Corpse in the Coulee by R.L. Syme

Author:R.L. Syme [Syme, R.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hummingbird Books

Chapter Twenty

I could see through the kitchen window, which still cast a pale yellow light out onto the flower beds. Sure enough, Wade Bakken was standing at the kitchen island with a uniformed deputy. The hot brother, as I had taken to calling him in my head.

Malcolm had gone inside to find Jathan, and I stood in a little huddle with Marta and Derek, trying to process what I’d just heard. Annette Miller. Gossip Cowgirl herself.

It still wasn’t computing.

The red hair. Fenna’s car. I’d just assumed.

“Well, at least this means she wasn’t in the trunk the whole time,” I said, keeping my voice low. “I hated the thought that she was out here while we were all milling around inside.”

“Malcolm did say it probably wasn’t more than twenty-four hours.” Derek was watching me, like he was afraid I was going to fall over. I touched his shoulder in solidarity as I moved past him, finding a position that would give me a better view of the kitchen.

The deputy who was questioning Wade had the hunched shoulders and forward lean of someone on the offensive. Even his features looked angry.

“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing at the brown-coated stranger through the glass.

Marta turned away from the crime scene to take a look. “I’m not sure. They didn’t introduce all the deputies to us.”

“Why is he so mad at Wade? How did Wade get here, anyway?”

“Police scanner is my bet,” she said, shrugging. “Everyone around here has one. I’d be willing to bet that he heard Fenna’s name on the scanner. There are a few neighbors milling around for the same reason. There aren’t enough cops to keep everyone away.”

That explained the people I’d noticed around the crime scene. The officers had pulled the yellow crime scene tape aside to let the coroner’s van back in. I could see into the back of the car, with all the floodlights, and the red-haired body was gone.

But there was a suitcase.

“Is that Fenna’s suitcase?” I asked, pointing at the crime scene.

“Yes,” said Marta. “I would assume so, since it’s Fenna’s car.”

It had been shoved back so the body could be stored in there. Had Fenna Teuling placed the body in her own trunk? Or someone else? I was so thrown by the revelation that it was Annette’s body, I was having a hard time keeping track of everything.

“They asked us to stay back, but I got pretty close,” Derek said, keeping his voice low. “Once someone discovered it wasn’t Fenna—”

“Doc Taylor,” Marta interjected. “It was Doc Taylor who examined the body.”

“Yeah, once he said it wasn’t Fenna, they had a little crowd of deputies and crime scene people trying to figure it out.”

“And who did?” I turned as one of the deputies started walking toward us. He had a purposeful stride. I held my breath, hoping no one would answer me in front of him, but he just nodded his head at us and walked into the house, calling for Sheriff Hendricks.

“Who discovered it was Annette?” Marta asked.

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