Curl Up and Dye - Liliana Hart Page 0,16

plant.”

“Are you sure you saw a hearse?”

“Positive,” she said. “It sticks out like a sore thumb. I was coming back from Austin and got detoured because of construction on Interstate 35. Then I ended up on some side road in the middle of nowhere and I didn’t have any cell service, so my GPS wasn’t working. All I could do was keep driving. I got a real good view, because you come up on this hill and you can look down over the whole thing. That’s when I saw the black hearse sitting around back.”

“Thanks,” Agatha said. “You’ve been a big help.”

She ran back out to her Jeep without saying goodbye this time, and she tried to get Hank on the phone. There was no answer. She called Coil and got the same result.

“Come on, guys,” she said, speeding toward the highway.

She knew exactly where Heather was talking about. That old meatpacking plant was a hundred years old, and it was a real eyesore. She kept hearing whispers about someone like Chip and Joanna coming in to turn it into some store or park, but so far, it had just been rumor.

She kept calling Hank and Coil, but had no luck and she hit her palm on the steering wheel in frustration. She got off the highway and stayed on the access road, following the twists and turns that led to the top of the hill. There was still just enough daylight to see the meatpacking plant.

She stopped the car and got out. The plant was huge and industrial with smokestacks and areas gated off by chain-link fence. But sure enough, there was a black hearse parked off to the side closest to the bone yard along with a white van. The bone yard was where they’d dumped bones and undesirable parts of the carcass when the plant had been in operation. She remembered the black smoke that had billowed into the sky and the scary stories told about the bone yard. It was still full of bones and gravel and rocks.

Agatha took out her phone one more time and tried to call Hank and Coil, but Heather had been right. Reception wasn’t good out here. She sent a text and crossed her fingers it went through. All she needed to do was confirm that this was the same hearse that Hank’s sisters had come across that morning. Once she did, she could go back for reinforcements.

With her mind made up, she moved her Jeep off to the shoulder under some trees and set off on foot.

There were broken windows all across the front, and the chain-link fence was cut and rusted. There was thick tree cover on the south side, so she decided to stick toward the overgrown bushes and vines that had woven themselves into the fencing. That was probably all it had holding it up. Her favorite yoga pants did nothing to stop the briars from ripping across her thighs. She found a gap in the fence big enough for her to crawl through, and she looked around to make sure no one had seen her.

She was leaving the cover of the trees and going into an open, graveled area that was almost the size of a football field. To her back were the trees, to her right was a steep drop-off that led to the bone yard, and directly in front and to her left was the plant.

The incline was somewhat steep, so she tried to stay low to the ground and scoot down until she was on level ground. The dust from the gravel kicked up around her and got in her eyes, and she bit back a cry as the palm of her hand was cut on a sharp rock.

She was doing this for Deputy James. The sooner she discovered whether or not the hearse was the one in question, the sooner his killers could be brought to justice.

“You can do this, Agatha. No big deal. Check out the hearse, and then get out of Dodge.”

She wiped her bloody hand on her leggings, took a deep breath, and sprinted full out until she skidded into the side of the hearse. It was louder than she thought it would be and she ducked low by the tire to catch her breath.

Her eyes burned and she blinked rapidly to clear the dust, and she held her breath as she listened for footsteps or any other signs of life. She looked under the hearse, but there was