Read Immortal Bones - A Supernatural Thriller - Detective Saussure Mysteries - Book 1 Page 17
~*~
Nasty Joe drove his car behind us. Annie was with me. I had to keep them apart as much as I could. Besides, I didn’t want Joe snooping around while I searched the guesthouse. He would park outside the property at a cautious distance, and I would lead him inside. Joe would do his job, and then I’d drive him back to his vehicle.
In the car, I updated Annie on the breakthroughs I had made the previous afternoon.
“So, she was actually a murderer,” Annie replied after a long silence that followed the exposition of facts and my theory.
“In her mind, at least.”
“And you’re positive that that was the clipping missing?”
“There was nothing else there, Annie. I checked. The only piece of information worth hiding. It fits.”
“Alright.”
That was revolting. The sound of Annette Kensington approving me was like getting hit on the face with a baseball bat.
“Don’t–don’t ‘Alright’ me. What is it?”
“I just don’t feel it. I don’t know.”
“Well, my gut tells me I’m right.”
“Well, my gut and your gut aren’t the same, Richard.”
“Thank God, because it would mean we’re conjoined twins. A rather unpleasant image.”
“I’ll say.”
A few miles before reaching the limit between Lord Hurlingthon’s land and his neighbor, I pulled over and made Nasty Joe join us. He leaped into the back seat and gave Annie his best crooked smile. Of course, that implied showing some holes Annie had left the last time they shared the same perimeter. He had tried to make a move on her, so she shoved her fist into his mouth as fast and as forceful as she could. The end result of that addition was two, as in Nasty Joe spat out two teeth.
“Annette Kensington, may I say you look dashing this morning?”
Nasty Joe placed his bony hand on her left shoulder and Annie brushed him off immediately.
“Touch me again and I’ll snap those worms you have for fingers. Or, do you prefer another broken nose?”
“No, thank you señorita...Can I least smell your shiny hair?”
“I have a bag full of scalpels here. Give it a try and we’ll see.”
After that, Nasty Joe accommodated himself in the car as far away from Annie as he could manage, assuring us a silent and bloodless ride to work. The lack of noisy distractions allowed me to pay attention to something that reminded me of Irupé. The land next door to the Hurlingthon manor was a field covered in vegetation, dying because the season was changing, of course. But the moment Lord Hurlingthon’s land started, it was bare soil. No plants following its inner circle of life. Yes, I had noticed the lack of green the first time. But now, one of the many things the druid had told me reappeared in my mind: “Have you asked yourself why all life is drained from everything around Hugh Hurlingthon, but not from Hugh himself?”
As it happened, Annie had noticed it too.
“That’s strange.”
“Yes, I know,” I replied.
“Uh–Richard...about yesterday...I completely forgot. I don’t know if I acted insensitive or not. But if I did, it wasn’t my intention...”
“It’s fine, Annie. She was your friend, too. You are allowed to miss her as well.”
“Yeah...I’m sorry you had to work yesterday.”
“It’s best if I do. Life goes on...and on...and on...for some people, anyway.”
Why did she break the silence? I liked it better that way. It’s easy to control my mental chattiness when I’m saying to myself things I don’t want to hear, but I can’t control other people’s mouths. Shut up, Annie. Let me cover my grief with some mercy. Just…shut up.