“Have you checked for a pulse?”
“No,” I say. “She’s been dead for some time.” I swallow hard. “There is visible decomposition.”
A sudden gust of wind shifts direction. The smell hits me, thick and sour, crawling into my throat. I clamp a hand over my mouth.
“Okay,” the dispatcher says calmly. “I need you to stay where you are and not touch anything. Officers are on the way. We have your location.”
“Yes,” I say. “I’m staying back.”
“Are you alone right now?”
“Yes.”
“If you feel unsafe at any point, tell me immediately.”
“I will.”
“You can hang up now, ma’am. Officers will be there shortly.”
“Understood.”
I hang up the phone and don’t move from the spot.
I know how this works. Daisy and I will have to stay until they arrive at the crime scene.
I stay where I am, watching the trees, counting my breaths, waiting for the sound of sirens that never seem to come. When my legs started to go numb, nearly forty minutes later, two patrol officers arrived on foot. They couldn’t bring a car this far in.
Daisy moves beside me the moment she hears them. Her ears lifted. I tighten my grip on the leash before she can move.
The officers slow down when they see us. One of them nods to me before his gaze shifts past us, following the trail down toward the fallen tree.
They don’t rush.
“Ma’am,” one of them says, “you called us?”
“Yes.”
“Where’s the body?”
I point without looking. “Down there. By the tree.”
They exchange a glance and move past me. Daisy softly whines, pulling once at the leash, but I hold her back.
One of the officers stops short when he reaches the lower area. The other exhales through his nose, already reaching for his radio.
“Okay,” the first one says. “Yeah. I see her.”
They don’t touch the body. One of them crouches, looking at the ground around her, the position of her hands, pointing at the puzzle piece. The other steps aside and speaks into his radio.
I look down at Daisy without meaning to. The dark spot on her chest has dried, stiffening her fur.
Mud,I tell myself.It has to be mud.
“Ma’am,” the officer says, turning back to me. “Did your dog get close to the body?”
“She ran ahead of me,” I say. “I called her back as soon as I saw her.”
He nods, making a note of it, then they reach for the radio and ask for detectives to come in.
