Page 13 of Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters
What emerged was worth the struggle, though—a glimpse of a Ziploc bag containing several smaller bags of white powder. He marked the site and was about to call to Vikash to brace for his climb up when something caught his eye. A little farther up the bank where the ground was drier, he spotted an indentation in the mud, a V-shaped indentation.
“Vikash! We’re gonna need forensics down here!”
“All right,” Vikash called down. “But come up first.”
Easier said than done. His damn boot was stuck tight. “You’re gonna have to pull.”
Kyle wrapped the rope around his wrist, expecting Vikash to start hauling away. Instead he poked his head over the side.
“Are you all right?”
“Fine. Just…the mud’s trying to eat my foot.”
“I…see.”
Damn him and his understated amusement.Kyle tugged on the line impatiently and Vikash braced himself backward, hauling the rope up slowly, hand over hand. The riverbank finally gave up Kyle’s foot with the boot still attached, though it was a close thing, and he started the climb back up the bank, mostly pulled by Vikash’s ridiculously sexy arms.
“Our varsity jacket man was making a drop,” Kyle said through gasps as he held the bag up for Vikash. “And there’s an indentation in the mud down there. V shaped.”
“Ah.” Without another word, Vikash jogged off to the squad car to call it in.
“That’s a lot of horse,” Mrs. Kerns said dryly.
Kyle frowned at his mud-caked shoes. “Does anyone really still call it that? And how do you know what it is?”
“Call it a good guess.” She pointed to the stone railing that ran along the edge of the Waterworks courtyard. “Go stand over there and drip. You’re getting mud all over my nice clean flagstones.”
Kyle could have argued that they weren’t her flagstones, but he did as she asked since it got him out of the way of a departing school group. When Vikash returned, he brought an evidence bag that he held open so Kyle could drop in the muddy bag of drugs, and a garbage bag.
“What’s that for?” Kyle pointed to the black plastic. “Is it to hide a body? Are we murdering Mrs. Kerns?”
“No. But you’d fit.”
“Hilarious.”
Vikash pointed to Kyle’s boots. “For those.”
“Oh, come on. Just get me a stick or something and I’ll scrape the mud off.”
“Your feet have to be soaked.” Vikash pointed again. “And the mud stinks.”
Kyle rolled his eyes. “I’ll hose off when we get back.”
While Vikash’s expression hardly changed, his eyes narrowed. He draped the garbage bag over the railing then suddenly turned away from the rail and seized Kyle’s leg around the knee, nearly knocking him off his perch on the rail.
“Hey! What the fuck, Soren!”
“Hold still,” Vikash gritted out as he yanked open Kyle’s laces and jerked the mud-caked boot off. The sock came halfway off with it and Vikash tugged that off as well before Kyle could do much more than cuss and flail. Vikash dropped the purloined boot and sock in the garbage bag and held it open for Kyle with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.
“Big huge fucking flag on the play, Soren,” Kyle grumbled. “That was definitely nonconsensual shoe removal.”
“I didn’t hearnoorstop.” Vikash gave the bag a shake in Kyle’s direction. “So removal with dubious consent at the very worst. Stop being such a baby.”
“What am I supposed to do? Drive back to the precinct barefoot?”
“I’ll drive, and I have extra socks in the car.”
Kyle blinked. “You…what?”
