3rd Body: Just try to keep your head (Book 1 in the 2nd Darc Murders Collection) by Carolyn McCray & Ben Hopkin

Author:Carolyn McCray & Ben Hopkin [McCray, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Off Our Meds MultiMedia
Published: 2014-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Cat’s house sat square in the middle of West Woodland on 6th Avenue.

West Woodland projected the image of secure middle-class solidity and stability. The area was inhabited by a majority of WASP-ish families, with nicer-than-average cars but with a high-school graduation rate that was less-than-average for Seattle as a whole.

Mala knew this because it had been one of the areas she’d considered when she was looking for a house. The search that had come to a screeching halt when her real estate agent had threatened to kill and eat her.

But looking around the neighborhood, she was now questioning if that really had needed to be such a deal breaker. Everywhere she looked there were families. Kids.

Toys littered front yards. Mala saw not just one or two but five parents out for a bike ride with their children. It was a neighborhood, the likes of which it wasn’t easy to find in this day and age. The kind of place that reminded Mala of her own home growing up. Such a happy place for her, at least for a while. Until the tragedy with her brother.

Those kinds of events managed to taint everything around them. Maybe that was part of the reason that Mala had resisted moving back into the suburbs.

But was that fair? She glanced over the seat, her eyes finding Janey with her ever-present bear. That bear. Mala cringed. It was an important crutch for Janey, she knew, but she couldn’t help but feel that everyone who saw it would think her a bad mother for allowing her child to carry something so unsanitary.

There was no way Janey was giving him up, but maybe Mala could convince her to give him a wash, at the very least. But even that felt like it might be too much. Whatever smells the girl had known from her family of origin were contained in that bear.

And to be honest, being exposed to germs might be a good thing, right? Keep Janey’s immune system up and running at full intensity. At least that’s what Mala tried to tell herself.

Turning onto 6th Avenue from 58th Street, Mala watched as Cat’s address came up on the left. It was a medium-sized craftsman styled home with a wrap-around porch. It was painted a hunter-green with tan trim. A typical Seattle family home.

As Mala pulled into the driveway, a child-sized bullet fired itself from the front door, pulling open the backseat door where Janey waited. Almost before Mala could take a breath, a hurried greeting was given and Janey was dragged from the vehicle to go see something cool in the backyard.

It had all happened so fast that Janey hadn’t even had a second to grab her backpack. Mala reached behind her and looped one of the straps around her arm.

As she stepped out of the car, she saw Cat strolling down the front steps toward her, chuckling to herself. The woman moved with a feline grace that Mala envied. It was as if there was no self-consciousness in her at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.