stack of books showing paper edges

Someone dripped a little latte near the edge
of page 37, where the killer wraps the body
in a logging chain and dumps it off a bridge.

A dog ear sets off page 71, where a faint pencil
underlines “Like country people, he had a tendency
toward ball caps, barn jackets, and cowboy boots.”

A pressed mosquito punctuates the top of page
103, where the circling FBI helicopter veers off
after taking fire from a cabin near the stream.

Someone who had been handling chocolate candy
turned page 187, where the drug kingpin’s yacht
approaches Key West under full sail from Canada.

A check-out slip left between pages 204 and 5
suggests someone may have quit 30 pages shy
of where a cave rattler bites the crawling fugitive.