Nine|One|One
an excerpt

“Slow down.” Roy yelled to the kids in front of him. “Don’t gallop her so fast, you’re liable to fall off and crack your heads. I ain’t telling your mom if you do.”
The kids on the brown mare in front slowed the horse to a respectable canter. Their father let his own honey colored mare take her time. He had ridden Daisy forever and he knew to trust her. She would take them home without direction from her rider. There was no need to rush today anyway.
When Daisy pulled her reigns off to the right, Roy pulled himself up straighter in the saddle. Something was spooking Daisy. Roy grabbed the reigns up and kept the mare’s head straight. She tried again to pull off the old cattle trail and go right.
“Come on, girl, we got to keep up with the kids.” Roy talked soothingly to the old mare. “Not much further to the stables.”
Daisy did something she had never done in all the years Roy had owned her. She stopped dead in her tracks and refused to move. No amount of pressure from Roy’s boot heels could convince her to move on. The kids, on their younger mare were already out of Roy’s sight.
“What is going on with you today, Daise?” He asked the horse.
Daisy only responded by pulling her head off to the right again. Roy turned to face that direction. A soft breeze was coming over the fallow field bringing a sweet smell of wildflowers. He couldn’t see anything that would interest the horse.
Daisy took the advantage of turning towards the right and taking a tentative step in that direction. When Roy didn’t stop her the horse started off.
After only ten steps, Roy could see what had interested Daisy. A small raised berm, the remnant of an old irrigation channel, lay fluttering some sort of red fabric. As Roy got closer he could see the fabric was actually a hem of a skirt that wrapped around two legs crossed at the ankles. A pair of black flat shoes were sitting neatly on the ground near the girl’s feet.
Roy could see the blonde hair of the girl moving softly across her face. Her eyes were closed and her face was white. Too white, Roy knew. Her heart had stopped pumping blood a long time ago. The back of her neck, from what Roy could see was nearly purple. He knew it was blood that had settled.
Roy also knew something else. He knew that the girl hadn’t died a natural death though she looked peaceful. Her hands were crossed over her chest in the classic death pose. Someone had carefully laid her out.
The scene was familiar to Roy, to everyone in Larbonne. This girl wasn’t the first to be found in the small town and, if the rumors were true, she wouldn’t be the last.
Roy jumped out of his saddle and moved closer to the dead body. He stopped within two feet of the berm, unsure of what to do next.
After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled a cell phone from the right pocket of his dusty blue jeans. Roy checked to see if he had enough bars to make a call way out in the field. When he saw that his call would go through, Roy dialed a number he knew by heart.
“Hey Madge, do me a favor, hon.” Roy said to his wife. He tried to keep the worry from his voice. “The kids are coming in on Sprint and I need you to make sure they put him up properly. They need to brush him down good and make sure he has plenty of water.”
Roy paused, unsure of how much to say to his wife. He sighed then settled on the truth.
“There’s another murdered girl out in our field.” He said. “Daisy led me to her and now I’ve got to call Greg. Don’t let the kids come back out here, okay? After they’re done with the horse, keep them busy, but keep them home, no matter what. Especially Mark, you know how he is and I don’t want him seeing this.” Roy took a deep breath. “I love you, hon. Try not to worry too much about this. We’ll get the guy.”
Roy hung up without saying goodbye and studied the dead girl for another minute. He’d seen dead bodies only sparingly in his life and most of those times it was death of an elderly person. Murder he’d never seen up close in anything but pictures. The stillness of the girl unnerved him.
He started dialing again. It took him longer, though he knew the number because his hands were shaking so bad.
“Julie?” He said into the phone a little louder than was necessary. “It’s Roy, let me speak to Greg. No, not Mike. Put me through straight to Greg.”
Roy paused a moment and looked at the young blonde on the berm as if she may have disappeared. “Yeah, there’s another one.”
Roy reached out to grab Daisy’s reigns while he was on hold. He didn’t think Daisy would run off, but he needed something familiar and solid to steady his nerves and his rising anger.
“Greg?” Roy had to steady his hand. “I found another one..out in my south field this time. Thank God the kids didn’t see her. I would have rode right past her myself if it hadn’t a been for Daisy.”
Roy listened for a minute, nodding his head in agreement with the speaker, completely oblivious that his head shakes couldn’t be seen by anyone other than the horse.
“Give me one minute and I’ll look.” Roy’s voice didn’t sound confident in the task that had been given him. “
Still holding on to Daisy’s reigns, Roy moved a few steps closer to the body, watching the ground as he walked. His blue cotton shirt was soaked with sweat even though there was a cool breeze blowing.
When Roy had gotten as close as he dared, he looked at the dead girl’s crossed hands.
“It’s definitely there, Greg. Just like the others.” Roy’s voice was still shaking, but anger was taking hold. He knew soon he’d be losing his temper. “She’s got a number on her hand. Right, a six. That means the bastard’s still got five more in mind. This town can’t take much more, Greg.”
Roy listened again, but his head wasn’t shaking this time.
“Forget them.” Roy was now angry. “Call the FBI and if Cort gives you any grief about it, tell him to take it up with me.”
Roy listened again and apparently did not like what he was hearing.
“Just call the goddamn FBI!” He was nearly shouting. “I’ll handle Cort. Whether he’s chief of police or not, I am still mayor of this damn town after all.”