Devil's Track

Devil's TrackDetective Mahoney SeriesJulie HinerKillers and Demons Devil's Track © 2023 Julie Hiner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means – by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission. All events, locations and characters are either fictional or used in a fictional way, as products of the author’s imagination.First Printing in 2023Publisher: Julie HinerKillersAndDemons.comEditing by: Taija MorganBio Photo by: Aune PhotoCover Design: 100 Covers ISBN: 978-1-7389176-0-0First Edition To the wild rock gods of the late 90s.To all those who seek spiritual enlightenment.To all those who are wrongly accused. Contents Kill or Be Killed 1. The Cecil 2. Flaming Night Terror Savage Beat 3. Savage Beat 4. Groupie Hotel 5. Just Another Murder 6. Itching Flesh 7. Lonely Apartment 8. Bathtub Bludgeoning 9. HQ and Jake 10. Nestled in Bed 11. Spiritual Enlightenment Hunter 12. Church 13. Murder Collage 14. Sacrifice 15. Nightcap 16. Stalking Burned Alive 17. Murder Calls 18. Outside the Cemetery 19. Killer Scene 20. Black Book 21. Purge 22. Witchcraft 23. Slimeball and Satanic Album 24. Morgue 25. Parker 26. The Hood 27. Satanic Pawner 28. Demon Accusations 29. Electric Ave 30. Satanic Sounds 31. Satanic Hangover 32. Ceremony and Witchcraft 33. Church Seed 34. Minister and Metal 35. The Church of Life 36. Tweed and Derby 37. It Continues Devil's Hold 38. Murder No. 2 39. Snake Man 40. Missing Snake 41. Slew of Partners 42. Floral Spice 43. Team Meeting 44. Service of Purge 45. Human Messages 46. Flaming Stella 47. Satanic Pull 48. Showdown 49. Pulsing Eye Witch Hunt 50. Satanic Beast 51. Demonic Loyalty 52. Double Purge 53. Taxidermy 54. Purge Re-Creation 55. Witch’s Spell 56. Missing Flask 57. Night Hunt 58. Flask 59. Rush DNA 60. Satanic Beast 61. Pounding Pain 62. Third ID 63. Looking for a Coven 64. Newspaper Boy 65. House of Fire 66. Demon Rising 67. Poison Sisters 68. Kill the Demon 69. Witch Chase 70. The Boss 71. On the Beach Acknowledgments About Author Also By Chapter 1The CecilJune 1993 Stella Mahoney had a burning desire to sink into the seedy underbelly of her beloved city. Calgary. Her birth town. The place she hadn’t returned to since her father’s funeral.A clang rang out through the thick night air as a bottle rolled down the dark alleyway. A couple wiry-yet-rough-looking men leaned against a wall beside a dumpster. The ends of their cigarettes blazed red as they inhaled deep drags. Their eyes violated Stella as she passed them, eating her up, devouring her sensuality, tasting the last drops of sweet innocence clinging to her.She was sixteen, yet she knew she didn’t look it. It had been four years since her father had been murdered, and she’d aged a lifetime since then.Only twelve years old when he died, she had no choice but to comply when her mother forced her away, putting miles between her and the city that had consumed her father. Her mother had spouted a million reasons to whisk her off to a place with beaches and sunshine. Stella knew the truth. Her mother needed to get herself away from all the memories. The long, lonely nights at home, waiting, wondering when, or if, he would walk through the door. Her mother accused him of abandoning them.The way Stella saw it, they had abandoned him.He had no choice. Her detective dad had chased corpses and hunted human monsters because he needed to. He was the one who put his own life on the line to save innocent victims. He was the one who stopped a sick man with a taste for blood from taking another young girl. A girl just like Stella.Her heavy boots hit the oily pavement with wet thuds. A streetlamp buzzed at the end of the alleyway, flickering, trying to stay alive for lone passengers.Chatter crawled from around the corner. Signs of civilization in this seedy pit, deep in the belly of the downtown core. Stella followed it. She wanted to see, to feel, to taste the places her father had left his essence in, putting the pieces together, solving gruesome murders, hunting killers. She was thrilled for the first time in a while when her mother had expressed a desire to stay connected with friends she’d left behind. Stella had put on a show for her mother’s friends, smiling and being polite for the entire day. When they finally returned to the hotel, her mother popped a couple sleeping pills and chugged several glasses of wine. Stella knew the memories were too much. They’d visited all the places her mother and father used to hang out, before he was a detective, when he called her mother Bea. Stella could still hear the soft snore from her mother’s side of the room as she’d made her sneaky departure.Stella walked along Riverfront Avenue, the dark river snaking beside the pathway, the moon glimmering off its sheer surface. She’d gone into a couple joints where they welcomed her pretty face and ignored the hint of how young she was. None of the places felt raw enough to saturate her need to feel the darkest pit of this city.After crossing the centre line of the core into the east end, the population along the pathway increased in numbers. Those discarded from society clung to their few belongings, curling into themselves along the riverbank, seeking precious moments of rest where they could leave the reality of their broken lives.When a flashing neon sign came into view, perched high on an old brick building, Stella turned from the river and walked toward it. Purple-blue flickers called her to The Cecil.Two blocks from the buzzing sign, she’d cut through an alleyway to avoid a clutter of rough and tattered-looking patrons sharing smokes outside a run-down establishment.Now, eager to escape the eyes of the two men visually devouring her, she quickened her pace and followed the sound of