On the way home, Sheriff Blue Haye's cell phone rang. A quick glance at the screen in the console told her the name of the caller: Deputy Colt Ashford.
Blue pushed the answer button on the SUV's steering wheel. Colt's concerned voice emitted through the speakers. "I know it's your day off, but we need you. We've got a dead body about half a mile off Old Mill Road."
"Wow," said Blue. "It's only day one of hunting season."
"This wasn't an accident."
"You're saying we got a homicide?"
"Yeah," said Colt. "And it's a bad one."
Blue expected some trouble during deer hunting season. Disputes over deer blinds, drunken fights between hunters at Josie's Pub, and the usual calls from the elderly like Mrs. Granger railing about the goldurned noise of blasting rifles interrupting her programs.
But murder?
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