"Never mind all this. We need to stay here, stay silent until this all passes, okay?"
Rosa nodded, filing away the evasive answer. "And Cam?"
Lucia shrugged. "Prepare yourself for at least a week of no sleep and more hot chocolate that humans should naturally consume."
Rosa found a tiny smile tugging on her lips, appreciating her sister's effort to bring a little humor into the dark situation. She turned her mind to Cam as they went back to the sitting room, using her duties as a sister to stop herself from sliding into the abyss waiting for her. All this had dredged up the past she kept locked inside her empty heart. Now it had been set free. Vaguely she wondered how long it would take to lock away again. Even as she drew Cam in close and murmured soothing words, she didn't believe.
4
Mark Fell had not trained to be a doctor for the dead. Still, he had ended up serving an apprenticeship under both the town's general practitioner and their coroner. The latter had passed away, leaving a decently paying vacancy as part of the town's police force and funeral center.
He glanced at the corpse he had just finished examining and felt a wave of fear. The man had been carefully beaten, in a way meant to cause pain but not allow the victim to lose consciousness or suffer a fatal injury. He only knew of one other case like that having taken place within the borders of their little town. Henry Kay.
Mark sighed and moved the body back into the freezer storage. He had grown up with the Kay sisters, and though Lucia was his peer in age, Rosa was the one who always enchanted him. Sometimes, for the briefest of moments, he thought he could almost see that Rosa again. The one that was free to laugh, enjoyed creating good-natured mischief and had a heart big enough for the whole world.
He shook his head, wondering how many of this body’s similarities were going to seep out into the community and end up within hearing of the Kay sisters?
"Maybe I should just warn them myself. At least I know how to be tactful," he muttered, dragging over his instruments for cleaning.
"And what would that achieve, other than your removal from my force?"
Mark's head snapped up, and he found Sheriff Hardy watching him impassively from the doorway. "They're going to find out anyway. You know that half the town will be talking about what Benny and his golfing buddies found this morning. Wouldn't it cause less trouble if they were..."
"Enough, Dr. Fell. I have already been to see them and told them exactly as much as was needed. Don't you go upsetting them by providing unnecessary details."
Mark's eyebrows rose, and he turned back to cleaning his tools. "I see. Are they..."
"The past has come back and slapped them in the face, Fell. Look, I know you're their friend, but this stays here, in the file, got it? I advised them to steer clear of town for a while, in the hopes that they'll miss the worst of it."
Mark managed a nod and turned to pack the now clean and dry tools away. He knew very well that Sheriff Hardy didn't care at all about the Kay sisters' feelings. What he cared about was making sure the town still believed in their appointed knight. Twelve years ago, when Henry Kay had been found murdered and buried up to his neck at Turquoise Valley, and Mrs. Kay had been found missing, everyone had looked to the Sheriff for the answers. The result had been him condemning Amapola Kay, but not for the murder, all that evidence pointed elsewhere. In the course of the search, he found that she was an illegal immigrant until her marriage to Henry. Her initial entry into the country had been well hidden, frustrating him. Hardy had been entirely tactless in telling anyone who would listen that illegal immigrants were a scourge that border towns like themselves ought to stamp out.
Now he's trying hard to make amends, to look as if he doesn't always suspect the Kay sisters of aiding and abetting people like their mother.
"I won't mention anything I shouldn't about the case," Mark said, noticing that Hardy was still there, watching and waiting for a reply.
He waited for the Sheriff leave and took his voice recorder out of the cold, basement room and up to his little office cubicle. Slowly he played back his narration of the autopsy and began to fill in the details. He compared it to Henry Kay's case and wondered who on earth had been able to so perfectly reproduce the kill of a man who was still behind bars.
****
Sunday dawned bright and sunny as almost every summer day was here in this desert world. Rosa stepped from her room, already feeling the heat of the day building, and her jade eyes widened.
"Cam? What are you doing?" she asked, though she didn't need the answer. The lace dress of baby blue, low heels, and carefully styled hair told her enough.
"Going to church."
"Cam..."
"I know, Rosa. I know what I might hear, I know it might make my nightmares worse, but I have to go. I already told Pastor Ian I would."
Rosa swallowed back a retort about how she'd prefer not to be losing even more sleep just because Cam couldn't wait to see her crush.
Her viridescent eyes darted over Cam's shoulder to where Lucia leaned on the doorframe to her room. Lucia shrugged and gave a defeated nod.
Rosa sighed, looking back at Cam. "Alright. Give me
