The Blood Ballad by Rett MacPherson Read Free Book Online

before?” Of course Mort had smelled a skunk before. He was a regular Daniel Boone, at one with the wild. He spent the majority of his spare time at his cabin, holed up away from the real world. Shoot, he probably ate skunk on the weekends. I suppose it was just natural to comment on the odor.
    I, for one, didn’t think the stench was that bad, but Deputy Miller quickly assured me that I’d just gotten used to it. Guess that was a built-in defense mechanism so that I wouldn’t gag all night.
    â€œAre you guys all right?” Mort asked, flashing his light in our faces.
    â€œNo!” Eleanore cried. “We are not all right. First, first we get shot at, then I leave behind my perfectly good three-hundred-dollar binoculars, then we run for what seems like miles and miles, then we get sprayed by a skunk, and then somebody throws a dead body over the cliff at us! Does it sound like we’re all right?”
    Mort and Deputy Miller stood very still. “What about a dead body?” Mort asked.
    â€œRight there,” I said, and guided his flashlight to the dead man at our feet. “He was in that trunk. Somebody threw it and him off the cliff. We just happened to be here when he landed.”
    â€œOh … that’s grand,” he said. “Miller, call this in. Get the CSU and the coroner out here.”
    Just then, I heard footsteps crunching on the gravel and a voice in the distance. “Hey? You guys all right?”
    It was Colin, my stepfather.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” I asked. “You are not sheriff anymore. How come you just show up at all the crime scenes anyway?”
    â€œWait,” he said. “This is a crime scene? Did you guys get hurt?”
    Even in the dark, I could see his concern. “No, we’re fine, but he’s not.”
    Mort shined his flashlight so that Colin could see.
    â€œOh, wow,” he said. “And let me guess. You found the body?”
    â€œDon’t start, Colin. All right?” I said.
    â€œShe didn’t find the body, Colin. It was thrown at us,” Eleanore said. “You wouldn’t have believed how awful it was! I swear, if I hadn’t been here…”
    â€œWhat?” I asked.
    â€œWell, I’m not so sure you would have made it down that hill alive without me.”
    â€œEleanore!”
    â€œI was the driving force behind you, and you know it.”
    â€œYeah, because you were trying to catch up with me!”
    â€œCan somebody cover up this body?” Mort said. “Jesus, you think you two could have some respect?”
    â€œOf course, Sheriff,” Eleanore said and cast her eyes at me as though I’d started the whole thing.
    â€œYour mother is never going to believe this,” Colin said.
    â€œYes she will. She’ll believe it because … well, it’s me,” I admitted.
    â€œGosh, you haven’t found a body in awhile,” he said. “What’s it been—who was the last one, Maddie?”
    â€œHey, she was alive. I haven’t actually found a dead one in a few years now. And you can’t count the one Rachel found!”
    â€œI’m beginning to think you have some sort of corpse-detecting software built into your brain,” he said. “It allows you to zero in on dead bodies with virtually no effort.”
    â€œMy mother sent you, didn’t she?”
    â€œNo,” he said. “Elmer and I were just north of town. We’d just seen a barn owl when I heard Deputy Swanson’s radio squawk. Mort said that you two had been shot at. So, did the guy shoot at you before he launched himself off of the cliff?”
    â€œNo, that was somebody else,” I said.
    â€œAh,” he said. “But you’re fine now?”
    â€œI’m fine.”
    â€œWell, I’m not,” Eleanore said. “Torie, you’re cursed.”
    Colin laughed and said, “I’ve been trying to get people to