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
Bang
Norah McClintock
Battle of the Bands
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Blue Moon
Marilyn Halvorson
Breathless
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Bull Rider
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Charmed
Carrie Mac
Chill
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Crush
Carrie Mac
Dead-End Job
Vicki Grant
Death Wind
William Bell
Laura Langston
Exposure
Patricia Murdoch
Fastback Beach
Shirlee Smith Matheson
Grind
Eric Walters
The Hemingway Tradition
Kristin Butcher
Hit Squad
James Heneghan
Home Invasion
Monique Polak
I.D.
Vicki Grant
Juice
Eric Walters
Kicked Out
Beth Goobie
My Time as Caz Hazard
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
No More Pranks
Monique Polak
No Problem
Dayle Campbell Gaetz
One More Step
Sheree Fitch
Overdrive
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Refuge Cove
Lesley Choyce
Saving Grace
Darlene Ryan
Snitch
Something Girl
Beth Goobie
Sticks and Stones
Beth Goobie
Stuffed
Eric Walters
Tell
Norah McClintock
Thunderbowl
Lesley Choyce
Tough Trails
Irene Morck
The Darwin Expedition
Diane Tullson
The Trouble with Liberty
Kristin Butcher
Truth
Tanya Lloyd Kyi
Wave Warrior
Lesley Choyce
Who Owns Kelly Paddik?
Beth Goobie
Yellow Line
Sylvia Olsen
Zee’s Way
Kristin Butcher
Visit www.orcabook.com for more information.
Check out these Orca Currents titles
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Chat Room
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Flower Power
Ann Walsh
Hypnotized
Don Trembath
Laggan Lard Butts
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Mirror Image
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Pigboy
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Queen of the Toilet Bowl
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See No Evil
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Sewer Rats
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Spoiled Rotten
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Sudden Impact
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Swiped
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Wired
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Visit www.orcabook.com for more information.