Page 72 of The Bone Woman

“Will you come out with me to Joey’s place?”

“Why?”

“Because something strange is going on and I want you to see it. No one has time for me or Joey.”

She probably wasn’t wrong. “Tell me more.”

“On the way.” Her eyes moved up and down me. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Let me change before we run out there.”

I was just as curious as she was regarding the whereabouts of the Smoots. I wondered about Joey, but my concern was mostly for Jerry. Why hadn’t he gotten in touch?

“Can I wait inside?” she asked.

“Sure.”

I unlocked the door and let us both in. Immediately I took a silent inventory. Nothing felt off this time, but I scanned the rooms as I went through, looking for something out of place. There was nothing.

The boxes I’d taken out of the closet were exactly as I’d left them.

I would have enjoyed the time with Sonny even if I’d worn the dress, but I was glad I saved it for another date. The sense of stepping out of my normal skin and into someone else’s had made me feel like a phony. It had given me a new perspective, one I didn’t want to have all the time but might take on a little.

I put on fresh jeans and a T-shirt. And my boots had molded to my feet far better than the sneakers I’d put on last night.

I hurried back down to join Trisha, who was looking closely at the skunk mount. “You know this is Joey’s grandpa’s, don’t you?”

“The skunk is Jerry’s?”

“That’s what Joey told me.”

“I didn’t know that. I wonder why he didn’t take it with him.”

“Joey thought it was because the trailer was just too small, and all he was interested in were the bones.”

“I guess I know the feeling. Let’s go.”

We climbed in the Jeep, and Trisha held her phone toward me as I steered us toward the Smoots’. “Look here.”