Desert Angel by Charlie Price

Author:Charlie Price [Price, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2011-10-24T22:00:00+00:00

THAT SAME AFTERNOON, waiting for TJ to respond to Rita’s call about the tire tracks, Angel wondered for the first time where Norma lived, wondered whether Norma would like to go for a walk. Salt Shores was such a strange mix between an old-fashioned village and a ghost town. Exploring it reminded her of hunting for arrowheads like she’d done one time with her mother and Scotty. If you looked closely, you never knew what you might find.

Through Rita’s front window, Angel saw the cruiser arrive, saw TJ get out and reach back inside for his hat. She lost sight of him as he walked to the door. The kids were off playing with friends and Vincente was in the love seat watching some ball game on TV. Angel sat with Rita on the couch, holding pencil and paper, making a list of words for a game she was going to play with the children. Angel knew Rita was nervous. She’d already bitten the erasers off two pencils.

Angel was ready, but TJ’s knock startled everybody else. Vincente muted the TV and Rita set her things aside while Angel let TJ in. He was taller than she’d remembered. Her head was level with his adam’s apple.

“Thanks…,” she said, faltering. Figuring out this tire thing had given her some confidence, but she seemed to lose it in TJ’s presence.

TJ looked past her. “Rita, Vincente,” he said, standing just inside the front door. “You had something you wanted to tell me?”

Angel could sense Vincente and Rita looking at her. She’d told them she had to talk to TJ. She hadn’t told them what this was about. “Uh, I thought of something,” Angel began.

TJ breathed through his nose, his face blank, waiting.

“Okay, uh, you want to prove Scotty killed my mom, get his tire prints from where Goo—” She stopped because TJ was already impatient, grimacing. Angel’s stomach dipped for a second, but she started again. “You get his tire tracks where the deputy checked him out, across the road here. You take those to the burned trailer up by the Gom—” This time she was stopped by Rita’s head shake and the pained expression on her face.

They aren’t legal.

“I got things to do,” TJ said, looking at Vincente, like he was sure another man would understand.

Angel wouldn’t back off. “You said people were investigating a fire east of Cathedral City. I know that place. That’s where Mom and I lived with Scotty. In a trailer at the end of some ruts. Rita can probably tell you pretty close. That’s where the fire was. That’s where he killed Mom and drove away and buried her. I told you. I followed him. Later, when he knew I knew, he came back to the trailer and tried to kill me, too. Burned everything to wreck the evidence.”

The disdain left TJ’s face while he dug in his shirt pocket for his notepad. “Okay, give it to me,” he said, “but I don’t know what’ll happen. We just got your word.

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