The Manatee Did It by Kay Dew Shostak

Author:Kay Dew Shostak
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780999106495
Publisher: August South Publishing
Published: 2020-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

By the time the police all leave, shadows are lengthening in the front yard and throughout the house. “I’m starving,” I say to Craig as we stand in the living room, still kind of stunned. “I had plans for hamburgers on the grill, but that sounds like too much work now. How about soup and a sandwich? Of course, I have a frozen pizza for such a crazy day as this. Want that?”

He leans to give me a kiss on my cheek. “It has been a strange one, hasn’t it?”

Before I can lean into him, he pulls back and walks away. “However, I do have to return some calls for work. This afternoon was shot. Put the pizza in, and if I’m not done by the time it’s ready, I can eat it later. Thanks.” He’s in his office and closing the door before I can get fully turned around or think of what to say.

Watching him, the churn of hunger in my stomach turns into a churn of anxiety. When I walk into the kitchen, my eyes fall on my new painting. I stop to look at it. The pinks of the sky and the steadiness of the bird calm me, and I take a deep breath. “A really hot shower. That’s what I need,” I say as I walk farther into the kitchen to preheat the oven. At the fridge, I grab an already opened bottle of pinot grigio and pour myself a glass for the shower.

Craig’s voice rises and falls from his office, and it’s hard to imagine everything that happened here today. As I walk up the stairs the window on the landing that faces west, toward the river beyond the marina, is lit up with a shaft of light from the lowering sun. I stop to sip my wine and watch the sun shoot through the leaves and Spanish moss that wrap around our house. We need to make more of an effort to get down to the marina to watch the sunset. As I turn to finish walking up the stairs, I sigh. I’m sure Pierson Mantelle never thought Tuesday’s sunset was his last.

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