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    Blood Trail
    Blood Trail
    Blood Trail
    Ebook51 pages35 minutes

    Blood Trail

    By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Detective Zack Wheldon solves cases. The tough cases no one else figures out. So, when the FBI comes seeking his help, he must decide which to choose: the serial killer he desperately wants to catch or the as-yet-unknown cases that will grow cold in his absence.

    The FBI promises big things, more closed cases, more criminals behind bars. If he can trust the feds. If he believes in their methods. If he really wants to test his own resolve.

    "Kristine Kathryn Rusch's crime stories are exceptional—both in plot and in style."

    —Mystery Scene Magazine

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWMG Publishing
    Release dateFeb 26, 2019
    ISBN9781386875932
    Blood Trail
    Author

    Kristine Kathryn Rusch

    USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

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      Book preview

      Blood Trail - Kristine Kathryn Rusch

      Blood Trail

      BLOOD TRAIL

      KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH

      WMG Publishing

      Contents

      Blood Trail

      Newsletter sign-up

      Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

      About the Author

      Blood Trail

      The blood trail started at the front door. A light spray covered the wallpaper, so fine that it almost looked like part of the design. Then the spray became a spurt, and finally great arching lines of blood that had dripped down the walls into the baseboards.

      Wheldon stepped inside the apartment, mourning the destruction of evidence. The crime scene was the entry itself. Even if he hadn’t seen the body—face down in the area where the foyer opened into the living room—-he would have been able to tell from the blood that the crime had been committed here.

      He could even guess, without examining the body itself, how the wounds occurred: a preliminary stab wound on the left side of the back, into some blood vessels but nothing major; other stab wounds lower, at least one somewhere vital; and the last in a major artery which caused death quite quickly.

      The attack started when the victim arrived home and unlocked her apartment door. Her attacker followed her inside, stabbed her, pulled the door closed, and continued to stab until she was dead.

      Is there another way into this place? he asked the patrolman outside the door.

      Nope. The patrolman was young, his face green. He’d been standing in the hall when Wheldon arrived, arms crossed, as if he were guarding the place. But Wheldon had seen enough rookies to recognize the reaction: the young man was trying to keep his lunch down and look official in the process.

      Who’s been through? Wheldon asked.

      The roommate—she’s the one who called—my partner, me, the detectives, and the forensic guys.

      Wheldon nodded. Keep everyone else out until I give permission. And I don’t want you guys to leave until we bag your shoes.

      Excuse me? The patrolman looked at him with a mixture of shock and confusion.

      Your shoes, Wheldon said. This is the fourth entryway stabbing I’ve worked on in the last two months. The problem with all of them is that critical evidence gets destroyed from the get-go. I’m making sure that won’t happen this time.

      I gotta give you my shoes?

      I’m afraid so, Officer, Wheldon said.

      But how’m I supposed to finish my shift?

      Wheldon shrugged. He walked farther inside, careful to avoid the spatter that had reached the floor. There was a smear near an end table, probably from a shoe. But the prints led into the living room and ended near the feet of the woman who sat on the sofa, twisting her hands together.

      The roommate, the one who’d called the police.

      She was talking to one of the detectives, her head down, eyes averted. She was making a studied attempt not to look at the body sprawled near Wheldon on the scuffed hardwood floor.

      He studied her for a moment. She was thin—with a body style that would have been fashionable thirty years before, in the affluent ’90s. He doubted her thinness had anything to do with diets and exercise. Judging from the apartment, she remained thin thanks to lack of cash.

      Forensics was taking

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