A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(43)

“We got to get him out of sight,” I said, and when I used that tone Eli didn’t ask any questions. “Open the trunk.” Together we dragged the body over to the car and tossed it inside the trunk, snapping the lid shut.

I looked around at the trampled ground, the marks of Rogelio’s boots, the drops of blood.

“Lie down right there,” Eli said, pointing to the most marked area. Since he was using that voice too, I did so, though I had a twinge of distaste because that meant the damn skirt would suffer even more. Eli was beside me on the ground the next instant. He kissed me like he wanted to compress about ten kisses into one. Not what I had expected at all.

I heard a car door slam, distantly, and then a man cleared his throat. “Excuse me,” he said apologetically. He also sounded a little amused.

I blinked to clear my vision. Standing a few feet away was a man I’d never seen before—but I’d heard his voice. This was Jerry Fielder’s neighbor, surely, the one so upset about Willa May hitting his mama. The older man with him was the sheriff; I remembered him from the site of the train wreck.

Eli rose from the ground and gave me a hand up. “Gentlemen, good day,” he said. He didn’t explain or apologize in return. No law against having sex with your wife in a secluded spot, right?

I kept my eyes cast down as if I was embarrassed, but I was scanning the ground for any sign we’d just killed someone. We’d done a good job of muddling things up. Maybe we were okay.

“We just spotted your car parked back here, and wondered what business anyone would have behind this old place,” the sheriff said. At least he was being straightforward.

Eli looked doubtful. “Have we done something against the law?”

“No, of course not,” the neighbor said. “I met you at the Fielders’, remember?”

“Norman Moultry,” Eli said, breaking out in a smile. “This is my wife, Lizbeth.”

“Mrs. Savarov,” Norman said, nodding in my direction.

“How is your mother?” Eli sounded genuinely concerned.

Norman said, “She’s well, thank you. Doesn’t remember a thing about the incident. And Willa May never showed back up at our house. We got to find us someone else to watch Mama.”

“I hope you find someone more to your liking.”

Though I made myself look agreeable, I didn’t like the way the sheriff was looking at us. I could see he was doubtful about our story. Maybe he didn’t know why he was suspicious, maybe he thought this was a real odd place to be overcome with passion.

“Are you all just out riding today?” I aimed to sound a little amazed, because truly, unless you needed to torture someone in a quiet place, why would you ride out this way in the heat in the middle of the day?

The sheriff said, “No, ma’am, we’re on our way to Bergen to court. Mr. Moultry here is a lawyer, and I have to testify, so we’re sharing a car.”

That was a lie. Eli squeezed my arm a little to let me know he thought so too. They’d been tracking us somehow. Maybe someone at the hotel had seen us driving out of town, but after we’d gotten Rogelio into the car. They hadn’t asked about him, and I was fairly sure they didn’t know he’d been with us. I could only be glad they hadn’t gotten here twenty minutes earlier.

I would have had to kill them, too. Three bodies to dispose of was a lot.

“Well, honey, shall we go back to town?” Eli was smiling down at me fondly.

“Sure, let’s get some ice cream.” I smiled up at him. I was calculating who I’d have to kill first. The sheriff had a gun. I’d go for him with my knife. Eli could handle Norman Moultry, who looked like he wasn’t used to quick action of any kind.

“We’ll be getting on to Bergen, then. Sorry to interrupt you folks.” Norman turned to go back to the car, a tiny dirty smile on his face. I held my breath until the sheriff turned to go with him.

After we heard their car drive away, Eli’s shoulders relaxed. “I thought we were going to have to kill them both,” he said.

“Me too.”

“Which one were you going to take?” He was asking out of what appeared to be simple curiosity, but I didn’t think it was.

“Sheriff was armed. I’d have taken him.”

“But maybe he could draw fast.”

“Not as fast as I could cut his throat. And he wouldn’t expect a woman to attack, no matter if he knows what I am or not.”

Eli looked down at me admiringly. “You are very cunning,” he said.

“Does cunning mean I’m smart about fighting?”

“In this instance, yes.”

“Okay then.”

I shook out my skirt, trying to rid it of as much leaf and grass debris as I could. I couldn’t see any stains, so I turned my back to Eli and said, “How do I look?”

“You look fine,” he said.

“I mean my skirt! I can hardly wait until I can wear my jeans again,” I said.

“I would never have known that.”

“Okay, I may have mentioned it a few times.”

“Ten or twelve,” he muttered under his breath, as he dusted himself off. “Or twenty.”

“I got your hint.” If my voice was sour, it was not out of ingratitude for the clothes, which had helped me blend into this society. But maybe he thought so? “But thanks so much for getting them for me,” I added with some haste.