Tree Row Howl

By Suzanne Dome

Agent Carthage finally gets to leave her KBI desk for an out-of city assignment, and ends up in Tanesca, the town that shouldn't exist. A house has exploded, and Crime lab dispatched. However, as with the incident two years previous, strange events challenge everything Carthage knows about working for the KBI, and she finds herself buried in non-standard procedure, unexplained occurrences, and mysterious visions. A story related to the book Weird Wheat, this tells a tale of a once-defeated evil and it's attempt to return, only to be stopped by a rookie agent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzanne Dome
• Release date: Apr 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370607051

Suzanne Dome

Suzanne Dome was a special ed para for years, and supports STEM education. Now a resident of rural New Mexico, she wrangles chickens when not writing or crafting. Seamstress, jeweler, artist, diabetic, tree-hugging, star-gazing, crystal-gripping Bohemian, in black.Short Stories: Last Star, Tree Row Howl, BOOMER, SaviorWork available in print(Amazon): Weird Wheat; The Scrounger Trilogy: Empty Space, Second Signal, End Transmission, Lotus of the Stars, The Hoof of Nessus, Derelict Passage, Welcome to the Mutineer's Odyssey

Book preview

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Tree Row Howl

By Suzanne Dome

Day 1

On a Tuesday around eleven in the morning, Agent Zhandra Carthage pulled her government sedan into the gas station, and noted the other vehicles present. Emporia was not quite a cow town, but was close as far as Carthage was concerned. She parked to the side of the main entrance. She surveyed the large glass doors, the stacks of soda can twelve packs, the stained cement, and shut off the engine. It was just another economic rental car, and smelled like the detailers hadn’t quite cleaned out the odor of the previous agent. She pursed her full lips and fluffed the mass of natural black curls on her head, then checked her badge and gun. She slid her wallet into her suit jacket pocket, a slim, plain black leather wallet, and double checked her badge. She opened the car door and Kansas mid-summer heat blasted her into an immediate sweat.

Carthage grimaced and rose stiffly from the car, rolled her shoulders, slammed the door shut and punched the lock button on the key fob. Her dress shoes clacked on the oil and mystery-stained cement as she passed the large trash bins for the door, and people at gas pumps stared at the blue-suited woman as she pulled the door open.

Excuse me miss, A grizzled trucker stopped in his tracks at the door and she smiled at his shocked blue eyes.

It’s alright, and she held the door. He nodded and hurried past her. She ignored his caution and entered the convenience store with little trepidation.

Her cell rang. She passed the candy aisle to the bathroom, for which there was a line of a mother and daughter, and an older woman, all of whom stared as she calmly unlocked the smart phone.

Agent Carthage speaking.

Ah, Zhandra.

What do you want Craig?

Hey, the Crime Lab team is already down there. They got an hour head start on you.

Good, maybe they’ll have it figured out before I get there, I can help them wrap up with local PD and we’re done with this, she said in as silky a voice as she could conjure.

I haven’t heard anything yet, I imagine they’ve made a pit stop too.

Carthage stared at her phone.

I’ll go quick, the little old lady said to her, patted her arm, and Carthage came back to her physical reality.

Of course she would.

I should be there in another forty minutes or so.

Hehe. Yeah, have fun with the cows.

Craig was gone.

Zhandra Carthage waited, stared at all manner of posters and announcements on the cork board, and finally heard the toilet flush, the water faucet, and the air dryer. Time had no meaning here. When the old lady came out, she gave Carthage a mostly-toothless senile smile, and met the mother and daughter at the door of the store. Two more ladies were in line behind her, and she made her pit stop as quick as possible.

Long trips with her dad taught her to always pay for bathroom visits; she strolled up to the counter, and surveyed the food items available in the little store. There was a basket of fruit hanging off the counter. She veered left, snagged a bottled water from the coolers, and took a sweet-smelling, spotted banana from the basket.

Will that be all for ya ma’am?

Yes, thank you. She smiled and nodded at the clerk, a large woman with bread-dough skin and dyed red hair, in the red