AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was closed.” Bernie shook her head and turned to stare at the field of melons and clapped a hand to her forehead. “She must have been out all night.” She waved her hand at the destruction. “She’s decimated half the crop.”
Gerard looked from the field back to the pen. “Could someone have let her out?”
“How else could she have gotten loose and the gate be closed with the chain in place when we got here? There are no holes in the pen. Ray built it to withstand an elephant.”
Gerard peered through the wire into the pen at the quagmire of mud the pigs seemed content to wallow in, chewing on whatever they’d found to eat.
Something pale and white stuck out of the mud near one of the fence panels.
Penelope the pig nudged it with her snout.
“Wait,” Gerard said. “What’s that she’s sniffing?” He dropped to a squat, reached through one of the rectangular gaps in the wire and grabbed the object before Penelope could snatch it into her greedy mouth.
He straightened with it in his hand, rubbing away the mud. “This looks like a...” His hand froze as recognition struck like a punch to the gut. “It’s a foot.”
“A what?” Bernie leaned close. “Holy shit. That’s a human foot.”
Chapter 2
Bernie staggered backward. “Where did you get that?”
“From inside the pigpen,” Gerard said.
“How...” Bernie shook her head. “How did it get there?”
“Probably the same way Penelope got out.” Gerard stared from the foot to the pen. “I believe this pigpen just became a crime scene.” He laid the foot on the ground, scrubbed his hands down his jeans and then pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
Bernie couldn’t quite wrap her mind around what she was looking at. “A foot in my pigpen.” She glanced up. “Where’s the owner of the foot?” Her gaze went to the pen, her eyes rounding. “You don’t think...”
Gerard punched 911 and waited. “This is Gerard Guidry. I’m with Bernie Bellamy at Bellamy Acres. We’ve discovered a human foot inside her pigpen. No. Just the foot. We haven’t gone into the pen, so we don’t know what else might be in there. Yes, ma’am. We’ll be here. We’ll wait. Thank you.” He ended the call. “Sheriff’s on the way.” He lifted his cell phone a second time and scrolled through his contacts, selecting one.
Bernie wrapped her arms around herself, a chill slithering down her spine despite the hot, humid air of the Louisiana afternoon. “Who are you calling now?”
“Remy,” Gerard said into the phone. “We have a situation here at Bellamy Acres. You might want to be here when the sheriff arrives.” He explained what they’d found, his gaze on the foot lying against the ground. “It’s big enough, it probably belonged to a man. No, we haven’t seen any other parts... Okay...see you in a minute.” He ended the call and met Bernie’s gaze.
“What the hell?” Bernie said. “First, Gertrude. Now this?” She shook her head, her body trembling.
Gerard’s brow dipped. “Hey.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “Are you okay?”
“No. I’m not okay. You realize pigs eat everything.” She waved a hand out behind her. “I mean, look at what Penelope did in a few short hours. There are a lot of swine in that pen. If they’ve been working on whatever was thrown in there since last night's storm, there might not be anything left to find.”
Gerard’s arms tightened around her. “The sheriff will have someone sift through the mud. If there’s anything left to find, they’ll collect it and send it to the state crime lab. The foot alone will provide a DNA sample.”
Bernie leaned her forehead against Gerard’s chest, thankful for his strength and the arms wrapped around her. It had been so long since anyone had held her close.
A twinge of guilt rippled through her. The last man to hold her had been her husband as he lay on his deathbed.
Was it wrong of her to like how Gerard’s arms felt around her? Was she being disloyal to her dead husband’s memory?
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Bernie straightened, moving away from Gerard and his warm, strong arms. A shiver rippled through her body as she moved away from his heat. “I’d better head for the house to meet the authorities. You might want to stay here and guard that...thing…to keep animals from taking off with it.”
Gerard nodded. “Are you going to be all right?”
She gave him a weak smile. “I don’t have a choice. The foot appeared on my property. My biggest concern, besides finding a foot in the pigpen, is what to do with the pigs when the authorities want to clear them out and look for any other remains that might be found in the mud.” Her lips twisted. “I do have portable corral panels we used when we kept horses and cattle. We could set up a temporary structure to move them into.”
“Are the panels sturdy enough to hold these guys?” Gerard’s forehead puckered as his gaze swept over the pen full of pigs weighing over two hundred pounds.
