Work Text:
Kristin picked up her garden spade and gloves and walked out the back door. Today was a bright sunny day after many days of endless rain. She was glad for the sun, she missed spending hours in her garden.
She was proud of the many vegetables and flowers she’d managed to grow from seeds. She’d noticed her carrots ready to harvest, but the rain had kept her from gathering them. So the second she entered the gated garden she made a beeline for the carrot patch.
She slipped the patterned gloves on and kneeled down. She reached for the leaves, stopping short when she spotted the small tuft of blonde fur sticking out of the ground.
She realized the patch of carrots was different from the one she left a few days ago. Some of the carrots were missing, and the ground was oddly mound shaped. Her mind immediately went to the neighbor’s cat, Shasta. There had been an alarming amount of coyotes in the area lately, and Shasta was an outdoor cat.
She silently prayed she wouldn’t find the poor kitten buried in her yard, but as she tugged at the tuft of fur she found it resisting. She frowned deeply and picked her spade back up, digging into the spot and throwing the dirt off to the side.She found only more fur, and gently swept away more dirt with her hand to get a better look.
This was not fur, or even a cat. This was a head of blonde hair. She sucked in a startled breath and internally panicked. Her mind went to dark places, but she rocked back on her heels and took a deep breath to calm herself. Assuring herself she just had a vivid imagination, she leaned forwards again and kept digging.
She dropped the spade next to her, staring down at the young boy’s face buried alongside her carrots. She recognized the kid she always saw walking past her house to the nearby bus stop on the weekdays. She’d given him pastries she baked before, and vegetables from her garden to bring home. Somehow, Tommy had ended up murdered and buried in her vegetable garden.