Innocence (The Girl in the Box Book 43) by Robert J. Crane

Author:Robert J. Crane [Crane, Robert J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ostiagard Press
Published: 2020-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Six

The streets of downtown Stillwater were packed, the summertime traffic in the town nearly unbelievable. Coming down off the hill we could see the parking lots filled to the brim all the way up to the edge of the St. Croix River, and suddenly I felt very fortunate to have a driver. He took us down through the mixed streets of the old town with the aged brick, and down to the main road, the St. Croix Trail, pushing us through the traffic until we reached the north end of town and a turnoff just where the buildings ended and the cliffs began their climb again.

“You going to Marina?” Marty asked as he pulled off the road. To our right lay a very definite marina, then one last building with a sign that said The Zephyr, a theater of some sort. Then trees, endless trees, separating road from river.

“No,” Reed said.

“Theater?”

“No.” Reed pointed to the left-hand turn, which led into a small parking lot shrouded by trees. “There.”

“You need another ride?” Marty asked in his strong accent, dropping us in the parking lot.

“Probably a good idea,” Reed said, and waggled his phone. “I'm adding an extra large tip for you to wait.”

The driver nodded, and we hiked away from the car, Reed checking his phone's GPS. “I think it's just down here,” he said as we reached a yellow perimeter of crime scene tape.

“What was your first clue, detective?” I asked, dipping under the tape and finding myself on a steep slope down to the river without a lot of mercy. One false step and I was going to end up in the drink. I studied it for a moment, rolled my eyes and said, “Whatever,” and just drifted down in hover mode.

“That's cheating,” Reed said, apparently unwilling to disturb the sensitivity of the scene with the high winds it'd take to loft his ass down. “I'll wait here, I guess.”

“Be my eye in the sky,” I said, taking the short, steady drop down to the shore. There wasn't much to stand on down here, mostly a marshy promontory that was more swamp than actual riverbank. In the distance, I could see a white riverboat starting a slow cruise down the St. Croix, paddlewheel slapping against the river and jovial passengers clinking glasses and laughing. The glorious sun was trending lower in the sky, but it wouldn't set until much later.

This was Minnesota in the summer.

This was the part I'd miss.

I hovered a foot above the water, on the near impassable bank, and called up to Reed, “I don't know how he got down here.”

“Probably just dumped the body from here,” my brother called back. He was only a few feet above me, maybe five or so, but it was enough. “Killed her up here, maybe?”

“We need that coroner's report,” I muttered, flying low over the rocky bank. “Look at this. No white chalk outlines–”

“They only use those when they're moving a person who's still alive.”

“–no shell casings, no flags left behind to mark pieces of physical evidence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.