Sickly Sweet

Telling The Parents

Once Sophie had calmed down enough to sit quietly, Lochlan interviewed her.

"Alright. How do you know her?"

Sophie breathed in deeply and closed her eyes.

"Well, when I came into Sickly Sweet, we met unexpectedly and became friends. I've known her for a few days."

Lochlan nodded.

"Okay. Do you know why she was out here?"

"No."

He looked at her with a poker face.

"Sophie. I'm going to look at her body to see what the cause of death was. Can you cope?"

She shuddered.

"Let me do it. I'm her friend."

"Alright..."

He watched her uncertainly as she made her way toward the body.

Wincing, Sophie leaned down and looked closely at Lana's garments. Tracing her shaking finger around the legs and then the arms, she lastly examined the stomach.

"Doesn't look like gunshot or knife wound."

Lochlan bit his lip.

Slow and careful, Sophie turned Lana over onto her stomach. With bated breath, she pored over her back.

"Nothing so - oh!"

"What is it?"

Lochlan leaned down. With wide eyes, Sophie pointed to a small black line on her shoulder that ran down her back.

"What's this?"

He shrugged.

"Um... Should I go over there while you... Remove her clothes?"

With a red face, she nodded and pointed to a park bench. With Lochlan safely out of range, she unbuttoned Lana's jacket and raised her shirt over her head.

Starting from the shoulder and snaking all the way down to her bottom, there was a thin black line that branched into about ten or eleven others and reminded Sophie of one of those fake skinny trees set up on Halloween.

She gingerly ran her finger over the marks and frowned. What could they be?

Covering everything except her back, Sophie called Lochlan over. Pointing out the marks, she looked at him for comments. He looked surprised.

Then, suddenly, realization dawned on his soft features.

"Lightning."

She looked at him, questioning.

"When a person is struck by lightning, they get a permanent black tattoo resembling this one on their back or chest. I read about it in a magazine."

Sophie nodded with recognition and relief.

"Then I guess Martek didn't kill her after all."

Lochlan's eyebrows scrunched together. "Who's Martek?"

She sighed.

"Let's go get comfortable. It's a long story."

~*~

Now back at the house, Sophie had told him all about Martek and Lochlan was shocked.

"How could someone just kill his own daughter?"

She shook her head sadly.

"That's what I've been wondering."

A few moments of silence followed and Sophie gnawed on her fingernails.