Blood and Justice

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Thursday, August 11th, 10:20 AM

JAKE was fiddling with his car in the garage. Annie knew it had something to do with the mufflers, but she wasn’t quite sure what. Jake always had some emergency adjustment to do, or something that couldn’t wait to be fixed. It always seemed to run ok to her.

She backed her Ford Escort out of the driveway, heading for Mortinos. It had the best selection of meats, and a good load of red meat was necessary to fulfill Jake’s cravings. Especially during barbecue season.

Four nice big steaks for the barbecue tonight. Then she put two back and selected a couple of smaller ones. Lettuce and tomatoes for a salad. Some nice big potatoes for baking. She consulted her shopping list, moving aisle to aisle, gathering what they needed, and only what they needed. Mostly. 

“Hello, Mrs. Lincoln.”

Annie turned around. “Hi Jeremy,” she said.

She looked at the little man grinning up at her. Barely to her shoulder in height, he was a bit of an odd specimen. But always polite and helpful. He knew where everything was in the store, always bustling around restocking, and was quick to point out special sales. Today he thought the tomatoes were especially nice.

“Local grown,” he said. “Nice and juicy.”

Annie pointed to her cart. “Yes, I have some,” she said.

“You should see my tomatoes,” he said. “I planted a whole crop of them this spring. They’re just getting ripe now. Big ones. I’ve got great soil. I can grow anything. I got lettuce and carrots growing too. Not ready yet of course.”

Annie smiled. He was way too helpful sometimes. Rambled a lot, but she couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. Normally she wouldn’t have paid much attention to him, let alone know anything about his personal life.

When his father had been sent to prison when he was young, she hadn’t been aware of it. When he was found dead in his cell, a shiv fashioned from a sharpened toothbrush protruding from his heart, no one heard about it. At least she hadn’t.

But when his mother had been found in the barn, hanging from the rafters, with a length of strong rope noosed about her neck, one shoe lying quietly on the straw below her lifeless body, Annie had heard about it. That didn’t happen every day. And so, Annie felt some compassion for the young man, odd though he was.

“I’m sure your garden is nice,” she said. “It’s good you can still put the land to some use.”

“Yeah, can’t let it go to waste. Mother always had a nice garden. We took care of it together. We had to, you know, with Father not able to be there. She’s buried out near the garden. With Father. And my grandparents too, you know,” he said, and added thoughtfully, “Guess I’ll be buried there too someday.”

“I expect that won’t be for a long time, Jeremy,” Annie said.

“Yeah, I guess not. Well, I better get back to work. Goodbye, Mrs. Lincoln.”

“Goodbye, Jeremy.” She watched him bustle over to the next aisle and disappear behind a stack of baked beans.

Thursday, August 11th, 11:00 AM

JAKE was in the basement doing his daily workout routine. Annie found a message propped up on the office desk from Sammy MacGlen from MacGlen Forensic Services. The message said he had found something interesting and could she please call him back.

She took a seat, tapped in the phone number written on the note, and after two rings she heard, “MacGlen Forensic Services, Sammy speaking.”

“Hi Sammy, it’s Annie Lincoln.”