Peachy Flippin' Keen by Molly Harper

Author:Molly Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Star

5

IT WAS AUNT Donna who found poor Len Huffman, of course.

She found his body in some hidden eddy downstream from the dam around two that morning. Melody had stayed until she was literally dozing off mid-sentence. Frankie finally convinced her to let Duffy take her back to their rental cabin and promised that someone would come to talk to her as soon as they knew anything.

All the other boats fell quiet as Aunt Donna ferried the body across the river. Hell, Aunt Donna was uncharacteristically silent as she piloted the boat to shore. Len Huffman’s mortal shell was draped carefully with a clean white sheet. Donna didn’t have any funereal experience, but she took such things seriously.

Frankie went over the mental checklist of information she needed to note about his condition. Lividity, rigor, body temp, skin tone. She tried not to focus on the mundane details, like his wedding band or the tattoo on his forearm of the name Melody surrounded by little music notes. His body was in pretty good shape, considering what he’d been through. There were no wounds or obvious bone breaks. It looked like a fairly straightforward case of drowning, though she would have to run some tests at the morgue.

“Sheriff?” She looked around for Eric and couldn’t find hide nor hair of him. She could swear that he’d been right behind her when Aunt Donna called over the radio to say that she’d found him.

Frankie pulled the sheet back over Len’s face and tucked it gently around his head. “Aunt Donna, I’ll be ready to transport him in just a few minutes.”

She hopped off the boat and onto shore. “Sheriff Linden!”

Frankie marched through the base camp, watching the rescue workers and volunteers taking down the lights and equipment. It was oddly deflating, that loss of hope, even though they’d known for hours that Len was probably dead.

Somehow, Eric had managed to disappear from a very well-lit area full of people who were professional finders. It took her multiple walks around the base camp before she finally found him, up the hill, on his cell phone, filling out paperwork on his clipboard. It sounded like he was notifying the dam personnel that they’d found the body. While it was an important step, it wasn’t exactly something that needed to be done the minute they found Len.

Eric ended the call, his face pale and almost cheesy-looking in the artificial light.

She frowned at him and said, “I’m gonna contact his dentist to ask for records. If possible, I’d like to spare his wife the chore of identifyin’ him.”

He nodded. “Good thinkin’, good thinkin’. Keep him in our custody for an extra few days. Um, I’m gonna contact his doctor and ask for a list of his medications.”

“Why would you do that?” Frankie asked.

“In case something comes up on the toxicology report. We need a baseline. Are you going to run a blood-alcohol?”

Frankie shrugged. “I always do, but honestly, I don’t think alcohol or foul play are going to be an issue here.

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