Free Touch of Death by Kelly Hashway Page A

be.”
    “What?” I asked. “Does it have a disease or something?”
    He turned and looked at me. “No, it’s not sick. It’s dead.”
    “It isn’t dead,” Mike argued. “It attacked Jake. Ripped the back of his neck right off.”
    I felt the two bites of waffle I’d eaten for breakfast coming back up.
    Dr. Hemshaw took a syringe from his bag. “I’m going to sedate it and show you what I mean.”
    Sedate it? He just said it was dead. Melodie looped her arm through mine, squeezing me in fear. I watched Dr. Hemshaw open the toolbox just enough to stick the needle inside. After a few seconds, he pulled the needle out and put a latex glove on his hand. He reached into the toolbox and pulled out the squirrel. It was covered in blood, Jake’s blood. Dr. Hemshaw turned the squirrel over in his hand. “Have a look.” No one wanted a better look at the thing. We stood still. Finally, Dr. Hemshaw stepped forward and showed us the squirrel. The back of its head was smashed in from where my hammer had hit it, and its brains were leaking out.
    Melodie covered her mouth and ran from the room. Mike wasn’t far behind her. I was frozen in place, not able to move or talk.
    “There’s no possible way this animal is alive.” Dr. Hemshaw shook his head. “Yet, it attacked someone, and I had to sedate it.” He sighed, unable to make sense of it.
    “What are you—?” I gagged, my throat constricting from the sight of the squirrel.
    “Sorry.” He covered the squirrel’s head with his other hand so I couldn’t see its brains anymore.
    “What are you going to do with it?”
    “The only humane thing to do is euthanize it. It’s clearly in pain, and it can’t survive like this. Another animal would pick it off in a matter of minutes.”
    I wasn’t so sure about that. I’d seen what the squirrel could do, even with the contents of its head spilling out.
    Dr. Hemshaw took another syringe from his bag. Taking one last look at the squirrel, he euthanized it. “I’m going to take this to my office, check it for rabies and other diseases so I can let the hospital know how to treat… Jake, is it?”
    I nodded as Dr. Hemshaw walked to the door. I was still in a daze. My life couldn’t get more bizarre.
    “You should really go get that hand looked at,” Mike said after Dr. Hemshaw had left. He was writing on his clipboard.
    “Yeah, I’ll go now. I just need to find a ride. I walked here because my car is in the shop.” I thought about the deer and how it had looked dead, but then it got up and ran off. Ran off and terrorized a farm, killing two sheep. The reporter said the deer was probably rabid. Images of the deer popped into my head. It had looked… well, like the squirrel did. Diseased. Dead. What was going on in this town? And why did I always seem to be around when it happened?
    “Want me to get one of the guys to drive you?” Mike asked.
    “No, that’s okay.” I didn’t know these guys. They seemed nice enough, but Mom would kill me if I got in a car with a strange guy like that. It wasn’t like my injury was life-threatening.
    “Come on, let’s go home.” Melodie still looked green.
    “I have to get my hand checked out and make sure my tetanus shot is up to date.”
    “My car’s at home. How are you going to get there?”
    It was too far to walk to the clinic. “Mom left me her car, but I’m not good at driving stick. I hate to ask, but could we walk to your house and you maybe drive me? You can drop me off if you don’t want to wait around for me. I’ll call Matt or someone for a ride home.”
    “Yeah, okay. Maybe the doctor will have something to settle my stomach.”
    We walked back to Melodie’s house, and she ran inside to get the keys to her car. I leaned against the passenger side door. The sun was bright, and it felt good. My entire body was chilled to the core, and not because of the February weather. I heard a noise in the bushes and jolted upright. Dirty blonde hair stuck out