Second Chances: Magnolia Bluff Crime Chronicles, Book 17 by Joe Congel

Author:Joe Congel [Congel, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2023-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The call came in at eleven twenty-seven pm. Chief Jager was already on the scene when Detective Sovern pulled into the Piggly Wiggly parking lot.

The chief looked up when he heard the car door slam. “Oh, good, Reece. You’re here,” he said.

Sovern ducked under the yellow crime scene tape and ambled over to where the Chief was standing. He pulled the unlit cigar from his mouth. “What’ve we got, Tommy?”

“A mess. Go look for yourself,” he said, nodding at the white Civic hatchback.

The detective stuck the stogie between his lips and worked it into the corner of his mouth as he approached the vehicle. He opened the passenger side door and stuck his head inside. Sovern sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly as he took in the gruesome sight laid out before him.

He pushed himself back from the car and grabbed a pair of gloves from his coat pocket. After strapping them on, he leaned back in and placed his fingers, one at a time, on the necks of the two people seated inside.

Dead. But he already knew that from the needles still holding onto the vein in each of the victim’s right arm.

He backed away from the vehicle and rotated his head back and forth, slowly cracking the tension he felt in his neck and shoulders. “Wylie officially pronounce them yet?”

“Yes,” said Tommy. “He just left before you arrived.”

“Do we know who they are?”

“Not yet. Working on it. But Wylie puts ‘em at around the same age as the other two kids.”

“I would agree with that,” Sovern nodded. “They can’t be more than seventeen or eighteen years old. Who called it in?”

The chief flipped through a notebook he was holding. “The closing manager for the grocery store. Colton Everett. Said he closed the store at eleven and when he and Marjorie Davenport—that’s one of his cashiers—came out to leave, they saw the Civic parked in the lot. It was just bright enough from the moonlight for them to make out two people sitting in the car. When they walked over and knocked on the window to tell them to leave, Colton noticed the syringe hanging from their arms and thought they might be dead.”

Sovern nodded. “I guess he thought right. Where are they?”

“Sitting inside the patrol car over there,” Tommy said, pointing at the Magnolia Bluff police cruiser on the other side of the yellow tape. “Hans is with them.”

Detective Sovern made his way over to where the chief pointed. Officer Winkler saw him coming, waved, and then leaned inside the open rear door of the cruiser and coaxed the man and woman from the backseat of the car. By the time he reached them, they were standing beside the vehicle.

“Mr. Everett. Ms. Davenport,” he said as he pulled a small notebook from his coat. “I’m Detective Reece Sovern. I know it’s late, but I have a few questions for you. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

Both nodded.

He addressed the man first. “Mr. Everett, I understand you’re the manager here at the Piggly Wiggly.

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