Paperwork

The Devil’s Road Chapter 05: Follow the Lead: Sheriff Samantha Hart is closing in on her sister’s killer, driven by a relentless need for justice. But as the storm builds, so does the danger.

Welcome back to The Devil’s Road, where vengeance runs as thick as blood through the veins of Sequoyah County. In Issue #17, we follow Sheriff Samantha Hart—a woman fueled by fury, hunting her sister’s killer across the blood-soaked highways of the heartland. If you missed last week’s Chapter 05: Follow the Lead, catch up with Issue 01: The Shadow Highway and Issue 02: Midnight Mirage.

Now, settle in my Faithful Ramblers for Chapter 5, Issue 3 of The Devil’s Road.

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In 2004 an Oklahoma Bureau of Investigations analyst discovered a crime pattern along the Interstate 40 corridor between Oklahoma and Mississippi. Subsequently, The Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I.) started the Highway Serial Killings Initiative. They discovered over 500 bodies of women along the interstate highway system with more than 200 potential suspects, a trail of bloodshed that coats the heartland. The Devil’s Road is a serialized novel based on this horrific discovery.

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A bright, white light slips across the face of Sheriff Samantha Hart as she leans over the copy machine. Beside her is a cardboard box full of files she’s been carrying for the past month. The files are of forgotten victims, murdered by a man who uses her backyard as his hunting ground.

She finishes copying the most recent addition, a poor Jane Doe whose body she found nearly twenty-four hours earlier tied to a chair. Her face had been removed with a surgical razor and stitched back on with dental floss. All the deaths in the files are gruesome, but this most recent one makes it clear that the level of violence is escalating.