Текст книги "Blue Moon Rising"

Автор книги: Lilian Francken

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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 7 страниц)

CHAPTER 9

Dan woke early as the sunbeams danced across the bed. He listened to the birds outside and wondered if he would ever stop thinking about Kay. This was their favorite time of the day when they would wake up wrapped in each other’s arms. He missed the warmth of her body. He missed the smell of her perfume. Most of all he missed the constant nagging about the little things. He just missed her completely, only as a husband could.

Slowly he got up and walked into the kitchen. He flicked on the manual switch on the coffee maker, not wanting to wait until the auto timer kicked in.

Kelly walked in behind him. “Couldn’t you sleep again?” she asked.

“I didn’t think I made that much noise.”

“You didn’t. I couldn’t sleep either.”

“I’d offer you a cup of coffee, but I think you’re too young for it.”

“I’m going to be sixteen in four months.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why, because that means you’re getting old?”

“Thanks a lot. I don’t need reminding,” Dan said and then turned around to her and frowned.

“Hey, for the record coffee doesn’t have anymore caffeine than the power drinks the kids are consuming now.”

“And your point being?” he added.

“I’m just telling you a fact.”

Dan looked at Kelly and then shook his head. “I really am regretting talking you into joining the debate team in school.”

“Oh yeah, blame it on them. I was just stating a fact that anyone with any brain knows.”

“You don’t drink them, do you?” Dan asked, scratching his head.

“What if I did, are you going to ground me?”

Dan looked at her a moment. It seemed only yesterday he was showing her how to ride a two-wheeler. Last week he made the mistake of showing her how to hotwire a car. It scared him thinking what she would do with that knowledge now. It was a sad fact she would be driving soon. Where did the time go?

“I better get ready for work. I have a murder to solve.”

Somehow solving this murder seemed a lot easier than trying to raise Kelly to adulthood. There were fewer hurdles to cross.

* * *

Dan walked into the Sheriff’s office. Mac was busy sweeping the floor. It was something he did at the end of the week. Once that was done, he would dust the furniture. Money was tight and the county board felt there was enough downtime that either he or Mac could clean up the offices when not on patrol.

Dan turned to him and asked, “Been quiet this morning?”

“Thursdays usually are.”

“Good,” Dan said. “How’s Junior?”

“Not a peep out of him.”

“Did the medical examiner call?”

Mac grinned. “Were you expecting her to?”

“I was just curious,” Dan added quickly.

Dan took off his gun belt and put it on the rack with his hat. He grabbed the key off the rack and walked over to the cellblock door.

He was glad it was a slow night with no drunks to contend with. He did not know how well Junior would have handled having company.

Dan walked up to Junior’s cell. Junior was sitting on the bunk rocking back and forth, hitting his head on the wall. Dan wondered if the simple-minded kid even slept last night.

“Hey kid, I would think you’d have a headache by now.”

“I want to go home.”

“You can’t. Not until we clean up this mess,” Dan said with a concerned look on his face. He felt sorry for the boy.

Junior stopped rocking. “I don’t like you,” he announced and then started rocking again.

“You okay?” Can I get you anything for breakfast?”

“Mommy makes me rabbit in a hole.”

Dan’s eyes rolled back. He remembered rabbit in a hole like it was yesterday from when Kelly was a little girl. It was one way of getting her to eat a balanced breakfast and not a lot of sugary cereals. Kay always had a way of working around a picky eater and made a meal fun.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Dan finally mustered up to say.

“I’m a good boy,” Junior replied proudly.

“No one is saying you ain’t,” Dan argued. “Junior, can you stop rocking please? I need some information from you right now.”

Junior stopped rocking again and watched Dan as he unlocked and opened the cell door. Dan slowly walked in and stood over Junior for the longest time.

“I didn’t do bad things.”

“Did you work for the Senator two days ago?” Dan asked even though he knew already that he did. He wanted to build some trust with Junior.

Junior just stared ahead as Dan sat down on the other end of the bunk.

“I need to know, Junior,” Dan said, making sure he had Junior’s attention. “You want me to find the person responsible for what happened to Richie, don’t you?”

Dan slid closer to Junior and slowly put his hand on Junior’s knee.

Suddenly Junior attacked Dan. He punched Dan wildly while yelling and screaming. Junior jumped up off the bunk and ran out of the cell as Billy Bob and Mac came running into the cellblock.

Billy Bob tackled Junior before he could reach the door. Junior’s arms flapped wildly while Billy Bob struggled to restrain the boy.

Dan collected himself and wiped the blood off his cheek. Mac walked up to the cell door and glanced down at Dan.

“Looks like you been in a catfight,” Mac mocked with a twinkle in his eye. It surprised him that anyone could get the upper hand on Dan, let alone a simple-minded boy. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. One minute he was okay. I was asking him questions and then he went nuts on me.”

Billy Bob had Junior pinned behind his back and shoved him back into the cell.

“You ain’t going anyplace,” Billy Bob snapped as he turned and walked out of the cell.

Junior cowered when Dan got up. “You’re a bad person,” was all he mustered up to say.

Dan almost grabbed Junior by the arm, but then stopped. “What did I do to set you off?” Dan snapped and then turned and walked out of the cell.

Billy Bob and Mac looked at Dan a moment. The phone started ringing in the office. Mac turned and rushed to the door.

“Duty calls,” Mac said as he rushed out of the cellblock.

Billy Bob shut the cell door and locked it. Dan stood outside the cell, just staring at Junior.

“I wish I could plug into his brain.”

Mac ran back into the cellblock. He was out of breath. “Better get out to Murphy’s place. Says he found bones.”

Dan looked puzzled. “Why should I care about that?”

“Says they’re human,” Mac said, gasping for breath.

Dan did a double take. “It’s probably just a ploy.”

He frowned. This was the last thing he needed right now. Murphy playing games with him to get him out to his place to deal with those damn hogs.

“No. He sounded serious, and he was upset. I don’t think he’s lying.”

Dan motioned for Billy Bob to come along. The two rushed out of the cellblock together.

* * *

The two squad cars sped down city streets and headed out of town to the country. All the while he drove, Dan kept thinking about what he planned to do to Felix if this was only a ploy to get him out there to deal with his hog problem.

Dan pulled into Murphy’s driveway and quickly parked the squad while Billy Bob parked next to him. They got out of their squads. Murphy rushed out of the house. The old coon dog lay sleeping at the bottom of the porch steps and Dan wondered if the dog ever moved off his spot.

“Took you long enough,” Murphy snapped as he rushed over to the squad.

Dan glanced at his watch and then gave Murphy a warning glance. It had been ten minutes since receiving Murphy’s call. There was no reason for him to think that Dan’s response time was not adequate. Under different circumstances he would have called Murphy on it, but he was more concerned about why they were there.

“Mac said you found some bones,” Dan snapped.

“Yeah, while I was out doing your job.”

Dan raised his hands. “I won’t go into that. Just show me where you found those bones.”

Murphy’s hand shook as he pointed in the direction of the tall pines in the distance.

“I spotted them devils digging near a clearing. Suddenly one pulls out this leg bone from the mud and starts chewing.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I know animal bones, and that weren’t no animal bone, trust me.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Dan shook his head at Murphy.

Murphy took a red bandana out of his pocket and wiped his brow. “Nearly crapped in my pants when I saw that thing.”

“Then what?” Dan asked.

“I took aim and shot the son-of-a-bitch.”

“Did you kill it?”

Murphy glanced down. “Wounded him pretty bad.”

Dan turned and walked away, but then turned back to face Murphy. “That’s just great,” he snapped.

“Well what did you want me to do?”

“If you couldn’t take it down, you shouldn’t have taken the shot,” Dan added and then turned to Billy Bob. “Get the rifle out of the trunk. I’m not going anywhere near those woods without something that will take that bastard down in one shot.”

“If you’d been more helpful, none of this would have happened.”

Dan pointed a finger at Murphy. “Don’t turn this around on me. I told you to gather up some of your neighbors. But no! Would you listen?”

“Do you want me to show you the goddamn place or not?”

Dan looked angrily at Billy Bob, who just raised his hands. Billy Bob walked to the back of the squad car and opened up the trunk. He reached in for the rifle.

CHAPTER 10

Murphy led Dan and Billy Bob to the spot where the razorbacks were rutting. The ground was blood-splattered where the animal was hit.

“Hopefully he went someplace to die,” Dan said, looking the area over.

“I didn’t mean to make matters worse.”

The area was secluded. The tall reeds around most of the mud hole made it hard to get near, let alone see the bones up close. Murphy must have been at the rise in the distance where the only clear shot could have been made. Dan walked closer to the bones.

“You’re right about them being human,” Dan turned to Murphy. He glanced over at Billy Bob. “Go back to the squad and call the medical examiner. Tell her we have another body.”

“One week on the job and you give her two bodies. She isn’t going to like it,” Billy Bob mumbled under his breath while turning and walking away.

“It isn’t like I’m dropping them for her.”

Billy Bob left while Murphy and Dan walked around the area. Given the condition of the bones, Dan was not concerned with contaminating the site.

* * *

Nancy Davie poked around the mud with latex gloves on. She examined one of the bones and then looked over the area. Nancy stepped back and snapped a few pictures. She turned to Dan.

“This isn’t going to be easy.”

“Never said it was,” Dan replied.

Nancy glanced up and smiled at Dan. “You going around digging up old bones just to see me again?”

Dan was taken aback by the remark. “Murphy called me,” he said in his defense and then hesitated a moment. “And I didn’t do this on purpose.”

“Fooled me,” she said with a half-grin on her face.

“Besides, would you see me again if it wasn’t business?”

Nancy looked around for a while and then turned back to Dan and smiled.

“You won’t know until you ask, will you?”

Nancy walked over to the car, leaving Dan to think about what she had said. Billy Bob slowly walked up to Dan. He was curious and knew Mac would ask how things went between the two.

“What did she say?” Billy Bob asked.

Dan looked embarrassed. “About what?”

“The body?”

“Oh, she won’t know anything until she examines the bones in the lab. Hard to tell how old they are right now, I guess.”

Dan walked away from Billy Bob and followed Nancy to her car. She had her trunk open and pulled out some plastic bags.

Dan stammered a moment. “You like doing what you do?”

“What?” she said looking up at him.

“Working on dead people.”

“It beats working on the living.”

“That’s an odd way of looking at it.”

“Dead people don’t talk back for one,” Nancy said with a smirk.

“Yeah, you got a point there.”

Nancy shook her head. “This week has really been strange.”

Dan nervously fidgeted with his gun. “If I can help in any way,” he said.

“I’ll call you, if I need more information.” Nancy said dismissing him.

Dan raised his hand as if in kindergarten and trying to get a teacher’s attention. “Do you think I could get a preliminary report today yet?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” she said, glancing at her watch.

Dan cleared his throat and then quickly leaned over and whispered. “Would you like to have dinner with me?”

Nancy looked up at Dan and chuckled. “That depends.”

“On what?” Dan asked.

Dan nervously fidgeted with his gun belt and then glanced around to make sure Billy Bob was not within hearing distance.

“You aren’t going to make this easy, are you?” Dan quickly added.

“No. I like to see you with your foot in your mouth.” Nancy said and then walked past him.

“How about tonight?” Dan asked, quickly following Nancy closely.

Nancy stopped and turned to Dan, almost bumping into him. “I guess I’m free this evening.”

“I do not like to be kept waiting,” he said.

“Did I say you’d wait?”

Dan frowned at what he had just said. He took a deep breath and then walked back to the squad.

He sat in the squad with the radio receiver in his hand while watching Nancy in the distance.

“There’s been an accident on the bridge over the Arkansas River on Route 79,” Mac relayed.

“Anyone hurt?”

“Don’t know. They just said there’s a car in the ditch.”

“Did anybody bother getting the license plate numbers?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, vehicle belongs to Alan Maxwell. A red Seville.”

“Anything else?”

“That’s it.”

Dan glanced at his watch and then talked into the radio.

“I’ll go check it out before I come in.”

Dan set the radio receiver back in the cradle. He stared at Nancy digging in the mud retrieving more bones.

* * *

Dan sped down the road with lights flashing and the siren blaring. He turned onto Route 79 and as the bridge over the Arkansas River came into view, Dan could see the red Seville almost on its side in the ditch.

The squad car pulled up and parked in front of the Seville. Dan got out and walked around the car. He looked in the ditch to see if anyone may have gotten out and collapsed. But there was no indication of that and then he walked around the car. The keys were still in the ignition. Dan took them out and then walked in back and opened the trunk. There were a couple of packages of rope similar to what was used on the Ames boy. One of the packages had been opened.

Dan sat in the squad car with the door open and the radio receiver in hand.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Dan said finally.

“He ain’t going to like it, shouldn’t we call first and check.”

“It was his job to call and report this.”

“Whatever you say,” Mac replied.

“I can’t help it. Have the tow bill sent to Alan.”

“Are you sure?”

“Just do as I say. And while you’re at it, I want tire impressions made before the car is moved.”

“I’ll set that up. You going to drop off the rope?”

“Yeah, I can do that on my way in town.”

“Won’t be able to use it in court?”

“Who said anything about court,” Dan said, frustration was clearly in his voice. “Mac, either you set it up or tell Ms. Davie to send someone for the impression. I’ll worry about the rest.”

Dan slammed the receiver down and then got out of the squad car and stared at the Seville in the ditch while he shook his head.

Dan looked up suddenly. A pickup truck roared up the road toward Dan. An older Buzz Sheffield stopped and rolled down the window. Buzz hung his head out the window.

“A lot of activity lately.”

“Yeah. Know anything about this?” Dan asked.

“No. It’s been there all day though. That much I know.”

“Doesn’t seem smart of Alan to leave the keys in the ignition,” Dan said.

“He probably had his reasons. It ain’t going anywhere on its own.”

“You’re right there.”

Another squad pulled up just then. Buzz waved goodbye as the squad parked in front of the Seville.

CHAPTER 11

Dan stood on the porch. He looked up at the tall pillars and wondered if they supported anything or if they are just for show. He pressed the doorbell and waited. Mabel Maxwell, Alan’s wife, opened the door. She was in her early fifties, a good fifteen years Alan’s senior. She was a heavy-set woman in dire need of a dye job. The gray roots were clearly visible. Her housedress was badly worn but Dan figured the dustpan in one hand and broom in the other was an indication she was house cleaning, so why would she wear her Sunday best housedress? She definitely was not in the same class as Alan’s stepmother.

“Why, Sheriff Harter, what brings you out this way?”

“Is Alan home?” Dan asked.

Mabel looked puzzled and then responded. “Yes, he’s in the study. Is there something I can help you with?”

“No. I just want a few words with him.”

Mabel set the dustpan and broom down and then turned and motioned for Dan to follow her. They walked through a house that was more like a mansion. And Mabel looked more like the housekeeper than the lady of the manor.

Mable tapped lightly on the door before opening it. Alan sat at the desk looking at his stamp collection.

“I told you I didn’t want to,” Alan snapped but then did not continue when he saw Dan.

Dan was somewhat surprised at the curt response Alan gave his wife. He never would have treated Kay like that. And it bothered him that even in marriage Alan had a way of appearing superior to his wife. He clearly should be thankful she provided him a continuance of his affluent lifestyle.

“Sheriff Harter is here to see you, dear. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

Alan waved his hand, dismissing Mabel as if she were his servant. Dan looked uncomfortable as Mabel turned and walked out of the room. He wondered if the woman was that desperate to have a man in her life that she would put up with such abuse. Alan walked around the desk and took Dan’s hand.

“Long time,” Alan said shaking Dan’s hand profusely.

“Yeah.”

“I was meaning to stop after the funeral.”

Dan was uneasy at the mention of Kay’s name, especially coming from Alan.

Alan would not let go of his hand or his apology and continued. “It was too bad. Did you ever find out what caused the accident?” he asked.

“Faulty brakes,” was all Dan said. The accident happened up in Little Rock and he had to trust that they did their job, but he had his doubts. Always did. He was meticulous in maintaining his vehicles and it bothered him to this day that Kay’s death was the result of faulty equipment.

“What are the odds,” Alan said as he walked back to his desk and then turned back to Dan. “What brings you out?”

“Your car,” Dan said.

Alan rolled his eyes a moment and then with the look of innocence said. “Oh that. I was meaning to call that in.” But the he hesitated for a moment. “Fact of the matter I thought Finnegan would have had it out of the ditch by now.”

“He didn’t get around to it. Too busy at the ranch, I guess.” Dan said as he looked around. “It’s against the law to leave the scene of an accident.”

“What accident? A deer crossed in front of me. I swerved to miss him and landed in the ditch. I didn’t hit anything”

Dan studied Alan for a moment. “Were you alone?” he asked.

Alan swallowed hard. He looked at the door and then turned back to Dan.

“Close the door, will you?”

Dan walked over to the door and then shut it and turned back to Alan.

“You saw Mabel.” Alan paused for a moment. “She spends her days cleaning this place whether it needs it or not.” Alan looked around in disgust. “She’s a freak.”

“You married her.”

“Yeah, the biggest mistake I ever made.”

Dan laughed thinking of Allan washing cars for a living instead of working on a stamp collection. Somehow it would serve him right to do menial labor

“She seems to be taking care of you nicely.”

“Money isn’t everything.”

It was funny listening to Alan talk about money. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never really had to work for anything. Even marrying a woman for her money and then he had the nerve to turn it around and say money was not everything. Dan laughed to himself.

“Who was with you?” Dan asked.

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah, it matters.”

Alan wrote down the name on a piece of paper and then handed it to Dan.

“Be discreet, she’s married.”

“Were you drinking?”

“That isn’t what caused the accident if you know what I mean.”

Dan studied the name. He smiled to himself and then glanced up. Alan always had a way of getting what he wanted no matter whose life he ruined in the process.

“Were you at your father’s two days ago?”

“For a little while.”

“Did you see Richie Ames?”

“Isn’t he the boy you found dead?”

“Yes,” Dan said. “He worked for your father.”

“I don’t know their names. They’re just the hired help.”

It angered Dan hearing the words come out of Alan’s mouth because that was something Dan always felt Allan thought about him. It was strange hearing Alan just then. Dan just stared at Alan intently before speaking.

“I thought it odd the amount of rope you carry in the trunk,” Dan added.

“You opened my trunk?” Alan asked with a puzzled look.

“It was the same type used in the murder of the Ames boy.”

“Go to Frank’s Hardware. Half the town buys the same rope. I picked it up for Mabel. You’re welcome to ask her why she needed so much. I opened the one because I was going to try and use it to get out of the ditch but then gave up on that idea. I had more important things to do at the time.”

“I just thought it was odd.”

Dan looked around the room. He stared at the black bear rug in front of the fireplace. Things were not looking good for Alan at that point.

“That’s a big bear,” Dan said as he turned and walked over to it.

Dan bent down and ran his hand across the fur with one hand while pulling out a few hairs with the other. He got up and put his hand in his pants pocket, and then turns to Alan.

“Dad and I each took one down in ’89. You ever go hunting in Jackson Hole?”

“That in Wyoming?” Dan asked.

“Yeah.”

“My old man was too busy working,” Dan said curtly.

Alan looked curiously at Dan. “What are you really here for?”

“I just stopped by to make sure you were okay?”

“Thanks for your concern. I’ll see you out,” Alan said in a way that it was a clear invitation for Dan to leave.

Alan walked to the door and motioned to Dan. It was a clear indication for Dan to follow and leave. Dan in turn obliged. He would give Alan this one, but once he had more information and if it pointed to Alan he would definitely be back, and it would be Alan leaving in handcuffs.