Read Online Hero's Journey by J. J. Cook, Joyce Lavene, Jim Lavene - Free Book Online

off.”
    Eric laughed and the lights flickered a few times. He was truly enjoying himself.
    â€œThat’s enough.” Stella fixed her gaze on Eric’s malevolent face.
    â€œWho are you talking to?” John gulped as he asked her.
    â€œA troublemaker,” she replied and then changed the subject. She knew how John felt about ghosts and such. She didn’t want him to feel that he couldn’t come back to the cabin again. “I know you didn’t drive up here to drink coffee or worry about whether or not the cabin is haunted. What’s going on?”
    John’s gaze swept the cabin again but nothing unusual happened. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “There’s been another dog sighting.”
    â€œHero?” Stella asked.
    â€œI think it might be.”
    Walt put down the two cups of coffee and sat beside Stella. “We’re all ears, son. Don’t keep us guessing.”
    John told them about a missing-child report they’d received. “The little boy had only been gone a few hours. He got separated from his parents in the park. We brought in everyone we could to search for him. All of a sudden, he comes running out of the forest and he’s fine. He tells us a black-and-white dog helped him find his way back.”
    Walt groaned. “That’s just great. Now everyone is going to see that pup everywhere they go. I don’t know if you’ll ever find him, Stella, but his legend will be famous.”
    John sipped his coffee. “I’m afraid Walt is right. The more people think they see Hero and call it in, the harder it’s going to be to find him. There will be too many leads to verify all of them.”
    â€œDo you think the boy was telling the truth?” Stella asked.
    â€œI don’t know.” John shrugged. “The news about the Loflins has had time to make the rounds. He might have really seen Hero or he might have just heard the story.”
    â€œWhere was he found?” Stella took out a map of Sweet Pepper and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which surrounded the town.
    John pointed to the area near the VFW Park. “He was off in this area.”
    Stella looked at where he pointed. “Not too far from the Loflins’s place. It’s possible he really saw Hero.”
    â€œThat could also mean our thief/arsonist is living in that area,” Walt said.
    â€œDon has everyone on overtime looking for that suspect,” John said. “And thanks for letting him know I’d talked to you about the case, Stella. He stood in my face and yelled for thirty minutes.”
    â€œSorry. Sometimes he gets to me and I have to fire back.” Stella smiled at him.
    â€œSometimes?” Walt asked with a laugh. “It seems to me it happens a lot more often than not.”
    â€œAre there any real leads in the case?” Stella questioned John.
    â€œWe know he drives a pickup and it’s leaking oil. We have tire tracks—if you want to call bald-tire marks ‘tracks.’ He wears gloves so we don’t have any fingerprints. He chooses his targets carefully. Every place he’s robbed has a well-to-do family living there. The families use services so we’re checking landscapers, plumbers, maids, the usual.”
    â€œWhat about chimney sweeps?” Eric asked.
    Stella asked the question for him.
    â€œYeah. That new fella Patrick Dorner has worked for most of them. It’s that time of year. The places he hasn’t been, Jack Carriker has been. Why? Is Dorner someone we should be looking at more than the others?”
    She told him about Hero’s disappearance right after Patrick had been at the cabin cleaning her chimney.
    â€œI can see why you’d think that,” John said. “But why would Dorner take Hero? It doesn’t make any sense.”
    â€œI don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m only trying to piece this together, like you are. Do