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    Dark Woman
    Dark Woman
    Dark Woman
    Ebook223 pages3 hours

    Dark Woman

    By Dallas Releford

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    About this ebook

    A dark and mysterious novel, with even darker and more mysterious characters – Dark Woman will keep you wrapped in its pages until the very end.
    Brave, smart and beautiful, Elizabeth Ann Keene and her team become involved when 3 separate murders occur of women who have a couple things in common; They all work for a computer company called Future Computer Systems.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDallas Releford
    Release dateSep 18, 2010
    ISBN9781452325408
    Dark Woman

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      Book preview

      Dark Woman - Dallas Releford

      Dark Woman

      By

      Dallas Releford

      Published by Dallas Releford at Smashwords.com

      Other titles by Dallas Releford are available at Smashwords.com

      * * * * *

      A review of Dark Woman by Kathy Garcia

      A dark and mysterious novel, with even darker and more mysterious characters – Dark Woman will keep you wrapped in its pages until the very end.

      Brave, smart and beautiful, Elizabeth Ann Keene and her team become involved when 3 separate murders occur of women who have a couple things in common; First, they all work for a computer company called Future Computer Systems and second, they were all working on the same project, GENESIS.

      On a trail that starts in California coast to the Kentucky woods and hopefully will NOT end in China on foreign land – Elizabeth Ann Keene discovers that the importance of GENESIS and why foreign interest is deadly. She finds that the GENESIS project is a quantum super computer for US government, an advanced weapon system used to build E bombs and other weapons. This is powerful and deadly technology the US must protect for everyone’s safety. If it finds its way into foreign hands, the consequences could be deadly.

      Along the way, Elizabeth faces many obstacles such as; who her friends are, the safety of her employees and her very own wellbeing. Facing tragic loss and heartache, Elizabeth moves forward into unknown territory. Whether she is brave, smart and beautiful – in the end it doesn’t matter. All that does matter is that she must be stronger than she ever has before.

      The stakes are high, the danger is close and this book will use every page to surprise and thrill you.

      Kathy Garcia

      * * * * *

      Dark Woman

      Copyright (C) 2010 Dallas Releford

      * * * * *

      This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, places, events, organizations, areas, or locations are intended to provide a feeling of authenticity and are used in a fictitious manner. All other characters, dialogue and incidents are drawn from the author’s imagination and shouldn’t be accepted as real.

      No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without explicit permission from the author or publisher except in brief quotations used in an article or in a similar way.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      Dedication

      I would like to thank my wife Sharon for her understanding while I was writing this book. It is with deep sadness that I must announce that my wife, Sharon Releford passed away on August 18th, 2010. She was one of the most wonderful people I have ever known and she is missed. She had bravely fought ovarian cancer for almost four years.

      I would like to thank Dr. Rashid Khan my family doctor for his support. Credit is due to my agent Harriet Smith and Martin Smith for their assistance. Their guidance and their editorial work added greatly to the quality of this book.

      I would like to recognize my full-time editor and reviewer, Kat Garcia who is dedicated to my work and devoted to my cause. Without her, this book would contain many more errors.

      My agents and typists, Harriet Smith and Martin Smith deserve additional thanks for typing and revising my manuscripts.

      To Rita Syers of Bronwen Publishing who continues to assist me in my efforts.

      To John Saul, author, for his advice that kept me going. His advice to keep going and not to give up was and is valuable.

      To Dana Reed, author of many good novels who taught me a lot I did not know including how not to give up when times were bad.

      * * * * *

      Dark Woman

      An Elizabeth Ann Keene Mystery

      Dallas Releford

      Elizabeth Keene, private investigator, and Maureen Anderson, her partner encounter a mysterious, sinister woman in dark clothing on the streets of San Francisco while investigating the death of a computer analyst who has developed the ultimate computer system. When they attempt to recover the stolen top-secret computer before it’s delivered to the Chinese by terrorists, the dark being pursues them in the rattlesnake-infested hills of Central Kentucky.

      * * * * *

      DARK WOMAN

      Chapter 1

      Dark clouds as ominous as the fast approaching sentinels of a hurricane appeared in the west moving slowly toward San Francisco. Before the night was over, rain would descend in torrents and fog would obscure practically everything from sight. There was time though, the phantom of the dark evening concluded as it moved slowly down Powell Street with a purpose in mind. Already, it could feel heavy droplets of rain hitting the black hat it wore and as the raindrops cascaded from the wide brim, the being blessed the weather appreciating the fact that it would conceal the evil that it was destined to commit.

      In the oncoming darkness, the streets were almost abandoned except for a few late shoppers, several homeless people mulling about aimlessly and a couple of kids tossing a baseball to each other on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. Nothing to worry about, the creature said to nobody in particular scanning the streets for any sign of danger. Nothing to worry about at all.

      Nothing much was revealed about the dark, solitary specter as it passed under one streetlight after another except that it wasn’t something that you’d see during the daylight on a busy San Francisco street. Instead, it was something that belonged to the night, to the darkness and to the Devil’s kingdom of evil. The wide brimmed hat, the dark cape slung carefully around its shoulders and the other dark clothing indicated that it was something special, something evil and hideous. It’s facial features, if there were any, were completely hidden behind a black mask. A passerby might mistake it for someone on their way to a masquerade party, or perhaps an actor headed for an audition at a local television station. They would have been wrong, though, the creature was much more than something from the ordinary world they knew.

      As a vehicle approached with headlights illuminating the street where the creature walked, the entity vanished into a darkened alley alongside an old brick building until the vehicle had disappeared. It must not be seen. Walking another block, it found a nearby alley. Pulling something from a hidden pocket in the cape, it crouched there waiting for someone to appear, or something to happen.

      Elizabeth Keene, you little nosey bitch, let’s see you solve this one, the chilling words fell only on its own ears because nobody else heard what it had said. I promised you I’d make you pay for your intervention, and I shall do that, it added, smiling grimly. I’m going to make sure you die a very slow, agonizing, terrifying death.

      Saying nothing more, it hunched there waiting, waiting for someone that had a rendezvous with terror, or maybe even worse. Maybe they had a date with death.

      * * *

      As the darkness fell upon the city, sheets of heavy rain moved in from the Pacific Ocean strolling casually across the bay compelling homeless people to seek shelter from its unmerciful fury. When it enshrouded San Francisco in its grip of unkindness, the streets became deserted leaving only the hardy, the poor, and the desolate to wander through the dark, wet alleys and passages. Eventually, even they found shelter under cardboard boxes, in doorways, and if they were lucky, in homeless shelters. Almost motionless, a heavy fog, a thick ground crawling mist, slithered across the bay toward the land to add to the gloomy, despairing atmosphere of the city by the bay. Drifting slowly toward Fisherman’s Wharf, the fog obscured several large boats in the bay before finally encountering the outer fringes of the city.

      A figure, nothing more than a fleeting shadow in the swirling, condescending, perpetual rain, left the confines of a brick office building on Powell Street and walked toward a car, a fire engine red Mustang parked at the curb. Ignoring the abhorrent, nasty weather and the deserted streets, the figure stopped and looked around as if something had interrupted its train of thought. Not seeing anything to cause alarm, it walked to the car, umbrella in one hand, a purse held snuggly in the other. As the fog played along the drenched sidewalks, the figure searched the purse for something, obviously keys to the car.

      A lone San Francisco police cruiser halted abruptly at a stop sign on an adjoining street behind the figure. Suddenly, without warning, a siren wailed, blue lights flashed as the cruiser turned left and raced up the street passing the lone figure by the red Mustang. Attentive at first, the figure seemed to lose interest as the lights and the siren faded into the dark, eerie San Francisco night. Tossing the umbrella on top of the car, the woman continued her attempt to open the purse cursing because the wet zipper refused to grant access to her property now snugly locked inside the leather container.

      One block back on Powell Street, another dark, solitary shadowy form walked briskly down the street toward the area where the other person stood by the car looking, searching frantically by now, for the keys. Frightened by the abrupt appearance of the police cruiser, it scampered haphazardly, somewhat recklessly into a nearby alley devoid of all light.

      Safely hidden there, a thing of the night, it watch-ed, waited for its chance to continue its unknown, unrevealed mission. The police cruiser moved away and it sighed, relieved that it was in no apparent danger, at least not from the local police. Tugging its black hat down lower to shield its face from the pouring rain, it pulled the dark raincoat tighter around its slim body and hurried on up the street sloshing through the puddles of water as it walked toward the young woman standing beside the car cursing her luck.

      Tonya Cheng, disenchanted with the unromantic atmosphere of this particular San Francisco night, tugged at the zipper attempting to open the leather purse. Finally, after much effort on her part, she was able to unzip it and nearly dumped the contents of the purse on the wet street. Glancing at her watch, she strained her eyes attempting to see what time it was. In the dim light, she thought it was nearly nine o’clock. Having left the office at eight-forty five, she estimated that the time probably was right. The significance of that realization was that she’d hoped to be home by nine-thirty. Wondering if she could make it all the way to Livermore in that span of time, she located her keys, closed the purse, slung it around her shoulder, and inserted the key into the lock. Before she could turn it, she heard a noise behind her, someone breathing or a foot splashing through a puddle of water, something made her cautious, aware. The terror, the stark awareness that she was in danger struck her about the same time that a piece of wire dropped over her head, and settled below her chin resting on her shoulders. She couldn’t tell what the object was because it had happened so fast, and she knew she was in danger.

      Unable to scream as the piece of wire tightened around her throat, she surrendered to her most natural urge. Dropping her purse, she forced her fingers beneath the wire attempting to pull it away from her neck, and only succeeded in getting her fingers cut and stuck there as the wire was pulled tighter choking her. The pain in her hands was so devastating that she just wanted to scream. Terror in her heart was so immense that she wanted to do something, anything, to alleviate it and to wipe it out of her mind. Foremost on her mind was to awaken from the horrible nightmare that now enslaved her. Her mind was rushing quickly, her thoughts were escalating out of control, and her heart kept beat with the unvarying beat of the raindrops on top of her car. Struggling for her life, she knew she had to do something, but what?

      At first, she’d thought that it was a prank, a silly game someone was playing on her. Now, she knew better. This was no game. She was going to die, if she didn’t do something and do it quickly. A sparkle of hope, dim, faint, but inviting, trickled into her anesthetized mind growing incessantly like a rose on a hot, summer afternoon. She’d seen the police cruiser earlier and if there was one on patrol, then maybe there was another one nearby. How to attract them, to call for help when she needed it the most, was the question that troubled her. Time was growing short; her days were now cut down to paralyzing minutes, maybe even seconds, before she would die. Tonya didn’t want to die. She had too much to live for. Her husband wouldn’t be able to care for the baby when it arrived and she wanted to be around to bring it into the world. She had many things to live for, and she knew it. Nearly laughing madly when she realized that the baby would die too, if she died, she restrained herself as best as she could and told her other self that it was real. She was going to die. She just knew it. Attempting to scream, she struggled in an effort to open her mouth, to expel the cry for help that was buried deep in her throat and was unsuccessful. Her screams, her pleadings for mercy and her cries for help went unheard because they were as silent as the streets around her. They were all in her terrified mind and nowhere else.

      Her hands were useless, disgusting things of betrayal, locked beneath the wire, and she knew she couldn’t fight back with them. That wire, now as lethal, as sharp as any butcher knife, was cutting not only her fingers, it was cutting her throat, too. She could feel the pain, felt the blood flowing from her fingers and neck, and could sense her life draining from her body. As a last effort, she pulled her foot forward and brought it down on the leg of the creature behind her. It had little affect, if any on the beast. If anything, the wire was getting tighter tearing, cutting at her soft flesh. An abrupt jerk on the rigid wire cut off her fingers and dug deep into her throat. The sudden pain drenched her body in horror as she realized that her fingers were gone. Desperately, she struggled defending herself any way that she could. Much weaker now, her breath shallow and labored, she kicked at the legs of the thing and tried to scream ignoring the throbbing pain in her hands. It was futile, he had her and she was done for. Hardly able to breathe, she felt her legs crumble beneath her as everything around her began to move in slow motion, twirl around as if she were inside a tornado, a very big one, and then everything just suddenly seemed to fade away into nothingness.

      Fleeting images of her childhood, her first birthday cake, her mother taking her on a walk down the street on a hot July evening, and other long past memories flooded her mind. Shortly, there was nothing, no memories, no breath, no pain, no suffering, and no life. Her body slowly collapsed and drained to the ground like a stream of water rolling off a rooftop during a spring storm.

      Dark leather-gloved hands took the keys from the lock and inserted them into the trunk lock of the Mustang. After opening the trunk, the dark form stuffed the limp body of Tonya Cheng into it and closed the lid. Dropping the keys into a nearby drain, it walked away back down the street splashing through the large puddles of water as a police cruiser drove by. Ducking into a nearby dark alley, the murderous creature in black clothing glided down the alley and into the night. A homeless man, wine bottle in his hand, wondered for a moment what kind of crazy ran around town in dark clothing and a cloak wrapped around their shoulders.

      * * *

      If you feel that way, go for a walk, take a cold shower, or maybe take the dog out for a brisk trot, Melissa Talbot told her husband. He stood in the doorway watching her finish washing the dishes. I know it’s difficult for you men sometimes, but you have to realize that women can’t keep you entertained all the time. Why don’t you get a hobby? Take up knitting or something. She snickered, attempting to hide her smile from him. The poor man didn’t know when she was serious and when she wasn’t. Sometimes, she didn’t know.

      Jesus, he protested, I only wanted you to go shopping with me. I’m bored sitting around here, and I need a new printer. I didn’t expect you to be so hyperactive about it. You women love to shop, don’t you?

      Sometimes, she answered, peevishly. "Sometimes when I

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