Page 280 of Come Back to Me

Here I was thinking that we were building a dog shelter so now’d be a good time to get mine underway, and it just goes to prove that I shouldn’t think. Shouldn’t try to be fucking happy. Not on this goddamn land.

They broke ground this morning—that’s how shallow the fucking grave was.

“Maybe it’s an ancient body,” Colt proffers, sounding both hopeful and hopeless, which is quite a feat.

I crack my knuckles. “You think our ancestors wore denim miniskirts?”

“That’s what that blue thing is?”

“Yup.”

“Damn. Could it be…?”

“Marcy?” I nod because I don’t have any words that’d fit this situation.

“How long do DNA tests take?”

“Weeks. Months.” I shrug. “It’s not like the shows.”

“I know that,” he grouches. “Can’t we fast-track it?”

“It’s a cold case. No one’s fast-tracking anything.” I rub my eyes. “She’s small.”

“Really…” He sighs, and that one sound encompasses exactly how fucking tragic this whole thing is. “…small.”

It makes it worse that she’s in a fetal position.

“Yeah.”

“We don’t know it’s her. Not for certain.”

“You think he murdered someone else?” I grouse.

“If we add Clay to that list, yes.”

“Ever feel like he’s the source of every ounce of misery in this family?”

“Don’t ‘feel’ it, I fucking know it.”

“Hope his DNA’s on her,” I mumble. “Tangible proof is what we need to get him locked up forever.”

“God, me too. Even when he’s fighting other charges, we get no peace from him.”

Ugh.He’s right. “We’ll never be able to throw the book at him for Uncle Clay, but maybe we can for this.”

“There’s nothing to be done for Uncle Clay?”

“On the back of Elena’s dubious testimony? We might believe her, but no one else would. Certainly none of the higher-ups. No evidence. No crime. No witnesses. It’s so long ago there’d be no evidence even if we exhumed him. Unless he poisoned him,and even that might not show up in the DNA material that’s remaining.”

Colt crosses his arms against his chest. “How the fuck am I going to tell Zee her best friend’s buried on our land?”

I grimace because at the back of my mind, I’m thinking the exact same thing.

Zee and Tee used to be best buds with Marcy. Here they are, living beside her grave, one directly related to her killer and the other… well. In time, I hope she’ll be too.

I guess it’s a good thing they were heading to Toronto today.

“Tell her the truth.”

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