The Calling (A Paranormal Crime Thriller Book 1) Read online

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any incident, locales, places, businesses, characters, and names have either been created with the author's imagination or purely used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  The Calling

  A Paranormal Crime Thriller

  Thomas Ransom

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  About the Book

  Dee ~ Chapter One

  Roger ~ Chapter Two

  Dee ~ Chapter Three

  Roger ~ Chapter Four

  Dee ~ Chapter Five

  Roger ~ Chapter Six

  Dee ~ Chapter Seven

  Roger ~ Chapter Eight

  Dee ~Chapter Nine

  Roger ~ Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  The Revelation (Sneak Peek)

  Books By Thomas Ransom

  Staying In Touch with Tom

  About the Book

  A thrilling novel that balances the fine line between justice and vengeance. The Calling beckons the reader to uncover the mystery of Echo Creek. Will you answer the call?

  Roger and Dee Eckers longed for a change in their routine and were ready to abandon city life with their four children.

  They thought they had hit the jackpot when they stumbled upon a quaint cottage in the town of Echo Creek. The neighbors were a little eccentric but seemed harmless.

  It wasn’t long before they realized Echo Creek, and their new dream home, wasn’t all they expected it to be.

  Shortly after their arrival, their neighbor Noah Whitaker, is found murdered. Days after, two more bodies are found. This time, with their right hands severed. Echo Creek is now the home of a serial killer!

  No one is safe! When an unlocked window can mean the difference between waking up before the sun rises or not waking up at all.

  Can Roger and Dee band together and protect their family from the killer? Or are they sitting ducks as their neighbors get picked off one by one?

  What will they do when they realize the killer is in their house!

  Dee ~ Chapter One

  Echo Creek was set to be a fruitful new beginning for us all. I sure was tired of the city. Honking horns, cussing, impatient drivers, ugly city smog, chemtrails that blazed in the sky every time I looked up. Not to mention the lack of on-street parking that depressed me on so many levels. And office politics in a job that paid me well but sucked the life out of my soul and gave me less time with my children.

  All of it compounded gave way to tired, jangled nerves and bones. Roger and I had spent hours a week for the last three years planning the life we genuinely wanted our family to live. We needed somewhere quiet, real peaceful, and a place where our four kids wouldn't be glued to their iPhones constantly forgetting the true beauty of the earth we lived on.

  Nature was calling and it was time to go home. There were days when I just stood in our kitchen with a bleak feeling about the cramped apartment; it was all we could afford in Seattle. To top it off the view was of the distressed, limestone-covered brick mortar of another set of apartments. Couldn’t get more depressing than that.

  I longed for a vegetable garden and a nice, sweet cottage with an acreage so the kids could roam around. A running creek right by it would suit us Eckles down to the ground. Was it too much to ask for? Hadn’t we both worked hard enough at this thing called life?

  Both Roger and I came from humble beginnings in our small towns, but like most people, we were pulled to city life for work opportunities. We went to school together, him and I, and we’d grown in tandem weaving vines to produce a family of four beautiful children. Two twins which were a huge, but welcome, surprise and a handful, but I loved them dearly.

  I’d always wanted children and by the grace of God my belly swelled, allowing four sometimes naughty and sometimes sweet beings to take up residence.

  Amber, Dusty, Cleo, and Robbie. Dusty and Amber were three years apart and all of them were so incredibly different. Even the twins. One girl and one boy. I loved them all with their quirky ways.

  Roger was neither popular nor unpopular in school, he just was – well, Roger. The one thing about him that I admired was that he worked hard, and he did what needed to be done with no complaint. He had a job as the building maintenance officer and the people loved him there for his work ethic and friendly disposition. To my mind, his job was a whole lot better than mine.

  We’d stuck like glue and like any couple, we’d weathered many ups and downs especially with four growing children in the mix. They ruined our sex life for some time, and by the time they were grown enough for us to have one again I didn’t care so much for the hanky panky. Yet and still, we were companions, and we would be until the end. Us moving to the country would hopefully enliven the spark between us. We are both so doggone tired all the time and I wanted a change for the better for us.

  Roger, with his deep, brown hair, impressive height, and strong stature entered the living room as I taped the last of the moving boxes down.

  “How’s it going? Is that the last one honey?”

  I ran my hand over the box smoothing it down with a satisfied sigh and stood up putting my hands on my hips. “Yup. We’re ready to go.”

  Roger couldn’t wipe the grin off his face as he pulled me into a hug. I sank into the warmth of his familiar arms. Roger was the type of man who would give you his last apple if you looked hungry. In fact, that’s how he'd snagged me all these years back in the lunchroom.

  We’d found the perfect place, a little cottage homestead with a wraparound porch, fruit trees, and a forest trail nearby putting us just outside the main town. There were no more than 1,000 people who lived there in Echo Creek, and it would get us out of leasing. We could never find that real home we wanted to buy in Seattle, even after four kids. I reminisced on the day Roger entered the door telling me he had a surprise for me and a road trip to go on.

  “What- what is it?” I’d asked him, staring into his beaming face. Hard to get a decent smile out of Roger so when he was wearing one, I made sure to take notice.

  “I found us a place! We’re gonna break this lease and head right there. We got our get out of jail free card on the Monopoly board,” he explained as he punched the air.

  I snorted as I also remembered how much wine I'd drank at the dinner. Left me with the hiccups. Every step ran like a dream and the realtor didn’t even charge us an exit fee for leaving because we'd left the apartment in such an excellent condition.

  The kids barreled out of the door as I looked over to my eldest who wasn't that happy about the move.

  “Why do we have to go all the way to the boondocks? Can’t we stay here?” Amber whined with her golden halo of hair that she inherited from me framing her angular face.

  “Nope. We can’t stay. I want you to feel what fresh air is like. I don’t want you to only know the city. Besides you’re not far off college. Once you get a taste of the country you won’t wanna come back.” Ruffling her hair, I kissed her head as she sulked and put her air pods back in her ears.

  “She’ll get over it and she’ll wonder why she ever wanted to live in the city at all,” Roger said optimistically.

  The ride to the new house was a little loud and rowdy in the backseat especially with the twelve-year olds. Nothing a mother wasn’t used to. Made me glad that I’d gotten my tubes tied, no more babies for me. Apparently, I’d been made highly fertile by the Most High, but having six to seven kids wasn’t on the cards.

  All parts of me were excited and as we drove onto the unsealed dusty road. My heart expanded, and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside. This was to be our first house in the country as a family and I couldn’t wait to nest. I had all kinds of decorating ideas in my head.

  As we got out of the car and unpacked, I spun around with my long honeycomb ponytail flapping along with me as Roger laughed.

  “Oh Roger! I can’t believe we did it. We made the move here. I never thought this was going to happen. Did you?”

  Roger’s forehead crinkled up as his cheeks shined a ruby red from the sun’s rays. I’d always liked Roger’s face; he had a classic square jaw and his aquiline nose made him a little more distinguished.

  “Of course, I did. I knew we'd be here. I could feel it in my bones. We’ve done everything else together, why wouldn’t we be able to do this?”

  I giggled as I linked my arm through his and the kids moved ahead of us to the house. I glanced up to the acorn tree that stood on the right side of the house, reveling in the gentle breeze shifting through its leaves.

  No cars. No smog. Fresh, clean, pure air. Green grass with a flower bed that needed tending to. Half my luck. A cottage home just like I wanted, with all the trimmings. Timber-made, standing true; apparently, the house was over fifty years old, but she was a sturdy one. I wondered who had lived in the house before. It had been on the market for over a year, and nobody had snapped it up.

  There was something special about it that appealed to both of us when we first saw the ad in the real estate brochure. R
oger called out to the twins as they bounced around on their toes waiting to get in the door. A wraparound porch tickled me pink, and the last owner had put a porch swing out, and right away I figured it was a place Roger and I would spend the majority of our time. Swinging away and talking about nothing, which is what we liked to do. As long as we were together that’s all that mattered.

  Roger made the grand opening to the smell of cedarwood, and I breathed it in. Yes. Home. The passageway was long and narrow with creaky wooden floors and on the right side was the living space - large and spacious with a view out over the acreage. The right side spanned outward and wrapped around to the kitchen which was open plan. I loved to bake and cook so it was perfect for me to have a central island bench. It took a few weeks to get into the swing of homestead life and the new regime with the kids, but we had chickens that laid eggs for us, and I sent the twins out on chores to keep them busy and entertained. I had all my little seedlings ready for my vegetable garden and Roger was going to help me set it up by building the garden bed.

  “I think we’re going to be simply fine here, Dee. This is a great place to start the next chapter in our lives, don’t you think?”

  “I do indeed. We are so damn lucky to be in this house and the kids are doing pretty well adjusting. I love it here, it's so peaceful and the neighbors aren’t that far away. We should go meet them,” I remarked cheerfully.

  We’d met a few people on our pit stop in town. The town itself seemed so sweet and the mountain range behind it made me feel like it might just be the best little, small town on earth. A few people were a little strange, including a man that dragged his girlfriend across the road. Maybe it was a little lover’s tiff, but all in all, people were friendly and interested in us. We weren’t just a number like we were in Seattle.

  “That’s a mighty fine idea. Let’s do that. Tomorrow's as good a day as any.”

  Roger ~ Chapter Two

  Echo Creek reminded me of home and in a lot of ways that remained bittersweet. I’d moved on from my parents’ house as a young man as soon as I was able. I wanted to see what else was out there and try my hand in the big smoke, which led us both to Seattle, but as the years wore on and my bones wore out, I craved the simplicity of country living.

  I pulled at the paunch that had taken over the top of my belt and I set myself the challenge, now I was out in the woods, to lose weight. I’d let a lot of things go when I was in the city. I'd settled into an almost robotic existence, but there was a voice inside that clicked a light bulb on in my head one day.

  “Dee, we need to move. It’s time and we can’t live this life anymore. You’re worn out and so am I. Let’s move our life somewhere else. A nice place near the woods. What do you think? We’re never going to be able to find an apartment to buy here in Seattle. Besides, we're not like these trendy artsy types. We’re countrified people.”

  I’d wrapped my arms around the woman who felt like a warm blanket to me. We’d practically known one another our whole lives and she was indeed the woman I would die with.

  “Roger, I want to go. Can we do it?” She’d looked at me with those big, brown eyes and a quivering lip like she did whenever she was nervous.

  “Yes, we can do it. Why not? The country is going to be ten times cheaper than anything we can buy here. I’m tired of it all and I want to at least semi-retire.” I'd run my fingers over my bare, calloused knuckles rubbing them back and forth in sympathy for the years of hard labor they’d gone through. Dee, in contrast, had flashed her sweet, loving smile at me as her delicate smooth fingers covered mine.

  “Then let’s start looking. The kids are always on their devices, and I don’t want them turning out like these other millennials.”

  I’d cocked an eyebrow at her. “And what’s that like?”

  “Spoiled, with no social skills and depressed.”

  “You sure they’re all like that? I see ‘em at the school and they seem happy playing all their video games.”

  “Not our kids. Too much on digital devices. Let’s get them into the fresh air like when we were kids,” she’d said with a gleam in her eye as a pang of sadness over my lost childhood drifted over me.

  “I sure do remember. Then it’s settled. We start looking. It’s time to go.”

  I turned back to the old mirror that had a hairline crack through it in the top right-hand corner, flipping over my arms and staring at my bare chest. Other than the paunch my arms were wiry with muscle and my legs were strong and built rock steady. I was often bending down, lifting, and fixing things. Pretty sure that helped me stay limber.

  “Roger! Stop fawning over yourself in the mirror. We’re due at the neighbor’s house in ten minutes!”

  “Alright woman, let me get myself together.” A rue snicker floated on my lips as I shrugged into my collar shirt, pivoting out of our creaky pine-floored bathroom. The floor could have done with a good oiling, but it wasn’t like a door, you couldn’t do that.

  “How’d she know I was fawning over myself?” I muttered to myself as I rolled my shoulders and flexed my old fingers. Given how much I used them, I was surprised I didn’t have arthritis.

  A waft of sweet, sticky perfume wafted into my nose as Dee sprang from the bathroom with a hand on her hip. She was wearing a little makeup, I could tell, as the corners of her eyes crinkled up and she stood there with her hands on her ample hips.

  “Because I know you, Roger Eckles. Very well.”

  Chuckling, I bent to kiss her pursed lips and gave her a tap on the butt as the kids came bustling out of their rooms.

  “Who are these people? Is it really necessary that we go see them?” Amber was complaining again; out of all the kids, she was suffering the most with the adjustment. She had that same stubborn streak I’d been born with. From all the time she spent on the porch and picking fruit from the trees on the property I knew she was coming around and probably just needed a few more weeks.

  “Stop being a sourpuss. You might meet somebody you can be friends with. I hear the neighbor has a boy. Not that I want you to be too friendly. I don’t wanna have to get my shotgun,” I complained.

  “Dad,” she pouted. “That’s so old school. Nobody has a shotgun today. They have cooler Smith and Wesson guns.” She rolled her eyes at me as a silent smile rose on my lips mixed with a little shock at my daughter’s admission. What did she know about newer model guns? Of course, the Smith and Wesson had been around since the 1850’s, that part she didn’t know.

  She wrestled her way into my arms. Thankfully she still didn’t mind a hug from her old Dad. She melted into me for a moment as my other three children came into view and we headed to the neighbor’s house for dinner.

  Meeting Noah at the hardware store in town had been a blessing. He was the owner, and being the man about the house that I was, I considered the store to be my second home.

  “You should come join us for dinner. We like to get to know our neighbors. Pretty small place here, we all know one another, tickled pink you know how to fix a thing or two. That’s gonna come in real handy around here if you wanna pick up some work.” I accepted the invitation from a man who was a little rough around the edges. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked a little tired. He wore an old, faded, olive green trucker hat that could have used a revamp, but of course, I didn’t say nothing. Good to know your neighbors.

  Dee ~ Chapter Three

  Several months later…

  Sirens flashed as I crossed my arms tight over my chest. We’d eaten at the man’s house not long ago and that’s what threw me.

  “Ma’am, did you notice anything unusual about Noah when you last saw him? Did he seem agitated or concerned about anything?” Officer Tom Lucas kept his face stoic as he reeled off his book of questions on our front porch.

  A cold shiver ran through my blood as I pulled the edges of my open sweater tight. My eyelids fluttered as Roger stood beside me, just as mortified as I was.