pajamas.
The last thing she remembered was being in the mine with Ice and the cubs.
The baby mountain lions had suckled her breasts. Jessie raced over to the mirror mounted above the dresser and pulled up her top. Her breasts showed no signs of having been mauled by the cubs. They appeared perfectly normal, not swollen or tender in any way.
It wasn’t possible.
Jessie scoured the tidy room for the clothing she wore the night before and found them hanging in the closet. With her nose pressed into the material of her shirt, she searched for any hint of the smoky oak aroma. The only odor detected was laundry detergent. As usual, her hiking boots resided on the floor beside the bed. Cleaned and polished, there was no indication of having tromped through the woods the previous night.
On the surface, everything appeared to be normal, except for the fact that she was a slob. Piles of clothes pitched haphazardly throughout the room was the norm, and other than giving them a good banging every once in a while, she had never once in her entire life cleaned her boots.
One other overwhelming piece of evidence that the previous night actually happened was the longing she still felt. Ice had not finished the job. He left her wanting, and it was pure agony.
The Foster boys were at it again. They had manipulated her twice, and that was two times too many. If the cubs existed, she would find them. Maps of the area had to show the second entrance to the mine. Before she went half-cocked back up on Catamount Ridge, Jessie needed to get the lowdown on the Foster family. She thought her cousin, Sally, might be able to fill in a few details. It probably wouldn’t be enough, but Sally was always a good place to start. If nothing else, her cousin’s comforting voice would help soothe her confused and troubled mind.
Jessie picked up her cell phone and pulled up the number. “Sally, where can I find Grandma Foster?”
“Don’t go there, cuz,” Sally warned from the other end of the line. “You enter at your own risk when dealing with the Foster family. I can’t tell you how many times Ice has been questioned for one infraction or another.”
Lead number one. The type of crimes he committed might be the key to discovering his true nature. “What kind of infractions?” she asked.
“For starters, the boy was a big fat bully back in school. By the time he got to high school, he progressed to boosting cars and cutting class. The stint in juvie for drug possession sent him away for a while. Nothing lately, but Isaac Foster is bad news. I can’t emphasize that enough.”
Sally’s warning did not fall on deaf ears. Jessie would give anything to never have to deal with Ice again. “What about Derek? Has he been in trouble with the law?”
“The dynamics of that family are strange,” Sally sighed. “Those boys are more like brothers than cousins. When one is bad, the other is good, at least on the outside. I don’t like to speak ill of the elderly, but the apple never falls far from the tree and old lady Foster is one sick piece of work. Those boys never had a chance.”
Sally was running around in circles. Jessie needed more.
“Sally,” she prompted. “Ice and Derek are messing with me. I don’t have enough proof to go to the authorities, but my gut tells me something is about to go down. If you have any information, I need to hear it. My life could be at stake.”
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. Jessie closed her eyes and waited patiently.
Her cousin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “A few years back, a young woman named Lizzy became involved with both Derek and Ice. You might remember her. She’s Zack and Mable’s daughter.”
Jessie remembered Zack and Mable. Her dad bowled with them every Tuesday night for about half a century. All she recalled about their daughter was that she had been shy and introverted.
“Go on,” Jessie urged. “What happened to her?”
“Zack and Mable had to
The last thing she remembered was being in the mine with Ice and the cubs.
The baby mountain lions had suckled her breasts. Jessie raced over to the mirror mounted above the dresser and pulled up her top. Her breasts showed no signs of having been mauled by the cubs. They appeared perfectly normal, not swollen or tender in any way.
It wasn’t possible.
Jessie scoured the tidy room for the clothing she wore the night before and found them hanging in the closet. With her nose pressed into the material of her shirt, she searched for any hint of the smoky oak aroma. The only odor detected was laundry detergent. As usual, her hiking boots resided on the floor beside the bed. Cleaned and polished, there was no indication of having tromped through the woods the previous night.
On the surface, everything appeared to be normal, except for the fact that she was a slob. Piles of clothes pitched haphazardly throughout the room was the norm, and other than giving them a good banging every once in a while, she had never once in her entire life cleaned her boots.
One other overwhelming piece of evidence that the previous night actually happened was the longing she still felt. Ice had not finished the job. He left her wanting, and it was pure agony.
The Foster boys were at it again. They had manipulated her twice, and that was two times too many. If the cubs existed, she would find them. Maps of the area had to show the second entrance to the mine. Before she went half-cocked back up on Catamount Ridge, Jessie needed to get the lowdown on the Foster family. She thought her cousin, Sally, might be able to fill in a few details. It probably wouldn’t be enough, but Sally was always a good place to start. If nothing else, her cousin’s comforting voice would help soothe her confused and troubled mind.
Jessie picked up her cell phone and pulled up the number. “Sally, where can I find Grandma Foster?”
“Don’t go there, cuz,” Sally warned from the other end of the line. “You enter at your own risk when dealing with the Foster family. I can’t tell you how many times Ice has been questioned for one infraction or another.”
Lead number one. The type of crimes he committed might be the key to discovering his true nature. “What kind of infractions?” she asked.
“For starters, the boy was a big fat bully back in school. By the time he got to high school, he progressed to boosting cars and cutting class. The stint in juvie for drug possession sent him away for a while. Nothing lately, but Isaac Foster is bad news. I can’t emphasize that enough.”
Sally’s warning did not fall on deaf ears. Jessie would give anything to never have to deal with Ice again. “What about Derek? Has he been in trouble with the law?”
“The dynamics of that family are strange,” Sally sighed. “Those boys are more like brothers than cousins. When one is bad, the other is good, at least on the outside. I don’t like to speak ill of the elderly, but the apple never falls far from the tree and old lady Foster is one sick piece of work. Those boys never had a chance.”
Sally was running around in circles. Jessie needed more.
“Sally,” she prompted. “Ice and Derek are messing with me. I don’t have enough proof to go to the authorities, but my gut tells me something is about to go down. If you have any information, I need to hear it. My life could be at stake.”
The silence on the other end of the line was deafening. Jessie closed her eyes and waited patiently.
Her cousin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “A few years back, a young woman named Lizzy became involved with both Derek and Ice. You might remember her. She’s Zack and Mable’s daughter.”
Jessie remembered Zack and Mable. Her dad bowled with them every Tuesday night for about half a century. All she recalled about their daughter was that she had been shy and introverted.
“Go on,” Jessie urged. “What happened to her?”
“Zack and Mable had to
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