Near Touch

Chapter 16: Unusual Suspects

"Lucky you found him when you did, sweetheart, or he would have belonged to the good lord's heaven," Sheriff Burwell pronounced, taking a sip of his winter coke. The county office was abuzz with a flurry of activity. The prospect of getting a piece of the latest Anaxan action was a temptation too hard to resist. Amy focused her attention on the colorful stationary display on the wooden desk; finding it increasingly difficult to ignore the rotund, pasty man fidgeting on a precarious swivel chair in front of her.

"I'm sorry, do y'all want one?" He splashed his silly red-strawed drink towards Amy and her father before continuing without waiting for an answer. "Your friends say you were doing extra credit for your nature class."

Amy swallowed. "Yes, Sir. An ecological study of the local flora and fauna."

Standing behind the balding crown of the indigo-uniformed officer, Caleb clapped his hands. "Among other more sinister curiosities."

"And how do you know young Wesley Broad?" Burwell asked, burping disinterestedly. After all, he had a sleazy reputation to uphold.

Amy glanced at her father who squeezed her hand reassuringly, before saying, "He is in my grade though we hardly ever spoke."

Except that one time he called me a bitch and I punched the daylights out of him.

"Was he conscious when you found him?" Burwell continued, flipping through a lengthy report before stopping at her name. "You tried to revive him but he was foaming at the mouth. Then you called emergency services. Is that right?"

Amy stared at him, wondering if he would ever get to the point. After dispatch had taken Wesley to Northeast Georgia Medical Center, her twilight nightmare had imprinted a bright red and blue in her irises, reverberating with the soundtrack of sirens. Deputy Lee had recorded her statement as Gemma fussed over her twisted ankle; Amy's voice shook at each word.

Midnight brought no respite as Amy tossed and turned in bed, suffering a wakeful torment of cobalt eyes staring lifelessly at her instead from the frozen forest bed.

Every flutter sharpened terror against the delicate skin of her eyelids.

Caleb chose not to come home with her. This time his absence bruised Amy.

Breakfast at the Irvines had been unusually quiet, only to be bolstered by the Sheriff's call asking her to visit the station for a "chat". Routine investigative paperwork, Burwell assured her parents. Robin and Gemma had been summoned as well.

"Amy?" Her father leaned forward, the worried lines on his face disrupting her reverie.

She crossed her feet. "Yes, I turned him to his side and called 911."

"You are a hero to us all," Caleb said, trying to blow away the few strands of hair that still clung to the officer's scalp. "You found a body in the woods on your first try! Just not the right one."

She couldn't comprehend how he could be so cavalier after confessing his darkest fear. Amy swore she'd seen flickers of incandescent guilt between the freckles that dotted his cheeks when they stumbled upon Wesley's body. But that hurt, angry, and confused boy had been kidnapped and replaced by the one that was currently pestering her.

Amy wondered if her emotions could pirouette just as dramatically in one night.

"There was no physical or verbal confrontation between you and Mr. Broad?" Burwell said.

A gleeful Caleb interjected, "Can I please be the one to tell him?"

Amy couldn't afford to be that carefree. It had been a few days since she had encountered the frenetic drug addict. Could her DNA still be on him? Making a split-second decision, she figured that they wouldn't check it anyway unless Wesley remembered seeing Amy that night, which was unlikely. "No, like I said, he was passed out when I found him."