Boomslang (A SERPENTO CRIME FAMILY NOVEL)

1

Boring, Oregon
Present time

“Dang it, Seppi. I still can’t believe you won’t be there waiting for me when I get back from Idaho.”

Seppi Fielding grinned at her best friend on the iPad screen. “I doubt you'll miss me since Matt's moving in when you guys come home from visiting his family.”

“Still—” Calleigh’s eyes grew wide when they caught something. “No way! You really did hang those scarecrows on your wall? Aww...” She beamed with pride, having taken the said scarecrows’ pictures that now hung smugly in Seppi’s living room wall.

“They’re printed on canvas and the frame is made of... I don’t know, some evergreen. Tan oak, I guess. Jim said they’re just scraps. He made these frames for free.” Jim was her late dad’s friend who’d mentioned about the really cheap cabin in Oregon.

Calleigh giggled, still beaming. She took these pictures on a road trip in Idaho with her boyfriend shortly before Seppi had left Denver for this not-so-boring town of Boring, Oregon.

“I had them framed as soon as I got here. They really belong in this cabin, Cal. Thanks so much.” Seppi opened the cabin’s window to show her friend the breathtaking view of Mt. Hood.

(chapter continued)