The Same Place (The Lamb and the Lion #2) - Gregory Ashe Page 0,130

have a reason—hell, even psychos have reasons. Maybe he gets off on hurting. Maybe he’s always been abusive. Maybe he was worried she was going to reveal something about him. The blackmail angle already cropped up in this case, and maybe we weren’t too far off.”

Tean shook his head. “I feel like it must have been connected to Sievers. That bear he’s got on his property—”

“Allegedly.”

“The bear he’s allegedly got on his property, based on videos and a lot of testimony—”

“From a bunch of redneck hippies who were probably all on shrooms.”

“—that bear is the only animal we’ve even heard of that might have been able to rip off Joy’s arm.”

“Do bears normally attack humans?”

“No, not really. But a bear that has been tortured, the way that bear has been treated in the videos, is definitely capable of it. Also, bear attacks on humans typically are an escalation from bear attacks on dogs. If Sievers was forcing the bear to fight coyotes, for example, the bear could already be conditioned to attack.”

Jem made a noise.

“It has to be connected to Sievers,” Tean insisted. “Joy went to see her dad. Somehow, he gets her out to Sievers’s property. Maybe he’s just offering her a ride back to her car. Together, he and Sievers force her into the pen with the bear. She’s killed. Maybe that’s it. Maybe the dad doesn’t stick around for the dismemberment. Maybe he didn’t even know what would happen after he got her to Sievers’s property.”

“That’s a lot of maybes,” Jem said, tracing circles on the light brown skin again with his thumb.

“I might have done something.” And he told Jem about his nighttime struggle with Sievers.

“Did you go out of your fucking mind temporarily?” Jem said.

“Temporarily, yes.”

“What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t thinking, I guess. But you should have heard him. He was scared.”

“But he didn’t confess.”

“He killed her. I know he did. It’s the only thing that pulls the pieces together.”

“It’s real life, Tean. Things don’t always pull together.”

When they got to the aging house in Sandy, it looked exactly as Jem remembered it: the patchy lawn, the peeling trim, the stickers layered over the door jambs. They got out of the truck, and while the engine ticked, Jem tried to listen.

“I don’t think—”

“Shush.”

Tean waited almost a full minute before saying, “I don’t think you’ll be able to hear him through the walls.”

“If I were Superman I could.”

“Never mind.”

“I was trying to hear Roger.”

“Who’s Roger?” Tean asked as he approached the door.

“The vicious, bloodthirsty, murderous hound who tried to rip me to pieces last time.”

As they got to the door, Tean knocked. “The dog stayed in the back the whole time. We never even saw the dog.”

“Yeah, but it was thinking about murdering me. Also, I don’t hear him.”

Tean sighed and knocked again. The spring day was mild. It was early afternoon—it seemed impossible that the whole day wasn’t over; it felt like a lifetime had passed—and the sun was warm on Jem’s back, and the air smelled like the tulip tree in the next yard. A minivan rolled past on the street, the windows down, and a woman was yelling, “Richard, if you don’t pull your pants up and sit down right now, I’m going to park this car and come back there. Don’t wag your derriere at your sister!”

“I probably should have asked what our plan was,” Jem said.

“Our plan is for you to be silently supportive while I ask him questions.” Tean seemed to think about this and added, “Occasionally you can lean forward and look menacing, but only if you want.”

“That plan sucks. Let’s tie him to a chair and interrogate him. You can tell him about how he’s eating beaver ass every time he eats raspberry-flavored ice cream.”

“That’s not—Castoreum isn’t—” Tean took a huge breath, knocked again, and muttered, “More like tie him up and make him watch those Avengers movies.”

From inside the house, still nothing.

Tean glanced over. “I guess—”

“How dare you.”

“—nobody is home—”

“Those movies are fantastic. You liked them. You jumped, Tean, you literally jumped in your seat when Ultron started talking.”

“Because you put your hand down my shorts!”

“I thought you had an itch. I was trying to be a good friend.”

“Stay here,” Tean said, stepping off the porch.

“Maybe I should—”

“Not if Roger the dog is hanging out in the backyard.”

“You know what? I should probably keep watch out here. If there’s any trouble, I’ll make the call of the Great Australian desert bird, vegemitus