The Expert Witness by Nina Atwood

Author:Nina Atwood [Atwood, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-24T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

The day of the murder

Shaun moved cautiously through the trees. They jokingly called it Mirkwood, from The Lord of the Rings, and it had seemed vast when they were little and discouraged them from going there. Now, it was merely a small area of reserve land bordering their neighborhood, no wider than a few home lots, with a trickling creek. Not a forest, not anything much except thick undergrowth with live oak, mesquite, and sweet gum, the usual scraggly trees that could be found growing wild in north Texas.

Fall meant leaves—crisp, dry leaves—underfoot. He didn’t care for the sound and aimed for exposed roots to be quieter. He fingered the folded blade in his pocket, a rare gift from his dad. Since you like wandering around and exploring biology, you could use a tool. And it had come in handy when he wanted to carefully pry things apart, to inspect the insides, like pods that contained butterflies in the making. Although he’d only done that once, feeling bad about the butterfly that had died, never getting a chance to flutter away. But he used it for other things.

Voices sounded ahead, and that brought him to a stop. He never ran into other people here, which was one of the many reasons he loved it.

He crept closer to the voices, curiosity winning over his social aversion. Wait. One voice was familiar. Katie, and someone else, a man. Through the trees ahead, flashes of color and a cry. He thrashed ahead, unmindful of the noise, his ears buzzing, his arms flailing. Katie! He had to get to her.

A man with a ponytail pinned Katie’s arms to her sides as she shouted at him. “I said, I’m done with you! Get your hands off of me!” His back was to Shaun, but something about the way he moved made him look older.

“You don’t get to say you’re done. You’re forgetting—I have all I need to ruin your high school prom-queen life for good. I don’t think you want your friends, let alone your teachers and your parents, to see you with your legs spread,” he told her.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

He couldn’t hear everything that was said. Something about knowing something and Katie threatening to tell. Whatever she’d said must have pissed the guy off because of what happened next.

“Don’t ever come near me again—” But she never got to finish because he punched her straight in the face, causing her to fall. She put her hand on her cheek in shock, her mouth falling open. Shaun must have made a sound because her eyes darted to him. “Shaun! What are you doing? You have to get out of here. Go away. I mean it, dufus.”

He stood, frozen, fingering the knife. “Katie,” he mumbled.

“Shaun,” she pleaded. “Leave, now! Go home!”

But he couldn’t go, just leave her like this. “No,” he said, a quiet determination rising through the fog of fear. “Let her go,” he said to the guy, his heart now pounding a warning.

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