just stood up, brushed off his knees and walked over to Dodge. The chief waited to hear more of their takes. The three stood there, arms folded, just looking at one another.
“So,” Conte began, “do you think she dismembered him inside? Or did she drag him out here on the mattress, do it here and then burn the body?”
The order of things meant so much to his prosecution, but the answer meant little to Odom. It was savage beyond all measure. All that mattered was someone’s son was dead. How long could they keep the details here under…
Snap!
Odom spun toward the barn. Something stepped on a branch? He watched, but nothing moved.
“Get some photos to Doctor Jennie Duval at the state medical examiner’s office. E-mail them,” Conte ordered one of the technicians. “We need to know as soon as possible if this is human or livestock.”
“I’ll tell you what’s worse,” Odom said. “Look at that.” He pointed to a wooden chair out on the grass. It wasn’t an outdoor chair though. It looked like it came from the kitchen and was facing the burn pit.
Dodge agreed. “She pulled up a chair so she could watch.”
Odom started taking notes. Sunday, March 26, 2006. LaBarre farm, Epping… “Did you ever think she was capable of being this violent?” he asked the chief.
“Violent? No. Wild? Yes. She’s more like a wild animal. She called me at the station at all hours of the night. She sent me letters, pages and pages of rants that she faxed over. Finally I had to tell her to stop calling the department.”
“What were these rants about?” Conte asked.
“That we were out to get her. That I hated her. That we weren’t doing enough to protect her home and property.”
Odom took notes on all of it. “Where is she now?”
“Don’t know. Just told her to get out while we executed the search warrant.”
“And tell me again how she looked.”
“She was,” Dodge stated, “covered head to toe in ashes and soot.”
“Great,” Odom muttered. “Just beautiful.”
“The crime van is ready,” Conte said. “But this is going to take a while to process. Maybe even a couple of days. This place is huge. And we haven’t even looked inside the house yet.”
“I’ll get the warrant for inside the…”
Odom turned again. Something caught his eye. What the hell was that?
This time Conte saw it too. “There it is,” he said. The hulking cop in the suit stepped into the underbrush around the home. He reached into the weeds and pulled something out.
“What is that?” Odom shouted.
Conte carried it in his arms, digging his thick fingers into fur. “It’s a rabbit.”
“Rabbits? Shit,” Dodge spat. “Sheila’s got a million of them. She lets them run around free in the house.”
There were some rabbit pens next to the home, but they were empty. “Do any of them get outside?” Conte asked.
“I guess so. Why?”
He held the rabbit out so Dodge and Odom could see the hocks of its feet and the fur on its belly marked chocolate brown. “Because this bunny is covered in someone’s blood.”
2
Don’t Talk to Strangers
It was the perfect day to take a walk. Not everyone is allowed to go all the way to the pet store. Not everyone has the responsibility of watching her brother. Or even better, not everyone can take care of a pet. For Amy, it was shaping up to be a perfect day.
The pet store Amy and her brother Donald were headed to is probably the biggest pet store in the city of Manchester. Its massive, barn-like store structure anchors one end of a strip mall on busy South Willow Street. The other end of the strip mall is a sporting goods store, and there’s nothing in between.
The only other bit of commerce on this property is a Mexican fast food restaurant that sprang up in the parking lot.
The afternoon was slow, though Sundays are busy at the pet store. It was the perfect time for Amy to bring her brother to the store to look around and play with the animals. Both she and Donald are developmentally disabled adults, and they walked the two and a half miles to the store.
Owners are encouraged to bring their animals inside and browse the store with their pets. Amy liked to stop and scratch dogs behind their ears, but cats were her favorite. Her mother owned cats. She wanted to look at cats with Donald. But…where had Donald gone?
“Donald!” she called out in a voice a little too loud. It was up to her to watch him, and that’s a grown-up responsibility. Donald was always doing his own thing, driving her crazy. She knew she was not supposed to lose him in the store. Donald had epilepsy. What if he were having a seizure right now?
Amy found her brother standing at the end of one aisle talking with a woman. She was a striking figure with long blonde hair down past her shoulders, about five-foot-four, wearing a heavy black coat. They were looking at rabbit hutches.
“Donald, you know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers!” she chastised her brother as if the older woman could not hear them.
“It’s all right, angel. We’re just talking about rabbits,” the woman said. Her voice was soft and smooth, with the slightest lilt of a Southern accent. It sounded pleasant to Amy. “Have you ever taken care of a rabbit?”
The woman produced a full-sized white mottled rabbit from…where?…under her coat? Up her sleeve? Like a magician? It squirmed a little bit while being moved, like a house painter on a rickety ladder. The woman gestured for them to pet it and they did.
“He’s so furry. What’s his name?”
“His name’s Little Satin.” The siblings stepped closer to the woman as their hands ran all over the rabbit. “He likes you,” the woman told them.
The girl watched as the rabbit twitched its nose, trying to catch her scent. She adjusted her thick glasses and talked “Bunny.” The woman showed great patience with both the animal and the siblings.
“So, have you, darling?”
Amy looked up. “Have I what?” she said loudly.
“Ever taken care of a rabbit?”
Amy thought about it, twisting up her face to demonstrate the great attention she gave the question. “I don’t think so. We’ve had lots of pets, but we’ve never had a rabbit.”
The woman shifted the rabbit in the bow of her arm so it was now just out of the couple’s reach. “How
