I jumped and stepped back.
He laughed as he rolled backward, turned around, and took the gravel road a hell of a lot faster than when he came in.
“Who was that?” my dad called out.
I looked one last time at the trail of dust disappearing down the road before I said, “My Uber.”
Later that night, my stomach started to protest.
I reached for my phone and pulled up my email, ready to send a message to the court contact I had about not being able to make it in, and saw an email already there waiting.
I pulled it up and read it while my mouth hovered over the trash can.
Subject: Tomorrow
* * *
Court canceled. There are several jurors that are out with food poisoning. Court will reconvene in two days.
* * *
Sincerely, Janet Dail
Fuck.
Fuck me for eating two sandwiches, cheating Odin out of this experience.
Fuck my life.
Seven
I like to pretend that my bruises are from sex and not tripping over the tree root outside my house.
—Constance to Odin
Odin
The email I’d gotten about the two-day “recess” from the court case worked out incredibly well seeing as I had a dead body on my table that needed to be seen to.
After dropping Constance off at the old Raptor Center, I’d driven straight to my office and got started.
Black met me there along with Gentry.
Gentry was also a Dixie Warden and he worked under Black as a sheriff’s deputy.
“What do you have?” I asked.
“Thirteen-year-old boy. Hung himself in his backyard.” Black paused. “Allegedly.”
“Foul play?” Moses asked.
I studied the ligature marks that were on the kid’s neck.
He was thirteen and had been found this morning hanging from a tree in his backyard.
Today, this kid had been found dead and his dog was nowhere to be found.
Two days ago, his best friend had died in a creek outside his house, and his dog had gone missing.
