Chapter 2
Maggie Valley, NCTHE KID WAS FILTHY but appeared to be otherwise unharmed, so I picked him up and carried him out of the shed.
“What’s this?” Mike said.
“This is what had Thor so agitated.” The boy stirred in my arms and began to whimper, and I said, “He’s starting to wake up, so let’s get him upstairs.”
“Actually, from the smell of him, we’d do better getting him into the bathtub downstairs.”
“You’re right. We’ll do just that.”
Mike led the way, and I carried the boy to the downstairs bathroom, which was the only bathroom with a tub because we’d taken the tub out of the master bath and replaced it with a stall shower shortly after we’d purchased the cabin. We filled the tub with warm water and by the time we’d gotten his filthy clothes off of him he was wide awake.
To rea
