Snuffling Up Bones by DonnaRae Menard

Author:DonnaRae Menard [DonnaRae Menard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2024-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

My cell phone rang, causing all of us humans to jump apart from each other and away from the birches. Buttercup watched us over her shoulder as she snuck along, edging toward home. She had experienced enough excitement for one day. I reached out, grabbing Buttercup’s harness. She towed me along as she went.

“I’m parked in your yard,” Neddel said. He didn’t sound very friendly. “Where exactly are you?”

“I’m sending Melanie out with the tractor,” I said, letting go of Buttercup. “Go in the barn. You’re going to need a chainsaw, an ax, a handsaw, and anything else that looks pertinent for cutting saplings out of the way. You can bring them up with the tractor. We think there’s another body.”

“Ask him if we have to wait for Officer Ramp,” Rose Ann whispered. “Oh, and maybe have him grab a couple more of the big evidence bags out of my car.”

Melanie had also had enough excitement for one day. She was more than willing to follow Buttercup and head down to turn the tractor controls over to Neddel.

“Make sure he gasses up before he leaves,” I called out as her back disappeared.

Hard to tell because of all the fluttering leaves, but my daughter might have flipped me off. She was still fully hazmatted.

My cell phone dinged. Incoming text. Nothing yet from Ramp.

While we waited for Sheriff Neddel to come up over the trail, I crept down among the Trillium, admiring their fleeting glory. Rose Ann spent the time measuring, taking photos, and prepping her equipment. Melanie did not text me that she and Buttercup had made it down safely, but Neddel said she’d stepped off the tractor, ignoring his questions while declaring the need for a shower and nap immediately to follow.

The putt-putt-cough-gasp-wheeze of my elderly Cub Cadet announced the sheriff’s arrival. He brought more water with him and some energy drink he and Rose Ann seemed good with, but which sent my eyeballs whirling in my head.

“It’s a good thing the pig went in the sty by herself,” he said. “I closed the gate to make sure she would stay there before I left.”

“We don’t call it a sty. Buttercup has a home pen and an outside pen.”

Neddel rolled his eyes. I was dead serious, but it was hard to hold the scowl in place with Rose Ann leaning on my back, giggling. If I hadn’t already known the heat and the walk would be the perfect prelude for an extended porcine nap, I would have felt bad that my chubby buddy had been secured behind bars.

Neddel started spitting out some rhetoric about how he should have been notified immediately. Like thirty-six hours prior, as in, when the pig came out of the woods. And definitely before Rose Ann, Melanie, Buttercup, and I had taken on the job of searching for the murderer’s stash. There was some mention of evidence and chain of control.

The day had gotten hotter. My clothing was sticking to me all over, as was a lot of forest debris.

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