CAUSE & EFFECT (ROSEMARY COOPER TIME TRAVEL MYSTERY) by M.A.. Lachine

Author:M.A.. Lachine [Lachine, M.A..]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

“An old man shot you?” she blurted out.

“Darlin’, it don’t matter a man’s age when he has a gun in his hand, and isn’t afraid to pull the trigger. How is Joe doing?”

So true, she thought. “We haven’t heard anything from the hospital, but the doc thought he would be all right after surgery. Did you know one of your old Marine buddies lived here?”

“Two,” he corrected. “I met Bill Cumming on a mission. A couple of high rankers were being held prisoner by the Viet Cong. Joe and I, along with a couple of other guys, went in to get them out. When we got to the POW camp, Bill was tied to a cross in the yard, more dead than alive. Joe cut him down and carried him on his back through five miles of jungle, fighting the Viet Cong all the way.” Mark weaved a little.

Coop put out her hand to steady him. “You sure you’re feeling well enough to walk?”

“You’re up,” the sheriff said, coming out of what Coop assumed was the bathroom. “Headache all gone?” he asked with a grin.

“Your concoction did the trick. I feel like a new man,” Mark responded with a grin of his own to let the sheriff see exactly how well he felt. “Thanks for the use of the cot.”

“Anytime.” Barkley turned to Coop. “I have to go and see Betty Kram. I think it would be good for you to come along, but I need to ask you not to show her the pictures of either John or Cecil.”

“I can understand you not wanting her to see pictures of her late husband, but the murders are connected, and I need her to see if she can shed any light on John’s relationship to Cecil Weems.”

“I assure you she can’t. She didn’t know Weems any more than John did.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“This is a small town, Detective Cooper. I’d know if the Krams socialized with the Weems family.”

“She could have befriended the kid,” Coop said trying to understand how two men, years apart in age, from the same town ended up in a New York morgue, on her watch.

Barkley’s neck and ears reddened. “Are you crazy? When Cecil went away, Betty Kram was in her thirties. What would she be doing befriending a kid?”

That wasn’t what Coop had meant, but she found it interesting how the sheriff had jumped to the wrong conclusion, and still defended the lady in question. “I know you want to protect her as much as possible, but Cecil Weems may have beaten her husband to near death.”

“I’m telling you, Betty Kram can’t help you.”

Coop shook her head. She didn’t want to get on the sheriff’s wrong side, but… “Have you ever seen Mark before today?”

Barkley pressed his fist deep into his chest and dropped his eyes. “Can’t say as I have,” he admitted.

“How long have you known Joe Dobbin, and Bill Cumming, Mark?”

“Since Nam,” Mark answered.

“That’s all I’m saying, Sheriff. Cecil Weems might

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