scores of one- and two-man claims that had been worked for years and still produced. The miner in the gray hoodie was practically as wide as he was tall. The one in the yellow hoodie was gaunt and skeletal with eyes sunk deep in their sockets. They were laughing and shoving each other. Yellow Hoodie had a twelve-pack of Coors Light under his arm for the road and hed no doubt leave a trail of empties all the way up into the Big Belts to his little one-man mine. They looked up and saw him parked but didnt straighten up or try to act sober. He was just a guy in a muddy SUV to them because the vehicle was unmarked. Even the plates didnt give him away because they were skip plates. If anyone ran a check on them, theyd come back to a fictitious address and company name.

Cody? Edna asked.

Im here.

Did you get that?

Yeah.

The complainants called from the York Bar. They agreed to stay there until they met the officer so they could guide him to where the cabin is. Officer Dougherty was dispatched to the scene and he is there with them now taking their statement. Should I ask them to stay until you get there?

Not necessary, he said, I know the cabin. Tell Dougherty to proceed-Ill meet him there. What did they say about a body?

Not much really. They said they thought it was an old place by the look of it and they poked around inside a little. They said that they think theres a body there because of the smell and what looked like a human hand, but they didnt actually see the body. They said it was raining hard and getting dark and they just wanted to get out of there.

Male or female body?

They dont know. They said the hand might have been a glove or the arm from a dummy because it didnt look real.

He nodded to himself. Fire turned human bodies into sexless grotesques. Hed been on the scene where the fire was so hot the dead muscles of the arms and legs cooked and roasted and contracted the body into a fighters stance: arms curled against the chest and knees bent, like a boxer in the ring. And the smell, like charred pork

Outside in the parking lot, the two miners put the twelve-pack on the hood of a pickup and pulled out two cans and opened them. The spray from a can hit Fat Gray Hoodie in the face and he bellowed a laugh as he took the beer.

Okay, Cody said to Edna.

He said, Edna, call Larry. Tell him I need him.

Larry Olson, the only other detective in the five-man Criminal Investigations Division whom Cody thought was worth a damn. Olson was short, solid, and shaved bald; a flesh-colored fire hydrant who entered a room like a quiet exclamation point. Larry Olson was a Montana legend. Hed solved crimes by careful observation and exhaustive investigation. He wore suspects down. He wore his fellow detectives down. When an unsolved crime went on too long anywhere in the state, the call went out to borrow Larry Olson. The word was the only reason he stayed in Helena instead of going state or federal was that he wanted to be there for his three boys who lived with their mother in town.

Edna said, Larrys not on call tonight.

She waited for him to acknowledge, but he didnt.

Finally, she said, Cody?

He held the phone out away from him at arms length and made a gargling sound in his throat that resembled static. He said, Im losing the signal right now. Call Larry. Ill call back when I get a better signal, and closed the phone and dropped it to the seat. Overwhelmed with a wave of nausea and needing air, he pushed open the door and stepped outside, his boots splashing in a deep puddle.

Good one, Skinny Yellow Hoodie said, laughing. Right in the hole.

Cody ignored them as he bent forward, grasping his knees with his hands. He breathed in the moist mountain air, filling his lungs with it. Mixing it with the smoke. His eyes watered and he stood and wiped at them. Cold water poured in over the top of his low boots, filling his socks. He wished hed worn his cowboy boots instead.

You okay? Yellow Hoodie asked.

Fine.

Want another beer? You could probably use one now.

No, he said. They assumed hed been drinking. Or, he thought, they recognized him from when he haunted the bars.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Back of Beyond»

Look at similar books to Back of Beyond. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «Back of Beyond»

Discussion, reviews of the book Back of Beyond and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.