The Cry

by M. H. Callway

About the Author: M. H. Callway started writing as a child but got sidetracked through science and business to earn a living. She enjoys writing and reading dark crime fiction. Her thriller, Windigo Fire, was a finalist for the Debut Dagger, Unhanged Arthur and Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel awards. Her short stories and novellas have also won or been short-listed for many awards, including the Arthur Ellis and the Derringer. In 2013, she founded the Mesdames of Mayhem to help promote crime fiction.

Excerpt

The cry was like no other. Shrill, intense with pure terror, the shriek of an animal seized by a deadly predator.

William stopped short in the middle of the pathway, fear resonating in his heart. He knew that sound. He’d heard it many times in his line of work.

Where had it come from? Which direction? He raised a hand to his ear, listening, listening …

Nothing.

Nothing but the sighing of the wind and the rushing of the Fountain of Prayer down by the long, low length of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

It was a young person’s scream, he was sure of it.

It was the scream of a girl.

No people about. Of course, he hadn’t expected to see many people in the Peace Park this early in the morning. He’d left his hotel in the small dark hour before sunrise precisely because he hungered to be alone. Mind you, he would have gladly chatted with another elderly person, perhaps an American tourist like himself, seeking to avoid the oppressive heat and humidity of August in Japan. But on this unusually cool morning with a stiff breeze rustling the leaves of the maple trees bordering the park, he could see no one at all.

Where was the girl? Where was she?

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