Last Time: Immensely fond of Cody, the Judge specified, "Now quarter-pint, let's just get right to the crux of why I called you in here today. I want you to tell me explicitly what you meant when you told your Dad at Pasta Fairre if you had a cup of hot water you could make tomato soup. And, don't spare any gory details in what you say."


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Cody wiped the smile off his face with the palm of his hand. He hadn't laughed that hard in forever. Now, it was time to get serious.

"Things aren't always as they appear to be," he told the Judge.

"You just said a mouthful, Cody," Judge Stancil agreed with his comment, then encouraged him to, "tell me more."

"Well, if you add ketchup to hot water it's red like tomato soup, right?" Cody asked shifting his position in his chair.

The Judge rubbed his chin in contemplation. He pondered the boy's proposal and answered, "Yes, I suppose it is, quarter-pint." That was Judge Stancil's pet name for Cody because of his small size.

"And, even if you toss in other stuff like they were footballs being passed around, that still does not make the concoction tomato soup, does it?" Cody asked.

Very patient with the lad, more so than he would have been with anybody else he was questioning, Judge Stancil responded, "No, it does not. But, Cody, what I am looking for is something solid. I need a reason to exhume Earl Anthony Schroder's grave. Can we explore that avenue and see if we can find one?"

Cody drew a deep breath. Reluctant to divulge too much information all at one time, he felt the ice cold air of uncertainty settle over him. He looked at the Sheriff, then back at the Judge, but did not speak another word. It was as if he knew a deep, dark secret he wasn't sure how to reveal. His biggest fear was that he was afraid what he said would destroy his relationship with his Dad.

Judge Stancil sensed the boy's uneasiness and coaxed him with, "Just come on out and say what's on your mind, Cody."

Instead of complying with the Judge's instructions, Cody pressed his forehead down on top of his folded arms he'd laid on top of Judge Stancil's desk and bemoaned, "I can't. Everybody's going to hate me when I do!"

Judge Stancil gently patted him on the shoulder and said, "Lift your head up, Cody. Nobody's going to hate you. All I want is the truth."

Cody raised his head up off the desk. He fought back the wall of tears in his diamond blue eyes. They'd lost their sparkle. It was his turn to tell a story. Only this time, he knew nobody would laugh.

"Palo Pinto Ledger headline dated March 14, 2014," he began slowly, "a body was discovered by a local fisherman early this morning on the grassy knoll, under the rickety wooden drawbridge that crosses the Alder River. Police were unable to identify the grisly remains because the head, hands, and feet were removed from the torso. According to Police Lieutenant Mark Stubbins, mutilation was the theme of this bizarre crime scene. And, although the body was nude, it does not appear to be a sex crime. Stubbins did suggest that the removal of the body parts by the unknown killer, or killers, appears to have been an attempt to avoid leaving behind forensic evidence." How many times had those words played over and over again in Cody's mind for the last two years?

"Cody, isn't that near the embankment where Earl Anthony Schroder's car was found smashed to smithereens?" Sheriff Daniels questioned his son. He'd heard about that case, but since it was out of his jurisdiction, had not followed up on it's outcome.

"Not an eighth of a mile as the crow flies away, Dad," Cody responded.

"Is there anything else you need to tell me Cody?" Judge Stancil inquired. He'd been taking notes of the munchkin's story.

"I know Melanie Mendenhall used to drive his car a lot," Cody replied.

"Melanie who?" Sheriff Daniels and the Judge asked him in unison. This was the first time either one of them had heard that name.

"His girlfriend, Melanie Mendenhall. And, believe me, there were a whole slew of them that used to hang around our trailer all the time, too," Cody responded.

Judge Stancil sat back in his chair. He interlocked the fingers of his hands together and placed his palms on the back of his head. Stretching, he asked, "Cody, are you hinting that this Melanie Mendenhall may be interred in Earl Anthony Schroder's grave?"

"All I'm telling you, sir, is that there are a bunch of unanswered questions about Earl Anthony Schroder and Palo Pinto," Cody responded.

"Such as?" The Judge wanted to know.

"I know he was way up past his eyeballs in money he owed some drug dealers," Cody replied, then empathetically stated, "and they wanted their cash, too!"

"Do you think they may have murdered this Melanie Mendenhall?" Sheriff Daniels interjected into the line of questioning Cody was being asked.

"If she's dead," Cody remarked, "and, I wouldn't put it past Earl Anthony Schroder to have killed her either. You know what I told you he did to cats he caught under the trailer. And, that wasn't a pretty picture to see!"

"What did he used to do to cats, Cody?" Judge Stancil inquired.

"Judge, you may not want to hear this," Sheriff Daniels warned him.

(To Be Continued:)


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Cast of Characters:

Cody Schroder - Blond munchkin. Main character of the book.

Sheriff Brock Daniels - Long time Sheriff of Astatula and Cody's Dad.

Judge Stancil - Circuit Judge for Astatula.

Melanie Mendenhall - Earl Anthony Schroder's last girlfriend.

Mark Stubbins - Palo Pinto Police Lieutenant.

Earl Anthony Schroder - Cody's biological sperm donor. Put Cody through ten years of hellacious physical, mental, and sexual abuse in Palo Pinto.

Chapter Word Count: 958

Book Word Count: 11,782