The Boy in the Woods Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Recent Titles by Carter Wilson

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Read On

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Part II

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Part III

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Chapter Sixty

  Afterword

  Acknowledgements

  Recent Titles by Carter Wilson

  FINAL CROSSING

  THE BOY IN THE WOODS *

  * available from Severn House

  THE BOY IN THE WOODS

  Carter Wilson

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  First published in Great Britain and the USA 2014 by

  SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

  19 Cedar Road, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM2 5DA

  eBook edition first published in 2014 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

  Copyright © 2014 by Carter Wilson.

  The right of Carter Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Wilson, Carter, author.

  The boy in the woods.

  1. Authors–Fiction. 2. Suspense fiction.

  I. Title

  813.6-dc23

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8385-8 (cased)

  ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-521-5 (ePub)

  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

  This ebook produced by

  Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

  Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

  To Ili and Sawyer

  You can’t read this until you’re eighteen

  ‘The woods are a lonely place. That’s why I always put the bodies there. Even dead trees need company.’

  Samuel Lowry,

  convicted serial killer

  Turn the page for a preview of Tommy Devereaux’s upcoming novel

  THE BLOOD OF THE YOUNG

  ONE

  It was 1981 and we were twenty minutes away from the rest of our lives. Except for one of us.

  Spencer was fourteen. He was the oldest, so we followed him everywhere. I was eight months behind him and Drew lagged two weeks on me. The three of us spent every day together in the summer. I suppose you could say we were best friends. At that age, there’s a fine line between being best friends and simply having nothing better to do.

  My name is Bobby. Never been a Robert or a Bob.

  The summer air that day was heavy for Oregon. Mosquitoes like werewolves. We were sitting on the floor of a small crook of woods a half-mile from anything. Nothing too interesting about the woods except that was where we happened to be, which was good enough for us.

  We went often to the woods.

  ‘We could go to McKinney’s and try to swipe a Hustler,’ Drew said. It was rare he made a suggestion.

  The day yawned.

  ‘Nah.’ Spencer poked at the dirt with a stick. ‘That stuff just pisses me off.’

  ‘What does?’

  ‘Porn mags.’

  ‘Why do they piss you off?’ I asked.

  ‘Cause I’m tired of beating off.’

  I knew exactly what he meant but didn’t want to say so.

  ‘I wish I had a stack of Hustlers to the ceiling of my room,’ Drew said. ‘I never get tired of beating off.’

  ‘That’s because you’re a creep,’ Spencer said. He scrunched up his face. ‘I just get … I don’t know how to describe it.’

  I knew how. Maybe that’s why I became a writer.

  ‘Frustrated,’ I said.

  ‘Yes.’ He pointed the stick at me. The small gesture made me proud. ‘Frustrated. Exactly. Sick of drooling over chicks I can’t have.’

  ‘Get used to it.’

  ‘Blow me.’ This was Spencer’s preferred phrase of dismissal. ‘I’m the only one who’s felt a chick up.’

  Heather Winalda. We had all heard the story. I wanted to say she let anyone feel her up, but since she’d never let me feel her up I kept my mouth shut. Someone once told me she showed herself to Mike McCarty in the girls’ room. I didn’t believe it, but I had the image in my mind for months.

  I wasn’t a bad-looking kid, but I wasn’t a good-looking one either. I stood in the shadows of mediocrity, cloaked in a general awkwardness and eaten alive by hormones like they were nits.

  Sunlight tore through a crack in the dense foliage above us. About noon, I guessed.

  ‘Burger King?’ I suggested. A squirrel edged up to our pile of bikes in the dirt and sniffed at a tire. Drew threw a small rock at it that went far right. Squirrel didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘Works for me.’

  ‘I need some money.’

  ‘Jesus, Bobby. You always need money.’

  ‘We all need money,’ I said. ‘I just don’t happen to have any.’

  ‘I got ya,’ Drew said, patting his front pocket.

  ‘Thanks.’ Drew could afford it. He got ten bucks a week from his parents just for being a fuck-all.

  My Walkman bulged in the front pocket of my shorts. I wore the bulky headphones like most kids wore baseba
ll hats: all the time. I took the Walkman out, flipped the cassette, and pressed play. David Lee Roth started to tell me a thing or two about beautiful girls while Eddie, harmonizing behind the vocals, let his rear-loaded Charvel speak for itself. All other sounds fell away like dominoes around me, and I just watched that squirrel explore our bikes as I lost myself in the music.

  After a few more seconds, something spooked the squirrel and it ran up the nearest tree. I looked over at the thin path snaking past our bikes and saw movement. Someone was coming.

  I saw the boy first.

  Younger than us. Several years. Black hair, cut by someone who didn’t like paying barbers. Goofy grin on his face, arms dangling. I knew him.

  His name was Brian. He lived four houses down from me and I always heard he was a little soft in the head. He had never shown me anything to disprove the rumors. Brian was about ten, more or less.

  I didn’t know the girl walking behind Brian. She was a head taller than him, and when Brian shuffled to the side, I could see all of her at once. Long red hair swished side to side as she made her way toward us. She wore a tank top and shorts, both of which she was on the cusp of outgrowing. She looked at us and smiled. My insides stirred.

  I turned my music off.

  ‘Goddamn,’ Drew said. Something must’ve stirred in him, too.

  ‘Hi, guys,’ Brian said, his small voice creaking.

  ‘Hi, yourself,’ Spencer called out. He stood. ‘Who are you?’

  ‘The kid lives near me,’ I muttered. ‘I don’t know who the girl is.’

  She came within ten feet of us and stopped. Brian clamored right up to me like a puppy.

  ‘This some kind of secret place or something?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing secret about it.’ I watched Spencer’s gaze take her in as she put a hand on her hip.

  She nodded at Brian. ‘I found him wandering alone.’

  ‘He’s always alone,’ I said. ‘I see him around our block all the time.’

  Her eyes widened a fraction as she studied Brian. ‘Thought I’d help him find his home.’

  ‘His home is right back there,’ I said, pointing in the direction from which they’d come. ‘Same as mine.’

  ‘Told you,’ Brian said. He looked at me. His skin blended almost perfectly into the nougat white of his faded t-shirt. ‘She said we should go for a walk.’

  ‘What’s your name?’ Spencer asked her.

  ‘Elizabeth. You?’

  ‘Spencer.’ He pointed at us. ‘Bobby and Drew. You live around here?’

  She nodded. ‘New to the area. Dad got transferred. Came from Portland.’

  ‘You at the high school?’

  ‘Just started.’ Her gaze flitted between all of us. ‘I’m going to be a junior.’

  We were all starting our freshman year.

  She looked around. ‘This where you guys come to smoke pot or something?’

  The question seemed so … adult. I didn’t know anyone who smoked pot.

  ‘No,’ Spencer said. ‘It’s just a place.’

  ‘What do you do here?’

  ‘Not much.’ Spencer took a step toward her. He cocked his head as if listening to the wind. ‘What do you think we should do here?’

  ‘Are you taking suggestions?’

  Spencer shrugged. ‘Best idea so far was Drew’s. Said we should go steal some Hustlers.’

  The woods seemed to still. Brian smiled at me in a dopey way.

  ‘What’s a Hustler?’ he whispered.

  ‘Never mind,’ I said. I shot a glance at Drew, who was staring at Elizabeth. Spencer took another step toward her.

  ‘What did you do for fun in Portland?’ he asked.

  ‘This and that.’ She took a step closer and the three of us were now in a loose circle surrounding her. She had the kind of blue eyes only redheads get to have, the color of aged denim. A thin line of sweat stained her tank top, highlighting the curve of her breasts.

  Brian wandered over to a nearby tree and stared up into it.

  ‘Where were you taking him?’ I asked her. ‘For real.’

  ‘Told you. Helping him find his way home.’

  ‘You found a kid wandering near his house and told him to go for a walk with you, then you took him into the woods? Kinda weird, don’t you think?’

  Her mouth broke into a thin smile. ‘You sure are curious about things.’

  I turned to Brian. ‘I’ll take you home, Brian.’ I started walking toward him. ‘Before your parents are missing you.’ Which was bullshit. I don’t think his parents would even have noticed if he was gone the whole day.

  ‘Maybe he doesn’t want to go home,’ Elizabeth said.

  Brian turned to me and nodded. ‘I think I do want to go home.’ Another nod. ‘Actually.’

  I put the Walkman back in my front pocket, pulled the headphones down around my neck, and then grabbed Brian’s hand, which was soft and clammy. He seemed a hell of a lot more than four years younger than me.

  ‘C’mon, Brian.’

  As we got close to Elizabeth I smelled her for the first time. The woods carried her scent, which was delicious and exotic in this small clearing that was used to having only boys occupy it. She wore perfume, but it wasn’t flowers I smelled. She smelled like excitement. Excitement and anticipation. I wanted to push my nose against her soft neck and breathe her in, as if by doing so I could transfer her excitement to me.

  Elizabeth sidestepped toward us, smiling at me. Was she trying to block my way?

  ‘It’s OK,’ Spencer said. ‘Let them go. I’m sure we can find something fun to do.’

  She grinned. ‘Yeah? Like what?’

  I could almost hear Drew panting.

  Spencer spit into the dirt. ‘Somethin’ better than looking at Hustlers.’

  I had never heard Spencer talk like that to a girl before. I can’t say I was excited, but I sure as hell wasn’t bored.

  ‘Nah,’ she said. ‘You boys are too big.’

  Spencer laughed, but not with humor. Nervousness. ‘Too big? Too big for what?’

  ‘For what I had in mind.’ She nodded at Brian. The ten-year-old beamed. ‘That’s what I wanted him for.’

  Spencer took his gaze away from her and looked at me. I stared back.

  Was she talking about fucking the kid?

  It was an impossible possibility.

  Then she asked, ‘Brian, you ever seen a naked girl before?’

  ‘My mom,’ he said, without the slightest hesitation.

  ‘What about a younger girl? Like me.’

  ‘No.’ He squeezed my hand a little tighter. ‘No.’

  She stepped forward and came within three feet of us. Then she took off her tank top. No pause. Just took it off like she was alone in her own bedroom.

  ‘Holy shit,’ I heard Drew say.

  I didn’t look at Spencer’s face because I couldn’t stop staring at her.

  ‘You can touch them,’ she said. ‘If you want.’

  I felt my hands shaking as I slowly lifted them out to her, Frankenstein-like.

  ‘No, not you.’ She nodded at Brian. ‘Him.’

  Brian looked up at me. He was confused, but he wasn’t scared.

  I didn’t speak, but in my look I told him everything he needed to know. Holy shit, kid. Do you realize what’s going on? You’re the chosen one. You might not appreciate this now. But in a few years you’ll realize the significance of what’s happening here. You’ll be a king.

  Brian nodded, not at her, but at me. In that moment I knew the kid wasn’t retarded. Barely even goofy. He was just a kid, and he was about to take a big step into becoming a man.

  Brian stepped forward and reached out with his right hand. His thin fingertips brushed against her puffy, going-to-be-a-junior nipples. She looked down at him and smiled.

  ‘Good,’ she said.

  He began to withdraw his hand but she snatched it.

  ‘Over here,’ she said, pulling him from my grip. As I let go of him I fe
lt a wave of jealousy wash over me. She led him to a small clearing near where our bikes slept in the dirt. As she passed Spencer, she turned to him and said, ‘You can watch if you want.’

  Nothing made sense. But in that moment, for a fourteen-year-old boy, it didn’t have to.

  The towering maples and oaks seemed to close tighter above us, locking us in. The girl told Brian to lie down in the dirt, near a pile of large rocks we occasionally used as a make-shift fire pit when we would come here at night. Brian obeyed. She stood over him and slowly lowered herself on to his crotch, her shorts against his jeans. The only piece of clothing missing between them was her shirt, so I wasn’t sure what her next move was going to be. It was obvious Brian wasn’t going to make any move at all. He looked up at her with wide eyes and pursed lips. My guess was he forgot to breathe.

  I shot a glance at Drew. His gaze was glued to her as if watching the bottom of the ninth in game seven of a Mariners World Series. Then I glanced at Spencer. Spencer looked pissed.

  ‘The hell you doing?’ Spencer asked her. He rubbed his chest in a bothered sort of way.

  She caressed her breasts with her fingertips and tilted her head back. Eyes closed. Face toward the towering trees. ‘Engaging my desires,’ she said.

  I will always remember that. Engaging my desires.

  She opened her eyes and looked down at Brian. ‘Close your eyes, sweetie.’

  Brian closed his eyes.

  He kept his smile.

  ‘Why him?’ Spencer asked. ‘Why not me?’

  ‘I told you, baby. You’re just too big.’

  ‘Too big? I’d be gentle.’ Spencer’s voice took a hardened edge. It was all there in the tone. Frustration.

  Pants still on, Elizabeth rocked back and forth on Brian.

  Brian remained still as a mummy.

  ‘Oh, baby …’ she said. Turning toward Spencer. ‘Maybe I’ll do you after I do him.’

  Spencer’s lip pulled into a thin snarl. ‘How about you do me first?’

  She rotated her hips in small, tight circles. ‘Like I said, I prefer ’em small.’

  Brian’s eyes were still closed.

  I felt my excitement turning into a whole body tremor. ‘Why?’ I whispered. ‘Why the kid?’

  Elizabeth didn’t answer at first. She kept pressing her pelvis against the crotch of Brian’s faded, tight jeans. From where I stood I could only see her from behind, the curve of her naked waist. The strong, white shoulders. Red hair spilling down her back like water. She was fifteen feet from me but she existed in another world.