Bad Moon On The Rise (Sample)

Chapter 5

The sun was starting to set, the firefly’s twinkling, the crickets and frogs playing their melodies, not a cloud in the sky, the moon and stars peeking out, and the night not too hot, but just right. With Sterling in her arms, it felt almost romantic. Like the perfect set up for some hot, steamy kiss full of pent up sexual tension where the girl and guy realize they are right for each other and no longer deny their sexual chemistry. Leila looked up into Sterling’s blue eyes, and he looked down into hers. She drew a bit closer towards those luscious lips of his, until the beam of a high powered flashlight blinded her. Leila tried to clear away the spots, and drew back from Sterling’s strong, corded embrace. If looks could kill, the deputy holding that damn flashlight in one hand and an evidence bag in the other would have dropped dead on the spot.

“Sheriff I have something you’ll want to see,” said the deputy, out of breath.

It was clear the man had run out the back door and around the bar. It was also clear that Sheriff Thorne didn’t do much running these days. His younger deputies seemed to do the leg work while he took all the glory and credit. Leila doubted the good sheriff ever did things like combing crime scenes down on his hands and knees, or anything that required much effort beyond sitting on his ass and barking out orders.

Sheriff straightened his shoulders and swaggered towards his deputy. He grabbed the bag from the man’s hand. The Deputy looked rather pleased with himself. The Sheriff peered down into the black bag, careful not to reveal its contents before a smug smile spread across his flabby jowls. It reminded Leila of the way The Grinch smiled.

“Good work Deputy Marks. Matches the description the coroner gave us. I’ll take it in for processing.”

Sheriff made a show of wrapping the bag up tight. But he had already purposely given away the nature of the contents. It was obvious it was the alleged murder weapon. He sent the deputy off to continue the dredge work while he made for his cruiser.

Leila wondered what was in the bag the Sheriff placed carefully on the seat of his cruiser. Perhaps she would better be able to guess after she and Zenia had a look at the body. She hoped that Zenia came through and they weren’t caught. She would just have to trust the other girl, but trust was not something that came easily to Leila after all she had been through.
She found herself rubbing Sterling’s arm in a soothing manner as they watched and waited what the Sheriff would do next. She wondered why he wasn’t wearing a shirt, not that she was complaining. Neither were the mosquitos. It was clear Sterling was exhausted seeing as he hadn’t slept in over a day, but the Sheriff seemed to relish dragging it out. It was soon clear the man was sadist who loved to humiliate people.

“Am I free to go Sheriff?” asked Sterling.

“When I say you are,” answered the Sheriff.

Then he made a show of sitting in his patrol car for another twenty minutes typing away at his computer. Leila wouldn’t have been surprised if he was playing a computer game. Sterling leaned up against his truck and sighed. He looked like the next strong wind would knock him head over heels. Leila considered marching over to the Sheriff and giving him a piece of her mind, but figured it would only make things worse.

A good number of deputies had left the crime scene by now, replaced by a few of the night crew. Fresh and well rested. The same courtesy denied to Sterling. Still Sheriff sat on his fat ass enjoying his display of power and authority. Finally, he got out of his cruiser holding a bag and walked back over to where Leila and Sterling waited. Zenia’s VW bug was pulling into the lot, the beam of her headlights casting them all in an uncomfortable spotlight.

“I decided I’m going to be needing your pants as well. Just because there’s no blood visible to the naked eye, don’t mean there’s nothing there,” said the Sheriff.