Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
“How do you know I have more?”
“Because I opened your drawers,” she said. “Do you have any snacks?”
He hung the bag of blood on the same coat hook that he’d used for me the other day and opened his desk drawer. He pulled out a couple before saying, “Just don’t tell anyone where you got them. I don’t want them asking.”
Wendy cupped them to her chest like they were precious.
He walked away and came back a few minutes later with some monitoring equipment that was typical for when you were getting a blood transfusion. I’d had it explained to me by Dr. Pendelton that, though they didn’t expect anything to go wrong, they still wanted to make sure. And the only way to do that was to monitor the levels with equipment.
It looked way scarier than it actually was, according to him.
I actually liked to hear the sound of Wendy’s heart. It reminded me that she was still here, and thriving.
Once he had Wendy settled, he pulled out some blank computer paper and set it on his desk in front of her. Wendy smiled and got to work practicing her letters.
Odin went to work, doing something in the large room behind me.
I sat on the edge of the desk then so I could keep an eye on both of them.
Wendy was perfectly content.
Meanwhile, Odin looked partially frustrated.
“What is it?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
Odin looked up and shrugged. “Work stuff.”
He didn’t tell me that he couldn’t tell me, but it was obvious.
The door to the office opened and a large man wearing a sheriff’s uniform stepped inside.
The scowl on his face had my heart hammering.
He stopped when he saw Wendy and me and frowned.
“Black,” Odin said. “What’s up?”
Black.
Sheriff Black.
I hadn’t had a chance to meet him yet, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. The sheriff’s office sometimes brought animals in that would need checked out or they’d found along the side of the road.
Eventually I’d meet them all.
“Who is this?” Black frowned.
“Someone I met on jury duty,” he answered. “Her daughter receives blood transfusions once every three months. Pendelton couldn’t do it today, so she asked me.”
Black’s eyes tightened around the edges as he narrowed them at me.
I shifted on the desk I was leaning against and stood up, feeling suddenly cautious.
“Not the best place for it since you were supposed to go over your findings with me,” he pointed out.
“It’ll be fine,” Odin said. “She’ll keep her kid distracted.”
The way he said it made it sound like a threat.
I sighed and turned Wendy’s chair to the side so that it was facing the wall and not the open room behind her.
Odin nodded and headed toward a rectangular drawer along the wall.
He pulled it open, and I saw feet tucked away inside.
I winced and pulled out my phone.
Maybe this wasn’t the best idea but…
“What about Coco?” Wendy asked.
“Coco?” I questioned.
“Your name. If you don’t like Con-Con,” Wendy mused. “I think this one needs sharpened. Do you have one?”
Instead of looking for one, I pulled out another one of the sharpened pencils from the drawer and handed it to her.
As I did, I got a glance of the body that was covered by a sheet.
My heart instantly ached.
I wasn’t a stranger to loss.
I’d lost quite a bit over my lifetime.
But I’d never seen a dead body. Nor had I seen a dead body belonging to a teen.
He was so young…
Odin’s eyes caught mine over the body and his eyes narrowed.
I looked down as he and Black talked.
Odin pointed at things along the kid’s neck. Gestured to something on his hands. Then again at his fingernails.
They spoke for a while before the boy was pushed back into the freezer and the door was closed.
I thought that it was over, but I was proved wrong when they moved to a second drawer and pulled that one open.
This was the other kid that’d died.
What was going on?
They spoke some more. Gestured some more. Examined some more.
Then they were tucking that boy away into the freezer as well.
Black moved to lean against the table as he went over some paperwork that was on the center island.
Odin joined him, pressing his hands on either side of the island and leaning in, exposing corded, muscular forearms.
“Coco.” I looked down at my daughter who showed me her work. “What do you think?”
My lips twitched when I saw the large blob on the page with arms and legs. The letters “ODIN” were above the large blob.
“That’s pretty great,” I said. “And you spelled his name right.”
“I asked my teacher about it yesterday. She told me how to spell it. I drew him with paint at school,” she explained.
My lips twitched. “Is that right?”
“Constance?”
I looked up to find Odin looking at me, Black right beside him but looking at the papers again.