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)
My grin was not the correct response, but she only whacked me on the arm when she saw it.
Movement caught our eyes, and soon Pendelton’s kid was marching up the walk toward us, looking furious. “You’re just going to let him get away with this?”
“Listen, kid,” Black grumbled. “She’s here willingly. What would you have me do?”
“She’s not willing!” the kid denied.
“I am,” Constance said softly, moving in closer to me. “I was just in a bad mood. Some asshole dumped some dogs off at our house today, and they were scary. Forced me to be late to my daughter’s lunch. And we got in a fight last night. It was all very innocent. I’m sorry you were involved at all.”
Maybe if you were in school like you should be this wouldn’t have happened…
Though I didn’t voice those thoughts.
His eyes narrowed, and he studied me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable.
I moved even closer to Constance.
“Hey, Eustace,” Black called out. “You have a snake?”
Eustace.
I hadn’t realized that was his name.
“Yes,” he asked warily, stiffening.
“Where is it?”
“At home,” he stammered. “I, uh, stopped carrying him around when someone got upset about it in the store.”
Doubtful.
I’d seen him and that snake literally everywhere. And he had never seemed to care before about anyone not liking it.
Except, the way he kept looking at Constance made me wonder if he’d stopped carrying the snake around because she hadn’t liked him terrorizing people with the snake.
Had something happened that she hadn’t shared?
Not that we’d been sharing much until recently.
“What happened with the encounter?” Black asked, echoing my thoughts.
“Uh…” Eustace started, but Constance interrupted.
“A few weeks ago, he came into The Mercantile and brought the snake,” she said. “Bernice and the older lady that runs it both asked him to leave. He wouldn’t. The cops were about to be called, and I asked him to leave. He left.”
What the fuck?
Did this kid have a crush on Constance?
“Did you happen to know Maddox Thermopolis, Kieran St. James, or Axton Ranger?”
“No, why?” Eustace lied.
And he did lie.
I could read that on his face.
And I wasn’t trained like Black was. Unless you counted the prison school of hard knocks.
“How old are you, Eustace?”
“Fifteen,” he answered.
“Let me give you a ride back to your place,” Black suggested.
“I’ll be fine,” Eustace replied.
“That may be, but I’m still going to give you one,” he said. “I’d like a word with your parents.”
“They’re both at work.”
“Then we’ll head to your dad’s office,” Black suggested. “Get in.”
His words left no room for argument.
The moment the two of them left, Constance said, “You found something out.”
I nodded.
“The snake bites on the kids,” he said. “All three of them had at least four. Didn’t even remember that kid had a snake until right now.”
She snapped her fingers together. “That was what I was trying to remember!”
“What?”
“The snake,” she remembered. “I talk a lot to Dr. Pendelton. He has Eustace homeschooled. But he’s in a homeschooling co-op. There’s a group of the same age boys that meet and play soccer together. They play against area schools. I think they also formed a track team and a basketball team. So I know he has contact with other kids his age.”
“Interesting,” I said. “I’m sure Black will get that information out of him, but I’ll send him a message anyway.” I pulled out my phone. “Are you ready to go?”
She looked at her watch. “We still have an hour and a half.”
I opened the door to the house and whistled.
Peanut came barreling through the front door and out into the yard, nose to the ground.
“Was hoping you’d be okay with walking the pain in the ass for an hour while we waited. We can walk to the school and pick her up, then take your car back here.”
She softened. “I’d love that.”
Peanut was thoroughly tired out by the time Wendy was ready to get out of school.
“You got a sweatshirt or something of Wendy’s in your truck that I could borrow?”
Constance frowned. “Yeah. The whole back seat is filled with her junk. Why?”
“Was wondering if I could work on a scent trail with the two of them. We can give Peanut the scent, and he can find her in a crowd of kids. It’d be a fun experiment.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Let’s go.”
We headed to her car and got a jacket of Wendy’s.
“Usually, you’d want to put the jacket in a plastic bag so you can keep the scent contained and not contaminate it. But we’re going to do this the fun way and see what he can do,” I said. “When’s the bell ring for school?”
Just as I asked that, the bell rang.
“Now.” Constance grinned.
Twenty-Six
When the bikini pics start flooding my newsfeed, I have to remind myself that I have a great personality.
—Constance’s secret thoughts
Constance
Today had been weird.
And great.