The Butcher - Couverture rigide

Hillier, Jennifer

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1476734216 ISBN 13 : 9781476734217

Editeur : Gallery Books, 2014

Synopsis

A rash of grisly serial murders plagued Seattle until the infamous "Beacon Hill Butcher" was finally hunted down and killed by police chief Edward Shank in 1985. Now, some thirty years later, Shank, retired and widowed, is giving up his large rambling Victorian house to his grandson Matt, whom he helped raise. Settling back into his childhood home and doing some renovations in the backyard to make the house feel like his own, Matt, a young up-and-coming chef and restaurateur, stumbles upon a locked crate he's never seen before. Curious, he picks the padlock and makes a discovery so gruesome it will forever haunt him...Faced with this deep dark family secret, Matt must decide whether to keep what he knows buried in the past, go to the police, or take matters into his own hands. Meanwhile Matt's girlfriend, Sam, has always suspected that her mother was murdered by the Beacon Hill Butcher-two years after the supposed Butcher was gunned down. As she pursues leads that will prove her right, Sam heads right into the path of Matt's terrible secret. A thriller with taut, fast-paced suspense, and twists around every corner, The Butcher will keep you guessing until the bitter, bloody end.

A propos du livre

Extrait :

The Butcher
APRIL 25, 1985

It had once been a lovely apartment building, but the crackheads had changed all that. Graffiti covered the old brick walls and the front doors were badly in need of a new coat of paint. Most of the windows—the ones that weren’t broken—had mismatched bedsheets as curtains, and the courtyard in front of the building looked and smelled like a garbage dump.

The light Seattle rain drizzled down steadily, covering Captain Edward Shank’s face with a fine mist that felt good. Twenty feet away from the apartment’s entrance, he stood still in the dark, feeling secure, if a little warm, under the weight of the Kevlar vest hugging his torso. Several other police officers flanked him on either side, and though they weren’t touching, he could feel the tension in their bodies cutting through the cool night air.

He spoke to them in a low, commanding voice and gripped his weapon tighter. “Nobody moves till I move.”

The only light in the area was weak and yellow, seeping from a bare bulb over the doorway to the building. A striped cat with missing patches of fur moved quietly through the shadows and into the walkway light, pausing to sniff the air. The front door to the apartment building opened and the cat scampered away. A middle-aged man, potbellied and wearing a too-tight wifebeater-style tank top and a pair of saggy denim shorts, stepped out.

Edward Shank moved forward, aiming his weapon at the man’s chest. “Rufus Wedge!” His voice, strong and authoritative, carried easily into the quiet night. “This is Captain Edward Shank from the Seattle Police Department. Don’t move. You’re under arrest. Get on your knees and place your hands in the air.”

Startled, Wedge turned in the direction of Edward’s voice. His left hand crept toward his back pocket.

Without hesitation, Edward fired. So did the four other police officers beside him.

The gunfire propelled Rufus Wedge backward. The man hit the door hard before slumping to the ground, bright spots of blood immediately appearing in several places across his torso, stark against the white cotton of his shirt. The man’s grizzled jaw went slack, the few stray hairs from his comb-over falling across his pink, shiny forehead in moist wisps. As the light went out of his eyes, the dull yellow bulb above him cast a golden, almost angelic glow on his face.

An interesting contradiction. Edward almost felt guilty.

Almost.

“We got him, Captain,” someone said. Edward recognized the voice but didn’t turn to look. He couldn’t bring himself to take his eyes off Rufus Wedge, so he nodded without averting his gaze. “We finally nailed the Butcher. Thank fucking Christ.”

From somewhere in the dark, the striped cat yowled.

The officers around Edward rushed forward to check the man’s vitals, as was protocol, guns still drawn. Their captain stayed behind, unmoving, under the cover of the darkness, his eyes fixed on Wedge’s dead body.

Rufus Wedge, otherwise known as the Beacon Hill Butcher, had been the most wanted man in the Pacific Northwest for a long time. The manhunt was now over.

Holstering his weapon, Edward let out a long, slow breath. Wiping his brow, slick from the rain, he stepped forward into the light toward the dead man. Wedge stared up at him with blank, glossy eyes.

“No more now,” Edward said quietly. He wasn’t speaking to anyone in particular, except maybe himself. “No more.”

Biographie de l'auteur :

Jennifer Hillier made her fiction debut with Creep. Originally from Canada, she spent almost five years in the beautiful Pacific Northwest before returning to her hometown of Toronto, Canada. Visit her on the web at JenniferHillier.org.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Gallery Books
• Date d'édition: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1476734216
• ISBN 13: 9781476734217
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 352