Blood Trail - C. J. Box [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Acknowledgements
ALSO BY C. J. BOX
Blue Heaven
Free Fire
In Plain Sight
Out of Range
Trophy Hunt
Winterkill
Savage Run
Open Season
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Publishers Since 1838
Published by the Penguin Group
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Copyright © 2008 by C. J. Box
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Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Box, C. J.
Blood trail / C. J. Box.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-0-399-15488-1
1. Pickett, Joe (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Game wardens—Fiction.
3. Hunters—Crimes against—Fiction. 4. Wyoming—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3552.087658B
813É.54—dc22
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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For Roxanne...
And Laurie, always
Sleep!
There is hunting in heaven—
Sleep safe till tomorrow.
—WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
It’s strange how often human beings die without any kind of style.
—GUY SAJER, The Forgotten Soldier
1
I AM A HUNTER, a bestower of dignity.
I am on the hunt.
As the sun raises its eyebrows over the eastern mountains I can see the track through the still grass meadow. It happens in an instant, the daily rebirth of the sun, a stunning miracle every twenty-four hours so rarely experienced these days by anyone except those who still live by the natural rhythm of the real world, where death is omnipresent and survival an unfair gift. This sudden blast of illumination won’t last long, but it reveals the direction and strategy of my prey as obviously as a flashing neon OPEN sign. That is, if one knows where and how to see. Most people don’t.
Let me tell you what I see:
The first shaft of buttery morning light pours through the timber and electrifies the light frost and dew on the grass. The track made less than an hour before announces itself not by prints or bent foliage but by the absence of dew. For less than twenty seconds,