Blood of the Prodigal by P. L. Gaus

Author:P. L. Gaus
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

17

Tuesday, June 23

7:00 P.M.

ELLIE Troyer leaned sideways on her elbow against the back of the pinewood counter, grinning broadly, listening through the wall to Sheriff Robertson on the phone in his office, resting her eyes on the uniformed torso of Deputy Sheriff Richard “Ricky” Niell. He was slender and muscular, with jet black hair, fair skin, and intelligent brown eyes. His thin black mustache was neatly trimmed. His uniform fit crisply, and she liked to watch the way he moved in it. All of this together had caused Ellie Troyer to take definite note of the new deputy.

A month ago, she had started on the secretary’s desk, sometimes helping evenings on the dispatcher’s console. Then, Ricky Niell had started, too, fresh from a tour in the Air Force. At first she had thought him cool, aloof. For so long he hadn’t spoken. At least not more than duty required. Now she realized he was only reserved. Dreadfully shy. Perhaps careful. But certainly not arrogant or aloof.

She’d wait. Not push him. That’d be better. Let him ease toward it. He’d ask her out when he was ready. Better to leave it that way, she thought. She studied his uniform and listened to the sheriff’s booming voice.

“Ben, you SURELY DON’T BELIEVE I laid a hand on him? NO. Dog Gonnit! I DID NOT.”

Niell set his coffee cup on the counter and leaned over it, listening. That brought him closer to Ellie, who, he noticed, did not retreat. He glanced at her bashfully.

Was he right? he wondered. Had she been flirting with him? Not in what she had said, but how she had said it? Perhaps it was something with her eyes.

Ellie grinned, held her finger to her lips, and tilted her head to hear better through the wall.

“I’m telling you, Ben, for the LAST TIME I hope, that I have not been harassing Jeff Hostettler!”

Out in the front room, Niell whispered over the counter. “How long’s he been like that, Ellie?”

“All his life, I guess.”

“No. I mean on the phone,” Niell said, chuckled, and straightened up to sip his coffee.

“All morning,” Ellie said. “First with Jeff Hostettler’s lawyers and now with the prosecutor.”

Robertson’s voice boomed again. “Ben, THAT’S NOT FAIR. You know Hostettler’s our best suspect.”

Niell eased around through the swinging counter door and poured another cup for himself from the coffee maker on a low table beside Ellie’s gray metal desk. “What’s the problem with the prosecutor?” he asked, nodding down the hall toward the sheriff’s office.

“Ben thinks the sheriff’s been heavy-handed with Jeff Hostettler on the Jonah Miller case. He has had Hostettler in twice for questioning,” Ellie said. Then she added, sounding flippant, “Can you imagine? Our Sheriff Robertson? Heavy-handed?”

Again, she held up her finger and listened.

“You’re tying my hands here, Ben,” Robertson said, and then at intervals, “No. OK. No. Right. Right! I won’t!” and slammed the receiver onto its cradle.

Niell gave Ellie a glance and then eased noiselessly back around to the front of the counter. Sheriff

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.