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It was nearly one in theto get any rest before work the next day It tookthe body the short way up to the path, since I had to sit down panting just about every ten steps People are heavy when they’re dead I also nearly ralphed every ti, and I’d seen enough CSI to know that my stomach contents could be used to link me to the site

Despite my exhaustion and nausea, wePeter so he looked natural until I realized how absurd that was Then I felt that it rong just to walk away So I bowed ive, never having been in any place of worship in my life I told Peter I was sorry he died and that I hoped he could find peace I also told hi him and hoped that, as a writer, he could understandthe police As I started to tell hi the authorities involved, I had aa serious conversation with a cadaver So I cut my prayer short and ended with asure that I erased any signs of our trail that the storotten to first

I made a beeline back to the ocean I was filthy The rain had melted the last of ourof dirt overlaid with sand I scrubbed myself down in the shallows and then swaet back todressed, I knew that I wasn’t going to get any sleep that night And that if I did, it would be full of visions of drowned bodies bobbing in my head

CHAPTER THREE

The sharp notes ofthe dreaht’s brief sleep to flee There was an awful taste in e for the panic and nausea it had endured the night before Speaking of which…

I had found a rips hat I’d done In the light of the weak Noveh ical as they’d seeuarantee that the body was any more likely to be found where I’d put it than wherever the Old Soould eventually have deposited it What if Russ had decided he’d rather be taken down a different trail? What if Mr Flutie had decided to skip his as to blow his retireods forbid, I’d overestimated his intestinal fortitude and now there were two bodies lying across that path: Peter dead of foul play and Mr Flutie dead of a coronary?

Second, I ht have been on Peter’s body If there had been any clues as to who had killed him left intact after his time in the sea, they’d doubtlessly been totally erased by the long drag up the beach Not to mention there would be confusion over the fact that it would appear as if his killer had left hi him in the ocean just for kicks…

In turn, this led me to my third reason for why I should never have touched Peter If a h for Rockabill, the police would now have a body that had either dragged itself up out of the ocean or whose killer had had second thoughts about du it and decided to use his victim to decorate the local nature trail, instead

I pulled my pillow out from under my head and smothered my face with it How could I have been so stupid? Why didn’t I just leave well enough alone?

Then I thought of Peter’s poor dead face as well as the polite kindness he’d shown me when he was alive, and I knew I couldn’t have left him out there, abandoned to the elements

I pushed the pilloay and willed e and face the music if there was any music to be faced

Alternatively, came the sly voice in my head, you could just bury your head under the covers and never co

But ht ot up and got ready for work, and then went downstairs to make breakfast and perform my Tuesday chores as nor the upstairs bathroo dredging a body out of the Old Sow, but I was still juh breakfast without Sheriff Varga stopping by in his official capacity It was only when I walked into town that I realized a soodly portion of Rockabill’s per coffee fro in hushed tones Rockabill was still decidedly h it did have a naturally cutesy aspect that we’d tried to ham up for the tourists And we did achieve a pretty homey feel, especially when the square was croith people, as it was today Not that we often gathered to discuss the er

I braced h the s me any undue attention I could see Grizelda’s tall form--she was extra conspicuous in a fuchsia satin capelet--flitting froave a little internal cheer Grizzie was a gossip sponge She’d have every single drop of delicious rumor soaked up in no time I just had to wait for her to coot there, and her norri forthe town’s h until she added, "Did you hear about the body?"

I tried to make my face look confused

"No, what happened? What body?"

"Peter Jakes," she replied, frowning "His body was found by Mr Flutie thison that nature trail on the back side of the beach"