Tangled Roots by Marcia Talley

Author:Marcia Talley [Marcia Talley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2019-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Once we’d stepped off the flagstone patio, the neatly-manicured Cardinale lawn sloped gently down to the alley that separated the Colorado Avenue backyards from the backyards of the houses on Deepdene. The hedge Georgina had been tending was on the left – scraggly tendrils indicated where she’d left off – and a trampoline popular with the boys sat at the head of the driveway on the right.

Scott’s cell phone signal seemed to be emanating from a shed in the back left corner of the yard, one that Paul had helped Scott assemble from a prefab kit purchased at Home Depot. The shed was approximately eight by twelve feet, in a classic farmhouse style, and the door was secured with a keypad combination lock.

Georgina cupped her hands around her eyes and peered into one of the windows that flanked the door. ‘I can’t see anything.’

‘We’ll need to go inside, Georgina.’

She turned a worried face in my direction. ‘I’m afraid to look.’

‘Scott could simply have left his phone in the shed.’ I didn’t sound convincing, even to myself. I considered the lock, suddenly filled with dread. ‘Do you know the combination?’

Georgina nodded, punched in the code, pushed down on the handle and pulled the door open. I reached out to hold her back, but she was too quick for me. She stepped into the shed, froze, and started to scream.

My brother-in-law lay sprawled on the concrete floor, his head resting on a bag of mulch that had been slashed open, spilling its contents.

Before I could stop her, Georgina rushed to her husband’s side and knelt in a pile of rich, dark soil.

‘Don’t touch anything!’ I yelled, hoping she could hear me over her own anguished cries.

It was obvious from all the blood and Scott’s open, sightless eyes that there was nothing we could do to help him now. I fell to my knees next to my sister and wrapped her in an embrace while she shook with sobs.

‘He’s dead, isn’t he? Isn’t he, Hannah? Who …?’

I didn’t know the who but the how seemed clear. The garden shears I’d seen Georgina working with earlier in the week had been discarded nearby, their blades darkly stained with a substance that had to be blood, and Scott’s head … I closed my eyes for a moment, swallowing the bile that rose in my throat.

Gathering courage, I felt Scott’s neck, hoping for a pulse, but there was none. His skin was cold.

‘We need to call the police,’ I said, all the while urging my sister to her feet.

‘I can’t, I can’t just leave him alone,’ she stammered.

‘There’s nothing you can do for him, sweetie. C’mon. The sooner the police get here, the sooner they’ll find whoever did this to Scott. Our being here will just make their job more difficult.’

I guided my sister reluctantly, step by agonizing step, back across the lawn and into the kitchen.

Julie, obedient for once, still sat on her stool, texting with someone on her iPhone. When she caught sight of our faces, hers crumpled.

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