Like Stones on a Crow's Back by Amy Cross

Author:Amy Cross [Cross, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dark Season Books
Published: 2018-04-15T05:00:00+00:00

Forty-One

Ramsey Kopperud

“I'm sorry!” Ethan calls after me, as I rush sobbing from the back door. “Ramsey, wait! I'm sorry, I should never have let you see that!”

Stopping at the end of the little yard, I put my hands over my face as tears stream from my eyes. Even now, I can't get that awful image out of my mind, and the worst part is that there were others in that folder too. As I dropped all the papers, I saw – for a fraction of a second – more of Leanne's autopsy photos sliding out. There were her severed arms laid out on another metal table, and her torso, and I think I even saw her guts in another bucket.

I'm never going to be able to un-see those images.

And then, out of nowhere, I get a flash of a memory from last year, from when Leanne and I were sitting at the bus terminal and she was eating a sandwich.

“It's gonna be so cool if you hang around for the whole summer, Ramsey,” she told me with a smile.

Look how that worked out.

If I hadn't come back to Deal, she'd still be alive.

“Ramsey?”

Startled at the touch of a hand on my shoulder, I spin around and step back, only to find that Ethan is standing right behind me.

“Sorry,” he continues, “I didn't mean to...”

His voice trails off for a moment.

“You must think I'm a total jerk,” he says. “To me, those pictures were just part of the information I was gathering. I never knew your friend Leanne. I should have remembered they were in there, though. I should have been more sensitive.”

I wipe more tears away. I want to tell him not to worry, but my bottom lip is trembling and I don't think I could manage more than a couple of words. I hate the way I cry so easily.

“I can't imagine what it's been like for you,” he continues. “I don't know exactly what you went through last year, but I know it must have been hell. You were right in the middle of it, weren't you? Sebastian. Esther. Your father. The Cane brothers. Leanne. Honestly, Ramsey, I look at you right now and I don't quite understand how you're not a wreck in some padded cell in a hospital somewhere. If I'd been through even one tenth of what you went through last year, I think I'd have crumbled.”

“My father,” I blurt out, before taking a deep breath as I try to stop blubbering like a goddamn idiot. “I have to be here for my father.”

“But after it was all over, didn't you -”

“It's not over!” I snap, and that's when I realize the truth. “It's not over,” I say again. “I made that deal with Sebastian, but every moment of every day I'm watching for some sign that he's going to renege. That maybe he'll think he doesn't need to keep his side of the bargain anymore. That my father will suddenly start getting sick again.”

“You

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