Leighann Dobbs - Mystic Notch 02 - A Spirited Tail Read Free

acquainted as adults and I guess I still thought of her as that teenage girl, sometimes, even though she was forty years old.  
    Gus turned the corner, her hawk-like eyes taking in the scene in front of her. Her new deputy, Jimmy Ford, scrambled along behind her with his notebook out, ready to jump at Gus’s every command. 
    I felt a twinge of sympathy for the poor kid. Fresh out of the police academy and barely old enough to shave, he didn’t seem to have much confidence and could usually be found following close behind Gus like a puppy eager to prove himself.
    The dog was still there. He let out a low growl as we neared the body.
    Jimmy stopped short. “Is that dog vicious?”
    “What?” I scrunched my face up at him. “No. He’s perfectly nice. Just guarding the body. I imagine he must belong to the deceased.”
    “He does,” a gritty voice rasped from behind me. The voice sounded like its owner had drunk a bottle of whiskey and munched on rocks for breakfast and I turn to face the county medical examiner, Gertie Sloan, trudging through grass that was almost as tall as she was. Gertie must have been ninety if she was a day, but somehow managed to keep the job as chief M.E.  Probably because no one else wanted it.
    “You know him?” I asked.
    “Yep. That’s Ranger. Belongs to our victim, Bruce Norton.” Gertie bent over to get a look at the body, then turned to me sharply. “What in tarnation did you do to him?”
    “Me? I didn’t do that … he was already like that.” I gestured to his forehead. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him. Is he from Mystic Notch?” 
    Gertie ignored me and returned to inspecting the body. 
    “You probably wouldn’t remember him,” Gus said without looking up at me. She continued walking around the area, her eyes glued to the ground searching for clues. “He kept pretty much to himself.”
    Gus finished her circling of the area and started issuing commands. “Tape off the area. Establish a search grid around the body.”
    Jimmy scrambled to get to the yellow police tape. The crime scene techs started opening their boxes and pulled out various implements of the trade. One of them started taking pictures. Another started placing yellow numbered evidence markers.
    Ranger watched the activity with weary eyes. 
    “So, what happened to him?” Ophelia had joined us and was peering over my shoulder.
    “Someone killed him,” Gertie stated the obvious.
    “What about his forehead?” Jimmy looked at the body and then blanched. His face turned pale, making the red dots of pimples stand out even more than usual. He jerked his eyes away and got busy with the crime-scene tape.
    “The markings are very odd.” Gertie rubbed her chin. “They do seem somewhat familiar, but I can’t quite place them. It seems someone is trying to send a message.”
    “A message?” Ophelia asked. “To whom?”
    Gertie shrugged and walked around the body to inspect it from another angle. 
    “Did you guys trample the crime scene?” Gus asked accusingly, pointing at the area of tamped down grass where Ophelia had fainted.
    “No,” I said defensively. “Well, Ophelia fainted there, but other than that we stayed as far away as we could.”
    Gus twisted her mouth up and gave me the evil eye. “You didn’t touch anything?”
    “Nope.” I shook my head and lifted my hand up beside my face holding the first three fingers up and bending my thumb and pinkie in toward my palm. “Scout’s honor.”
    Gus narrowed her eyes at me. “Did you see anyone here … maybe pass someone on the road?”
    I thought back to my ride up the winding mountain road. I hadn’t seen anyone. Ophelia had already been here when I arrived. I glanced over at her and she shook her head. 
    “I don’t remember seeing anyone,” I said.
    “Me, either,” Ophelia added.
    “There’s no car here,” Jimmy pointed out eagerly. “So how did the victim get here? He probably came with the killer.”
    “Or