All Chapters of Don't Go Home Before Seven: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

My fishing rod suddenly dipped so hard it nearly yanked me into the river.The tip bent into a horseshoe. Line screamed off the reel.I clamped both hands around the rod and shouted, "Marty! Get over here!"Marty, who was night fishing a little farther down the bank, came running."You hook a monster?""Do I look like I get this excited over a minnow?""Caleb, you've been skunked for three years. You get excited when your hook snags a rock."I didn't have time to argue.Whatever was on the end of my line was charging back and forth like it had a personal grudge. My arms burned. My boots sank into the mud.My phone buzzed. I ignored it.Two minutes later, it buzzed again."Eyes on the water!" Marty yelled. "That's a big one!"Gritting my teeth, I worked the reel.After more than twenty minutes of fighting, the fish finally broke the surface.Its back was almost black, with a bluish sheen, and it was as wide as a garbage-can lid. One swipe of its tail sent river water strai

I barely made it out of the tackle shop before a traffic officer waved me down.The fish was strapped across the back of my electric bike, its tail sticking so far out it might as well have been a flag.Officer Brennan looked at me. Then at the fish."Unsafe load."I nodded eagerly. "Fair enough. Ticket me."He looked startled. The tag on his chest read BRENNAN.I pulled out my phone and paid the fine without a single complaint.Before leaving, I even asked, "Officer Brennan, any chance you could take a picture of me with the fish?"His expression was priceless.But he took my phone.I stood beneath a streetlight, hugging my catch. Its tail hung toward the ground, dripping water onto the pavement.Officer Brennan took the picture."Hey, what time is it?" I asked.He checked his body camera display. "Seven fifty-eight."I beamed. "Seven fifty-eight. The moment Captain Skunk became a legend."He frowned. "Go home. Stop holding up traffic."At 8:13, I rolled up to a roadsi

By the time they took me to the station, the bottoms of my pants were covered in blood.Fish blood. Human blood.I couldn't tell them apart.The interrogation room lights were painfully bright.Detective Novak pushed my phone across the table."At 6:33 p.m., the victim, Claire Holden, sent you her first text."I nodded. "I saw it.""Why didn't you call the police?""I thought it was a scam."Novak lifted his eyes.I hurried to explain."Seriously. She said I'd been sleeping with her, then claimed I stabbed her. None of that happened. Why would I believe it?""And when officers called you tonight, why did you hang up?"I opened my mouth.This was even worse."I thought that was a scam too."The younger officer taking notes stopped writing.He looked at me like I was the dumbest man he'd ever met.I stared down at my hands."I really did."Novak spread several photographs on the table.The first showed the knife from our kitchen. My fingerprints were on the handle.

At first, Bryce denied everything.He claimed Claire had suspected him of cheating and gone to my apartment to confront me. He insisted she and I were involved. He said he'd arrived to find her already dead, and I hadn't been home.He even said, "Lauren's such a delicate woman. She doesn't know anything about this."That was when I laughed.Those two had practically rehearsed their lines together.But they hadn't counted on one thing.A thirty-five-pound fish.They certainly hadn't expected me to be stupid enough to parade it around town for hours.Gus at the tackle shop confirmed I hadn't gone home.So did Officer Brennan.So did Darlene at the barbecue stand.Hank confirmed that I hadn't entered the apartment complex until 8:53.Tyler, the delivery driver, confirmed nobody had answered my door when the first-aid supplies arrived.And then investigators checked the apartment complex's security cameras.At 6:31 p.m., Bryce had carried a large black bag into my apartment.

A month later, the case was closed.Both Bryce and Lauren were formally arrested and charged.Claire's family came to the police station once.Her mother's hair was completely white. She held my hands and apologized again and again.I didn't know what to say.The person who really deserved to hear those words could no longer hear anything.I went home to pack my things.The living room had new floor tiles. The walls had been repainted.But standing in the entryway, I still thought I could smell a faint metallic trace in the air.Police had taken the fish as evidence. By the time they returned it, it was no longer fit to eat.Marty asked if I wanted to bury it.I shook my head.I carried it back to the river and lowered it into the water.Of course, it was already dead.But I wanted to give it back to the place it had come from.The river quickly swallowed its body.I stood on the bank for a long time.Just before dark, somebody coughed behind me.I turned.The homele