"04 - Mortal Remains in Maggody Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hess Joan)

Billy Dick blinked at us, one at a time. In a high, uncertain voice he said, "It's s-scary, ain't it? My ma's all worried that someone'll b-burn our house down while we're sleeping." Every now and then he tangled with an initial consonant, but he was not difficult to understand.

"What time did you see the fire?" Plover asked.

"I--uh, I left my house at nine, so it was probably ten minutes after that. I drove real fast to the nearest house to report the fire."

Wade nodded. "I got the call at nine-twenty. Took us half an hour to organize and get here."

"This is a pretty lonely road," I said, "and it was late. Think, Billy Dick: Did you pass any cars when you drove out this way?Ф

УI wasn't paying much attention. I've been keeping company with a girl what lives in Hasty. I was thinking about her all the time I was driving--right up until I noticed the fire, anyway."

Plover's dimple appeared as he said, "Nine-thirty's late for a date, isn't it?"

Billy Dick scuffled his foot in the dirt. "Her p-parents had to go into Farberville on account of her great-aunt taking a fall in the bathtub. She was afraid to stay home alone."

"Oh," Plover said knowingly.

I ignored this display of macho bonding. "Try to remember if you saw any cars going in either direction, Billy Dick. Were you momentarily blinded by headlights?"

He closed his eyes and sucked noisily on his lower lip until his chin glistened in the last of the firelight. I was about to repeat my question when he said, "Yeah, twice. Just past the low-water bridge there was a p-pickup coming toward me. I didn't see what color it was or anything. And right before I spotted the fire, there was a taillight going over the top of a hill. The other one must have been broke."

"Well, then," Harve said, working the cigar butt from one corner of his mouth to the other in record-breaking time, presuming there was a record. "We got a truck that was headed for Maggody and a taillight headed for Hasty. It ain't much, but at least it's something."

Plover shook his head. "Unless the perp set the fire so that it would take a while to blaze up, and was back home watching the baseball game by nine o'clock. Or unless he was parked off the road and watched Billy Dick here drive by, then sedately went on his way."

"Dammit, Plover," Harve said without anger, "it's my party and we're going to play by my theories, mostly, cause that's all we've got. Arly, see what you can turn up about a truck coming your way. I'll put one of my boys on the Hasty end. A vehicle with a broken taillight might not be too hard to find."

I nodded. "And I'll cruise the road tomorrow and look for a place where the perp could have pulled off far enough not to be seen."

Wade yelled a few orders to his men, then grinned at me. "Maybe you ought to take me up on that offer to open a branch in Maggody. I'd be real pleased to stay at your place with you until we catch this guy. On your couch... or elsewhere."

"So kind of you," I said, taking a wicked pleasure in Plover's faint snort. "If a fireman can't heat up the situation, who can?"

On that incredibly witty note, we disbanded.



CHAPTER 3


8 EXT. WOODED PATH--NIGHT--MED. SHOT

Loretta is sitting on a log. Cooter paces in front of her, Ins face tight with anger and his hands curled into fists.


COOTER

So you and that white trash went for a walk the other night, did you?