Consequences

By Linda Batey

Three college boys, more intent on drinking, get lost while bird hunting and end up raping and killing a young woman in her home. Her husband, finding her body the next day is at once grief-stricken, yet glad his secret never has to come out.

A smart detective tracks down the boys and solves the crime; but justice is dolled out later, much later, and at the hands of an unlikely judge.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Batey
• Release date: Oct 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466128644

Linda Batey

Linda is fulfilling a lifelong dream of full-time writing. Between books, she writes articles on gardening, relationships, Maine and her experiences in life. She adds travel writer to her resume since many of her articles, and her website, are about her travels. She lives in Maine with her husband of 29 years in an empty nest.

Book preview

Consequences

They could not find the damn truck. They should have known better than to go bird hunting in unfamiliar territory, even with Sean’s assurances that it would be fine. He had said it was a long bird hunt cover, but he had a foolproof way of hunting it that would put them all in the same place in the end and he had assured them they would have plenty of birds to show for it.

Initially they weren’t sure it was a great idea; Sean had lived in this area all his life and knew it like the back of his hand; Bear, Joe and Jared were friends from college and lived off campus thirty five miles away and were eager to get a day away from books and studying to shoot some birds and drink some beer. They were in Jared’s truck and had followed Sean to the bird cover he had said was the best in Maine. They piled out of the truck and popped a couple beers as Sean drew a map in the dirt outlining the bird cover’s depth and direction. The plan was for him to walk two miles down the dirt road from where their trucks were parked before getting into the woods and heading back towards them. Sean hoped to put up many birds and create some good hunting.

Sean told the guys to wait forty five minutes or so before getting into the woods and heading towards him, so they stood around and ate their sandwiches and chips they’d bought at the store a few miles away and drank the rest of the twelve pack. The last was a cold at the first. It was a sunny day but the sun did not hold much warmth. They were all glad they had dressed in layers and had brought gloves and hats.

They loaded their shotguns and stepped into the woods, heading into the sun, as Sean had instructed. They found it tough going with the brambles under their feet, alder branches tearing at their clothes and their faces as they worked through the tangles. Being quiet was difficult with all the branches beneath the feet and in no time they were all sweating from the workout.

Damn, it’s friggin’ hot! muttered Bear. He wiped at his forehead with his mitten.

No shit. Joe responded. He had already shoved his mittens and hat in his pocket.

Jared kept working his way through the brambles, hoping it would soon open up and be less of a pain in the ass to walk through. He had thought bird hunting was supposed to be a lot more fun than this. He didn’t stop when Joe and Bear did—he just wanted to keep going.

They kept in sight of one another as they worked their way through and around the fallen down trees, and in places, the trees were so close together they had to make a big circle and then try and get back on course.

Are we still going in the right direction? Joe asked after awhile. They had gone around so many trees that there was no way of knowing if they were still headed in the right direction.

The sky that had been so blue this morning now was gray and gloomy and there was no way of telling which way to go to follow the sun. The only thing the boys had been interested in on this trip was drinking beer so no one thought to bring a compass, extra food or even matches.

How the frig do we know? Bear sighed. Oh wait, I’ve got my phone if we have an emergency and get lost. He said as he began patting down his pockets. His face dropped as he realized his cell phone was not in any of his pockets.

Any of you bring your cell? Bear asked, suddenly realizing that they should have planned a bit better.

I left mine in the truck because I knew you had yours. Jared said, thinking that that was not the smartest move he had ever made in his life.

Me too. Joe said glumly. So what should we do?

No one spoke for a moment, and then Jared suggested shooting into the air to see if they could get a bearing from Sean with an answering shot. They had plenty of ammo with them, so it seemed a good idea.

Jared shot into the air and they waited for a response. After thirty seconds, he shot again. No response.

Now what? Bear asked quietly.