Honestly, I probably could have had I told them I was the medical examiner for Jesper County and if I wasn’t there to do it, nobody would.
But I didn’t.
And it was all because of the redhead that sat next to me for the first half of the day and talked my ear off.
I fully expected her to sit next to me when we got back, but she came in late and had to slip into a seat in the back.
But, for some reason, I got the feeling she didn’t want to sit next to me.
I saw the look on her face when I threw my cut on.
I also noticed how we both had gone to the same deli down the road, and she hadn’t approached once.
“I’m headed out,” Moses said. “Do you need anything?”
“No.”
He left without another word to me, laughing the entire way.
The cunt.
I signed into my computer, checked my email, then listened to my voicemails.
There was nothing, so I headed to the lab, got everything I needed, then took a seat on the counter.
After putting the tourniquet on my arm, I inserted the needle, then tossed the bag into the agitator on the counter before pulling my paperback and starting to read.
I got most of the way through the chapter by the time I was done, then cleaned up after myself, stored the blood in the freezer for when it was needed, and headed out.
Instead of driving home to another frozen meal, I stopped at The Mercantile just long enough to grab a bite to eat and head home.
At least, that had been my plan.
But as I rode down the middle of Main Street headed to my place, a shock of red hair caught my eye heading into the grocery store with a smaller version of herself.
I didn’t mean to stop.
But I found myself pulling into the lot for the grocery store anyway and parking near the car that I’d spotted the redhead getting into when we headed out earlier.
I could use some sandwich shit anyway.
I picked up a basket instead of grabbing a grocery cart, then headed directly to the meat section where I could pick up a couple pounds of lunch meat.
I was ordering when the redhead rounded the corner and came to a sudden stop.
I didn’t acknowledge that she was there and instead waited patiently for my meat to be sliced.
“Mommy, he’s really tall.”
“Yeah,” I heard the redhead reply. “He is.”
My mouth twitched.
I liked kids.
They always said what was on their mind and didn’t really keep any secrets.
I wished all human beings were as forthcoming.
