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He hadn’t heard the flies until now, because they had congregated inside the man’s mouth--alike a small outboard motor

He’d seen worse--in coh everywhere--the wrist and ankle bones, which had been handcuffed to the headboard and the iron railing at the base of the bed Where his right leg was exposed, the flesh looked almost shredded The internal architecture on the left side of the ht down to the roots of his teeth His stomach had bloated too--Ethan could see the swell of it underneath the tattered suit, which was black and single-breasted

Just like his

Though the face was a wreck, the hair length and color were right

The height was a ainst the doorfraent Evans

Back outside on the front porch of the abandoned house, Ethan bent over, his hands braced against his knees, and took deep, penetrating breaths through his nose to purge the smell But it wouldn’t leave That death-stink had embedded in his sinus cavity, and as a bitter, putrid bite in the back of his throat

He took off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, fought his way out of the sleeves The stench was in the fibers of his clothing now

Shirtless, he rowth that had once been a front yard and finally reached the dirt road

He could feel the coldness of raw skin on the backs of his feet and the bass throb in his skull, but the pain had lost its edge to pure adrenaline

He set off at a strong pace down theHe’d been tempted to search the pockets of the dead man’s coat and pants, see if he could score a wallet, some ID, but the s Let people with latex gloves and face masks and every conceivable state-of-the-art forensic tool descend on that rooent had been murdered in this little slice of heaven

He was no coroner, but he felt certain Evans’s face wasn’t just rotting away Part of his skull had been caved in Teeth broken out One of his eyes MIA

He’d been tortured too

The six blocks see up the sidewalk to the entrance of the sheriff’s office

He left his jacket and shirt outside on a bench and pulled open one of the double doors

The reception area was a wood-paneled roo and taxidermied animal heads mounted on every available piece of vertical real estate

At the front desk, a sixty-so solitaire with a physical deck of cards The freestanding nameplate on her desk read "Belinda Moran"

Ethan arrived at the edge of her desk and watched her lay down four ame

"May I help--" Her eyes ide She looked hi her nose at what he supposed was the god-awful stench of hu a shirt," she said

"United States Secret Service Special Agent Ethan Burke here to see the sheriff What’s his name?"

"Who?"

"The sheriff"