The Girl Whose Bones They Found
27,000 words | Chick-Lit/Thriller (novella)
Synopsis: A successful lawyer's past catches up with him through the letters of a dead woman he raped years earlier at a fraternity party.
27,000 words | Chick-Lit/Thriller (novella)
Synopsis: A successful lawyer's past catches up with him through the letters of a dead woman he raped years earlier at a fraternity party.
“Billy said they used to call you Coon Dick. What kinda name is that? Sounds sorta dirty.”
“Nickname. I used to wear a coonskin hat when I was a kid—you know, like Davy Crocket. Put that together with Richard and I guess you get “Coon Dick”.”
“You’re rich, ain’t you? How’d you make all that money?”
“You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“Sorry.”
“I’m a lawyer for a software company that works with the defense industry. Government contracts are my specialty. Maybe you’ll want to go on to law school after UVA.”
“Clay was in the Marines.”
“That’s your boyfriend, right?”
“Yeah, but he ain’t got no job now. He just sits around the house all day watching TV. He killed ten of them Taliban people over in Afghanistan. Didn’t kill no women. Least that’s what he told me. He was a sniper. Still got his rifle.”
“Wow.”
“But he ain’t evil or nothing like that. He’s really sweet, ‘cept when he gets drunk on shine or snorts crank.”
“Might think about another boyfriend—just some friendly advice. Maybe at UVA.”
“I don’t know. I heard funny things about them guys.”
“What?”
“I don’t know—things about them fraternities. Things them rich boys like to do to country girls. Looks like my stop right up here. Thanks for the ride.”
/*\
They get to her trailer and he lets her out. She looks at him with a sweet smile.
“Ain’t much but well, it’s home. Lurlene lets me stay with her. She’s been real good to me.”
“Bye.”
“Okay. Thanks again.”
Suddenly a familiar pick-up truck pulls up.
“Uh, oh—Clay—”
“What—?”
Clay jumps out of the truck.
He opens Richard’s door, pulls him out and proceeds to beat the hell out of him.
“Clay! No!”
Sunny Dawn tries to pull Clay off Richard, but Clay throws her into the pick-up and takes off.
Richard lies on the ground, groaning in pain. He staggers up and into his car then drives off.
/|\
Inside the Shenandoah Inn, Richard puts ice on his face. He’s bruised and hurting. He’s staring at a Waynesboro phonebook.
His cell phone rings.
“Where are you?”
“Hey, honey. Looks like this is gonna take me another day or two.”
“Why won’t you tell me where you are?”
“I’m close to West Virginia. It’s just some business with a little company that does our website and some of our other stuff. You know how these people are down here. You have to work with them, hold their hands.”
“You better not come back here talking like a hick.”
She laughs.
“I love you. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Richard is about to turn the TV on, but there’s a knock at the door. He goes over and opens the door slightly to see Donnie Wayne.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Slipped and fell. What are you doing here?”
“I been thinkin’ and I come up with a plan.”
“What kind of plan?”
“Open the goddam door and I’ll tell you.”
“I don’t think—”
Donnie Wayne shoves the door open, knocking Richard back. Donnie Wayne slams the door shut.
“I got good plan. You stick by it and we all win.”
“Plan?”
“You gone pay me ten-thousand dollars a month, long as I live. Besides the money, I want you to do something else—”
“—We’ve already discussed this.”
“No we ain’t already discussed this!”
Richard moves away, but Donnie Wayne grabs him.
“Here’s what you gone do. You goin’ over to that college—to that fraternity—and you gone burn it down.”
“Are you crazy!”
“Gonna be my insurance.”
“For what!?”
“So you’ll keep sending me the goddam money.”
“This is insane!”
“What, you gone go to the cops? Go right ahead. Be my guest.”
“I can’t—”
“It was in one of Sonny’s letters. She wanted to burn down all them goddam fraternities at that college. Burn ‘em to the ground so they can’t do nothin’ like what they done to her.”
“You’re talking arson! And since when did you become so high and might—judge and jury? You’re just a—”
Donnie Wayne grabs him and pushes him against the wall.
“You already done rape, mutherfucker. What’s a little fire gonna hurt!”
Richard stares at the floor, considering the insanity of it all.
“I know where they got one of their little places way out in the country away from the college—won’t be nobody around. We’ll do that one. Won’t nobody get hurt.”
He lights a cigarette and throw Richard the matchbook.
“Be seein’ you, Coon Dick.”
He exits.