Chapter 13
We woke the next morning to a call from my sister.
“Ashlee?” Amber’s voice came out all echo-ey over the speakerphone. She sounded spooked and Amber was almost never afraid.
“Amber, what is it?” I asked as Will rolled off the bed, fully dressed but plenty rumpled. We’d fallen asleep side by side in the guest room, still in our clothes from the day before.
“Um, we found a coyote’s head on the porch this morning.”
“Oh my gosh. JR didn’t see it, did he?” I asked. How horrible!
“No. Elle put it in a bag before he woke up. But there was a note stuck in its mouth.”
“A note?” How strange. “I don’t understand.”
“The note was addressed to you, Ashlee.” Amber’s voice took on a tone that could only be disapproval, but for once I couldn’t read her intent. “Elle took it all down to the police station. You might want to stop by this morning as they have a few questions to ask you.”
“But – what did it say, Amber?”
“I don’t know. Elle wouldn’t let me read it. She said it’s best if I don’t worry about it. And then asked me to call. So I did…I’m scared, Ashlee. What is this? This is freaking me out.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“You better.”
I resolved to try, though my record with handling things was no better than fifty-fifty most days.
I showed up at the station with Will in tow, asking him to wait outside as Elle met me in the new Chief’s office, which used to be hers before she became the city attorney. She handed me a plastic evidence bag with the note inside. It was written with black permanent ink, so even against the dried blood the words were evident.
It said, I know what you are. I know what you did. Payback’s a bitch and so am I.
My stomach dropped inside me and I sank into a chair. A cup of water was shoved into my hand and I gulped it down. No natural wolves roamed California, but there were plenty of coyotes, the closest thing. This one had been killed as a message to me.
“We pulled your file, Ashlee,” Chief Hernandez said in that brittle tone cops use when they are questioning someone they don’t suspect, but want to. “You want to tell us what you think this is about?” Like every good cop, bad cop scenario, someone had to start and it looked like the chief was going on the offensive, giving Elle the conciliatory role.
“I – I have no idea,” I told him, but I was a horrible liar and I think he knew it.
“Maybe you know something,” Elle interjected. “You just think you don’t.”
“Now listen,” Hernandez said. “You got to be straight with us. I’ve read your file, but I want to hear it from your point of view.”
Now, before I write down what happened, let me assure you that what follows is the real story. The Knightsbridge police force got the same account, just without all the furry parts.
MoonRise Page 13