Caught Off Guard by Kristi Rose

Author:Kristi Rose [Rose, Kristi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vintage Housewife Books
Published: 2021-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

But the text didn’t say “Lil’,” autocorrecting to “leal,” which forced me to send a second text with the shark and record emojis.

Precious: No. Maybe tmrw.

Well, that won’t do.

I gave up the comfort of my couch and went into my room to change, putting my hair in a braid then donning jeans, a pullover tunic-style sweatshirt, and my puffy jacket. I left five minutes after Lockett, stopping to wave to Stella through the window at the newspaper.

The rain was a drizzle, and the temps were low and not expected to rise, mimicking my mood. I crossed in front of the market and had stepped into the road to cross to where LC was parked when I heard my name.

I turned to find Leo coming out of the market, a bag of oranges in his hand.

He caught up with me. “I heard about you finding the trainer’s body. Sorry.”

He was dressed in jeans, a flannel shirt in shades of green, a white T-shirt underneath, and a thick outdoor working jacket. He touched my arm, and I wanted to melt against him for comfort. But the friendship between Leo and me was still new. Even though his kid brother was one of my best friends, Leo and I hadn’t been in each other’s lives until Carson died. Prior to that, we hadn’t seen each other in ten years. So instead, I leaned against LC but gave his hand a squeeze of appreciation.

“I don’t think I ever want to see something like that again.” I pressed my palms to my temples because closing my eyes made me recall the image vividly.

“Suicides are tough.”

I dropped my hands and stared at him. “That’s the thing. I overheard Daniels say something to the photographer last night, something that struck me too.”

Leo raised his eyebrows, waiting.

“He wanted shots of the positions of Jenson’s arms.”

“Because?”

“They were like this.” I mimicked how Jenson had been in his chair: chest slightly out, head thrown back with his chin up, his arms back as if they had been trapped behind him.

“Easily explained, I’m sure. But your creative mind is saying what?” He gave me a crooked grin.

“Remember when I was in school for crime-scene photography?”

Leo nodded. “I remember your first assignment, when you threw up all over the—”

“I had the flu!” I punched him on the shoulder.

He chuckled, rubbing his shoulder. “That story never gets old.”

I thrust my key into LC’s lock. “I’m out of here.”

Time was supposed to make embarrassing moments easier, but that one wasn’t any more tolerable than it had been back then, maybe because that event, my first assignment, was a turning point in my life. I did, after all, go into stupid, soul-eating studio photography for ten years.

Leo placed his hand over mine, stopping me from getting into LC. “Come on. Don’t be mad. Tell me what you saw that made you think of that night ten years ago.”

“It’s not so much what I saw but a gut feeling that something about this wasn’t right, and the more I think about it, the more I think it had to do with his position.

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