Free Tres Leches Cupcakes by Josi S. Kilpack

thought about the other hundred or so bodies buried there originally and what Margo had said about there not being as much difference as people seemed to believe.
    The waitress returned and put a glass bottle of Coke in front of Sadie. The cap had already been removed.
    “Thanks,” Sadie said to her, loving the nostalgic bottle. Her grandparents had had cases of pop in glass bottles at their house. Sadie and her brother and sister would take the empties back to the neighborhood grocer and earn five cents per bottle. They felt rich walking out with a dollar apiece.
    “Is the sifting being done on site?” Margo asked.
    Shel shrugged. “Yeah—a few hundred yards away from the original dig. They’re getting screens and metal detectors to help it go faster.”
    Sadie thought about the pothunters who blew up burial sites—would this result be much different? “How much longer do they think the job will last?” she asked.
    “Four or five more days is all,” Shel said, grabbing a few peanuts out of the bowl in the middle of the table. He cracked off one end and sucked out the peanut. Sadie hated peanuts in the shell. So messy. He dropped the shells on the floor, which she liked even less. Wasn’t it a safety hazard to have peanut shells on the floor where inebriated people were trying to keep their balance?
    “Bill says there’s another job starting out by Chapelle at the end of next week,” Langley added. “It’ll be full crew, and we ought to be done with the Ranchette job by then.”
    Would Sadie work the new dig? Did she want to?
    “That’s good,” Margo said with a weighted tone. “So, Sarah and I were talking about when we found those fresh bodies.”
    The men looked at her expectantly. She got right to the point, staring hard at Shel. “Why did you keep digging?”
     

Chapter 7
     

     
    All three men seemed startled by Margo’s question. It was all Sadie could do to contain her own surprise. She had expected they would ease into things rather than get to the point so quickly.
    When none of the men answered, Margo continued, “Bill had told everyone to stop digging for the day before you found that second body, Shel. So why were you still digging?”
    “I didn’t hear Bill tell us to stop,” Shel said, but there was tension behind his forced casualness.
    “No, you heard him,” Margo said with a quick shake of her head. “I was there when he announced it—everyone stopped digging.” She leaned forward to stare at Shel before turning the pointed look to Langley.
    Sadie took a drink of her Coke, trying to hide her unease, and scratched at some of the flaking varnish on the table. When she realized it might not be varnish at all, but petrified crud instead, she put her hands in her lap.
    “Didn’t everyone else stop digging, Langley?” Margo pressed.
    “Um, yeah,” Langley said, looking at the bottle he was turning in his hands.
    “Shut up, Langley,” Shel said.
    Margo turned to Shel again. “Bill had told everyone to load up in the vans, the first one had even left, but you kept digging. Why?”
    Shel took a drink from his bottle and said nothing. He looked between the two women with narrowed eyes.
    Margo turned to Langley again. “Why was he digging?”
    Langley continued to stare into his bottle. “I don’t—”
    “Why, Langley?” she demanded. “Why was he digging in that exact place after being told to stop?” She dropped her voice, but held him with her gaze. “You owe me.”
    “Owe her?” Shel repeated, looking at Langley. “What’s she talking about?”
    Sadie knew Margo was referring to the skull Langley crushed in the digging fury that followed Bill’s instructions to check all the graves, but Langley continued to stare at the bottle in his hands. Garrett looked confused, glancing between Margo and Langley as the interrogation continued. Sadie counted to three before Langley spoke. “He said the hill looked different.”
    “Shut up, Langley!” Shel snapped