Page 29 of Justice for Daesha

“Control’s by the door there,” she said and pointed. “And the code is the same for the garage door as the alarm system. And Amos?”

“Yeah?”

She grinned. “I love you too. Do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Be here tonight when I get home?”

YES!“I will be. Most definitely. Have a good day at work.”

“You too. Bye.”

Amos stood and watched her back out. She honked before the garage door rolled down, and he hoped she saw his wave.

Finishing his coffee, he opened the front door, then locked it back with the key, which he slipped into the little pocket in his running shorts. He did some stretching on the front steps before he took off down the road.

Well, fuck me, he thought when he saw Matt come out the front door of the house two doors down. “Hey, Fletcher! Fancy seeing you here!”

“Hey, Matt.” Amos kept running.

“Hey,” Matt called again.

Amos turned around and jogged in place. “Yeah?”

Hands fisted, Matt pumped them forward and back while thrusting his hips. “You gettin’ some?”

“Fuck you.” Amos flipped him off and turned to run.

“Aww, come on, man! Dish!” Matt yelled.

Amos turned and ran backwards as he yelled back, “I think I know why your girlfriend moves in and out so much, Matt.” He didn’t wait to hear what else Matt would say. The guy could be a tool sometimes, but he and Jack were friends and coworkers, so running across the yards and punching him was out, unfortunately.

When he was finished running, Amos ran back to the house, past it, and straight to the barn. He went through the little storage room and found a curry comb, then headed to Ivory’s stall. The horse nickered in greeting as Amos clipped a lead to her halter and led her out into the covered front area of the barn.

And he realized his mistake almost immediately. He was sweaty, and in less than five minutes, he was covered with dust and hair. It took him forever, but when he was finished, he led the horse to the back pasture, opened the gate, and turned her loose, then checked to make sure the trough by the gate had water in it. The hose came in handy anyway?he took off his shoes and hosed himself off.

Stepping up onto the deck, he peeled off his wet running clothes down to his boxer briefs and unlocked the door. Thirty minutes later, he was shaved, showered, and had everything gathered up to head to work. He was thankful he worked in the field office in Elizabethtown and not in Louisville. Driving there sucked.

It took him all morning, but he finally got everything set up for the forensic audit. He was pretty sure people were going to lose their jobs when that audit was completed, and some might even lose them during, but they should’ve kept their noses clean. The afternoon was spent on emails and messages, returning some calls, and generally wrapping things up.

Having no one to eat dinner with, Amos drove down the street, picked up some Chinese takeout, and went back to the office. He figured he’d go through the files on Dorinda and look a little closer at a few things he’d been curious about. The lounge had a table and chairs, so he sat in there and ate. He was almost finished when he thought he heard the back door open and close. “Hello?”

Jesse’s face appeared in the doorway. “Hey! Thought that was your Jeep out there.”

“Yeah. Nobody to eat dinner with, so I thought I’d come back and look at the files. What are you up to?”

“My kid had baseball tryouts, so I left him and thought I’d come back over here. I saw something earlier and I want to look at it again.”

“Anything I should know about?” Amos asked through a mouthful of noodles.

“Maybe. Get finished. I’ll be in the conference room.” With that, Jesse disappeared.

Amos finished his food and threw away the containers before he wandered down the hallway. He found Jesse sitting there, staring at something. “Whatcha got?”

“This picture. Something about it bothered me, and I was still thinking about it while I was driving him to the ball field. And then it hit me, and I wanted to look at it. See anything weird here?” He handed Amos a picture.

Amos scrutinized it. It was Dorinda’s body, and it was enough of a mess that he wished he hadn’t eaten Chinese food before looking at the photo. He started with the top of her head and worked his way down, but he didn’t see anything that looked odd. “No. I’m obviously not seeing what you’re seeing.”

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