Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

knew that he couldn't possibly have an excuse to outweigh hers.

"Ok. I'm sorry, Sarah,” he said as stepped inside. “But I've got to call someone about something important in a few minutes."

"Keeping it to yourself?" she asked. "Like everyone doesn't know what it's about."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Sarah replied with an eye roll as she turned on the television and sat in the recliner.

White walls wrapped around Sarah's neatly arranged furniture that rested upon the well vacuumed, deep red carpet. The pristine, living room and kitchen converged to the dining area where her polished table was home to the laptop that she once used for school. Her perfect interior was a stark contrast from the mess that existed outside.

My place is the exact opposite of me.

She watched David sink into her comfortable couch and kick off his dirty shoes to lay down while she tried to think about what to say. But the only thing that drew her attention was his lack of it. He seemed to have misplaced his usual bag of uptight nerves.

David rolled over, reaching to the small end table and picked up a book. "Werewolves: Myths from Legends?" he said in a mocking tone. "What is this?"

"You can't read?" she asked. "It was for a school project last year. I just forgot to turn it back in is all."

"You know,” he mumbled as he laid his head back with droopy eyes. “Ms. Tanner saw a monster on the night that old barn on Oak Hills burned down."

"Is that supposed to be funny?" she asked.

"No. I'm just saying."

A few minutes of silence passed with the weight of hours. "You know anyone who needs anything worked on?" Sarah asked, struggling to find words to fill the impending awkward silence before it began.

"You still working on air conditioners?" David asked with a smirk, as if to judge her choice of work.

"I'm an electrician. And it gets me free rent. What does playing with telescopes and videos do for you, mister got-it-all-figured-out?" She asked David, throwing the ball back in his court.

He grabbed his forehead and shook it back and forth before meeting her eyes again. "I just meant that maybe you should rest a while. You don't always have to be so tough, Sarah."

As she stopped to reflect on what he said, David interrupted her train of thought. "But if you must know, my channel is at almost a hundred thousand followers."

"Asshole," she said, shooting the comment straight into his know-it-all grin.

Sarah watched as David sat and looked around the house. It hadn't been that long since he was last there, but it sure seemed like it. She had so much on her mind that it should have been easy to conjure up an opening sentence. Anything to break the tension that hung between her plain white painted walls would have worked, but the conversation alluded her mind as she searched the neatly arranged room with her eyes.

Just as her mouth opened, David dug his phone from his pocket and started texting. Sarah pressed her lips as she imagined the words that even she wouldn't say. Poor, fragile, delicate Janice. Everyone always has to make sure she's okay. She might have lost her father last year, but at least she had parents. 

"So, what's Janice up to?" Sarah asked.

"If you must know," David said in matter-of-factly tone. "It's Tony." He lowered his phone and turned his head to face her eyes. "There's something we saw yesterday."

She held onto her expression of annoyance, crossing her arms as he began.

"I was driving Tony home a few hours before we met up at the cliffs..." David sat up as he explained the gory scene of mutilated cattle that littered the farms just outside the reaches of town.

"So, you think whatever did that…" she said.

"Is the same thing that killed Brad," he finished.

Sarah's cloudy mood began to brighten with a glimmering ray of amusement. "So, what do we have around here that would do something like that?"

She watched David stare blankly into the direction of the old book that rested on the end table. "I don't know. I'm really not sure." His words only added momentum to the mystery that tugged at her thoughts. Sarah watched his hand brush slowly against his chin before rubbing his droopy, sleep deficient eyes. He finally looked at her and said, "But I think I should figure it out."

"Oh no you don't," she said, raising her eyebrows with enthusiasm. "You don't get to go play detective by yourself." Sarah yanked David's keys from his hand. "Or better yet, you're coming with me, sleepy ass."

"Hang on. I didn't actually mean I should go find the damn thing." David's words continued from behind as he predictably followed her to his car and slumped into the passenger seat.

###

The twisting road finally gave way to long straightaways, passing between open fields as Sarah drove through the countryside in search of answers. "Which farm did you and Tony see all that at?" she asked, shoving David awake as she sped down the empty backroads.

"You'll know it when you see it," David said, resting his head back against the car door.

Finally, she caught sight of a field littered with broken fencing and debris. Yellow tape replaced missing barbed wire like the scene of a crime. Slowing the tires into the rocky dirt on the side of the road, Sarah pulled over as far as she could without dropping into the ditch. "Wake up," she said, shoving him from his slumber. "We're looking for clues."

She grabbed a crumpled, white grocery bag from his backseat and stepped out onto the unleveled pavement. Sarah walked slowly and observantly toward the maroon-colored streak that had cooked its way into the hot asphalt. It led across the street to what was once a huge pool of blood stained into the road. It was evidence of a gory scene that had once took its place. "So, it happened here?" She asked in a fixed gaze.

"No,” he said before dashing up the embankment. “Up here, Sarah."

The open field became visible as she climbed the hill. It told a story.