Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Devil's Bedpost
    The Devil's Bedpost
    The Devil's Bedpost
    Ebook91 pages1 hour

    The Devil's Bedpost

    By Parker Williams

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Devil’s Bedpost
    Four of Clubs One

    Detective Ben Nelson’s chilling new case involves seemingly unconnected people—men, women, children—who disappear from their beds and are later found beaten to death. When evidence leads to an offhand comment about voodoo, Ben refuses to acknowledge the possibility of a supernatural element...until his boss orders him to visit a seer named A. Middleton or hand the case over to the Odd Squad—the federal bureau charged with investigating supernatural crimes.

    With a simple touch, Artie Middleton can see, feel, and relive the stories held by objects. The last missing person’s case he assisted on left him bedridden, recovering from the same wounds as the victim. His power is one that few would envy. Now a police detective shows up at his door, needing help to find a missing seven-year-old boy, and Artie is torn. He fears what might happen if he agrees but knows the fate of the child if he doesn’t. Even more troubling for Artie is the detective’s effect on him. While Artie can’t allow skin-to-skin contact with a person for fear of what he might see, Ben makes him want to break all the rules he has in place to protect his sanity.

    When the two begin working together, they find much more than they expected. And if they can’t stop the perpetrators, the body count will increase.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherParker Williams
    Release dateMar 14, 2015
    ISBN9781941841068
    The Devil's Bedpost
    Author

    Parker Williams

    Parker Williams is a bestselling author of MM romance and suspense. One of his recent works was nominated for the Lambda Literary Awards, and several books have been runners-up at the Rainbow Awards. Parker loves the written word. A chance encounter with an amazing author changed the course of his life as he began to write the stories his men were whispering to him. With the help of some amazing friends and a community of writers he’s proud to be part of, Parker continues telling stories of love, hurt, comfort, and sometimes tosses in a little angst for fun. He believes in love, but also knows that anything worth having requires work and sacrifice (and maybe a little hurt runs smooth, and he enjoys writing about it. Parker lives in Milwaukee, WI, with his husband, Paul, and their menagerie of dogs and cats. Most days you’ll find him on Facebook, sharing stories and pictures of the zoo, or even about Paul, who is always good for a laugh and comfort too). The course of true love never. Website: www.parkerwilliamsauthor.com Twitter: @ParkerWAuthor Facebook: www.facebook.com/parker.williams.75641 Email: parker@parkerwilliamsauthor.com

    Read more from Parker Williams

    Related to The Devil's Bedpost

    Related ebooks

    Gay Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Re-Imagining Masculinity

      Jun 10, 2019

      Re-Imagining Masculinity
      4 min read

    • Article

      Great Scot

      Oct 22, 2021

      Great Scot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Billy Connolly: ‘It Might Be Lovely On The Other Side’

      Oct 17, 2021

      A fostered-off schoolboy going nowhere fast, turned apprentice welder on the Clyde. A welder turned regionally popular musician. A musician turned nationally popular comic. A comic turned Hollywood actor and an actor turned New York artist, then a re

      10 min read

    • Article

      ‘I’m Still Ostracized’: What Happens To True Crime Survivors?

      Jun 20, 2023

      When Collier Landry was 12 years old, he became a media sensation as the star witness in a small-town murder trial like no other. With uncommon poise and precision for someone so young, he told a jury in Ohio how, months earlier, he’d woken up in the

      6 min read

    • Article

      Dirty John: Forgiveness

      Oct 5, 2017

      Dirty John: Forgiveness
      8 min read

    • Article

      Class Act

      Jan 15, 2021

      Class Act
      8 min read

    • Article

      ‘Something Went On In That House’: Did The Devil Drive A Teen To Murder?

      Oct 18, 2023

      Here are the facts: on 16 February 1981, 19-year-old Arne Cheyenne Johnson, his sister Wanda, his fiancee Debbie Glatzel, her cousin Mary and Debbie’s employer/landlord Alan Bono all went to lunch at a bar in Brookfield, Connecticut. Over the course

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Danger

      May 18, 2022

      Stranger Danger
      10 min read

    • Article

      I Am A Child Of Domestic Violence

      Feb 14, 2018

      I am a child of domestic violence. As a boy, I couldn't fall asleep until I heard my father return from his nocturnal ramblings. I'd listen hard, trying to gauge his mood from the tone of his voice, trying to determine if it was safe to close my eyes

      2 min read

    • Article

      Monster

      Dec 1, 2022

      Monster
      7 min read

    • Article

      The After

      Jun 10, 2023

      He is sitting opposite me, staring blankly like a dead fish. Stone eyes. Cobalt and lifeless. Pale gray skin, dripping scales. I imagine him hauled out of the water and dumped on the riverbank, gasping for breath. Just as he deserves. I only agreed t

      13 min read

    • Article

      Dialogue With The Devil

      Apr 10, 2023

      Dialogue With The Devil
      11 min read

    • Article

      Dialogue With The Devil

      Apr 10, 2023

      Dialogue With The Devil
      11 min read

    • Article

      Living With A Painful Past

      Jun 24, 2023

      Living With A Painful Past
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mortality Tale

      Nov 15, 2020

      Seb makes his living from the dead. He’s an embalmer at White Lily Funerals, wedged between Supercheap Auto and Discount Wheels. He’s good at his job. He oft en makes the dead look more alive than they did when they were livin He wears a black suit e

      1 min read

    • Article

      The July War

      Sep 8, 2020

      In summer, our neighborhood quiets in phases. The quieting begins in May. Schools give their older kids, the seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, a month off to prepare for the baccalaureate exams. Following a ritual as old as our parents, the students

      21 min read

    • Article

      Dirty John: Escape

      Oct 8, 2017

      Dirty John: Escape
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Devil's Bedpost

    4.5/5

    4 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Devil's Bedpost - Parker Williams

      The Devil’s Bedpost

      Four of Clubs One

      Pulp Friction 2015

      Parker Williams

      Copyright

      The Devil’s Bedpost is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      Copyright © 2015 by Parker Williams

      Cover Art by Laura Harner

      Edited by Jae Ashley

      Formatting by Author.Services

      All rights reserved.

      Published in the United States by Hot Corner Press.

      ISBN: 978-1-941841-06-8

      Warning: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

      Contact the publisher for further information: parker@parkerwilliamsauthor.com

      Acknowledgements

      I thank Becky Condit and Mary Phillips Wallace for their invaluable help in beta reading.

      Jae Ashley for her awesome editing.

      Laura Harner, Havan Fellows, Lee Brazil, and Tom Webb just for being.

      Extra special thanks goes to Christy Duke for being in our corner and all of her support.

      Trademarks

      The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following trademarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

      iPhone: Apple, Inc.

      Twister: Hasbro, Inc.

      Death Wish Coffee: Death Wish Coffee Company LLC

      iMac: Apple, Inc.

      The Princess Bride (specifically the characters): The Princess Bride, LTD.

      Contents

      Copyright

      Acknowledgements

      The Devil’s Bedpost

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      About the Author

      Also Available

      The Devil’s Bedpost

      Four of Clubs One

      Detective Ben Nelson’s chilling new case involves seemingly unconnected people—men, women, children—who disappear from their beds and are later found beaten to death. When evidence leads to an offhand comment about voodoo, Ben refuses to acknowledge the possibility of a supernatural element…until his boss orders him to visit a seer named A. Middleton or hand the case over to the Odd Squad—the federal bureau charged with investigating supernatural crimes. 



      With a simple touch, Artie Middleton can see, feel, and relive the stories held by objects. The last missing person’s case he assisted on left him bedridden, recovering from the same wounds as the victim. His power is one that few would envy. Now a police detective shows up at his door, needing help to find a missing seven-year-old boy, and Artie is torn. He fears what might happen if he agrees but knows the fate of the child if he doesn’t. Even more troubling for Artie is the detective’s effect on him. While Artie can’t allow skin-to-skin contact with a person for fear of what he might see, Ben makes him want to break all the rules he has in place to protect his sanity.

      When the two begin working together, they find much more than they expected. And if they can’t stop the perpetrators, the body count will increase.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Detective Ben Nelson stood over the body of eleven-year-old Ricky James. What he saw was nothing like the picture in the report about the missing kid. The top of his skull was pushed in and blood matted the hair. The wounds indicated he'd probably been beaten to death with a blunt item, maybe a bat. He'd need the medical examiner to tell him for sure, but it didn't matter. Ricky’d had his whole life ahead of him, and now he was dead. Another victim of the excesses of the city of New Orleans, where anything could be had for a price.

      What was it that drew kids here? Mardi Gras had just ended. Had he been here for that? Had he run from home thinking he could lose himself in the crowd like so many people tried to do? And had he picked the wrong person to trust? The whys and wherefores didn't matter anymore. At least not to Ricky.

      A slender boy with long dark hair, he had features that would have made him pretty, if it weren't for the bruising on his face. Ben pleaded with his stomach to keep his lunch where it was, but it was going to be a losing battle. He'd seen dead people numerous times in his five years with the NOPD, but when it was a kid, he couldn't help himself.

      Gonna be sick again, Benjy boy?

      So lost in his thoughts, Ben hadn't heard Carter Bollier come up behind him. He held his tongue and faced the portly man with the receding gray hairline who did his best to make a comb-over of the few strands he had left.

      Don't start with me, Bollier, he snapped. It's an eleven-year-old boy. Have some compassion.

      Bollier stepped forward, nudging Ben to the side. Yeah, he got his pretty face bashed in. If you look at him in the right light, you'd almost think he was a girl. Probably what happened. Some john came into the alley with him for a quick hookup, then found out the little freak was a guy and offed him.

      Pain radiated through Ben's jaw as he ground his teeth together. Bollier shouldn't ever be allowed cases like these. With his people skills, he should be buried in one of the evidence rooms at the precinct. We don't know what happened to him, and keep your insults and slurs to yourself.

      Bollier gave a mock apologetic look, which was followed by his trademark sneer. Oh, sorry. I forgot you types run in the same circles.

      You types? What type might that be?

      Bollier held his wrist at an unnatural angle and affected a lisp in a gross caricature of a gay man. You know, those who are little…bent.

      Ben grabbed Bollier by the collar and shoved him against an adjacent wall, getting in close and snarling, That boy is dead, or doesn't that mean anything to you?

      Bollier eyed him calmly, then glanced to where Ricky's body lay. Sure, it means paperwork for some snot-nosed punk who ran away from home thinking he could find a better life here. Wanna bet he regretted the choice before he died? Even a beating or two from Dad had to be better than this, right? You have to wonder if he ran into the guy who carved up those women a few months back. Kid looks enough like a woman.

      Even if Ben wanted to, he couldn't stop himself. Bollier had it coming for the years he'd been forced to work with the asshole. No regard for anyone not like him. He hated kids. He all but agreed that what the press referred to as supernatural beings should be locked up or dropped on

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1