Last Impressions (The Marnie Baranuik Files) by A.J. Aalto

Author:A.J. Aalto [Aalto, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Booktrope
Published: 2014-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

ELLIE WAS NONE too happy to have Constable Schenk pick her up for work in his Sonata, but when push came to shove and shit got real, she was an obedient woman; she slid into the back seat without expressing her displeasure. I had chosen to sit back there, too, so I could more easily study her face, and we wouldn't be interrupted by the clock's continued admonitions about the time. I’d taken off my gloves, but I put my bare hands in my pockets so as not to alarm her. She sat with her knees primly pressed together, angled away from me toward the door, and stared out the window at the hoary wasteland.

I decided that to pussyfoot around would put Ellie through more anxiety than was strictly necessary, and got right to the point. “Ells, why wouldn’t you tell me you know Britney Wyatt?”

“That’s not your scarf,” she said. “You weren’t wearing one. Whose is it?”

“Mr. Merritt’s,” I said. “And don’t side-step my question. You knew why I was here. Why didn’t you tell me you know Britney?”

I could see the reflection of her face in the window. She screwed up her lips to one side as she thought about her answer. “She’s a flake. We’re not friends. I barely know her.”

“You gave her my business card,” I said. “Why?”

“She had something she wanted you to Grope with your whaddyacallit, your touch psychic Talent.”

“Yeah, I know all about it,” I bluffed, thinking about the bowling bag and the ball under the priest’s desk. “She took it to Father Scarrow.”

“No, not the skull,” she said. “A necklace.”

I bit down on my tongue hard to keep from yelping. A skull? It had rolled off her tongue like it was nothing, no big deal, just part of a dead person taken from a grave. I stared at the side of her face in wonder. Dark Lady above, who is this person? Is this my Ellie?

“She was going to mail it to you,” Ellie continued. “The necklace. I told her she could trust you, but I honestly didn’t want you involved, and when it came time to give her your info, I …” She scrunched her mouth again, and balled her hands together. She was wearing fluffy, yellow knitted mittens, and it looked like she was holding the sun in her lap. “I figured if she couldn’t get in touch with you, she might drop it. It seemed harmless.”

Grave robbing. Sweet Mother.

“Tell me about the skull,” I said quickly, impressed that Schenk hadn’t started his own interrogation from the front seat yet. He seemed happy to let me take this one, though his eyes spoke to me in the rearview mirror, pressing me to continue. “Did you see it?”

“No. She found it at the pond, with Simon and Barnaby. I wasn’t with them.”

“And the necklace?”

“That, too. At first, she figured some other ghost hunter or hiker just lost it, until she checked Google images for others like it. Turns out what she found was really old.

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.