Ian's Gang: The Dollhouse

By Ian Kidd

Philip Vasquez and Kathryn Thompson spend the night in a department store plagued by a series of bizarre thefts... and a murder.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian Kidd
• Release date: Mar 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301027743

Ian Kidd

I grew up in South Yorkshire, England, before emigrating to South Australia at the age of sixteen. My writing ambitions began as a child, when I became notorious in my class for writing short horror stories that would probably have them calling in the child psychologists nowadays! I have written everything from non-fiction ebooks to published short fiction, and served as script editor on two proposed horror feature film scripts for an LA based director. In terms of fiction I have written dozens of novellas, including more than 70 stories in the "Ian's Gang" sci-fi adventure series. I still live in Queensland, where I work as a freelance writer.

Book preview

IAN'S GANG – THE DOLLHOUSE

BY

IAN KIDD

Ian’s Gang (c) Ian Kidd 2013

Published by Smashwords

IAN'S GANG

Are:

Ian Williams

Matthew Parker

Banix

Steve Botham

Philip Vasquez

Rebecca Hall

Kathryn Thompson

CHAPTER ONE

The floor was dark and quiet, bathed in moonlight.

Paul Johnson moved along Floor 2 of the Elementals Department Store cautiously. He'd seen something moving on this floor on one of the security cameras. It had to be them.

The mannequins all seemed to be in place, untouched. The thieves hadn't started yet. His hand moved to the gun in his jacket. They weren't going to get the chance, either.

Movement.

Paul turned.

His mouth opened.

His eyes widened in disbelief.

Backing away, he drew his gun and fired six times. When the chamber clicked empty, the taste in Paul's mouth was not his usual tobacco gum, but something even more bitter, a taste he'd never experienced before. Fear.

He turned to run, only to find a gun trained on him.

He prayed it too would be empty of bullets, like his own. But when the trigger was pulled and the hot metal pierced his flesh, he knew that it was not so.

Ian's Gang were in the office of the manager of the Elementals Department Store, Mr Hutchinson.

So Johnson's death wasn't the first strange thing to happen in your store, Ian was saying.

No... Hutchinson replied uncomfortably.

So why didn't you call in the army sooner? Philip inquired.

It seemed... silly. Trivial, Hutchinson shrugged.

You think murder is trivial, do you, Mr Hutchinson? Ian snapped. Matthew looked at him worriedly.

No, of course not, Hutchinson blustered. What I meant was, there were clearly thieves at work in the store. But... well... all they took was mannequins.

Mannequins? Kathryn frowned.

That's exactly what I meant, Hutchinson said. "You can imagine the army's response if