A group of kids stand beside a big oak tree and look at the hole in the ground. The fallen leaves have begun to fill it up and soon it will become a pool of skeletons, all delicate spines of once lively green leaves. Soon, it will be just a hole in the woods and not a grave. The kids know this. They say it.
"This is it," the smallest one points out. This is why they came in the first place.
"How do you know?" The others sounds skeptical.
"My dad works for Detective Solomon, Jimmy," he say, saying Jimmy like saying stupid. "I heard him on the phone last night. The body was buried for weeks until it was dug out for someone else to find it."
Jimmy scoffs, totally unconvinced, "Yeah, right. Who would someone dig out the body? That doesn't make any sense."
"Jimmy." Another one sighs, rolling his big eyes into the back of his head. "Who do you think? You know, I think you might just be the worst partner in the world, and I had to do a project with the Down Syndrome kid, so you think about what that means."
Jimmy ignores the insult, "You think it was the killer?"
"Of course, dummy," the others answer at the same time. One of them even slaps the back of Jimmy's head. "My dad says, even worse than dying is having to live with the guilt."
"Bad guys don't feel guilty," Jimmy argues, kicking the leaves at his feet. Everything around them smells like damp earth and rotten leaves, and the sky is grey, and they feel like they're the main characters of their favorite adventure cartoons.
The son of the police officer frowns and asks, "Who said the killer was a bad guy?"
YOU ARE READING
One for the Team
Mystery / ThrillerThe body of a missing student is buried in the woods. But only a few know this. At first, it was just a running joke in the hallways of Northwoods High, a lowbrow school in a lower brow town. Finn Sexton never really thought the joke was funny, but...
