“My whereabouts? What the heck is going on?”
I snuck out my bedroom window and got drunk is where I was. Not before I followed a ghost into the woods—and found that little gold cuff link on my windowsill. Something only the rich would wear. Shit—I’ve got to get rid of that as soon as I get home.
“A group of kids were playing in the woods yesterday morning,” Sheriff Johns says, snapping my thoughts. “Said they saw a woman, hiding behind the trees, chanting some weird prayer, then chased them down. They all seem to think it was you.”
If there’s anything I know, it’s where I have and have not been. And I have not been skulking around the woods following some chicken-ass kids, chanting spells.
“Liars.” I firm up in my seat, getting tired of being prodded with all these questions. “I was running up the hill from the quarry pond to save Ellis.”
“Mmm, huh.” His judgment thick in the air. “Surely I don’t need to remind you of the public threat you made against Stone Rutledge at the courthouse.” Sheriff Johns’s tone as flat as his face and equally as accusing.
“Are y’all arresting me or something?” I look pointedly to the sheriff, then to Oscar, who knows I’m done with all this free questioning. “Because if not, I ain’t gotta be here, right?”
They exchange a brief look, and the sheriff sits back to let Oscar speak. “His body was found on the same property as your Bible. These kids say they saw you. You threatened him in front of dozens of witnesses, officers of the law included. It doesn’t look good, to be honest. There’s a lot of questions we don’t have the answers to. For now, we appreciate your cooperation.”
“Last night I was at Aunt Violet’s, you can ask her.” Though I snuck in, so I’m not sure if she knows I was even there. “That Bible...” I nod to it. “We donated it to the church years ago, when Grandmama bought me a new one,” I lie. “Could have been anyone who put it there. Besides, what does my mama and that house got to do with Stone?”
Oscar cracks open his mouth like he’s about to speak when the sheriff cuts him off.
“I think we’ve got what we need for today.” Sheriff Johns stands, ending our little chat. “If we have any more questions, we know where to find you.”
“That you do.” I nod and take my leave. My feet carry me out of there faster than I intend, guiltily fast.
It’s dark out now, and a long ass walk to my house. I’ll have to call Bone Layer to pick me up. I mutter a swear to myself.
“Weatherly,” Oscar calls. I about jump out of my skin. He jogs out the door after me. “Let me give you a ride home, since it’s so late.”
I park my hand on my hip and square him with a look. “Sheriff send you out here on official duty? Or you offering as a friend?”
He thumbs his gun belt and returns the same hard glare. “You want a ride or what?”
Silently, I get in the passenger’s seat of the sheriff’s Bronco.
“You need to know they’re going to be watching you,” he says, as if I didn’t already suspect this. The gravel pop-cracks under his tires as he backs out of the station parking lot.
“I figured.” I smart my arms over my chest and turn my gaze out the window. The night, a gorgeous black-blue, reminds me of Rook’s hair. My eyes instinctually scan the sky, looking for a speck of black. I’m scared he’s already gone again.
The headlights split the dark as we turn down the long country road toward my house.
“You don’t understand,” Oscar says earnestly. “Sheriff knows you’re hiding something.”
I sharpen my eyes on him. “Hiding what?”
“Something about that Bible. Or your grandfather. The burned crow. The evidence of poison. Hell, everything, maybe.”
I puff a disagreeing sound and roll down the window, suddenly feeling hot.
Oscar goes on. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.” He rakes a shaky hand over the spikes of his hair. “They are getting a toxicology report on Stone, but the medical examiner seems to think the poison is organic in nature—he was the same examiner when your grandfather died, he remembers. He’s recommended they exhume your grandfather’s body. He thinks whatever killed him killed Stone.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly.” Oscar chews the inside of his lip. I’m sure his Boy Scout morals are already reprimanding him for telling me.
I told Oscar about my Sin Eater Oil and its confessional properties, and the few times it was used for mercy killings. In hindsight that seems pretty stupid, but his do-gooder heart had a way of making you fess up to stuff like confessional to a priest. And he’s no dummy. The oil could be used in non-mercy situations as well. I can’t count on him to keep this bit of information to himself forever. I think the only reason he’s kept it quiet this long is because how do you explain to a practical man like Sheriff Johns my body makes a mucus that can kill people?
“They’re looking for any reason to arrest you.”
Awesome.
Oscar slows down to turn into my driveway, but stops short. From the nearby fray of woods, crickets fill the silence. I turn to him, not sure why he’s not heading up to the house.
“Weatherly.” He sets his hand on mine. I know where he’s going with this conversation even before his words get there. “I know you’re hurting. It can’t be easy losing someone you were so close to.”
I slip my hand out from underneath his. His great-grandparents are still alive. What does he know about death?
I turn my gaze out the window so I don’t have to see the pity in those beautiful brown eyes of his. I shove down the emotion wanting to bubble up. “I don’t want to have this conversation right now.” I hop out of the truck, but he calls my name, and I stop.
His demeanor shifts as he switches from friend back to deputy. “What happened was a tragedy. But if you or anyone in your family has done something or knows something, you need to tell me. I’ve got your back in there, but if I find one piece of evidence that says otherwise, I’ll arrest you myself. Stone’s death will not bring Adaire back.”
A knife of truth that stabs me in the heart.
“But damn if it don’t feel good that motherfucker is dead, though,” I say and shut the Bronco door in his face.
TEN
Scrying Skillet
At the house, a lone porch light waits for me to come home. But I’ve got to check on something first. I need to be sure my mind isn’t misremembering.
