River of Bones by Dan Padavona

Author:Dan Padavona [Padavona, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Saturday, August 14th

9:10 a.m.

LeVar patted Jack on the head as the big dog watched him fish two glazed donuts out of the box.

“Sorry, these aren’t for you.”

The dog cocked his head, tongue hanging out and beading with saliva.

As LeVar plated the donuts, Thomas shuffled into the kitchen and yawned. The sheriff wore baggy shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops, his disheveled hair messier than normal. He’d worked late pouring over his notes on the Skye Feron and Justine Adkins cases. LeVar had glimpsed him through the window last night, guilty that he’d hidden their investigation from the sheriff. Until LeVar found concrete evidence, he needed to keep the investigation secret. Thomas wouldn’t approve of their group, especially with Scout involved.

“I picked up a dozen donuts from the Broken Yolk this morning. Hope you don’t mind me snatching a couple.”

Thomas pawed through the box and grabbed a donut.

“Why would I mind? You paid. Take ten bucks out of my wallet.”

“My treat, Shep Dawg.”

Thomas smirked.

“Shep Dawg. I kinda like that. But I still want to pay.”

“I don’t pay full price. Ruth gives me a discount. You know how that goes.”

He turned to leave before the sheriff asked any more questions.

“You want to grill later?”

“Say the word, bruh.”

“All right.” Thomas narrowed his eyes as LeVar slid the deck door open. “I’ll check in with you after four.”

LeVar winced as he closed the door behind him. Was Thomas on to their investigation club? He stopped himself from running and did his best to appear casual while he crossed the yard. Inside the guest house, he pulled the curtain on the front door and exhaled.

Scout was already scouring the security camera footage from last night.

“Find my prowler yet?” he asked.

She glanced over her wheelchair and shook her head.

“But I caught three raccoons scrambling between our yards. Oh, and a dozen deer.”

Scout was all smiles as she ran through the footage on high speed.

“That’s lit,” he said, pointing at the screen with his half-eaten donut. “You can see the sun rising. See what I did there? Lit, sunrise?”

“Yeah, you’re a real Chris Rock, LeVar.”

He slid the plate in front of her.

“What’s first on the agenda?”

“We should pick up where we left off yesterday.”

“The girl Paige and Justine tormented. Dawn.”

Scout called up two browser windows. One held a digital yearbook from Harmon High School from the year Skye Feron vanished. The second contained Kane Grove High’s yearbook.

“I get the impression Paige wasn’t as liked as she was popular,” said Scout. “Dawn might have been a rival.”

“We don’t know her last name.”

“It sucks, but we’ll go through both yearbooks, name by name. If she’s in there, we need to find her.”

Outside the window, a family floated on the lake in kayaks. Scout returned to work, examining the two senior classes and running her finger along the names.

“I don’t get it,” said Scout, shaking her head. “There’s nobody named Dawn in either yearbook.”

“Weird. It’s a common name.”

“Not common enough. I’m unsure where to go from here.”

The guest house turned quiet as they mulled over their decisions.

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