EIGHTEEN
Arrogance + Stupidity
Orla nodded.“Yes.Just the arm.I don’t know if an animal dragged the arm here and the body is somewhere else, though.I was hoping one of you could tell us if you scented the rest of the body nearby.”
Osso and Nick looked around, their heads up, scenting the air.Declan, who seemed to have the strongest nose of anyone here, crouched beside the arm.
“It was frozen.”Declan used a stick to prod at the ripped sleeve covering what looked to be a forearm.“The cut is clean.It’s not easy to cut through flesh and bone.”
Osso crouched down beside him.“You’re right.One hit and the arm was severed.”
“How do you know it was frozen?”I asked.
“I can smell the freezer burn but look here and here.”Declan used the stick to point.“See how the skin is waxy and discolored?Insects have arrived, but only on those spots that have thawed.”
Detective Osso pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket.He turned it inside out, put his hand in, and picked up the arm, securing it in the bag without anyone touching it.
“Do you want me to shift and search?”Declan asked.
Osso looked as though he was considering it but shook his head.“No.A frozen body part with a clean cut doesn’t say an animal dragged a body and gnawed off an arm.This was a dump.We’ll get a crew out here to search the woods to be safe.”He glanced at Orla.“Sorry.We’ll be in your space.”
“I assumed as much,” she replied.
Osso then turned to me.“Can you check?See what you see?”
I’d been hanging back.With all the horrible things I’d seen in life, I wasn’t squeamish in general.That wasn’t it.There was something about the arm that was repellant to me.I pulled the pearl from under my sweater, took off a glove, and held onto it for a moment.
“Do you have her water bottle?”Osso asked Declan.
Orla pointed at the necklace.“Look at that perfect pearl she’s holding.It’s also from the ocean.I assume that does what the water does but in an easier, more socially acceptable way.Is that correct?”she asked me.
I nodded.“It was a gift from my dad.”Staring at the bag in Osso’s hand, I really wished I’d said no and was home in bed.
“You don’t have to do this,” Declan said.“They have crime labs.”
Osso opened his mouth to argue but Declan looked like he was going to punch him, so Osso remained quiet.
“I’m okay.”I didn’t sound convincing even to myself.I waved Osso to me because my legs weren’t interested in getting any closer.Blowing out a breath, I touched a finger to the hand.
“You’re really pretty.”A young man in a brown plaid shirt that matched the arm in the bag stood staring, his eyes glazed.“So pretty.”
“Glad to hear it,” the woman said, humor in her voice.
I tried to do what my father had said.Rolling the pearl between my fingers, focusing on the smooth surface, I tried to move above the action, to see all involved.It didn’t work.The man and woman were on a hiking path, but he was the only one I could see.The edge of a parking lot was visible around a tree.
There’s movement behind the spelled young man.A figure in a black hoodie moves from behind a bush.The young man hears the scrape of shoes on the dirt path and begins to turn as the hooded figure brings up a hammer and bashes the young man in the side of the head.
Pain explodes and he’s out.
When his eyes open again, he’s disoriented, his head pounding.He sees an axe.Unable to resist, his gaze follows its progress up into the air.When he realizes what’s about to happen, he screams.A moment later, the axe drops, cutting off his arm.Bellowing in agony, confused and wracked with unfathomable pain, he feels himself losing consciousness as he stares in disbelief at the bloody stump that used to be his arm.One of the two figures in a dark cement room waves a hand at him and his cry cuts off.
He’s trapped in a nightmare.That’s the only thing that makes sense.He can’t move.Can’t scream.He can only watch two people hold what used to be his arm above a pot over an open flame while his blood drips into their concoction.His vision goes dark as the room thankfully disappears.
Still on my feet, I stumbled away from the evidence bag and would have fallen if Declan hadn’t been there to grab me.Staring at my ungloved hand, I panicked, wanting the residue of black magic off me now.
“I need my backpack.”The whine in my voice had me embarrassed and Declan picking me up and running.
I knew the others were following, but I was focused on that finger not touching either of us.Declan ran us around Orla’s house and to his vehicle.He put me down, opened the rear gate of his Bronco, and took out a black backpack.
