Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81808 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
“Jett?” Harmon said gently.
The German shepherd looked at her, then took a step back, and even whined softly.
“What is that about?” Schiff asked her.
“I have no idea.”
Elvira, who was a bloodhound, was circling the shed, and when she scratched at the door, Petrovsky opened it. Just inside, next to a ride-on mower, she made a couple of turns and then lay down.
“What does that mean?” Reed asked.
“That means there’s a body here,” Petrovsky said.
“Okay, so maybe Tuss Haviland isn’t crazy.”
But when I turned and looked at Jett, he was up and pacing.
“I’m going to take him back,” Harmon informed the other two officers. “Are you calling the state police?”
“Yeah, we’ll call it in now.”
Elvira suddenly jumped up like something had touched her, yelped, yanked her leash out of Petrovsky’s hand, and ran over to me. She stood for a moment, then moved around behind me and sat down.
“Vira, what are you doing?” her handler asked, walking over to join me.
The moment Petrovsky reached me, she slipped around behind him.
Whatever was in the ground, I was guessing it wanted to come out.
There was a sound in my head. It started small and got loud quickly, like a big eighteen-wheeler passing you on the highway.
I took a step forward, but froze just like Jett had as I realized what it was. It had taken me a moment because I hadn’t had a warning like this—from the earth, the trees, the wind, everything, all at once—in centuries. I was not to step forward into whatever was there, in the ground. It wouldn’t kill me. Not me. But it was unnatural, and so I was warned by the elements not to enter.
“What the hell is going on?” Schiff asked Petrovsky.
“The only thing I can think is that maybe she’s confused because there’s something dead there, but it’s really old.”
“Which is possible,” Teddy chimed in.
“Yeah, but that ain’t gonna help Abel Swann none. We need to get a team out here and see what’s buried on his land.”
But the land had been empty; it made no sense that there was anything dead there. Of course, the real concern was, why did the elements that had been my only companions for much of my long life not want me anywhere near that patch of ground?
The activity was hectic after that. I was sent back to my home, as there was no need for me to be there. Nothing had been found on my land, after all. I caught a glimpse of Abel and Narah returning in their SUV before I turned for home. I had to wonder what they would think of me being there.
FIVE
Iwas torn. Once I got home, half of me thought about going back down to the house to talk to Abel and Narah and ask who they had killed and buried under their machine shed. Was it a great start to a conversation? No. Not at all. But I was as curious as any neighbor would be.
The other half of me knew that interfering in their business, which included asking probing questions, was a terrible idea. Being involved in any way with the Swann Pack was something I needed to distance myself from. Because the truth was, at some point in the very near future, Cole was going to have to wrest control of the pack from his uncle. There was no way around that. And when he came to that same conclusion, which was simply a matter of time, he was going to hate me even more than he did at the moment, and Abel was going to hate me as well for not saying anything to him about the storm that was coming. Either way, I was going to end up being the bad guy. It was a “damned if I did and damned if I didn’t” situation that I wanted no part of.
Being able to see clearly when others could not definitely had its drawbacks, and one of them was that most of the time, people didn’t enjoy facing the truth because it meant change. In response to whatever that truth was, life would be forever altered. Most people didn’t enjoy night-and-day differences in their reality, which was why so many often stayed in some terrible situations. But for Cole, it would be worse, because it would be his choice. He’d have to live with the consequences and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was doing the right thing. It sounded heart-wrenching, and I wanted to help him, even though I knew I was the last person he’d accept help from at the moment.
At least there were tasks to do at home. I was late on my fall cleanup of the grounds, so I pruned and raked, shaped the boxwoods and the holly, which were out of control, and put down mulch so the flowers that lined the drive would come back next year and not die from the cold that was coming.