Black Like Blood by Russ Hall

Author:Russ Hall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Texas Hill Country, woman sleuth, diamond mine, retired school teacher
Publisher: Russ Hall
Published: 2014-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Esbeth was plodding her way toward her cottage home at ten minutes after ten that night. Her legs felt as if made of lead, and she’d made the walk home on automatic pilot, thinking over the chaos of the day—or rather, trying not to think of it. She’d been held over by the late arrival of the media crews, and it had been a sullen and unproductive visit by them, until just as they were packing to leave. That’s when the call came from Logan about finding Thirsty. Those media jackals were happy then, almost as happy as Sheriff Eldon was unhappy, even though she knew he didn’t care a fig for Thirsty. Each lift of a leg now was a concerted effort, and she stared down at the sidewalk where there was one. The fourteen blocks seemed to stretch on forever into the darkened streets.

A mockingbird scolded her from a persimmon tree, and, half a block later, she heard the single sharp squawk of a scissor-tail flycatcher. Either call on a normal evening walk would have had her looking up into the dark clusters of leaves in the trees, wondering what the birds were doing moving around so late. She even ignored a neighbor’s yappy little dog that crashed against the chain link fence of that yard in a way that usually gave her a start. Tonight the little annoying furball didn’t even succeed in making her miss a single, plodding step. It would be a good night for a diet. She wouldn’t even bother to fuss over making dinner. She could picture her bed and planned to head right for it and climb right in, and the only positive to the whole mess was knowing she didn’t have to go in to work until noon tomorrow.

She turned left and wove along the final winding half-block until she came to the small crepe myrtle bushes she’d planted at the end of her walk. They were drooping a bit. She’d water them in the morning. Esbeth went down the walk, staring at the flagstones, too tired to lift her head and see if the bougainvillea she’d put in along the edge of the porch was coming along. She picked up the newspaper that lay across the doormat, creaked back upright, and had the key in her hand reaching for the door when someone appeared out of the dark a couple feet to her left and said, “Pssst.”

She jerked and spun. Karyn and Donnie stood in the dark shadow of the porch. “Great gobs of grits. You just scared me out of three years of growth,” she said.

“Sorry. We’re kind of in a jam and want to see you,” Karyn said.

“Didn’t know you’d be this late,” Donnie said. It was still a little hard for him to get started talking.

The tremble was still rippling through Esbeth. The start had almost awakened her. But even that wasn’t enough, tired as she was. “You might as well come in,” she said.

She opened the door and flipped on the lights.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.