In the Land of Milk and Honey Read Online Free PDF Page A

It’s clear for you to go in. But—”
    Grady impatiently pulled his arm away from the hazmat girl checking the tape seal on his glove. He was clearly as eager to get to work as I was. “But what?”
    Steve swallowed. “It’s pretty bad.”
    Grady nodded once and pulled up the paper respirator mask that was hanging around his neck. “Ready, Harris?” His voice was muffled.
    I nodded and we headed for the house. I prayed it was all a ridiculous precaution.
    Inside the modest home, the stench of death was thick, even through the face mask. I started breathing through my mouth and motioned Danielle to stay close and photograph each body as it was found. I pulled out my iPhone to record a video of my walk-through, talking as I went. The little details I found myself describing would be useful later.
    The first body was in the living room, just inside the door. It was a girl, and she was lying on the couch. The medic checked her and shook his head, then he and Grady headed farther into the house while Danielle took pictures of the body. I leaned in for a better look.
    â€œAdolescent female, approximately twelve to fourteen years old. Brown hair bound in a disheveled ponytail. She’s wearing a long flannel nightgown. . . .”
    The only sounds in the house were the ticking of a loud grandfather clock, the click of the photographer’s Nikon, and my recitation. “She’s lying on the sofa under an afghan as if she’d been sleeping. There’s a bed pillow under her head, white pillowcase. No trace of blood or fluid on it. There’s a large stainless steel mixing bowl by the side of the couch, possibly to be used if she had to vomit. There’s also a book on the floor.
A Girl’s Story Collection
. Maybe she was reading before she fell asleep.”
    The thick aqua plastic gloves made my hands feel awkward, but I carefully raised the afghan so I could look underneath. “Postmortem, hands are curled protectively around her stomach.Possibly she was in pain. There’s a sharp odor of excrement.” I forced myself to pull the afghan up a little higher to confirm. “Looks like the deceased vacated her bowels before or after death. Material is liquid in nature.”
    I was glad for the face mask. Not just because it lessened smells, but because I didn’t like the looks of this at all. The girl, likely named Sarah by Jacob’s account, had been very ill. Which meant whatever killed her might be contagious. God, she was so young. The death of a child like this felt wrong, even obscene, as if life itself had a freak-show deformity.
    I pushed aside my emotions and finished my observations. There were no signs of foul play, and it didn’t appear that the body had been disturbed in any way. I motioned to Danielle, and we moved on to the kitchen. There was no one in it, but there were dirty dishes in the sink, glasses with dregs of milk, cups, and bowls of what might have been Jell-O and ice cream. I knew enough about Amish families to know it was unusual for them to leave dirty dishes in the sink like this. Whatever had happened had been bad enough to disrupt the normal cleanup routine for at least a day. On the counter I found a bottle of cod liver oil, a near-empty bottle of Pepto-Bismol, and a box of saltine crackers. I noted my observations on the iPhone video and Danielle photographed the items.
    I headed back through the living room to the old farmhouse stairs. I met the medic on the way down. I couldn’t see a lot of his face behind his paper mask, but his eyes were vacant. He shook his head.
None alive.
He practically ran from the house.
    I looked over my shoulder at Danielle. I didn’t know her well, but from everything I’d seen, the plump and acne-scarred young police officer was professional and unflappable. Danielle nodded.
I’m okay.
I continued up the stairs.
    I spoke into the iPhone. “First bedroom on the