Page 10 of Dare
“Thanks.Good night, Ayda.”
“Goodnight, Dare.”
Justusshows up a few minutes later, and I hop into the passenger seat of his truck.“Were you sleeping?”
“Nah,just talking to Ayda.”
Justusshakes his head with a grin. “Through the wall again? You realize that’s reallyfucking weird, right?”
“I’vetried to get her to come over, or to invite me over. She’s kind ofintroverted.”
Justuslaughs. “Isn’t prison supposed to harden you, not soften you up? The old Darewould’ve just charged in her apartment and made himself at home.”
“Idon’t want to scare her, but believe me, I’m close to doing just that.” Iunlock my phone and try to call Jed again. “Still no answer. He could just bepassed out drunk.”
“Mostlikely.” But we both know we can’t take that chance. It’s unlikely that anyonehas connected Jed to ISH, but not impossible. If some hacker or predator hasgotten to him, they’ll wish they hadn’t. I trust Jed. He’d never lead them tous or tell them anything.
Thedrive takes over an hour and I know something is wrong as soon as we pull up tothe house. Jed’s dog, a lab mix with the eloquent name of Humper, runs to meetus, whining. Jed never leaves Humper outside overnight.
Justusrubs behind Humper’s ears. “Hey there boy, where is he, huh?”
Humperfollows us to the door, and wiggles impatiently as Justus unlocks it. The houseis dark and chilly, the open windows letting in the cold air.
“Jed?It’s Dare!” I yell. “Where are you?”
Justusgives me an anxious glance when there’s no reply. I flip on the living roomlight, illuminating a perfectly normal scene. Jed’s cigarettes and lighter areon the table by his well-worn leather recliner, the T.V. remote resting besidethem. “I’ll check upstairs,” Justus says, and I nod, heading for the kitchen.
Justas I open the pantry door, Justus yells my name. Taking the stairs two at atime, I find him with his hand on his forehead, standing at the edge of Jed’sbed. Despair shines from his eyes as he turns to me. “He’s dead.”
“Whatthe fuck happened?”
“There’sno blood or anything. I think he just died in his sleep. I’m going to call anambulance. Will you look around outside, make sure nothing is out of theordinary? They’ll probably send cops since it was an unattended death.”
“Yeah,sure…are you okay?”
Justuswas closer to Jed than the rest of us, and often spent the night here, drinkingand playing cards with him. “I’m fine.”
He’slying, but he obviously wants to be alone a moment, so I call Humper to join meand make my way outside. The barn is open and the pigs haven’t been fed, so Iquickly slop them before locking up. The shed is secure, and there are nomissing tools or equipment as far as I can tell. The wail of a siren reaches myears and I round the corner just as it arrives, its lights throwing red streaksacross the darkened farmhouse.
“Upstairs,”I inform the two young paramedics. “When my friend didn’t answer his phone, wecame to check on him and found him like this.”
Itdoesn’t take long for the medics to pronounce him dead and arrangements aremade for the coroner to retrieve the body. Two officers arrive and take a lookaround before taking our statements. “No, he has no family to notify,” Justusexplains to the officers. “We’ll take care of him.”
“Sorryfor your loss,” one the officers mumbles, before they leave.
Thecoroner removes the body and informs us where to go to make arrangements.There’s a good chance they’ll want to do an autopsy first since he had nomedical conditions as far as we know.
Justussits on the steps, staring into the distance at the rising sun. “I didn’t knowhe had no family,” I remark, sitting beside him.
“Hehad a daughter, but she killed herself when her little girl was murdered.That’s why he was so devoted to ISH. His life wasn’t easy.”
Ilay a hand on his shoulder. “He was a hell of a guy, and he spent his lastyears doing exactly what he wanted to do. Helping rid the world of childpredators. He went in his sleep, the way we should all hope to go.”
Justusnods, his hair falling over his forehead. “Yeah. A hell of a guy.” He turns tome. “After we get him taken care of, we have to find someone to watch thefarm.”
“We’lltake care of it. One thing at a time. Let’s go tell Jeremy and Landon what’shappened and see what we need to do next.”
ChapterThree
