On A Sideroad

ON A SIDEROAD

Miranda Sinclair was taking a sideroad to avoid traffic. As she was motoring along, a car parked on the shoulder caught her eye.

“Something’s up there,” she muttered as she checked behind and backed up to park a few feet away from the vehicle and got out. Approaching cautiously, she unsnapped her holster.

She tapped on the closed window. When she peered inside, she saw no one. Walking around it, she looked for signs of someone having been there. When she saw evidence of blood, she straightened and looked around.

“Something was dragged through the brush,” she mumbled as she headed that way. After twenty minutes of slogging through scrub, she stopped.

Pulling out her cell, she contacted her precinct.

“Dispatch, send a team to my location. I think I’ve stumbled on a crime. “

She returned to the car, put on rubber gloves and tried the doors. The back driver’s side opened. There were clothes piled on the seat as if someone had left in a hurry. She dug through them. All were unisex and small sized.

She heard something crackle at the bottom of the jumble and pulled out a letter.

“No address or stamp; not even sealed,” she said.

She emptied the contents of the envelope and read it. Dropping it on the seat, she scrambled out of the car and ran back into the woods. Looking up, she kept running. Faint crying stopped her.

She saw the car seat in the crotch of a tree and without hesitation, she scaled it quickly.

“I’ve got you, buddy!” she cooed to the baby as she climbed down the trunk, using one arm, to the ground. That’s when she found the mother’s body at the foot of the tree with a hunting arrow through her heart.