Five days.
Actually, that had been last night. It was four now.
Shit.
He had to pick somewhere to start.
“If you’re right about Bell knowing what was going on,” Wren said, “I might be able to help.”
Ledger paused mid-step in surprise. OK. That could work.
“All I need is a few minutes with his corpse,” Wren said.
Ah. Ledger finished the step-down. There it was. The other shoe.
“Yeah. There’s just one small problem with that.”
* * *
A bright redSUV with a dent in the bumper roared down the road. The wind pulled Taylor Swift’s vocals, thin and drawn-out, through the cracked-open window. A spray of dust and gravel kicked up from the tires spackled their legs and hands.
With what he’d just told Wren at the forefront of his mind, Ledger took a fastidious step backward. Wren just brushed his hands together and spat dirt from between his lips.
“So you just came back and tossed your dad’s corpse in the fryer?”
Ledger leaned against the hood of the pickup and crossed his arms. “It seemed efficient. And I couldn’t think of anything to put on his headstone.”
“And then just…” Wren trailed off and mimed tipping something out onto the ground.
“What was I going to do?” Ledger asked. “Take him home and keep him on the shelf?”
Wren looked down and scraped his boot over the dirt, gravel, and dust pushed into piles. “Bet you wish you had now.”
Maybe, but…
“No point crying over spilled serial killer,” Ledger said. “But I mean, what’s left of him is probably still here.”
“Thinly spread over a half mile of road,” Wren said. A truck roared past and drowned him out. Ledger had to squint against the backdraft. Once it was gone, Wren nodded after it. “Minus whatever got picked up by traffic. I asked for a corpse, not a thrift store jigsaw puzzle.”
“It’s not like I can uncremate him,” Ledger said. “So you can either work with what we’ve got or you can’t.”
Wren turned to look at him.
“I don’t have to help you,” he said.
“No,” Ledger admitted. He pushed himself up off the pickup. “But you’re going to.”
Wren narrowed those bright black eyes for a moment before he pursed his lips and gave Ledger a lazy once-over from head to toe. He smiled crookedly.
“Why’s that, then?” Wren walked over and reached out to run his finger down the front of Ledger’s shirt. The faint pressure as his fingertip bounced over the buttons made Ledger’s breath catch for a moment. He raised his eyebrows. “Because you’re just that hot?”
“You did ask me out, but no.” Ledger cupped Wren’s jaw in one hand and traced the line of his lip with his thumb. It grazed over the nearly healed-up scab that cut through the tender flesh. “Because I’ll get to die, eventually, and then Earl will only have you left to blame.”
He expected Wren to pull away. Instead, Wren just grinned, quick and wicked, and nipped at Ledger’s thumb with sharp white teeth.
“That’s nothing new,” he said. “If you want my help, ask nice.”
An intransigent “No” prickled on the end of Ledger’s tongue. It was stupid. He had no reason to dig his heels in, but he supposed he could on this. That hadn’t been common recently.
