The Sisters Hemingway by Annie England Noblin

Author:Annie England Noblin [Noblin, Annie England]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2018-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Pfeiffer

THE DEPUTIES HAD COME AND GONE, LEAVING YELLOW crime-scene tape around the garden and a promise to return the following day with the medical examiner to exhume whatever remains there might be. Brody stayed until everyone else had gone, also promising to return as soon as the sun was up.

Pfeiffer caught him outside as he was heading to his truck. “Brody,” she called. “Hey, wait up.”

Brody turned around, his fingers curled around the door handle. “What’s up?”

“Oh, you mean besides a dead body in the yard?” Pfeiffer quipped.

“Besides that.”

“Would you go check on Old Crow before you go home?”

Brody cocked his head to one side and said, “You gettin’ soft, Pfeiffer?”

“No,” Pfeiffer replied, setting her jaw in the way she used to do when they were children and he’d teased her. “It’s just that he was acting kind of strange, and I want to make sure he’s okay. He left in a hurry without asking the officers or telling anyone.”

“Well, like you said, there is a dead body in your yard,” Brody replied. “I don’t blame him for wanting to leave. It’s creepy as hell.”

Pfeiffer bit at the insides of her cheeks. “I think he knows something.”

“About the body?”

Pfeiffer nodded. “How did he react when you found it?”

Brody shrugged. “I don’t really remember. I was paying more attention to the skull in his hand.”

“He was muttering about how I couldn’t know anything about it, because I wasn’t here when it happened,” Pfeiffer said, the words coming out in a rush. “I asked him what he meant, but he wouldn’t elaborate. And then when the officer asked him about it, he said he didn’t know anything at all.”

“Pfeiffer,” Brody began, “the man is almost ninety years old. He’d just had the shock of his life in the middle of a heat wave. I doubt anything he said was making much sense.”

“I think he knows something.”

“I don’t think he knows any more than either one of us, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go over and check on him on my way home,” Brody told her.

Pfeiffer sighed. “Okay,” she said. “You’ll be back tomorrow?”

“I will.”

“Do you think they’ll be able to figure out who it is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Thanks,” she said, not knowing where the words came from.

“For what?”

“I don’t know,” Pfeiffer said, shrugging. “Just thank you.”

Brody nodded and climbed into his truck. Pfeiffer watched him pull away and felt for a moment a sense of sadness as the tires left behind a trail of dust on the dirt road. Brody made her feel safe. She supposed that he made her sisters feel safe, too, even though she knew that Hadley would never admit it now.

“Did Brody leave?”

Pfeiffer turned to see Hadley standing on the front porch, her arms crossed over her chest. “Yeah,” she said. “He’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

Hadley nodded.

“Are you okay?” Pfeiffer asked.

“I don’t know,” Hadley replied. “I mean, this wasn’t exactly how I expected the day to go, you know?”

“I know,” Pfeiffer said. “I figured we’d be done with yard work and would be getting ready for dinner.

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