The Graves of Plague Canyon (The Downwinders Book 3) Read Free Page A

Deem started, then she listened for a moment,
hearing moaning in the background. “Wait… are you… are you having sex?”
    “None of your business,” Winn said. “Let’s just say you’re
lucky I picked up.”
    “You are!” Deem said. “I can’t believe you’re having sex
while you talk to me on the phone!”
    “As I said — lucky you!” Winn replied, ending with a grunt.
    Deem paused a moment, listening to the background noise from
the call, then stopped herself. “Really disgusting, Winn.”
    “Nope, the exact opposite,” Winn replied.
    She couldn’t tell from the sounds, and curiosity got the
better of her, so she asked, “Is it a woman? Or a man?”
    Before Winn could reply, she stopped him. “Never mind. I
can’t believe I asked you that.”
    “It’s because you have a healthy sex drive you’ve repressed,
like all good little Mormon girls,” Winn said.
    “I’m not a good little Mormon girl,” Deem replied.
    Winn responded by grunting a few times. Deem imagined
thrusting.
    “So, sorry to interrupt and all, but you did pick up,” Deem
said.
    “Yeah,” Winn replied, his voice rising. “Guess you should
tell me what you want… unless you wanna keep listening.”
    “I need a favor,” Deem soldiered through, the moaning in the
background continuing. “Carma’s going to invite you over for dinner tonight. In
the meantime, I’m driving out to Fredonia on an errand for her, but I forgot to
get the address of the place I’m supposed to visit. I tried calling her, but
she doesn’t answer.”
    “Yeah, I noticed she often doesn’t pick up,” Winn said,
grunting. “I don’t think she likes using phones.”
    “Well,” Deem said, “I’m well on my way out here, and I don’t
want to turn around and go back, so I was wondering if you’d head into her
place a little early, get the address from her, and text it to me? I’ll be in
Fredonia in an hour and can kill time until you do.”
    She heard the moaning in the background reach a crescendo,
and Winn panted back into the phone, “Yeah! Yeah, no problem.”
    “Did you just…?” Deem asked. “No, no − don’t answer
that.”
    “I can only imagine what’s going through your mind,” Winn
snickered into the phone.
    “That’s really disgusting, Winn,” Deem said. “I’m hanging up
now.”
    “I’ll text you,” Winn said with a long sigh, and Deem hung up
her phone.
    God, he’s such a sex fiend, she thought, and for a moment she tried to fill in
the gaps of the conversation, but then she decided instead to wipe all of the
images from her mind and pretend she hadn’t just talked to Winn while he
climaxed.
    Eeeww, she thought.
     
    ▪ ▪ ▪
     
    She checked the address on the white adobe house in front of
her with the address Winn had texted. They matched. Deem turned off the truck
and hopped out.
    She stepped over the corrugated pipe that arched over the
cement irrigation ditch running in front of the house and walked up to the
front door, passing nicely tended rose bushes on either side of the path. A curtain
fluttered in a large window by the door, and she suspected someone had seen her
walking up.
    The door opened before she could knock, and a large black dog
with a broad yellow collar leapt out at her. She stepped back, and the dog rose
up on its hind legs, landing its front paws on her chest.
    “Monte!” came a voice from inside. “Down! Monte! Come here!”
    Deem looked up and saw a middle aged woman staring at the dog
over small reading glasses. The woman looked up at Deem. “He won’t bite, don’t
worry,” she said apologetically.
    Deem reached out to pet the dog, and the animal, encouraged, leapt
more.
    “If you do that, he’ll just keep jumping,” the woman said,
and then patted her legs and called for the dog once again.
    “Friendly dog!” Deem said, as Monte finally obeyed the woman
and ran back inside.
    “Yeah, sorry about that,” the woman side. “What can I do for
you?”
    “Carma sent me,”