So he came back and talked to me again. I told him that JD said he had burned our clothes and buried them. I told him all the places I could think of where JD might have buried them.
Detective Tanner asked JD to come in for questioning. JD showed up with his father and a lawyer. Detective Tanner had a big paper bag on the table. He opened the bag and pulled out a gun. He said, “You recognize it, JD?”
“I couldn’t believe it,” JD says to me now in the visiting room. “How did he even know where to look?”
“He asked me if there were places you liked to go, maybe on your bike,” I say. “I told him you like riding in the ravines.”
JD shakes his head. “I should never have told you I got rid of my clothes. But back then I thought we were going to be okay.”
“You said you got rid of our clothes,” I say. I don’t add, But you lied.
“It turns out that they couldn’t find anything on what was left of the clothes that they could use to say I shot the guy,” JD says. “I burned them pretty good. But I had to get rid of the gun, right? So I buried it with the clothes. I didn’t think they would ever find it. Turns out that made it even easier for them because they went out with a metal detector. And it turns out that because I was so close to the guy when I shot him, there was some of his blood inside the gun. My lawyer says it’s called blowback. And they also got a partial fingerprint off the gun. Mine. And it’s good enough that the court will let them say it’s a match. My lawyer advised me to cooperate. What could I do? They had me.”
He pauses and looks at me. “I told them you had nothing to do with the shooting.”
“You did?” I say.
“It’s the truth,” he says. “I guess you’re pretty mad at me, huh?”
I shrug. “I was. But not anymore. It was my own fault I was there. It was my idea to take that stuff.”
“Yeah,” JD says. We talk a few minutes more. When I get up to leave, he says, “Tell Leah to come and see me sometime, okay? Tell her I miss her.”
I promise to do that. And even though I know she’s mad at him, I also know that she’ll eventually come. She’ll have to. He’s her brother. They’re twins. She loves him.
Norah McClintock is the author of Tell and Snitch, both Orca Soundings novels. Norah lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Titles in the Orca Soundings series
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Battle of the Bands
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Blue Moon
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Chill
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Crush
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Dead-End Job
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Death Wind
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Exit Point
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Exposure
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Fastback Beach
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Grind
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The Hemingway Tradition
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Hit Squad
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Home Invasion
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I.D.
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Juice
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Kicked Out
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My Time as Caz Hazard
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No More Pranks
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No Problem
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One More Step
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Overdrive
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Refuge Cove
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Saving Grace
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Snitch
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Something Girl
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Sticks and Stones
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Stuffed
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Tell
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Thunderbowl
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Tough Trails
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The Darwin Expedition
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The Trouble with Liberty
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Truth
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Wave Warrior
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Who Owns Kelly Paddik?
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Yellow Line
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Zee’s Way
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Visit www.orcabook.com for more information.
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Mirror Image
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Queen of the Toilet Bowl
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Visit www.orcabook.com for more information.
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